Poker Texas Hold'em rules of the game for beginners. Texas Hold'em Rules

Community cards can be used by any player together with his "hole" cards in order to collect the best combination of five poker cards. In this case, closed cards can be used in full, partially or not at all.

According to the rules of poker, the best five-card hand wins, which can consist of either five community cards or two face down cards in each player's hand.

Video poker rules

For your convenience and a better understanding of the rules of poker, as well as a visual analysis of the small nuances of the game, we recommend starting the study by watching a short video, which is designed just for novice players and will allow you to quickly learn the basics of the game of poker.

After viewing, you can pin down individual points by examining detailed rules poker on this page below.

Complete rules of action at the table

Every poker hand starts with mandatory bets. Before the cards are dealt, two players (sitting to the left of the button) place the mandatory bets - the small and big blinds. The small blind is half the size of the big blind.

These bets are needed so that the participants in the distribution have something to fight for. In a cash game, the size of the blinds is determined by the limit with which the game is on at this table. Traditionally, the table limit is referred to as 100 big blinds, i.e. at an NL10 ($ 10 No Limit) table, the blinds are $ 0.05 and $ 0.10. Thanks to the blinds, there is always money in the pot.

After that, each player is dealt two cards face down, from this moment the game begins. In regular Hold'em, as in most other forms online poker a, the player has the opportunity to do several different actions. Full list actions available to players in different situations are as follows:

• FOLD- this is a refusal to continue the fight for the pot in response to a bet (bet) or raise (raise) from the opponent. In this case, the player folds his cards and they leave the game to discard. The player who folded can no longer participate in this hand.
• RECEIPT- if no one has made a bet in the current round, the player can check. In fact, this is a skip of the move, and transferring it to the next active player who sits on the left. Receipt does not mean refusal to fight for the pot, this is just a refusal to make a bet in the current round.
• BET- if there are no bets in the current round, the player can make a bet (bet). In this case, he sets the price for the continuation of the game. The players sitting after him decide what to do: fold (fold), equalize (call) or raise again (raise). The minimum bet in the game is the big blind.
• CALL- if a bet was made in the current round, the player can call it by making a call and adding to the pot the same number of chips equal to the bet or raise of the last player.
• Raise- if a bet has been made in the current betting round, the player can raise it by making a raise. To do this, he must make a bet that will exceed the bet of the last player. To qualify for this pot, all other players must either call or reraise. Otherwise, they have only one option - this is to fold their cards, that is, fold. In No Limit Hold'em, the size and number of raises not limited.

Circles of commerce (streets)

All of these actions are taken by the Hold'em players in each of the four rounds of betting, or as they are called otherwise "streets":

• Preflop
• Flop
• Thorn
• River

In each round, betting continues until the person to the right of the last player to bet or raise. When the turn returns to him, the next round begins or the hand ends if all the players before him chose to fold. Below you can clearly see the effect of these poker rules in the photo.

Preflop

After all the players have received their cards, each of them decides what he will do - give up the fight for the pot and fold his cards, try to continue the game by calling one big blind or raising at least two big blinds.

The first to speak is the player to the left of the big blind. The word then moves clockwise from player to player in turn. If no raises have been made preflop, then the big blind has the final say. If one of the players raises, then the game develops according to the scenario described above until all players have their say.

At the end of the betting round, all bets made by the players are collected in one common pot, for which the fight will continue on the following streets - the flop, turn and river.

Flop

This round of betting begins at the end of preflop. Three community cards are laid out on the table, which are called the flop (from the English "flop"). As you can see in the photo above, community cards are located in the middle of the table and are available for everyone to view.

All players can use these cards to compose their combination, but they cannot be taken into their hand or exchange their cards for flop cards - they are available to all players who continue to fight in the distribution.

Unlike preflop, flop bets start with the first active player to the left of the button. For example, it could be a player in the small blind, if he did not fold his cards preflop. The last action on the flop is the button.

Players have access to the same actions as on preflop, with one exception - if no one has made a bet before, then the player can check and pass the move to the next player without putting anything in the bank.

After all the players have said their word, all bets made are added to the current pot.

Thorn

After trading on the flop is over, the fourth community card is laid out (dealt) on the table - the turn (from the English "turn"), which is also used by all players to compose their combinations.

Another round of betting takes place, following the same pattern as on the flop. It starts with the first active player clockwise to the left of the player on the button.

The four face-up cards on the table already provide enough information for the players to make decisions and assess their chances of winning.

River

After trading on the turn, a fifth is placed on the table and last card- river (from the English "river"). After opening the river card, the players analyze the final combinations they have collected and conduct the final round of betting.

The betting round begins again with the first player clockwise to the left of the button, and the same betting rules apply as on the flop and turn.

All the money deposited by the players into the bank is added to the current bank, and the game goes to the final stage.

Showdown according to the rules of Texas Hold'em

According to poker rules, players who equalize all bets on the previous streets take part in the last round of the game - showdown. It is here that the winner is determined, who takes the pot. All players show their combinations.

The strongest five-card combination (hand) wins, which the player makes out of all cards available to him. In other words, to compose your combination, you can use all five community cards, or one of your own cards and four community cards, or two pocket cards and three table cards.

