Texas hold 'em (or simply hold 'em or holdem) is the most popular of the community card poker games. It is the most popular poker variant played in casinos in the western United States, and its no-limit form is used in the main event of the World Series of Poker (abbreviated WSOP), widely recognized as the world championship of the game. Jump to: navigation, search Wikibooks Poker has more about this subject: Poker Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, which is awarded to the remaining player... The game of poker has many variations, most of them created in the United States in the mid-1900s. ... Jump to: navigation, search Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas (jb) A casino is a building that accommodates certain types of gambling games and activities. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article describes the common terms, rules, and procedures in the game, but does not cover the strategic impact of betting. ... Jump to: navigation, search The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world. ...

Although it can theoretically be played by up to 22 players (or 23 if burn cards are not used), it is generally played with between 2 and 10 people. It is one of the most positional of all poker variants, since the order of betting is fixed throughout all betting rounds. Holdem is commonly played in the rest of the world as well, but seven-card stud, Omaha hold 'em and other games may be more popular in some places. Jump to: navigation, search In card games, a burn card is a playing card dealt from the top of a deck, and discarded (burned), unused by the players. ... Position in poker is the order in which players are seated around the table, and the strategic and tactical consequences of this. ... Jump to: navigation, search Seven-card stud is a poker variant. ... Jump to: navigation, search Omaha hold em (or Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game based on Texas hold em. ...

Rules

The descriptions below assume a familiarity with the general game play of poker, and with poker hands. For a general introduction to these topics, see Poker, Poker hand, Poker probability, and Poker jargon. The poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ. Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, after which the pot is awarded to the... A hand in poker can mean any of the following: A synonym for round, a unit of play consisting of a deal, betting, and possibly a showdown. ... Jump to: navigation, search Wikibooks Poker has more about this subject: Poker Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, which is awarded to the remaining player... A hand in poker can mean any of the following: A synonym for round, a unit of play consisting of a deal, betting, and possibly a showdown. ... In poker, the probability of each type of 5 card hand can be computed by calculating the proportion of hands of that type among all possible hands. ... Jump to: navigation, search The large and growing jargon of poker includes many terms. ...

Play of the hand

Play begins with each player being dealt two cards face down. These are the player's hole cards. These are the only cards each player will receive individually, and they will only (possibly) be revealed at the showdown, making Texas holdem a closed poker game. The hand begins with a "pre-flop" betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise. After the pre-flop betting round, the dealer deals a burn card, followed by three face-up community cards called the flop. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left and continue clockwise. After the flop betting round ends, another card is burned, and a single community card called the turn (or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final burn card is followed by a single community card called the river (or fifth street), followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary. Jump to: navigation, search In all poker games, if more than one player remains after the last betting round, all of the players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners. ... In the game of poker, a betting round is said to be closed if no player will have the right to raise in the round. ... Clockwise can refer to: Clockwise and counterclockwise Clockwise (movie) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Jump to: navigation, search In card games, a burn card is a playing card dealt from the top of a deck, and discarded (burned), unused by the players. ... In poker, a card dealt face-up to the table (not to any one player) that is shared by more than one player is called a community card or shared card or widow card. ... The flop in poker refers to the dealing of the first three face-up cards to the board, or to those three cards themselves. ... The turn, or fourth street, in poker is the fourth of five cards dealt to the board, constituting one face-up community cards that each of the players in the game can use to make up their final hand. ... The river, or fifth street, in poker is the final fifth card to be dealt to the board, consisting of a face-up community card that each of the players in the game can use to make up their final hand. ... Jump to: navigation, search In all poker games, if more than one player remains after the last betting round, all of the players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners. ...

See also: Texas hold 'em hands Jump to: navigation, search In the poker game Texas hold em, a players hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. ...

