Texas Hold Em Poker

If you are new to the exciting world of online poker, Texas hold em is by far the easiest game of poker to learn and the most popular. The basics of the game can be learned fairly fast and with a few hours of practice you will be playing fairly well and build some confidence.

First, there is a dealer button that goes around the table. It is to represent who the dealer for the hand is, even though this person does not do the actual dealing. With texas hold em poker, the first two players seated to the left of the dealer button place blinds. (Blinds are bets made without seeing any cards.)

After the blinds are made, the dealer shuffles a deck of 52 cards and deals each player two cards face down. These cards remain face down and nobody will see them except each individual player (unless there is a showdown). There is now a round of betting.

After the first round of betting, the dealer discards the top card of the deck (this is called a burn card). Then three community cards are placed face up on the table. In texas hold em poker this is called the flop. After the flop each player determines the value of their hand based on the two they were dealt face down and the three community cards. And another round of betting takes place.

After the round of betting takes place, the dealer burns a cards and places one more community card on the table face up. In texas hold em poker, this card is known as the turn card. Players can use these six cards to form a five card hand. Next another round of betting takes place, starting from the left of the dealer.

After this round of betting the dealer burns a card and places the final community card face up on the table. In texas hold em poker this final card is known as the river card. Players can now form the best hand they can from the five community cards and the two cards they were initially dealt. Next comes the final round of betting and the showdown begins. The showdown begins with the remaining players revealing their cards, starting with the player to the left of the last player to call. The player with the best hand wins.

Now that you understand the basics of texas hold em poker, the only way to really learn the game is to practice. Thankfully you can practice all you want against live players from around the world for FREE in the comfort of your own home! Simply Download The Free Poker Software, and you are ready to begin enjoying the exciting world of online poker. Have fun!