Learning Poker - How to Play Texas Holdem

If you’re completely new to the game of poker trying to understand the game can be overwhelming. This beginner tutorial will guide you step by step through all the basics. If your goal is to eventually become an advanced player unfortunately it won’t happen overnight. However, with a solid foundation you won’t skip important basics needed to become an expert (if thats your goal). Whether you choose to become a recreational player or get serious about the game skipping the basics can be a costly. Even a friendly game could embarass the casual player. Whether its from not understanding all the rules or maybe bluffing at the wrong time you'll want to avoid both! If you eventually intend to play the game at a higher level (meaning investing money) I’d highly recommend moving onto a poker training site like OutstandingPoker.

There are many poker variations; 5 Card Draw; 5 Card Stud; 7 Card Stud; Texas Holdem & Omaha to name a few. For simplicity we’ll focus on Texas Holdem in learning the basics of poker as it’s currently the most popular variation of the game.

Hand Values-Ranked
Conceptually there isn’t anything difficult about poker. Every "deck" has 52 cards. The importance of knowing the number of cards in a deck will be discussed in detail later under “calculating odds”. Cards are numbered 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and lettered J,Q,K,A. (Note these are in sequential order beginning with 2 and ending in A). There are 4 sets of each. Each set has its own “suit”. Suit= Spades (S), Diamonds (D), Hearts (H) & Clubs (C).

Poker hands follow specific rules when determining which hand is ranked higher than another. You may have heard of bluffing or betting a player out of a hand. For now, let’s pretend bluffing or betting isn’t part of the game. If you have a deck of cards lets practice by dealing a hand and revealing all cards to 4 or 5 players. Note, when determining rank a tie is actually possible.

In our variation of poker; Texas Holdem, everyone is dealt two cards face up (face down in a real game) at the beginning of the game. There are 5 additional cards laid out in the center that all players can use called community cards. To make a poker hand and determine “hand value” you will need to use a total of five cards. No more no less. You cannot use any of your opponents’ cards. The five cards used will be five out of the seven available. What seven cards are available to you? The two originally dealt to you plus the five community cards.

You will now need to choose which five cards will make the highest possible hand to determine your hand value. To illustrate, see below hand value chart which ranks a poker hand from highest to lowest. There’s a brief description of the hand and an example of each.

Possible poker hands from highest to lowest (s=spade, d=diamond, h=heart, c=club)
• Royal Flush - Five cards in sequential order which must begin with 10. All five cards must be in the same suit. Ex. 10sJsQsKsAs
• Straight Flush - Five cards in sequential order which may begin with either 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, or 9. All five cards must be in the same suit. Ex. 5h,6h,7h,8h,9h.
• 4-of a Kind - Five cards of which 4 are identical. (The 5th card is not necessarily relevant unless needed to break a tie). Ex. Ks,Kd,Kh,Kc,7h.
• Full House - Five cards of which 3 and 2 are identical. Ex. 7s,7h,7d,Qs,Qh
• Flush - Five cards in non-sequential order. All 5 cards must be in the same suit. Ex. 3h,9h,10h,Jh,Kh.
• Straight - Five cards in sequential order which may begin with either 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 or 10. The five cards are not in the same suit. Ex. 8h,9d,10s,Jc,Qs.
• 3 of a Kind - Five cards of which 3 are identical. Ex. 9s,9h,9s,2s,Kh.
• 2 pairs - Four cards of which two are identical and another 2 of a different rank are identical. (The 5th card is not necessarily relevant unless needed to break a tie.) Ex. 6s, 6h, Jc, Js, Qh.
• 1 Pair - two identical cards. (The other 3 cards are irrelevant unless needed to break a tie.) Ex. Js,Jd,2s,9h,kd
• High Card - Ex. Ks,Jd,2s,9h,kd

Practice a few times by dealing out 10 or so hands until your comfortable with how each hand is ranked. Next post (by 6/7/10) I'll talk about the importance of Bluffing!

Feel free to comment or ask questions if anything is unlcear. If you learn better with videos here's one that teaches the basics.