Betting structures

In casino play, it is common to use a fixed limit and two blinds. The limit for the first two rounds of betting is called a small bet, while the limit for the third and fourth betting rounds is called a big bet and is generally double the small bet. The small blind is usually equal to half of a small bet, and the big blind is equal to a full small bet. (In some cases, the small blind is some other fraction of a small bet, e.g. $10 is a common small blind when the small bet is $15; this occurs mainly in brick and mortar rooms where higher-denomination chips are used. The double-blind structure described above is relatively recent; until the 1980s, a single-blind structure was most common.) The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article describes the common terms, rules, and procedures in the game, but does not cover the strategic impact of betting. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

Occasionally, the fourth bet is larger still (a big river bet), and the big blind is sometimes less than the small bet, in which case it is treated the same way a sub-minimum bring-in is treated in stud poker. Antes may be used instead of, or in addition to, blinds; this is especially true in tournament play. The game also plays very well at the no-limit level, and many tournaments (including the above mentioned World Series championship event) are played with this structure. The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ... Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. ... The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ... A poker tournament is a tournament at which the winners are decided by playing poker, usually a particular style of poker. ...

The showdown

If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show his hole cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, a showdown occurs. On the showdown, each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the seven cards comprising his two hole cards and the board (the five community cards). A player may use both of his own two hole cards, only one, or none at all, to form his final five-card hand. If the five community cards form the player's best hand, then the player is said to be playing the board. Jump to: navigation, search In all poker games, if more than one player remains after the last betting round, all of the players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners. ...

If the best hand is shared by more than one player (e.g. if no player is able to beat the board), then the pot is split equally amongst all remaining players. However, it is common for players to have closely-valued, but not identically ranked hands. In particular, kickers are often needed to break ties. Nevertheless, one must be careful in determining the best hand, because often the board nullifies kickers. (See the second example below.) Straights often split the pot, and multiple flushes may occur. In the case of flushes, the flush is awarded to the player with the highest flush card which completes a flush and beats the board's flush cards. If there is a flush on board, (i.e. if all the board cards are the same suit), then under cards in that suit do not play, and if no one has a card in the flush suit beating the board, then the pot is split. The sole exception to this rule is the case of a straight-flush. The pot in poker refers to the sum of money that players wager during a single hand or game, according to the betting rules of the variant being played. ... In poker it is sometimes necessary to divide the pot among two or more players rather than awarding it all to a single player. ... A kicker, also called a side card, is a card in a poker hand that does not itself take part in determining the rank of the hand, but that may be used to break ties between hands of the same rank. ... A straight flush is a poker hand such as Qâ™  Jâ™  10â™  9â™  8â™ , which contains five cards in sequence, all of the same suit. ...

The best possible hand given the five community cards is referred to as the nuts. The lowest possible nuts is three queens (this occurs with, for example, 2 3 7 8 Q on the board, with no more than two cards of any one suit). ...

Examples

Sample showdown

Here's a sample showdown:

Each player plays the best 5 card hand they can make with the 7 cards available. They have:

In this case, Ted's full house wins.

Sample hand

Here's a sample deal involving our four players. The players' individual hands will not be revealed until the showdown, to give a better sense of what happens during play:

Compulsory bets: Alice is the dealer. Bob, to Alice's left, posts a small blind of $1, and Carol posts a big blind of $2.

Pre-flop: Alice deals two hole cards face down to each player, beginning with Bob and ending with herself. Ted must act first because he is the first player after the big blind. He cannot check, since the $2 big blind plays as a bet, so he folds. Alice calls the $2. Bob adds an additional $1 to his $1 small blind to call the $2 total. Carol's blind is "live" (see blind), so she has the option to raise here, but she checks instead, ending the first betting round. The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ...

Flop: Alice now burns a card and deals the flop of three face-up community cards, 9♣ K♣ 3♥. On this round, as on all subsequent rounds, the player on the dealer's left begins the betting. In this case it is Bob, who checks. Carol opens for $2, Ted has already folded and Alice raises another $2, making the total bet now facing Bob $4. He calls (puts in $4, $2 to match Carol's initial bet and $2 to match Alice's raise). Carol calls as well, putting in her $2.

Turn: Alice now burns and deals the turn card face up. It is the 5♠. Bob checks, Carol checks, and Alice checks; the turn has been checked around.

