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Poker has exploded in past few years since they started to air some big tournaments on TV and I won’t deny the hype of it because I’ve played a fair amount myself with friends and online. It’s been a while since the last time I’ve played and I was an average player at best, so I’ve decided to step my game up. More specifically I will be focusing on Texas Hold’em. I’m going to do some research to become a better poker player and share it here on the Tastefully Driven Blog. For all you beginners or those interested in getting started with Texas Hold’em poker I hope you will join me to become better poker players.

Before we get started with how to play Texas Hold’em Poker, I’m going to go over some definitions:
Blinds - A blind wager for the pot. First two players left of the dealer in Texas Hold’em need to post blinds, small blind and big blind going to the left. Big blind is usually the minimum bet and the small blind is the half that.
Call - A call is to continue hand by matching another player’s bet
Raise - A Raise is to up the bet
Fold - A fold is to discontinue your current hand also known as a muck.
Check - A check is when you pass on betting on your turn and if no one has placed a bet before you.

To start I’m going to go through the basics of Texas Hold’em. First there is a designated dealer that rotates through the game and the 2 players to the left post their blinds. The first player to the left is the small blind and second player is the big blind. Next every player up to 10 players are dealt 2 cards face down, also known as the “hole” cards. The first round of betting starts with the player left of the big blind to call, raise, or fold and betting ends with the big blind.

When the first round of betting has been completed the Flop comes next. After one burn card that is left face down 3 cards are dealt face up as community cards.

After the flop, the player left of the dealer can either check or bet to start another round of betting.

After the second round betting is completed another burn card is dealt and another community card is dealt face up called the turn card. Another round of betting starts with the player left of the dealer.

When that round of betting is completed there is one more burn card then the last community card called the river is dealt.

Now the final round of betting starts with the player left the dealer.

After all betting is completed players show their cards and the player with the top 5 card poker hand wins the pot using their hole cards and 3 community cards.

Simple enough right, here’s the quick and dirty of Texas Hold’em:

• Small and big blinds posted to the pot
• 2 cards dealt to every player
• First round of betting
• 1 Burn card
• The Flop - 3 community cards
• Second round of betting
• 1 Burn card
• The Turn - 1 community card
• Third round of betting
• 1 Burn card
• The River - 1 community card
• Final round of betting
• Player with best 5 card poker hand wins the pot

That’s Texas Hold’em rolled up in a tight ball and I hope you will stayed tuned and join me on my journey to become a better Texas Hold’em player. I’ve also put together a video below of a sample game of Texas Hold’em. If there’s anything that I have wrong please leave a comment or contact me at mike[at]tastefullydriven[dot]com, mistakes happen. Lastly go check out the Tastefully Driven Games Store for your poker supply needs like plastic playing cards and poker chip sets.