Important! the winning combination is always determined by five cards

If, on four cards, two players have the same combination, the so-called Kicker Is the highest unpaired card.

For example, if the players have and on the table, then the combination that is higher than the opponent's five-card hand with a queen wins.

If the combinations and kickers coincide completely, then the pot is divided equally between the players.

An example of such a situation is a board when two players show and, respectively - in this case, their common combination is two pair on aces and tens with the king as the kicker.

There are also situations when the game does not come to showdown. This happens when a player bets or raises on one of the streets, but none of his opponents dares to call. In this case, the player who made the last bet takes the pot and his cards he may not show.

Showdown order

The detailed rules of poker very accurately schedule the sequence of moves, which allows you to avoid any controversial situations and there are also a number of principles for the sequence of showing cards.

If there are several players left in the game, the player who made the last bet opens his cards first. If there were no bets on the river, then the first player who is clockwise from the button first shows his hand.

These rules are often confusing for beginner poker players, but when playing online poker you should not worry about it, as the order will be clearly calculated for you. When playing live, you can rely on the dealer or listen to the most experienced player. At the same time, some rooms may deviate from the complete rules and actually show cards to both players at the same time. In this case, often the opponents' cards can also be viewed after the deal in hand histories.

After the pot is handed over to the winning player in the hand, the next hand begins. The dealer's button (button) moves to the next player clockwise, the blinds are posted, new hole cards are dealt, and new trading for the pot begins.

Good news for beginners right away - the rules of poker are so primitive and simple that they are available even to those who have never even held cards in their hands. The rules of Texas Hold'em are especially easy to learn, which is not surprising, because it is thanks to its simplicity that this type of poker has become so popular in the world and especially on the Internet. It is in it that they play in all kinds of tournaments that you could see on TV. Therefore, it is better for dummies to study the rules of this particular version of poker, because in 99% of cases, both on the Internet and among friends, you will play it.

Tip: The rules of poker are easier to learn by practicing on the free tables playing on "candy wrappers". Download yourself a free Pokerdom and train for health (there is an Android version). You can also download this link to get up to 40,000 rubles a bonus on the first deposit. Pokerdom is the most popular Russian poker room in the CIS.

V Texas Hold'em play a card deck of 52 cards, the number of players at one table is from 2 to 10. The winner is the one who collects the best poker hand or will remain the only player who did not discard by the end of the current hand.

Poker combinations

First of all, beginner poker players need to learn poker hands. All of them are shown in the lower figure and are arranged in ascending order:

1. High card
2. Two pairs
3. Straight
4. Full house
5. Street Flush
6. Royal Flush

As you can see, there are only 10 poker combinations, but in reality, combinations from 1 to 8 are usually most common in the game. Therefore, it is very easy to remember poker combinations.

Each combination is created from 2 cards dealt face down to each player and 5 common open cards laid out in the middle of the table, i.e. 7 cards are used. Thus, you see only 5 cards, but you cannot know what other 2 cards the enemy has. Therefore, poker is called a game of incomplete information.

Game process

Poker is played by 2 to 10 people. They take turns and there are several stages in the game, the so-called streets - these are Preflop, Flop, Thorn, River.

To make it more understandable for beginners, in the article, as an illustration, screenshots from the 888 poker room are given, which makes it possible free game on play chips- “Game for fun”.

Preflop

The first thing the game starts with is 2 people after the Dealer (sign D) make the mandatory bets Small Blind and Big Blind. The initial bank is formed from them.

Next, all players are dealt 2 hole cards and it is the turn of the others to move. Players move clockwise starting with the next player after the big blind.

Although the two dealt cards give little information so far, it is based on it, as well as on your position at the table and the actions of other players, you will need to make a move. The player has 3 options for action:

1. Fold- Discarding the card. If you have weak cards (eg 72), then this is practically the only thing you should do. If you fold, then you are already out of the game and do not pay any money.
2. Call- You support the rate previously made by others. Let's say you have medium cards, a lot of players have entered, and there are no raises. You bet exactly as much as others have bet, in our case 10 chips.
3. Increase / Raise- You are raising the stakes. Let's say you good cards and you want your opponents to pay you more. Perhaps no one will answer you and you will take this bank right now. Depending on the variant of Hold'em, you can raise from 1 blind to all-in.

For beginners, all this may seem a little complicated, but in fact, in real game after literally a few hands, it's all done simply and almost automatically. And some experienced players can play up to 24 tables at the same time!

Flop

After the preflop betting circle is over, everyone has bet or folded, the first 3 out of 5 community cards are dealt.

After the flop is dealt, the situation in the hand becomes more or less clear. Our player sits in the dealer's position (D), and the dealer always goes last. In this hand, we see that our player almost has a flush with diamonds. All the players before him checked and now it's his turn. He can fold / check / bet:

1. Fold- Discarding the card. In this case, this is simply not necessary. Firstly, a good combination is outlined, and secondly, no one has made a bet yet, so the next card in any case can be viewed for free.
2. Check- i.e. take no action, just pass.
3. Place a bet / raise- No one has placed a bet yet, so you can do it. If you place a bet, a new round of betting will begin and other players will also be forced to place bets or fold. It is also possible to get a raise in response if someone chooses to check-raise. The size of the bet is limited only by your stack, for example, in this case, you can bet from 10 to all-in (479.70 chips).

