How To Play Holdem
You may have discovered that a lot of your friends and family are really into the game of poker lately, and as a result you may want to learn how to play holdem in order to join them in a few games for fun or money. You might even want to learn to play poker so that you have something to do during those times when you are bored, or just to make a little bit of extra money on the side.
If you are interested in playing poker for its entertainment value or to make some money, it won’t take you long before you discover the holdem poker, and specifically Texas holdem, is the most popular version of poker there is out there. While you won’t become one of the greats until you devote a length of time to the study of the game (both study of yourself and the way you play and the study of opponents and professional poker players) we can present you with some of the basics you will need to play holdem right away online.
First of all, you need to understand that Texas hold ‘em is a community card game. That means that everyone is making a hand with their two hole cards, and with the five cards that everyone can see. Because your two hole cards are dealt first, you’ll need to decide whether to bet on them or not. This is most often the point in the game where people will make the decision that will win or lose their money; there is no point in betting on hole cards that don’t have much of a shot at getting you a good hand; off suited, non-paired cards that are far apart in sequence will most likely not snag you a winning hand, so it’s best just to fold.
The flop is crucial in the next step, and if the flop is not kind to you, then you really do have to fold. You’ll come across players who play until the river every single hand, but if you look around to see what every expert has to say to people who want to learn to play holdem poker well, you’ll soon discover they all know that these sticklers will always lose in the long run. It’s just too expensive to stay in on luck alone.
Aside from betting strategies, the next best thing you can do for yourself in terms of your quest to learn holdem is to study the odds of hands turning up with, based on the cards you hold as well as the ones that are in play for the community. This is really no harder than watching television; all televised poker tournaments provide the odds next to the hole cam results, and if you watch enough, you’ll get an idea of the odds instinctively.
There are many different strategies and rules that are considered basic to learn holdem, so many in fact that they could fill dozens of books (and they do!). If you really want to learn to play Texas hold ‘em like a pro, you’ll need to devote a considerable amount of time and study to the pursuit.
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