How to play Poker.

Before we discuss “How to play Poker”, I think we should first understand what poker is and what poker stuffs are. Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and sometimes hand rakings. This game is played between players who compete against one another by gambling on the values of each player’s hand and betting into a central pot. In professional poker game betting is done using poker chips which come in various denominations. The objective is to win the pot either by holding the superior hand at the end of the round or by forcing the other players to "fold," or discard their hand. There are three basic forms of poker and they are Draw, stud and community card poker. The most popular form of poker today is Texas Hold’em which falls in the group Community Card Poker. A professional poker game is played on a round/oval table called poker table where the cards are placed and betting is done. The poker chips comes in sets known as poker chip sets, each poker chip with different denomination has different color and the denomination ranges from $0.25 to $500. The things I’ve mentioned like poker chips, poker chipsets, poker table, etc. are poker stuffs.

There are different types of poker games, the most common type of poker games are:
• Texas Hold’em
• Omaha Poker
• Seven Card Stud and
• Five Card Draw

Today I’ll explain the rules to play Texas Hold’em. Texas Hold’em is the most common poker game because its rules are simple. This game holds the basic rules to playing all poker games. It is classified as a community card game since some of the cards are dealt in the middle of the poker tables and shared by all the players. Each player receives two hidden cards and then combines those cards with any of the five board cards to make the best possible five card poker hand. The person with the best hand in the end of the round is the winner. Below are given some Texas Hold’em terms and explanations:
• Blinds and Dealers: Texas Hold’em applies blinds system to get each pot started with a little money (here, poker chips). The two players to the left of the dealer pay the small blind and the big blind. The blinds are sized in a way that the small blind is equal to a half of the minimum bet and the big blind is equal to one minimum bet. In case of a No Limit Texas Hold’em the minimum and maximum blind will be the small blind and the big blind respectively.
• Preflop: each player is dealt cards clockwise around the poker table face down (one at a time) after the blinds have been paid until each player has two cards. Then, betting begins with the player to the left of the big blind. He/she may call the minimum bet, raise it or fold it. The same action continues clockwise. If any of the players raise the bet, other must either match that bet or fold it.
• Flop: after the first three community card dealt face up, the first player to the left of the dealer starts the bet and continues clockwise. Players may stay or raise the bet or fold.
• Turn: One more card (turn card) is dealt face up after the flop. Then, there is another betting round like the last one.
• River: The final card (called the River card) is dealt face up and follows the final betting round. The players will then proceed to showdown to decide the winner. If there is only one player remaining he can collect the pot without showing the card.
• Showdown: All players still in the hand now reveal their hole card. The player with the best five card hand wins the pot. The winner will then exchange the poker chips for money.

These are the basic rules for playing Texas Hold’em Poker. Knowing these things will help you in playing Texas Hold’em and understanding the basic rules to play certain poker games. I’ll write more about other types of poker games in future till then have a nice time.

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