Playing Texas Hold Em Poker

So far we have covered the basics of texas hold em poker and gone over the ranking of the hands. Let's take a look at a mock scenario of a round of texas hold em poker, assuming there are two people in the game. This should give you better insight as to the flow of the game and how to determine the value of your hand.

For the purpose of this article, I'm leaving out the betting rounds and focusing on the texas hold em poker hands themselves. Let's start with the initial dealing of the "hole" or "pocket" cards. Remember these are the two cards that are dealt to you and remain face down. You look at them, but none of the other players see them just yet. In this instance I will tell you what both players have so that you can follow along.

Let's get started, We have been dealt our hole (or pocket) cards. I have a 3 - 4, you have an Ace - Jack. On the flop (the first three community cards), a 3, 4 and Jack are revealed. So far I have two pair 3's & 4's. You have a pair of Jack's.

Next comes the "turn" card. It's a 9. So far, not much has changed. Now comes the final card, the "river" card. It's another 9. Let's see what we have. The community cards are 3, 4, jack, 9, 9. You have two pair, 2 Jacks and 2 nines with an ace kicker. While I have two pairs 3's and 4's with a jack kicker, my best hand can be accomplished using 4 of the community cards but you still end up with the winning hand.

Hopefully, this helped you understand how a hand can progress during a game of texas hold em poker.