By TD-Michael | 10.10.2008 | Filed under: Games, Poker
Part II of my series of Texas Hold’em articles is a little something fun. I’m going to list off my Top 10 Texas Hold’em slang terms for your “hole” cards (two face down cards each player gets dealt, for more info see previous article The Basics of Texas Hold’em). Here we go:
10. 45 - Colt 45 usually sucks just like the beer
9. 88 - Snowmen may or may not be a frosty hand to play
8. AK - Machine Gun (AK-47) or Anna Kournikova, they say it looks good but seldomly win, lol
7. KK - King Kong I wouldn’t mess with this giant ape, a top hand to play
6. AJ - AJAX for all you programmers out there ain’t too shabby of an hand
5. J5 - Jackson 5 is a nice throwback into 70’s and into the muck pile
4. 1010 - Binary is very bland but very powerful
3. 33 - Hooters not one but 2 sets are not as good they look
2. JK off suit - Jack-King-off get it, get it this is a great one and solid face cards
1. QQ - 4 tits, don’t be fooled by their body parts, these women can be very competitive
Those are my top 10 poker slang terms, hate them or love they’re my favorites. There’s probably many more good ones that I don’t know of, so feel free to add to the list by discussing in the forum community. That was something fun and the up and coming articles we’ll get back into the technical side of the Texas Hold’em poker game.
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.
Every time I play poker, I enjoy comparing the way someone hosts a game, whether it’s their chips, their playing cards, who deals, if they serve anything, the table we play on, the size of the game, and the rules. The one thing I wish everyone used was a set of quality playing cards. I’ve played in games where they open up new decks every time, some people play with old beat up decks, and the ones that stand out are the ones who use high quality, 100% plastic poker cards.
100% Plastic playing cards are what professionals use at major poker tournaments, such as the World Poker Tour (WPT) and World Series of Poker (WSoP). Many casinos also utilize 100% plastic playing cards in the poker rooms because they are more durable than plastic coated or paper cards. They also withstand bending, marking, stains and other imperfections, and shuffle and deal easier than coated playing cards.
Below is a video I shot comparing a deck of DiVinci 100% plastic playing cards made from Italy and a store bought Ace coated playing cards. Cost wise, a deck of the DiVinci playing cards goes for roughly $8 a deck where a cheaper, paper coated set of cards still cost me $2.50 at the local drug store.
As you can see, plastic cards are able to withstand a lot more than a coated deck of cards. If you enjoy playing poker, the investment in a couple of high quality 100% plastic decks is worth every penny.
10.10.2008 | Filed under: 
