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Texas Hold 'Em Rules

A Brief overview

Texas Hold 'Em is a seven card poker game with simple rules that a beginner can easily learn and begin to play immediately.
In spite of the simplicity, it is a fast and complex game that takes skill and practice to master. No wonder it has become one of the most popular forms of poker played today.

Texas Hold 'Em uses a disc called a dealer button to indicate where the cards are to be dealt. Prior to the deal, the two players to the left of the button place live bets called the small and large blinds. It's called blind because it's made prior to seeing any cards. It's called live because it counts as part of any further bets in the first betting round.

The play begins with two cards dealt face-down to each player. Action starts with a betting round beginning with the player to the left of the blind bets and continuing clockwise around the table. Players may bet, check, raise, or fold in turn. The large blind has the privilege of last action and may check or raise the bet.

Three community cards are then dealt face up in the center of the table and another betting round takes place beginning with the player to the left of the dealer button. Another card is dealt face up followed by a round of betting. The fifth and last card is dealt face up and a final round of betting takes place.

Players remaining in the hand will then show their cards and the winning poker hand will be awarded the pot. Any combination of hole cards and community cards may be used to make the best five-card poker hand.

Texas Hold'em Strategy

Learning to Play Texas Hold'em

There are as many schools of thought on proper strategy in Texas Hold'em as there are Texas Hold'em players, themselves. Perhaps the first and most notable tome on strategy for Texas Hold'em made its appearance in 1979, decades before the fabled "poker boom."

Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, two-time winner of the World Series of Poker's $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em main event, penned a volume entitled "How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker." Later retitled "Super/System," this volume would become widely regarded as the foremost work on strategy for Texas Hold'em.
Super/System remains to this day one of the pinnacle books on strategy for Limit Texas Hold'em, No-Limit Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, and other games. Though Doyle is credited as the main author, the book also features other contributors including Bobby Baldwin, Chip Reese, and David Sklansky.

It is often said that Texas Hold'em, whether played in a cash game or a tournament, "takes two minutes to learn and a lifetime to master." For that reason, it is often recommended that new players absorb themselves in numerous texts, so as to learn as many varying strategies as possible. Texas Hold'em, while simple in nature, is game not without its intricacies.
While one can certainly spend countless hours and dollars perusing the Texas Hold'em section at Barnes and Noble, it is certainly worth noting that there is a wealth of information available on Texas Hold'em right here on PokerPages.com... for free!
Here's a few links to get you started in Texas Hold'em, featuring works by the one and only Mike Caro, John Vorhaus (author of the Killer Poker series), and many more:

Sure You Can Play Overcards In Texas Hold'em - But That Ain't All
By Mike Caro

The Value of Position in No Limit Texas Hold'em
By Nick Eisel

Internet Texas Hold'em: Online Tells
by Matthew Hilger

Some Things I Now Know About No-Limit Texas Hold'em
By John Vorhaus

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