River: After burning, Alice deals the final river card, the 9♦, making the final board 9♣ K♣ 3♥ 5♠ 9♦. Bob bets $4, Carol calls, and Alice folds (Alice's holding was A♣ 7♣; she was hoping the river card would be a club to make her a flush).

Showdown: Bob shows his hand of Q♠ 9♥, so the best five-card hand he can make is 9♣ 9♦ 9♥ K♣ Q♠, for three 9's, with K and Q kickers. Carol shows her cards of K♠ J♥, making her final hand K♣ K♠ 9♣ 9♦ J♥ for two pair, K's and 9's, with J kicker. Bob wins the showdown and the pot.

Kickers and ranks

Here's another situation that illustrates the importance of breaking ties with kickers and card ranks, as well as the use of the five-card rule. After the turn, the board and players' hole cards are as follows (though none of the players know each other's hole cards):

At the moment, Bob is in the lead with a hand of Q♠ Q♣ 8♠ 8♥ K♥, making two pair, Q's and 8's, with K kicker. This just beats Carol's hand of Q♥ Q♣ 8♠ 8♥ 10♦ by virtue of his kicker. Both Alice and Ted are hoping the final card is a club, which will make them both a flush, but in that case, Ted would have the higher flush and win the showdown. For example, if the final card was the 7♣, Ted's flush would be Q-J-7-4-2, while Alice's would be Q-10-9-7-4. Alice could still win, though, if the final card were the J♦, as that would give her a Q-high straight. On this deal, however, the final card was the A♠, which didn't help either of them. Bob and Carol still each have two pair, but notice what happened: both of them are now entitled to play the final A as their fifth card, making their hands both two pair, Q's and 8's, with A kicker. Bob's K no longer plays, because the A on the board plays as the fifth card in both hands, and a hand is only composed of five cards. They therefore split the pot.

Starting hand terminology and notation

There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck. However, since suits are only relevant for flushes, many of these hands are indistinguishable from the point of view of pre-flop strategy. In fact, considering suits to be equivalent unless both cards are the same suit, there are precisely 169 distinct possible starting hands in holdem. [1] In combinatorial mathematics, a combination of members of a set is a subset. ... 169 is the natural number following one hundred sixty-eight and preceding one hundred seventy. ...

As an example, although J♥ J♣ and J♦ J♠ are distinct combinations of hole cards, they are indistinguishable as starting hands. Any starting hand comprising two jacks is called pocket jacks and is denoted JJ. Similarly, any starting hand comprised of two aces is called pocket aces and is denoted AA, and any starting hand comprised of two sevens is called pocket sevens and is denoted 77. Each of these starting hands is called a pocket pair. The hole cards are two cards dealt face down to each player in Texas Hold em. ...

The starting hands which are not pocket pairs fall into two classes – the suited hands and the unsuited hands. An example of a suited hand is 8♠ 7♠. Any starting hand comprised of an 8 and a 7 of the same suit is called 8-7 suited and is denoted 87s, where "s" is an abbreviation for "suited". An example of an unsuited hands is Q♣ 9♦. Any starting hand comprised of a Q and a 9 of different suits is called queen-nine offsuit and is denoted Q9 (or sometimes Q9o, where "o" is an abbreviation for "offsuit"). Remember, an "s" always denoted a suited starting hand, while the absence of an "s" always denotes an offsuit starting hand.

In almost all poker writing, the rank of "10" is abbreviated with the letter "T", so that all the ranks can be written with a single character, unless cards are featured pictorially when "10" is often used.

Consecutive cards of the same suit are called suited connectors. Many starting hands have colloquial names. A full list would be quite long, but some examples are "Big Slick" for AK, "Fish Hooks" for JJ, "Dolly Parton" for 95 (a reference to the film "9 to 5") and "Doyle Brunson" for T2 (Brunson won two WSOP bracelets with this hand, which would ordinarily be considered a weak starting hand).

