How to Play Texas Holdem Poker

How to Play Texas Holdem Poker

Texas Holdem poker is one of the easiest poker games to learn, partly because it’s just so available. You can play Texas Holdem poker online, in bars, at friend’s houses, just all over the place.

You can Learn how to Play Texas Holdem in Only a Few Hours

They say it takes only a few minutes to learn how to play Texas Holdem, and yet a lifetime to master.. Well I don’t know if I agree with that lifetime bit.. but Let’s go ahead and work on learning how to play within a few hours.

The best way to learn how to play any game is of course by actually playing it. So here’s what I want you to do. First, Download Aced Poker. You can play poker at any online poker room, but Aced is one of my favorites, and it’s not HUGE so you’re not going to get lost there while you’re learning to play.

If you don’t want to learn to play holdem online, skip down to: “How to Play Holdem: The Deal”

Follow the prompts and get your account all set up. After you get the poker account set up, you’ll need to validate your email. There seems to be a bit of a snag there sometimes, at Aced, so if your email doesn’t get validated right away, and you aren’t eligible for the tournaments at Aced poker, shoot an email to support@aced.com.

Now you’re going to need some cash to play with, not a lot at first, after all, you’re just learning how to play Texas Holdem for heaven’s sake, but you are going to need some cash. I usually deposit at least a benjie myself, because I like to max out the bonuses, but not to worry, you can deposit as little as $10.00 depending on the poker deposit option you choose.

You can deposit to Aced Poker using any one of these poker deposit options:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• eWalletXpress
• UseMyWallet
• PIC Club
• Click2Pay
• Wire Transfer

Got money, Got poker!

Learning to Play Texas Holdem Poker: Understanding the Poker Lobby

Now you’re ready to get your game on. Let’s start out at a low stakes Texas Holdem Poker table, and learn to play Texas Holdem Poker! In the Aced Poker Lobby, click “Poker Tables”, click the word ‘stakes’ in the grey column area to organize the tables buy the stake levels instead of by name. Notice in the image to your right here, the third column, highlighted in yellow. That is a .25/.50 No Linimt Holdem table. A great choice for Holdem Beginners.
In the fourth column you see here 6/6. That means that six out of six seats are full. So that won’t work. Find a table that is not full, so something like 4/6 or 5/6, at the .25/.50 stakes and either double click the table, or highlight it and then click ‘Join Table’ over on the right hand side near the bottom of the lobby page.

If all of the seats are full, you can join the wait list for any table, and the software will pop up an alert when a place appears. If you’re just to excited to get to playing your first game of Holdem poker here at Aced Poker, then choose a smaller stake level. Do be careful not to choose limit, or anything that does not say NL Holdem in the second column there.

While you’re learning to play Texas Holdem Poker, stick to No Limit, as other varieties can really screw up your game and basically ruin your strategies before you’ve even gotten started learning them.

Once you’re at the table, a pop up message will display, asking you how much money you’d like to bring to the table..  Somewhere between $10 and $20 oughta be fine for a .25/.50 table.

In a game of Texas Holdem at Aced, there are between  6 and 9 players.  Each player at the table dealt 2 cards. You can see your two cards, noone else can.

There are two blinds,  a Big Blind and a small blind posted by the first two players. A blind is basically a forced bet, you don’t have a choice, when it’s your turn to play the blind, you must pay it, or not play the hand, if you miss blinds, you’ll have to make them up. The blind players are the two players sitting to the left side of the dealer. The dealer is indicated by a button that moves clockwise after every hand.

The big blind player must place the minimum bet, before being dealt his or her cards. The small blind must pay half of that bet. This kicks off the action for the hand, and forces players to be involved in hands that they may have normally folded into the muck. Paying blinds also keeps tournaments moving along as they rise with each round of the tournament. Right now though, we’re learning to play ring style Texas Holdem.

How to Play Texas Holdem Poker: The Deal

Each player is dealt two hole cards. Now you decide if you want to pay money to play this hand.  When it’s your turn, you can call the bet,  meaning pay the amount of chips equal to the big blind. You can raise by using the slider on the screen, or the minimum raise button, and then choosing the amount of chips you would like to raise the bet up to, or you can fold, choosing to wait for a better hand.

How to Play Holdem: The Flop

After the first round of betting, the Flop is dealt, this is 3 cards, dealt into the  middle of the poker table. These three cards are shared by everyone playing at that particular Aced poker table. Everyone involved in the hand shares these cards, using them with their cards to decide whether or not to continue with this hand. All of the people in the hand once again a chance to check (which means they keep their cards, but they do not bet) or bet.  You can also fold, but don’t do that. You look really silly when you do. Once someone places a  bet,the other players at the table that want to continue in the hand need to call, if you don’t want to call, NOW you can fold.

How to Play Holdem: The Turn

The next card dealt is called the Turn Card.  After it’s dealt, another round of betting ensues. Just one card this time, and then things go just as they have above.

How to Play Holdem: The Last Card – The River

If there are still two people left with cards, we have the river, one final card dealt onto the Aced poker table, for all the players to share, followed by the last, and final round of betting.

How to Play Holdem: Finally – The Showdown.

Both players have had their shot at betting, gotten as many chips as possible into the pot, with the best hand hopefully, and now it’s time to see who has won the hand.This happens pretty much automatically at Aced, there is one thing to keep in mind however. Any hand that is called all the way to the river, can be seen, even if you muck.

Both players cards are exposed, and the money is pushed to one or the other players.

If you win the hand, and your opponent opts not to show his cards, but you still want to see them, you can use the history button located in the lower right hand corner of the table.

The next step is learning how to withdraw funds from your poker account.

How to Play Holdem: A few Last Minute Tips:

Just a couple other things you should know when you’re playing No Limit Poker either on Aced poker, or pretty much anywhere in the entire world:

• At anytime during a players turn, he/she can bet all of their chips.
• You cannot be bet out of a hand. If you don’t have enough to call, you can make a partial call.

Once you feel like you’ve gotten the hang of it, you can move up and down through the stakes, or try multi-tabling. This is only the beginning!

Learning Texas Holdem as a Starting Block
One of the things that makes learning how to play Texas Holdem Poker so important is that it’s so often used as a building block for other games. For instance, once you’ve learned Texas Holdem Poker, learning holdem is going to be that much easier.. not easy mind you, but so much easier. Omaha Holdem is pretty much Texas Holdem, with some new added elements .. sort of like the next level if you will. Soon, when it comes to How to Play Poker, you’ll be a pro!