Poker Rules

Texas Hold'em

The most popular form of poker is Texas Hold'em. The game is played with a normal deck of 52 cards, and can be played by two up to ten players. The cards are dealt clockwise from the dealer's left until all players receive their two pocket cards. here occurs the first betting round . If there are two or more players left in the game, three cards will be dealt face up on the table (the flop). This are community cards, that anyone can see and use to form his hand. Here comes the second round of betting. If there are still players in the game, another two cards will be dealt face up, each one followed by a new betting round.  This cards are known as the turn and the river. After the last betting round is over, the remaining players will face a showdown. They will form their best poker hand using the five community cards and their two pocket cards. The one with the best hand wins the pot.

During the betting rounds, players have four options: to bet (or raise), to call, to check or to fold. Checking is possible only if no bets were made. If nobody calls the highest bet in any of the betting rounds, the pot goes to the bettor, and the round is over.

There are many variations of Texas Hold'em. The most common are Limit Holdem and No-Limit Holdem. In limit games there are fixed bets allowed for each betting round, while in no-limit games there's no restriction on the amount of the bets.

To force action, the game usually involves two blind bets (posted by the two players to the left of the dealer). Sometimes an ante bet is used, which means all players will put a small bet to increase the pot size.

Betting rules may vary from a poker game to another, but the principles are the same.

Author: Abscident

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