How to Play Texas Holdem: The Complete Guide

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Texas Hold’em poker is well-known owing to the spotlight granted by television and movies. The simplicity of the rules and the trend has made Texas Hold ’em a favourite at online and live casinos. But if you are a beginner that has just stepped into the world of gambling, then you might wonder how to play this game. And we are here to the rescue! 

This is a detailed guide on Texas Holdem and tells you how to have fun with casino games like Texas hold ’em, Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo.

Card and Hand Values of Texas Holdem

The three most important aspects of poker games are card values, card poker hand using combinations, and their ranks. These three determine the winners of poker games. All poker games (the classic and the variants) are based on the final 5 cards held by the players. Each of those final hands has a value, and that value is determined by the card rank and the hand combination rank. The final hand with the highest value is the best, and this five-card poker hand wins the game.

Texas Hold’em Poker Hands.

The value of the five-card hand decides the winner of a poker game. A five-card hand is a group of five cards held by a player, and the combination has a value in a game of poker. 10 poker hand combinations can let you win a game of poker. Player with the best five-card hand gets the pot.

These poker hand combinations are not specific to Texas Holdem and are used in all poker variations. Let us look at the ten winning five-card poker hand combinations. These hands are listed from high to low rank:

Royal Flush

A five-card poker hand containing an Ace, a King, a Queen, a Jack and a card of face value 10. All cards should be of the same suit. This is the best possible 5 -card poker hand combination. A player who got this hand wins the pot.

Straight Flush

A hand containing five cards in progressive or regressive values. For example, a set of five cards containing 3,4,5,6 and 7 or 7,6,5,4 and 3. All the cards should be of the same suit. This is the second-best five-card poker hand combination.

Four of a Kind

A hand containing five cards and four of them are of equal value—for example, a 10, a Jack, a Queen, another 10 and a 2. The cards need not belong in the same suit. This hand is also called a quad.

Full House

A full house contains five cards, three of whom are of a particular value, and the remaining two are of another value. In short, a full house is a combination of three of a kind and a pair. For example, 10,10,10,2 and 2.

Flush

A poker hand that contains cards all belonging to the same suit. Each card can be of any value.

Straight

A five-card poker hand containing cards in progressive or regressive sequence but does not belong to the same suit.

Three of a kind

A 5- card poker hand that contains three cards of the same value. The remaining two cards can be of any value each—for example, 5,5,5, 7 and 8.

Two pair

A hand containing two pairs of different values. Two cards are of the same value, the second pair of cards are of the same value, but that value is different from the first pair, and the remaining one card can be of any value, for example, 5,5,8,8 and 4.

Pair

Two of the five cards are of the same value—for example, 5,5,8,6 and an Ace.

High card

When a hand contains none of the above combinations, then the highest value card is considered—for example, 8,4,2,9 and a Queen. Here, the Queen is the card with the highest value, so it is the high card. This is the worst possible five-card poker hand.