Texas Holdem is played with nine or ten players at a full table. After the blinds are placed, each player is dealt two down cards (called hole cards). Then each player starting with the player to the left of the big blind has an opportunity to call the big blind amount, raise or fold. When the action gets to the player in the small blind position, he/she can call the partial bet or the partial bet plus any raises, or fold. The player in the big blind has the option to raise or check if there are no raises as they already have a full bet in the pot. Any player that calls the big blind (limps in) and has the pot raised behind them then has the option to call the raise, or re-raise the pot. After this round of betting, three community cards are placed face up in the center of the table (called the flop). Another round of betting is now conducted starting with the player to the left of the button. Each player that is still active in the hand may check or raise. After a raise, each player may call the raise, re-raise or fold. The fourth community card (called the turn or fourth street) is then placed in the center of the table followed by another round of betting. In most limit games, the amount of a bet on the turn and river is double the amount in the first two rounds. Finally, the last community card (called the river or fifth street) is placed face up in the center of the table and the last round of betting is conducted. After all bets have been placed, a showdown occurs which simply means that each player still in the hand shows his/her hole cards to see who wins the pot.
The pot is won by the player with the best five card combination using one or both or their hole cards. If a player uses both hole cards, they will use three from the board. If using one hole card, they use four from the board. In the rare occasion that the five board cards form the best possible hand, all players remaining in the hand split the pot.
The minimum bet each of the first two rounds is equal to the big blind and the minimum bet each of the last two rounds is equal to twice the big blind. Ex: In a 10/20 game the small blind is 5, the big blind and first two betting rounds are in increments of 10 and the last two betting rounds are in increments of 20.
No-Limit/Pot-Limit Texas Holdem