Texas Holdem Poker (also known as simply Holdem) is by far the most popular poker game in land-based casinos and online poker rooms across the world. Such a terrific increase in popularity caused by TV shows and web promotion of big poker events such as the WSOP (World Series of Poker), WPT (World Poker Tour) and EPT (European Poker Tour) attracted more than 10 million people that have begun playing Texas Holdem in both casinos and online poker rooms. However, online Texas Holdem is more popular than its casino counterpart due to simplicity and accessibility of play offered by web-based poker rooms.
Before you start playing Texas Holdem Poker, however, you shall want to learn the rules and get some idea about Texas Holdem strategy. Note that Texas Holdem is quite easy to learn, but rather hard to play in intermediate and upper stake cost levels, where competition is rather tight and more aggressive. In Texas Holdem each player is dealt two pocket cards (also known as “hole cards”), dealt face-down in front of each player and five community cards (also known as “board cards”) dealt face-up on the board between betting rounds (3 cards after the first betting round, one more card after the second betting round and fifth card after the third betting round). Your goal is to build a strong poker hand and either throw your opponents out of the game (force them to fold) before the showdown, or hold the strongest poker hand at the showdown. In Texas Holdem all players can use their pocket cards in conjunction with community cards to make the best possible 5-card poker hand. You can use both pocket cards and 3 community cards, or 1 of your pocket card and 4 community cards, or all 5 community cards. In case if 5 community cards appear to be the strongest hand at the table and therefore there is more than one winner, then the pot is equally split among all winners. The same situation occurs if there is more than one equally valued personal hands at the showdown, because suit ranks are not applicable in Texas Holdem.
Basically, there are 3 major variants of Texas Holdem poker that have same rules (with several insignificant differences), but different betting structures:
Limit Texas Holdem – there is a predetermined betting limit for each game and each betting round.
No-Limit Texas Holdem – each player can bet any amount of chips (even all of his chips) at any time.
Pot-Limit Texas Holdem – each player can bet any amount of chips up to the current size of the pot.
These are most popular Texas Holdem variants available in all land-based casinos and online poker rooms. You can play these games for free (play money) or for real money.
Game Rules Differences of Limit, Pot-Limit and No-Limit Texas Holdem
Basic game rules remain the same, there are only few exceptions:
Limit Texas Holdem – in Texas Holdem a maximum of 4 bets is allowed per each player during any betting round, which includes bets, raises, re-raises and caps, but in No-Limit Texas Holdem as well as in Pot-Limit Texas Holdem there is no such betting limit.
Pot-Limit Texas Holdem – there is a minimum raise restriction, which limits the raise amount to at least the size of the previous bet or raise. Besides of this, there is a maximum raise restriction, which limits the raise amount to the current size of the pot.
No-Limit Texas Holdem – there is a minimum raise restriction, which limits the raise amount to the size of the previous bet or raise in the same round. However, maximum raise amounted is only limited to the size of your stack.
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