Thorn

After the flop comes the next stage of the game - the turn. Here the penultimate 4 card in the hand is dealt.

On the turn we still don't have any poker hand and the middle position player bet 10 chips. By the rules of the game of poker, now we cannot fold like on the flop, and we have to play Fold / Call / Increase. There are already a lot of chips in the pot and we have good flush odds, so the fold is no longer the case. Increasing the bet is also not an option, although we may have a flush, but it is far from the highest, so if it falls out, you will have to play it very carefully. All that remains is to support the rate.

River

The moment of truth is coming. By the end of the game, the winner of the hand will be determined on the river.

A successful card falls out for us and our player collects his flush. The player in front of us bets 1/2 pot. Answer us. As always, we have several options for an answer: Fold, Call or Raise. With a flush ready, a raise suggests itself, but it's embarrassing that we don't have a nut flush and a paired board (a full house opportunity), so just call.

Show down

Showdown is the final stage in Texas Hold'em and will determine the winner (s) who will take the pot. In our case, it turned out to be an opponent from Australia, who showed the high flush and took the whole pot.

Practice for beginners

Any beginner usually needs 1-2 hours of online poker session to fix the rules of the game of poker in his head. It is best to consolidate theoretical knowledge in practice with friends or at one of the free poker rooms playing for play money.

For all poker lovers, both beginners and advanced players, we recommend starting your game at Party Poker. The most famous poker room that will not disappoint you at all. Good luck!

To start playing online poker rooms, you need to learn the rules of Texas poker. They are not that difficult, but they include a lot of important nuances that the player needs to know. To better understand the rules, it is recommended after reading this article to play poker for free chips - this will help you understand the material faster and gain practical experience in the real game. This material does not contain instructions on how to win at poker, but sets out the rules of playing Texas Poker for dummies. The illustrations accompanying the text will help you better understand what it is about!

The rules of the game of Texas Hold'em poker are partially similar to other card disciplines, but they also have their own differences. Therefore, if you know how to play, for example, Five Card Poker or Oasis, you still need to study these rules.

The goal of playing Hold'em poker is to win the pot. The player has two possibilities to take the pot - to win it at showdown by opening a combination stronger than that of the opponents, or earlier by knocking out all opponents from the bidding on any of the streets.

Texas Holdem Poker - table rules

The rules for playing Texas Hold'em poker can vary within the discipline itself. So, tables and tournaments for this type of poker can differ quite significantly in terms of the game. This must be taken into account, since knowledge of these features will be useful to you later when choosing tables and strategies. Tables for Hold'em games may differ in the following parameters:

Number of players - can be from 2 to 10, while a ceiling can be installed at the table for the number of free seats. For example, at a 2-max table only two people can play, and at a 9-max table - from two to nine. The minimum number of participants is always two! If you sat down at a 6-max table, where three players are sitting, at any time more poker players can sit down to you until all the seats are occupied.

Bet Limits - the table format may differ according to the betting rules. Therefore, there are three types of betting formats - no-limit, pot-limit and limit Hold'em, the rules in which differ in the size of the maximum possible bet in the auction. So, when playing Limit Hold'em, the rules do not allow you to bet or raise more than the blind in the first two trades and more than two blinds in the following. V no limit game the maximum bet can be of any size, and in the pot limit - no more than the size of the pot.

The size of the required rates - at cash tables, the size of the obligatory bets does not change during the game. In tournaments, they gradually grow, with the exception of some exotic formats.

These rules are changeable - they may differ for two different tables. They should be taken into account when choosing a table, as the conditions of the game affect the strategy. In online poker rooms, tables can be easily sorted by size and format of bets, as well as by the number of participants.

Mandatory bets and dealer

Before a new hand or a game at the table begins, the participants put down the mandatory bets - the blinds. Their size is negotiated in advance by the game participants (in an offline game) or by the table rules (in poker rooms). Since the blinds are posted alternately, they do not change from hand to hand, which puts all players in an equal position (except for tournaments). The first to post the blinds are the two players to the left of the dealer.

Dealer Is the participant in the game who deals the cards. However, if the cards are dealt to the dealer or automatically, as in online rooms, the dealer's position is still designated by a special chip - Button which moves clockwise.

The player who sits closer to the dealer makes the obligatory bet of the smaller size - the small blind, and the player sitting to his left - the big blind twice as large. In the next hand, the obligation to post the small blind is transferred to the poker player who previously posted the big blind, and he, in turn, is placed by the player sitting on the left, who did not bet in the previous hand.

Sometimes the Ante bet is also used, which can revive the game - make it more dynamic, since the pot will be larger and more attractive. Ante is a mandatory bet that is placed by all participants in each hand. But at cash tables, it is rarely used, but it can be present in tournaments, especially at high levels.