Texas hold'em in popular culture

In 1998, the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton gave moviegoers a romantic view of poker as a way of life. Texas Hold'em was the main game played during the movie and the no-limit variety was described as the "Cadillac of Poker". There was also a clip of the classic showdown between Johnny Chan and Erik Siedel incorporated into the film. This is a list of film-related events in 1998. ... Rounders was a 1998 film starring Matt Damon as a professional poker player. ... Jump to: navigation, search Matt Damon at the Incirlik hospital, Incirlik Air Base, December 7, 2001 Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American film actor and screenwriter. ... Edward Norton Edward James Norton Jr. ...

CommanderBond.net reports that the centerpiece card game in the next James Bond film, Casino Royale, will be no-limit Texas Hold 'em instead of Baccarat as in the original Ian Fleming novel. ^[2] Jump to: navigation, search For the novel and the 1954 television episode, see Casino Royale. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was an English author, best remembered for writing the James Bond series of novels as well as the childrens story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. ...

Hold 'em as a spectator sport

Hold 'em first caught the public eye as a spectator sport in the United Kingdom with the Late Night Poker TV show in 1999. The popularity of the show led to Phil Hellmuth competing in season 3 of the program and helping to spread the idea of lipstick cameras to an American audience. Jump to: navigation, search Late Night Poker is a British television show in which Poker players, mostly professionals or strong amateurs, compete in a short series of No-Limit Texas hold em tournament games for a prize of approximately £50,000. ... Jump to: navigation, search Phillip J. Hellmuth, Jr. ... A lipstick camera is a camera that shows the audience of a poker match the hand of the player. ...

In 2003, hold 'em exploded in popularity as a spectator sport in the United States. This was due to several factors, including the introduction of lipstick cameras that allowed the television audience to see the players' hidden cards. ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) featured the unexpected victory of Internet player Chris Moneymaker (his real name), an amateur player who gained admission to the tournament by winning a series of online tournaments. Two additional hold 'em series debuted in 2003, the "World Poker Tour" (abbreviated WPT) and "Celebrity Poker Showdown". All three of these shows are still currently (as of 2005) in production and garner a large and loyal viewership. Jump to: navigation, search 2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ESPN, formerly an abbreviation of Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting sports-related programming 24 hours a day. ... Jump to: navigation, search Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born 1976 in Tennessee) is a professional poker player. ... The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a collection of poker tournaments featuring most of the worlds professional players. ... Celebrity Poker Showdown is a perhaps best described as a recreational documentary; a popular show on the station Bravo, it is a limited run series of celebrities playing poker. ...

With the ability to edit a tournament that may last days into just a few hours, ESPN's World Series of Poker focuses on showing how various star players fared in each event. Key hands from throughout the many days of each event are shown, and similar, highly edited coverage of final tables is also provided.

The World Poker Tour does not offer general coverage of the multi-day poker tournaments. Instead, WPT covers only the action at the final table of each event. With aggressive play and increasing blinds and antes, the important action from a single table can easily be edited into a two hour episode. Although the tournament fate of fewer stars are chronicled this way, it allows the drama to build more naturally toward the final heads up showdown.

Celebrity Poker Showdown coverage is a single table like World Poker Tour, however, the players are invited to participate instead of winning their way on. Because the players are much less skilled and aggressive, significant editing is often done to trim the action to fit the broadcast time.

Bibliography

• Phil Gordon and Jonathon Grotenstein (2004). Poker: The Real Deal, Simon Spotlight Entertainment. ISBN 0689875908 The poker lifestyle, strategies, and great anecdotes from the tables.
• Lee Jones (1994). Winning Low-Limit Hold-em, Conjelco. ISBN 1886070156 An introduction to lower limit game play.
• David Sklansky (1996). Hold 'em Poker, Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN 1880685086
• Ed Miller, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (2004). Small Stakes Hold'em, Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN 1880685329 A book discussing all facets of "small stakes games", i.e. games in which many players play too many hands, and too many bad hands, too far.
• David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (1999). Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players, Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN 1880685221 This book contains a thorough discussion of strategies which apply to middle- and high-limit games involving players who generally play soundly.
• Bob Ciaffone and Jim Brier (2002). Middle Limit Holdem, Bob Ciaffone. ISBN 0966100743
• David Sklansky (1989). The Theory of Poker, Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN 1880685000