Texas Hold'em Intro
ISSUE #2 - TEXAS HOLD'EM INTRO
March 2004
Hi there,
So you have watched Late Nite Poker, you enjoyed it, but it wasn’t
quite clear how the action panned out. So let’s just try and
explain the basics simply. We will start with Texas Hold’Em.
This is because it is the most common form of poker played throughout
today’s world.
You get dealt two ‘hole’ cards, which are just for your
own personal use. There are then 5 communal cards dealt. You have
to make the best 5 card poker hand out of these 7 cards. (No, you
cannot have 3 pairs. 5 card hands only!)
There are 4 rounds of betting. During each round everyone has three
options: to call (match the current bet), raise, or fold their hand.
Everyone must put the same amount into the pot, if they wish to
continue to the next round of betting, or the showdown.
The first round of betting is after you have been dealt your 2 hole
cards.
The second round is after the first 3 communal cards are dealt,
known as ‘the flop’.
The next round is after the fourth communal card is dealt, ‘the
turn’.
The final round of betting is after the final fifth communal card
is dealt, and is often referred to as 'the river'.
So what are you waiting for? The best place to start the learning
process is at the Play tables at Bet365 Poker. That way, you
can get the hang of the pop up buttons, how the game flows, and
generally feel comfortable before moving onto the cash tables.
When I play live cash games, we often get dealt 10 to 15 hands
an hour. In tournaments this may go up to 25 or even 30 hands per
hour. One huge advantage of playing and learning poker on the internet
with Bet365 Poker, is that you will be dealt between 70 and 90
hands per hour. And if you are a computer whiz, you can even multiply
that a few times by opening 2 or 3 windows. This is why youngsters
like Sweden’s ‘The King of Ding’ have become poker
phenomenon’s in a very short space of time.
The King of Ding ? You have never heard of him ? I don’t think
Eric is quite 21 yet, and is one of the nicest guys I have met on
the circuit. Always smiling, never complaining, smartly dressed,
good looking, sexy girlfriend... sorry. Getting carried away again.
Anyway, when Eric started playing, he was obviously a natural. He
got very good, very quickly. He was playing the biggest games available
on the net very quickly (do not copy this at home, you might hurt
yourself !). When scooping a large pot, he would type ‘DING
!’ into the conversation box. The reason being that he had
an old fashioned ‘open all hours’ cash register : you
pressed a button, out popped the drawer, you put the money in, you
close the drawer, and the cash register goes ‘DING’ to
say thank you. Cute. Some players liked it. Some players didn’t
see the funny side. Their problem, not his, I’d say. Nowadays
Eric is a millionaire from the game. He has so much money locked
up in his cash registers, rumour is that he hasn’t cashed in
even a third of it, and doesn’t actually know how much he has
!!! So as I was saying, LOL, what are you waiting for ?
See you next week folks,
Dave 
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