Texas Hold'em Rules - Dealing Cards

The rules of the game of poker in Texas Hold'em provide for several streets of distribution of cards, for each of which there is a bidding. But we will dwell only on the cards so that you do not get confused. They are distributed in four stages, each of which has its own name:

Preflop - players receive two cards, while each participant in the game can only see his own. They are called pocket ones;

Flop - three cards are laid out on the table and are visible to all participants in the distribution (community cards or board);

Thorn - the fourth card is added to the general ones;

River - The fifth card is added to the general ones.

As a result, if the game reaches the last street, five community cards will be open on the table, plus two more will be in each player's hands. However, the game may not reach showdown, since the pot can be played out earlier in any of the four trades, which you will learn about later if you read the rules of the game of Texas Poker for Dummies.

Hold'em Hand Rules

If you remember the goals of the game of Hold'em, which were described at the beginning of the article, then you should remember that one of the ways to get the bank in the distribution is to make a winning combination. The rules of the game of Texas Hold'em poker provide only for the classic high hands, which you can see in the illustration:

These combinations can be made on the basis of seven cards (five common and two pocket). Of the seven cards to build a hand, only five are selected to make the strongest hand. The strongest possible combination is made from the available set of cards! If the combination is five-card (Straight, Flush, etc.) all these five cards are included in its composition. If the combination requires only two, three or four cards, the highest cards are selected from the remaining cards and added to the combination, complementing it to a five-card hand. This can be understood by an example:

Here the player has three Aces, and of the seven available cards, four more remain, which are not included in the composed Three of Aces. Since the eldest of them are Lady and Eight, they are also part of the hand. In this case, the Queen becomes the kicker (as the highest card not included in the combination) and if the opponent also collected three Aces, it is compared with his kicker.

The combinations are compared with each other only at showdown! If the distribution ends earlier, they do not make any sense and do not affect the determination of the winner. If the showdown is made, the player with the highest combination wins the pot. In the table above, they are arranged in ascending order of seniority. Thus, a Pair is younger than a Three, and a Three is older than two, etc.

Trading in Hold'em

Trades take place on every street and have similar names: preflop, flop, turn and river. The point of the bidding is that the players compete with each other to see the next card or to show it at a reasonable price. All bets become part of the bank. During the bidding process, poker players can announce the following decisions:

Receipt - the absence of a bet, which can take place if the player acts first or no one has placed before him. Also, a check can be announced in the big blind if the other opponents did not bet Higher than the big blind. After deciding the check, the player can make a bet only if one of the opponents has increased;

Beth - offering the minimum bet, which is equal to the big blind in the first two rounds of betting and two blinds in the following. This is the lowest possible rate;

Raise - a raise exceeding the size of the bet offered by previous opponents or bet. A callback is also sometimes called a reraise, although these actions can be considered the same;

All-in - a bet equal to the player's stack. The poker player bets all the chips he has and if one of the opponents is equal, he just has to wait for the showdown and the winner is determined;

Fold - the only decision after which the player stops participating in the distribution. He folds his cards and loses all the chips that are already in the pot, ceasing to qualify for his drawing.

Comparing the decisions of other players and their prospects for winning, the poker player can exit the hand in order to avoid losses, try to increase the pot by raising rates, or get to the showdown with minimal investment. Some decisions can be made in the form of a bluff, showing a weak or strong hand when there is none. However, we are studying the rules of the Texas Hold'em poker game for beginners, so we will not consider this issue in detail.

Bidding ends only when all players are equal. Therefore, on the same street, one player can make decisions again. For example, if he placed a Bet, and the opponent offered a raise, he needs to make a decision again. In this case, he can fold, raise, or even. The classic rules of the game of Texas Hold'em poker allow one player to make only three raises in one betting round. On all streets before the river, after the players are compared, a new street begins - additional community cards are revealed. On the river, after the comparison of the rates, a showdown is made.

Additional chip purchases

An important aspect of Texas Hold'em rules is the purchase of chips. For example, Hollywood movies often show how gamblers increase the bank limitlessly by investing in it when the chips run out, as well as real estate, yachts, and even wives. However, this is against the rules of poker!

In the auction, the player can only bet those chips that are already in the game - the existing stack. He cannot increase his stack if pocket cards have already been dealt. In addition, there are restrictions on the number of chips that a poker player can take into the game when he sits down at the table. However, players can have stacks of different sizes - one has more and the other has less. This situation can be solved simply! That a player with fewer chips should not buy them if the stack is not enough to equalize the opponent's bet... He can simply bet his entire stack and, if he wins, will take a pot commensurate with his size, and the opponent will get back the extra chips.

You can only buy chips on the stack between hands! A similar rule applies to rebuy tournaments, where a player can purchase chips between hands by paying an additional tournament fee.

Determining the winner

Texas Holdem Poker rules allow you to win the pot with or without showdown. You can get your winnings before showdown if all other opponents have folded. If the bid reaches the river and all the opponents equalize the rates, pocket cards are opened and the combinations are compared. The poker player who has the strongest hand gets the pot. The rest turn out to be losers, and a new distribution begins.

