Texas Holdem Poker
Texas Holdem Poker (also known as Texas Holdem, or simply Holdem Poker) recently became the most popular poker game played in many casinos, card rooms and online poker rooms across the world. It has completely eclipsed Seven Card Stud poker, the once most common game in land-based casinos and US poker rooms. Hundreds of thousands of players from the US, UK and other countries of the world are driven by the popularity of widely televised poker events, such as the WPT (The World Poker Tour) and the WSOP (The World Series of Poker). Playing Texas Holdem Poker became the most popular pastime for many people that have begun playing not only in land-based casinos, but also in numerous online poker rooms.
If you are planning to start playing Texas Holdem Poker, then first of all you need to learn at least basic rules of the game and look through a couple of strategy guides. Unlike many other poker games, Texas Holdem Poker is a community card game, where each player gets dealt only two individual cards (called pocket or hole cards) and the rest of cards (5 community cards) are shared by all players. Players may use any combination of their hole cards and five community cards to make the best possible poker hand consisting of five cards. Players can choose to use both hole cards and three community cards, one hole card and four community cards or just all five community cards.
Texas Holdem Poker has several derivatives. The three major Texas Holdem Poker variants are Limit Texas Holdem, No-Limit Texas Holdem and Pot Limit Texas Holdem, which are distinguished by betting structures. In Limit variant of the game, all bets and raises are fixed to a pre-defined limit that changes during the game. In No-Limit variant, a player can bet any amount of chips, or all his chips at any time. In Pot-Limit Texas Holdem Poker, both bets and raises are limited to the size of the pot.
All these Texas Holdem variants are available in most land-based casinos and card rooms and probably all online poker rooms.