Among the Poker game variants, Texas Holdem is considered the king. Its rules are easy to understand however, the strategy is quite complicated. Since the game was created, nobody mastered the game though the rules are too simple to learn.

Texas Holdem poker is characterized as a well-balanced game which reveals half and half information that makes the game absolutely exciting. The information revealed is fairly enough to make educated guesses and also kept hidden so to leave players to think critically.

Said game falls under the category of community card poker because the dealer lays some cards in the middle of the table which players can use to complete their card combination. Each player can complete five cards by receiving two hidden cards and then uses some cards from the five board cards.

Basically, in Texas Holdem, the player can combine the hole and community cards so as to come up with the best five cards. The player can either use one card, two cards or none of his hole cards. Hence, where the community cards complete the best five, player could not use the hole cards.

Blinds and Dealer

Texas Holdem practices the blinds system in contrary to the antes that's used in other poker card games. The pot starts with just a small amount. The small and the big blinds shall be paid by the two players seated on the dealer's left side - the small bet by the player directly on the dealer's left and the big bet by the player next to the small bet. Players take turns in paying the blinds by means of the blind's position moving around the table once the dealer's position move each hand.

The blinds are fairly computed so that the small bet amounts to 50 percent of the minimum bet while the big blind amounts to one minimum bet.

The No Limit Texas Holdem follows the ruling where the amount of the stakes and blinds are the same.

In the case of having a full time dealer, the "dealer's button" is used. This is a small round disc which is used to give a cue on the dealer's position. The "dealer's button" moves one seat to the left at the beginning of each hand.

Pre-flop

When all players have paid the blinds, the dealer gives two facing down cards to every player one at a time starting from the left going clockwise around the table.

The first betting begins from the player seated left of the dealer. There are three options for this player; he can call, raise or fold the lowest amount bet. After making a decision, the game continues in a clockwise motion around the table. In the case where one of the players makes a bet or raise, the rest of the players must fold or match the bet.

As soon as the blinds start to act, there is a cost for staying in and this is called the forced bets. Since the big forced bet has already paid for the lowest bet, he can opt to stay in if no raise is called.

Flop

In this stage, three game cards are laid on the middle of the table all faced-up. These are three community cards which players can use in combination with their cards. Another betting round takes place starting from the person directly seated the dealer's left, who can either bet, check or fold after which the action goes on in a clockwise movement.

Turn

The so-called "turn" card is laid face up on the middle of the table. This comes next to the flop. Just like the last round, another betting round takes place. In the case of a fixed limit game, players will use the upper betting limit onwards.

River

The "river" game card is laid facing up. This is the last card to be laid followed by a last betting round. If, after this betting round, there is more than one player remaining, the game continues with the showdown. A winner can be determined in this phase. In the event that there is one player left after this round, he need not show his cards as he automatically collects the winning pot.

Showdown

The showdown takes place as each player reveals his cards. Hence, whoever is holding the best five poker hand wins the prize pot. Best five cards can be a combination of hole cards and community cards.