Poker rules Texas Hold'em - controversial situations

You should definitely study the rules of Texas Hold'em poker for beginners thoroughly if you plan to play at home with friends or in an offline poker room. In this case, controversial situations will often arise if you do not know the rules of Texas Hold'em poker. In an online game, controversial situations cannot arise. The fact is that the program of the poker room simply cannot technically allow players to break the rules and itself strictly observes them... But what it doesn't know is that online poker players don't need to know the rules! Without knowing them, you can accept wrong decision in bidding, it is wrong to assess the strength of your combination, or simply not to notice it!

The rules of Hold'em poker at first glance may seem confusing and difficult to learn. But you just need to play this game, for example, play chips, in order to understand them well. You can also use simple poker simulators, which are designed specifically for learning the rules of the game.

2019-11-26T15: 37: 23 + 00: 00

Currently, according to statistics, Texas Hold'em is recognized as the most popular poker game in the world. Many players, when they talk about poker, mean this very kind. To learn how to play Hold'em, you need to master a number of simple provisions and rules, as well as understand the game terminology: you need to understand what “playing in position”, “all-in” or “” means. But the most important thing is the general essence and course of the game.

At the start of each distribution, all participants receive two pocket cards, which they keep face down, that is, the player's opponents cannot find out what kind of cards they are. Gradually, in the course of the game, with each new round of betting, community cards are laid out on the table, which can then be used by all players to form their combinations. All trading rounds have their own names:

• "Preflop", when all players have only two face down pocket cards in their hands;
• "Flop", during which 3 community cards appear;
• "Turn", which adds another card;
• "River" with the last community card, after which the player can find out exactly which winning combinations he pretends.

To win, each participant must complete a five-card combination, which will be stronger than all other remaining players. To do this, you can use two of your closed pocket cards and five common ones on the table.

During each round of betting, each participant can check, which means skipping a move without passing and placing a new bet, if the participants did not raise before him. You can also "call", that is, equalize your current bet with the previous raise in order to continue the game. A "bet" is the appointment of your own first bet during the trading round, and a "raise" is an increase in your opponent's previous bet. To fold your cards and leave the game without placing or maintaining bets, you can “fold”.

At the same time, conditionally, the main rules of Texas Hold'em can be divided into 8 simple steps which we will take a closer look at in this article.

Rule # 1: Available Combinations

In any poker game, the principle of bluffing applies, according to which the player must, first of all, outwit his opponents using special betting techniques that will mislead opponents. And yet, after the final round of betting, the moment of showdown comes, that is, revealing the available cards, after which the winner will be revealed by the five-card combinations collected. To form them, you can use all available cards: for example, two pocket and three on the table, or 1 pocket and five on the table, or just all five community cards. In Texas Hold'em, classic poker hands are used, where the lowest is simply the presence of a high card, and the highest is a royal flush. If two players collect similar combinations, for example, two identical pairs, the winner will be calculated on the fifth highest card. In the event that it also matches, the pot will be divided into equal parts between the winners.

Beginners should also be aware that at the moment of showdown, they still have the opportunity to show or hide their cards, thus refusing to form a combination. This can help in the event that the player does not want to reveal his secrets, if, for example, he has been progressively bluffing during this game.

Rule # 2: player positions

The maximum number of active participants at the table is nine. At the same time, you need to clearly understand how the three main positions are formed: early, middle and late. The first three players are the small and big blinds and the UTG player. They are followed by the three middle participants, and the late players close the circle, who are the last to get the bets during the game. Among them there is a dealer and two people on his right hand.

MB and BB are participants who, regardless of the conditions, must make their first bets at the beginning of each move. By default, the big blind places the minimum bet amount, and the small blind places half of this amount. In the future, to continue playing, MB must equalize or raise the initial bet when it comes to him during the trading circle.

Beginners should understand that within each poker game in Texas Hold'em, their position is better the closer they are to the right hand to the button. This opens up a lot of space for learning about your opponents, choosing the right bet and bluffing.

Rule # 3: first round of betting

It is also often referred to as preflop., and it starts immediately after the first cards are dealt, when all players have two hole cards. The movement in a circle goes clockwise along all participants, and the participant who sits immediately to the left of BB starts. He is also called the “player under fire” because he needs to make his first move, which imposes additional risks on him. At the same time, he can make a pass from the very beginning and refuse to participate in this party, as well as raise or equalize the previous rate.

This round continues until it is BB's turn. In the event that no one has raised his initial bet for the whole circle, he can simply “check”, or he can also go up. In this case, the circle continues again. When all bets have finally been matched, the remaining active players proceed to the next stage.

If a large number of players take part in the game, some begin to get bored, waiting for their turn, and therefore go to check their mail or answer calls. In this case, many online poker sites provide a special function of sound alerts that will appear when a player's turn comes to him.

Rule # 4: second round of betting

Immediately after the equalization of the rates on the first round, the game continues and occurs opening the first three cards on the table - flop that will be available to all active players. All the same rules that were relevant preflop remain here, including the principle of player positioning. Each participant can check without discarding the cards, but also without making a raise, and he can also call, raise or equalize, or even fold and leave the game before the start of the next game, without revealing his cards. True, there is a slight difference here from the first round, since this circle must be started by the participant closest to the dealer's left hand.

