How to Play

GAMING GUIDE

TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER

Texas Hold’em is one of the most popular variants of poker available worldwide. The game is played with a single pack of cards, with players playing against each other, not against the house.

The house and the dealer serve purely as the service provider to ensure the players enjoy a fair, fun and entertaining game, whilst pitting their skills against each other at the table.

OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

Every player is dealt two cards face down, called “hole” cards or “pocket” cards. During the game, there will be four individual betting rounds, at the end of which five community cards will have been dealt. Players’ objective is to use any of these five community cards in conjunction with their own hole cards to form the best hand. The player with the best hand will be awarded the “pot”, which is the sum of all bets that have been placed during the betting rounds.

HAND RANKINGS

BUTTON

A marker called the “dealer” button determines the player acting as the dealer. This button indicates who the first players are to begin the wagering with the small blind and the big blind, and where the dealing of the cards begins. After each game has been completed, this button rotates one position to the left.

THE BLINDS

At the beginning of each game before the hole cards are dealt, the player sitting directly to the left of the dealer button must place the first mandatory bet, which is called the “small blind”, and the next player must place the second mandatory bet the “big blind”, which is typically twice the size of the “small blind”.

THE BETTING ROUNDS

There are four rounds of play in Texas Hold’em. They are called, “Pre-Flop”, “Flop”, “Turn”, and “River”.

THE PRE-FLOP

The Pre-Flop betting round takes place before the initial 3 community cards are dealt. Players must decide to stay in the game or not based on only their hole cards. The first player to act is the player to the left of the big blind and the options are:

To “call”, which is to match the amount of the big blind
To “raise”, which means to increase the bet within a specific limit, usually at least twice the big blind
To “fold”, which means to give up and pass the cards to the dealer. A player who chooses to fold can no longer win the pot, and any blinds or bets up to this point will be lost.

The succeeding players have the same three options. In case of raising, the minimum amount for a raise must be equal to the original raise amount. For example, the big blind is $10 and player A raises to $40. Player B has the option to call for $40, fold and no longer play the hand, or raise $70 as the first raise amount was $30, calculated as the difference between the wager places and the original big blind.

THE FLOP

After the pre-flop is complete, three community cards will be dealt, and the flop betting round takes place. In this betting round and succeeding betting rounds, action starts with the first active player to the left of the dealer button. Players have the option to “call”, “fold”, or “raise”, or to “check” if no betting action has occurred, which means to pass the action to the next player.

THE TURN

Following the Flop will be the fourth community card, called the Turn. Players again have the option to call, fold, raise or check.

THE RIVER

The fourth and final betting round will come after the fifth community card called the “river” card has been dealt. Again, players have the option to call, fold, raise or check.

THE SHOWDOWN

After the final betting actions have been made, the “showdown” takes place where all remaining players must expose their cards to determine a winner. The player with the best combination of five cards wins the pot.