Poker is one of the most popular card games in the world. It has a long tradition, as well as a high cultural value. One of the reasons why poker became so popular is due to all the variations that exist out there with Texas Hold’em being the most popular one. Therefore, anyone can find a type of poker that they like and that suits their style of play.
If you still haven’t found yours, keep reading because we’ll tell you all you need to know about the most popular poker game — Texas Hold’em, as well as some other famous variations.
What Is Texas Hold’em?
Texas Hold’em is a fast poker variation played with one deck of cards. This is a community card game where the focus is both on betting and on the cards being played. It’s characterised as a community game because it can be played by 2 to 10 people at the same time. The goal of the game is simple — you need to win as many chips as you can in each pot.
Texas Hold’em is a popular game since the person with the best hand on the table does not always win. By using bluffing techniques and raising the stakes even with a bad hand, a player can trick other people into folding and take the chips on the table.
This game can be played either online or offline, and both as a cash game and in tournaments. Either way, the rules are the same but the end goal differs.
A Brief History of Texas Hold’em
The exact history of Texas Hold’em is not known, but we do know some details about its journey from rags to riches. The first time this poker variation was mentioned was at the beginning of the 20th century, in Texas, Robstown. Therefore, Robstown is widely accepted as its birthplace. It is completely unknown how it was invented and by whom.
The next important thing we know is that it was brought to Las Vegas in 1967 by Crandell Addington. At first, it was played in less famous casinos that were not frequented by high-rollers. The general public got familiarised with the game two years later, in 1969, when the Dune Casino held the first Texas Hold’em tournament.
The next big milestone for Hold’em poker was the introduction of the World Series of Poker in 1970. Since 1971, the main event of the World Series of Poker was a no-limit game of Texas Hold’em. After that, this poker game kept becoming more and more popular, and today thousands of players compete in the main event of World Series of Poker each year.
Learn How to Play Texas Holdem
Before we dig deeper into the rules, let’s learn about some of the basics of how to play Hold’em poker. Basically, the Texas Hold’em game can be split into three main parts: the setup, the betting rounds, and the showdown.
First of all, it is important to determine who will be the first one to receive the dealer button. This is done by having each player draw a card, and the one with the highest value begins playing as a dealer.
After that, the small and big blinds are determined as well. These are forced bets that make the pot worth playing. The small blind is the player located on the left side of the dealer, while the big blind is the player located on the left side of the small blind.
Next, each player gets two face-down cards, and three face-down cards are placed on the table, with two more cards added in subsequent rounds. Then, four rounds of betting take place (called pre-flop, flop, turn, and river), followed by a showdown when the winner is determined. The goal of the game is to combine two cards you have got with the cards on the table and make a winning five-card combination.
Free Online Poker
Poker is best known as a gambling card game, where you try to win money by playing against other players. However, poker is fun enough to play without the real-money stakes as well. There are a lot of websites online that offer free poker games on their websites that allow you to play even without registering.
Free online poker can be played on famous pay-to-play websites as well, where you can use this feature to practice and get to know the software a bit better. So, don’t think that in order to play poker online you need to bet some of your hard-earned money. You can first play free poker games to learn the ins and outs, and play for real money later, if you decide that that’s something you would enjoy.