A beginner Texas Hold'em player may not be able to quickly figure out what action he should take. To quickly determine what needs to be done in a given situation (skip, assignment, equalization, raise or pass), it is recommended to play poker in test mode without using real money.

Rule # 5: third round of betting

Here, as in the previous round, with the continuation of the game, a new community card is opened, but this time only one - it is called the "thorn"... In fact, this is exactly the same round as the previous one, during which all the remaining players can take the same actions as before. Often at this stage, many participants already understand exactly which combination they are applying for, and therefore some players can fold on the post-turn, or, conversely, sharply increase their rates.

Many novice players, even in such a situation when no sufficiently strong combination is formed after the turn, is tempted to wait for the river in order to collect something using the last community card. That is why they can make a big mistake, agreeing with the provocations of other participants and setting quite large bets without a good hand. It is better not to do this, since it is very unlikely that the last card will be able to save the situation if by this time a sufficiently strong combination has not been gathered.

Rule # 6: Final Betting Round

The last community card on the table is the river and after it is posted, the final trading circle will begin. At this stage, all active players already know exactly what combinations they have collected, and therefore can act for sure. All previous actions from past trading rounds are retained, including the ability to skip a move, equalize, assign and raise, and pass. After all the bets have been equalized, the remaining participants go to showdown when they need to lay out their available combinations.

The name "river" was known even before the invention and popularization of Texas Hold'em. This word was used in one of the oldest poker games- five-card stud, which was common among players back in the 19th century.

Rule # 7: showdown principle

The most intriguing stage of the game can be called showdown, which can also be translated as "showdown". It will happen if at least one participant remains in the game after the river. In this case, they will have to show their cards to reveal the strongest five-card hand. The winner, provided that several players have not collected absolutely identical combinations, which is possible, for example, if a very strong combination is on the table, will take the entire pot.

It is worth noting that while playing in a real casino it is not customary to show and remove your cards until the moment when his chips are transferred to the player. Being able to show your cards is the only way to prove a certain combination.

Rule # 8: ready for a new batch

The showdown is followed by the end of each game, but immediately after that the players move on to the next game. If the participant believes that he is ready to continue playing, he will be dealt new cards. Do not get too upset if the previous game was a losing one, as with each new hand the chances of forming a winning combination and winning only increase.

Each new game in Texas Hold'em is absolutely unpredictable, and therefore no one can accurately guess to what size the pot will grow in a new game.

The main types of Hold'em

Simply mastering the rules, positions, and memorized combinations is not enough to truly understand how Texas Hold'em works. Within it, there are also three main varieties, which have different names and some distinctive features:

• No Limit;
• Fixed Limit;
• Pot Limit.

In the first variant, the participants play without any predetermined limits, that is, in each new trading round, they can go for any increase in rates, limited only by the number of chips on hand. Thus, in a game with no limits, you can often find participants who go all-in abruptly, including in their bet the entire amount on hand. At the same time, in order to continue the game, the participant must either call or raise the rate of his opponent. If he doesn't have enough money to call the bet in full, he can go all-in and bet all the chips he has on hand. If a player who has already raised in this trading circle wants to raise again, he must raise at least the amount of his previous bet. Sometimes these calculations can create difficulties when playing in a real casino, but users of online platforms are exempt from such procedures, since the system instantly counts everything for them.

If the game is played with fixed limits, then before the game, participants must select tables with suitable established amounts of these limits. So, for example, if it is $ 1 / $ 2, in the first two trading rounds, all participants will be able to bet no more than $ 1 (this is the amount that BB should automatically bet at the beginning of its turn). In the next two rounds, this amount is doubled, that is, it is a doubled BB bet. In this case, the total amount of bets of each player should not exceed 4 bets of the big blind in any of the rounds.

Pot Limit also imposes its own special restrictions on the setting of bets. Their value ranges from the BB rate to the amount that is currently available in the common bank. The maximum "raise" in this case is made up of the total volume of the pot, the bet and the amount that can be equalized. In a situation where the pot has only $ 50, and the previous player raised by $ 25, the current participant can put the pot + the amount of the previous bet + his bet, that is, for example, $ 125.

It is much easier for beginner poker players to get used to taking part in online games, because here it is often enough to press just one corresponding button (for example, "raise") to make the correct raise and other manipulations with the rates.

Winning tactics for a successful Texas Hold'em game

Of course there are many specific strategies and techniques designed for professional players, which, thus, can greatly increase their chances of winning, methodically adhering to specific rules. For beginners, there are also special rules, and here are five basic tips that will help you quickly improve your result.

First, before each new game for real money, you should clearly determine for yourself how much you can really spend this time. Do not go beyond this maximum amount, which is also called a bankroll. Let it be at first a very small amount, which later, after mastering the skills of the game, can be increased if desired.

Many beginners do not pay attention to such an important factor as the player's current position. The most advantageous position in each game belongs to those players who are the last to make their move, because they have more room to maneuver and study their opponents. Ultimately, they can quickly fold cards without any problems for themselves if they understand that their combinations are worse than those of their opponents.

You need to clearly monitor which cards are put face up on the table and understand which of the combinations are available here in order to compare your hand with them. Only after a clear understanding of the real capabilities of your opponents is it worth making a raise, an equalization, a pass or a pass.

