Texas Holdem

         Texas Holdem is the most popular game of poker in the world. The game`s birthplace(early 1990s)  is Robstown, a small town from Texas, United States. After its invention and spread throughout Texas, hold 'em was introduced to Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan gamblers and card players. Texas Hold 'em's popularity surged in the 2000s due to exposure on television, the Internet and popular literature. During this time holdem replaced seven-card-stud as the most common game in U.S. casinos.

 

How to play:

     Every player is dealt two face down cards.Two players(the ones on the left of the dealer) pay the blind bets(small blind and big blind).The first player after the dealer is the small blind( it is equal to half of the big blind).The second one is the big blind, this beeing the minimum bet that the other players must pay if they want to play the hand.                                                                                      Here begins a betting round where players can check,raise, re- raise, go all in or fold.                                                                                                               The Flop is a series o three community cards that are beeing placed face up on the table.                                                                                                      After the flop the second betting round starts.

The Turn is the fourth community card placed face up on the table.

This brings us to another betting round.

The fifth and the last community card place face up on the table is the River.

Here begins the last betting round wich leads us to the showdown.

In a Showdown the remaining players reveal their face down cards to determinate the winner or winners.

 

Ring games

      The players from a usual ring game table have chips that can be cashed out for money.

The big blind and small blind never rise (as they do in tournaments).

A ring game does not have a start or a  end.

A player can enter and leave the room whenever he wants to.

Online poker sites provide different types of ring games.

Usually you can find rooms for only two players( these are called heads-up) 4 players, 6 players, or 9 players.

A ring game can have different betting structures( for example pot limit and no limit).

In a no limit game players can raise, re-raise with any amount or even go all in at any time they want to.

In a pot limit game players ca not raise more then the size of the total pot.

 

Tournaments

    To enter a tournament the players pay first a buy-in for wich they recive at the begining of the game an equal value of chips.This chips are used only during the tournament( they have no value outside the game).Mainly this chips are used to determinate the players palcing. 

      Some tournaments have the option to re-buy or add-on, by this allowing the players to buy more chips(usually the add-on option is available to all players and the re-buy can be done if a player is low or out of chips).A tournament usually has a predeterminated start time and lasts till only one player remains.The number of players in a tournament may get to thousands.During the game blinds rise and sometimes a ante is introduced.Online poker sites have different types of tournaments.There are freerolls ( the registration is for free but they have a prizepool in real money), sit and gos( this one is a smaller type of tournament were the game begins when all the seats have been ocupied).

 

          

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