The Basics – An Overview
Next up in our continuing series on The Basics for How to Play Holdem Poker Online for Beginners - An Overview, is our installment on the structure and some etiquette of holdem . There are some slight differences between the rules of play online and in a "brick and mortar" casino. We'll look into that a little later in this post.
Texas Hold ‘Em is a form of poker that is played with a normal 52 card deck (the jokers are removed from the deck, but not necessarily the table - lol). It can be played between as few as two players (this is commonly known as Heads Up play) and as many as eleven players. It would be rare these days to find any more than 10 people at a table in a casino and online you will find most tables are 9 handed.
Instead of an ante as you would normally have in a poker game of five card draw, for instance, Hold ‘Em (both limit and no limit) uses forced bets called blinds. This is to make sure that there is action in each hand dealt. Otherwise, the possibility exists that there would never be any action until someone got pocket aces or some other great hand, and even then everyone might fold to the bettor because they didn’t have a great hand themselves. Thus the blinds are a vital part of the game. There are two blind positions in Hold ‘Em. The player to the immediate left of the dealer position is what is known as the small blind, and the player to the immediate left of the small blind is known as the big blind. The big blind amount is the minimum betting amount for the first 2 betting rounds (commonly known as Pre-Flop and Flop) and the small blind is usually half or one third of that amount (so in $2/$4 Hold ‘Em the big blind would be $2 and the small blind would be $1). The reason that they are called blinds is because the players who must put in the blinds must do so before the cards are dealt, in other words they must put money into the pot “blind” – without knowing what their cards will be.
Pre-Flop
Each player is dealt two cards face down (which they are able to look at and are usually referred to as hole cards) starting with the player to the left of the dealer (the small blind). The dealer position rotates after each hand is concluded. When there is a designated dealer (a dealer who does nothing but deal the cards and does not play in the game, whether in a casino or a home game) a button is used to denote who is in the current dealer position. Because of this practice, the person who is in the current dealer position is referred to as being “on the button”
After the hole cards are dealt, the player to the immediate left of the big blind (the third player to the left of the dealer position – this position is also known as being Under The Gun because they are first to act, this will be abbreviated as UTG throughout the rest of this text) will be the first to act. Continuing to the left each player will have the opportunity to bet, raise, or fold in turn based on their hole cards or perspective. All of this action comes before any of the community cards are deal, so this is known as Pre-Flop (action)
Flop
After all the initial betting is finished (provided that there isn't a winner already), the dealer will “burn” the top card off the deck (to keep players who may have seen the top card from cheating) and deal three cards face up in the middle of the table – this is known as the flop. These are community cards that any player can use in conjunction with their hole cards to make the best five card hand possible. After the flop has been dealt there is another round of betting; this time starting with the small blind instead of the UTG position.
The Turn or Fourth Street
After the flop betting has concluded the dealer burns another card from the top of the deck and deals another card face up in the middle of the table. This card is known as the turn or as fourth street (because it is the 4th community card dealt). This is followed by another round of betting (again, if necessary). The minimum bet amount doubles on the turn. So if you were playing $2/$4 Limit Hold’Em the minimum bet would be $2 pre-flop and on the flop, but on the turn and river the minimum bet amount would be $4. In NLHE (No Limit Hold 'Em) you can always bet an amount more than the minimum bet, but never less. Also, it should be noted that if you raise any bet that raise must be at least double the bet. Thus, if on the turn someone bet $10 and you wanted to raise, the minimum amount you could raise would be to $20 even though the minimum bet on the turn is only $4 – you couldn’t just raise to $14 although you can certainly raise to $25 or push all your chips into the pot.
The River or Fifth Street
After the turn betting round has concluded the dealer burns another card from the top of the deck and deals the last card face up in the middle of the table. This card is known as the river (some would argue because this is where many good pre-flop hands go to drown) or fifth street (again because it is the 5th card dealt). It is followed by the final round of betting.
The Showdown
The remaining players now turn their hole cards face up starting with the last player to bet. The reason that the last person to bet is required to show their cards first is because their bet had been called. The last person to bet can opt not to show their cards, but they are then effectively folding and the other person in the hand wins without having to show their hand either. The cards are revealed and the winner takes the pot. The winning player is required to show both hole cards to win the pot and the losing player can toss their cards away without showing them if they concede that the winning player has the better hand (the previous example was sort of an exception to this rule). Throwing your hand away at any point in the hand without showing them is known as “mucking’ your cards (this is because the pile of cards that have been folded is known as the “muck” pile where as the pile of cards that the dealer uses for the burn cards is called the “burn” pile – these two piles are to be kept separate from each other).
Differences between Online and Live play
The main differences are subtle. Online, if the hand goes to showdown most online poker rooms will not let you muck your cards, and many times even if you choose the "muck" option the other players can look at the automatically generated hand history and see what your hand was (again, just to clarify, they can only do this if the hand got to the showdown - if you fold or "muck" anytime before the final round of betting is complete then this will not be possible). If you are playing live, many times experienced players will attempt to only show one card instead of both to win the pot so they don't reveal their kicker. Most of the time they do this because they were playing with a poor hand and don't want anyone to know that they play poor starting hands. Don't let them get away with this. Don't concede the pot until they show both cards, and if they give you a hard time just ask the dealer and they will inform the player of the rules. One of the other differences is that you have much less time to make your decisions online. It is usually about 30 seconds to make your decision, with an extra 30 seconds on a reserve time clock - and once you run out of both your hand is folded. Most of the time, once your reserve time has expired you don't get more (this is mostly for tournament play, not as much for cash games). It doesn't sound like much time to make your decision, I know, however, once you learn how to play holdem poker online and get used to the speed that 30 seconds can seem like an eternity. In fact, once you get comfortable with online play you will be able to play several tables at on (this is known at multi-tabling).
In the next instalment on How to Play Holdem Poker Online For Beginners we will discuss Making Plays and what your options are in a holdem poker hand.
Until then, may you not get unlucky.
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