Being patient and considerate of your opponents and studying their playing style will help determine under what circumstances they tend to bluff, go all-in, or fold. This will help to better manipulate their behavior and understand what kind of situation they are in.

It is also necessary to correctly calculate your chances of success during each trading round, starting preflop, when there are only two hole cards in your hand. You should constantly give yourself an objective assessment in order to make really correct and successful decisions in the course of the game.

Putting theory into practice

The easiest way to learn and master all these rules is through a practical example while playing with live players, even if at first not even for real money. The online platform provides great opportunities to test yourself in different conditions, be it large tournaments with many tables, or Sit & Go mode or classic tables, where new participants constantly leave and come. At the same time, the 888 Poker client is available both on a PC and in a convenient mobile application.

Use a poker calculator to calculate the odds of winning

When starting to play for real money, you should immediately sit down at the tables with minimal amounts. Also, do not forget about the special 888 Poker bonus offers, to receive which you do not need to deposit money into your account at all, but at the same time it becomes possible to play for real amounts. This should also include free passes to tournaments with interesting draws, information about which constantly appears on 888 Poker's Twitter and Facebook.

When a player decides to fund his gaming account, he will receive an additional pleasant offer to double the deposit up to $ 400. Of course, before you start playing for money, you should read all the rules again and read in detail the official regulations on the game of Texas Hold'em.

We will try to tell you the rules of Texas Hold'em poker a, so that you can start the game in 5 minutes. The video lesson will help to consolidate the information visually.

Texas Hold'em or Texas Hold'em is the most popular form of poker. Therefore, learning the rules of the game should start with Hold'em. We offer you a few simple steps to make it as useful as possible.

Poker rules for beginners

When playing Texas poker, a standard poker deck is used. 52 cards (from deuce to ace, no jokers). Play from 2 to 10 people. The two-player version of the game has a special name - Heads Up. At the start, each player is dealt 2 cards face down. These cards are called native cards. Next, 5 more cards are laid out on the table in a certain order, which are called community cards. Purpose of the game- collect the best poker combination from your own and community cards, or make all opponents fold their cards.

Texas poker card combinations

For a better understanding, let's divide the whole game process(round) into three stages: start, middle and end. And we will analyze each of them separately.

★ Start

The first priority is determining the position of the dealer's chip.

• In offline game the dealer's position is usually determined as follows: each player is dealt 1 card face up and the dealer's chip is received by the player whose card denomination is higher, while the suit of the card is not taken into account ( For information: In poker, Deuce is the lowest card and Ace is the highest card). In the event that several cards of equal value were dealt, for example, three players received Aces, these players are dealt one more open card. The process continues until the result is obvious.
• Online the position of the dealer is determined in a similar way. The only difference is that the cards are dealt automatically.

More about the player's position at the table

Player position for poker table is one of the defining concepts in Hold'em. Not only the course of the game itself depends on it. Position greatly influences your decisions about how to act in specific game situations. To find out what position you are in now, you first need to determine what position the dealer is in.

The dealer's position is indicated by a special chip - the button (the chip with the letter “D” in the picture). The button is passed to the next player clockwise after each rally. That is, in each new hand, the player to the left of the previous dealer becomes the dealer, and, along with this, all other positions are also shifted one clockwise.

The rules of poker for beginners are: first, you need to determine which positions regarding the dealer you are. Positions change as the dealer's chip moves clockwise. It is very easy to learn how to determine the position, but at the same time, position in poker is an important element of the game and strongly influences the playing of certain hands. Positions are allocated as shown in the figure below:

SB, BB - Blinds. The player sitting first to the left of the dealer takes the small blind, denoted. SB (Small Blind). The second player in the blinds takes the position of the big blind, denot. BB (Big Blind). These 2 positions are always present at the poker table. For example, in a two-player game (heads-up), there will be only 2 positions - SB and BB (the position of the dealer in this case will coincide with the position of the big blind).

UTG, UTG + 1 - Early position. UTG is the English abbreviation for Under The Gun "at gunpoint".

The three places to the left of the dealer are called early positions. They are considered the most inconvenient positions, since the players make a move before the others and do not know how the rest of the players will behave. Sometimes there are EP (Early Position) designations

MP, MP + 1, - Middle position. MP is an English abbreviation for Middle Position.

Next 3 players counterclockwise.

CO, BU - Late position. CO is an English abbreviation Cut off "cut off" and BU - button "dealer button".

Directly the dealer himself, designation. BU (Button), and the player to the right of the dealer is denoted. CO (Cut-off). Sometimes, instead of BU and CO, there are designations LP2 and LP1 (Late Position).

According to the rules of poker, position counting starts counterclockwise from the big blind - BB, SB, BU, CO, MP3, MP2, MP1, UTG3, UTG2, UTG1. If there are less than 10 players at the table, then the positions are removed one by one, starting with the earliest one. That is, if there are 9 people left at the table, the UTG1 position is removed, if 8, the UTG2 position is removed, if there are 7 players left, then there are no early positions at all, and so on.

