Texas Holdem

Texas hold'em, also sometimes known as just hold'em or holdem, remains to be the most popular poker game played in poker card rooms and casinos in Europe and North America. This variation of poker is also the one that is most played in online poker sites. Texas hold'em is a kind of community card game in which every player could use any combination of their five community cards and their own two hole cards to create a poker hand. This is different from other poker variations such as draw or stud where the players each have a separate individual hand.

Throughout the 20th century, Texas hold'em has been gaining slow but steady increases in popularity. Today, though, it has become the most popular variant of poker because of exposure on the Internet, on television, and even in popular literature. Before Texas hold'em rose in popularity, 7 card stud was reportedly the poker variant that is most commonly played in casinos across the United States. Texas hold'em is also the main event in the two most prestigious poker tournaments of today, the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. Both of these events are televised.

Objective of the game

Like all other poker variants, players of Texas hold'em are competing for the pot, which is an amount of money that goes to the winning player. The pot is composed of money contributed by the players at the start of the game. Due to the cards being dealt randomly, every player then attempts to control the amount of money contained in the pot based on the cards they have.

Texas hold'em is broken down into a series of deals or hands. Every time the hand is concluded, the pot is given to one player, except when the pot needs to be distributed amongst several players. In case a hand ends at the showdown, the players remaining will compare their hands and the one holding the highest hand wins the pot. The highest hand is typically held by just one player, although there may be cases when there is a tie. A hand can also be concluded when every player except one have already folded and has relinquished their claim on the pot. In cases like this, the pot is then awarded to the remaining player.

The objective of players is not to win each individual hand. Instead, they have to make correct decisions regarding when and how much to raise, bet, call, or fold. By being able to make mathematically correct decisions, winning players will be able to maximize their long-term winnings by increasing their expected utility on every betting round.

Playing Texas hold'em online

The increase in number of online poker sites are partly responsible for the rise in popularity of Texas hold'em. For those who do not want to or are unable to play in traditional casinos or poker rooms, playing Texas hold'em online is a great alternative. What's good about playing this game online is that one can play in freeroll tournaments that do not require players to place a buy-in. Novice players will find online poker a great way to play Texas hold'em and devise new strategies. For those who wish to earn money, there are also numerous tournaments happening online, some of which can send winners straight to the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour.