The Basics of Texas Hold’em and Recommended Poker Sites

Texas Hold’em is fast becoming one of the most popular poker games in the world. The televising of the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour along with all of the online poker rooms have helped to increase the popularity of this game. There is a definite strategy to playing this game and if the basics are not known, new players can find themselves at a huge disadvantage.

I find the best poker site to get the maximum exposure to different games and levels is Full Tilt Poker. Other popular online poker sites are Party Poker and Poker stars. On my hunt for more poker sites I found pokersites.com which lists the majority of them. Check it out before playing online poker.

Here are a few thing to keep in mind:

• The Rules – The rules of this game are quite simple. The player gets two cards which are known as the hole cards. The dealer places five cards on the board which all players use to make the best poker hand. There are three cards placed on the board first which is called the flop. The other two cards are put on the board one at a time. The fourth card is called the turn and the fifth card is called the river.

• The Blinds – The betting begins with the big blind and the small blind placing their bets. The small blind is typically half of the big blind. Any player who wants to play their cards needs to either match the big blind or raise double or more the big blind. Those who want to play their hands need to meet or beat this raise and so on. All bets are based on the amount of the big blind.

• Betting – The players are dealt the hole cards and then a round of betting commences. After the flop, another round of betting and also after the turn and the river. This can lead to some really big pots and a lot of money can be made.


• Limit, No Limit and Pot Limit – These are the three basic playing styles for Texas Hold’em and relate to the betting that can occur. Limit means just what it implies, a limit to the betting, each round can only be raised the amount of the big blind and there can only be three raises per betting round. No limit means that there is no limit to the amount that can be raised, however, there can only be three raises per round and when a player goes “all in” this means that they are committing their entire stack to the hand. Pot limit means that only the amount that is in the pot can be raised. Players can still go all in as long as the pot covers the amount of chips that they are holding.