Betting rounds

The game consists of four rounds of betting:

• Preflop - the first round of betting when there are no community cards on the table yet.
• Flop - three community cards are dealt face up on the table.
• Terne - a fourth community card is added.
• River the last, fifth community card is revealed.
  

Preflop is the first round of betting.

What actions can you take while trading?

Trading is conducted according to the following principle: in order to stay in the pot and continue to fight for it, the player must at least equalize all the previous bets of his opponents. That is, all players remaining in the pot by the end of the betting round must invest in it the same number of chips.

During trading, depending on the current situation, you have the following options:
Fold - if the strength of your cards seems to you insufficient to continue the fight for the pot, you say "fold" and fold your cards. By doing this, you refuse to further participate in the drawing and no longer apply for the bank.

Someone has already placed a bet before you:
Call - if you think your cards are strong enough to qualify for the pot, but not strong enough to show aggression, you can simply call the previous bets of your opponents. This action is sometimes also called "limp into the game" ... Remember that the blinds are also bets, and they also need to be called to stay in the pot.
Raise - if you feel confident and your hand is strong enough, you can raise the previous bet by putting pressure on your opponents. In this case, you equalize the previous bet and increase it by an amount that is a multiple of the size of the big blind.

There were no bets before you:
Check - sometimes you have the opportunity to enter the game for free. This situation is possible if no one has bet before you, or you are in the big blind position preflop and all the players limped into the game before you.
Bet - if no one has bet before you, then you can be the first to bet.

Special situation:
All-in - an all-in situation occurs when you put all your chips into the pot. In this case, in any case, you will remain in the bank until the very end.

Before the cards are dealt, players in positions SB and BB place mandatory blind bets. The names of these bets coincide with the names of the positions - small and big blinds. The size of the small blind is usually half the big blind - SB = 1/2 BB. After the blinds are posted, each player receives 2 of his own cards and the first round of betting begins.

The player in the earliest position to the left of the BB starts preflop. The right to the next move is transferred clockwise. Each player evaluates the potential of his cards, with what probability they will make the best poker combination in the next rounds of betting, and, based on this, the players place bets and fight for the pot, or, conversely, refuse further play with weak cards.

★ Middle

Flop, Turn and River - five community cards.

After finishing first betting round (preflop) 3 community cards are dealt face up on the board and second betting round - flop ... Board cards are called common cards because all players can use them in their combinations. If on the first betting round (preflop) only 2 own cards are evaluated, then on the flop players can already evaluate their cards taking into account the community cards that have opened, and also determine the possibility of their strengthening on the next streets (betting rounds).

On the flop, as on the following streets - the turn and river, the player sitting first to the left of the button position starts the trade.
In terminology, the flop, turn and river are not only the names of the betting rounds, but also the names of their respective community cards. For example, saying "see the flop" means - to see the 3 community cards laid out on the flop.

On turn ,third round of betting, another community card is laid out. In total, there are four of them. The trade continues in the same way as on the flop.

On river reveal the last, fifth community card. In the last round of betting, players can finally judge whether they have collected the best combination among their opponents.

★ End

Showdown - showdown and determination of the winner.

After the fourth round of betting, the final stage of the game begins - showdown ... At this stage, all players remaining in the pot compare the collected combinations. The one with the higher combination wins. A draw is also possible if the players have made exactly the same combinations. In this case, the bank is divided equally.

Before talking about combinations, it should be said that the game may not reach showdown. If the player has managed to "knock out" all the other opponents from the bank with his bets, then the game in this case stops, and the only player remaining in the bank takes all the chips. This player retains the right not to show his cards to opponents, but, if he wishes, he can show them.

Texas Hold'em Poker Rules Video Lesson

Betting systems

The rules for playing Texas Hold'em Poker can also differ in terms of the betting system.

Fixed limit - Other names: FL, Fixed Limit, Limit poker

• Limit poker is a variant of poker where the size of the bet or raise is limited to a certain amount. Limit Hold'em distinguishes between high and low bets, for example, at a $ 1 / $ 2 table, the small bet is $ 1 and the big bet is $ 2. In the initial rounds of betting (preflop and flop), the size of the bet and raise is limited by the size of the small bet, and in the following rounds (the turn and river) - by the size of the large bet.

Pot limit - Other names: PL, Pot Limit

• Pot Limit is a poker variation in which the maximum bet is limited to the current pot size. The minimum bet amount is determined by the previous bet (preflop - the size of the big blind). Thus, the player can declare a bet of an arbitrary size, but limited from below by the amount of the previous bet, and from above by the size of the already formed bank.

No limit - Other names: NL, No-Limit, no-limit poker

• In no-limit poker, the maximum bet size is not limited by anything other than the player's stack size. A player in any round of betting can bet or raise any size, or even bet all his chips (all-in). The minimum bet size is the size of the bet made by the previous player (for example, in Texas Hold'em preflop, if there were no raises, then this is the size of the big blind).

Almost nothing is known about the history of Hold'em. According to legend, the first games based on it were held in Robstown, Texas, at the beginning of the 20th century. Hold'em has gained its current popularity thanks to the largest tournament, the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which has been held annually in Las Vegas since 1970.