If you want to know the ins and outs of how to play Texas Hold Em poker, then you must set your sights well on learning the rules of the game, and then learn the hierarchy of the hands (which 5 card combinations beat out the others), and then be able to outsmart your fellow players in the game with you. This type of poker seems easy when you see it played because there are so many cards face up on the table, but in actuality it is quite complicated and does take practice before you are really adept at playing effectively.

If you want to know the ins and outs of how to play Texas Hold Em poker, then you must set your sights well on learning the rules of the game, and then learn the hierarchy of the hands (which 5 card combinations beat out the others), and then be able to outsmart your fellow players in the game with you. This type of poker seems easy when you see it played because there are so many cards face up on the table, but in actuality it is quite complicated and does take practice before you are really adept at playing effectively.

Every time you turn on the TV and start surfing for something to watch, you will inevitably come across a poker tournament, and guess which poker they are playing. Yep, Texas Hold Em. I think probably it is the easiest and most exciting form of poker to watch as well as actually play, so it lends itself well to the camera's eye and pulls the audience into what is happening on and at the table. If you know how to play Texas Hold Em, that makes the tournament all that much more enjoyable because you can watch the progression of the betting by the professionals and experts and you know the hole cards held by each player, so you can match what you would have done against what they do.

To start the actual play for this form of poker, the dealer------who is designated by a dealers button that is placed in front of him-----calls for the players to put all enforced bets into the pot. Called antes or blinds, these bets are started by the player sitting immediately to the left of the dealer who puts in the first blind bet called the small blind. The next player to the dealers left is now in line to post the second blind bet and this is called the big blind----a point here to remember is that in Texas Hold Em games, the small blind is of the big blind bet. Now the actual card dealing begins, and if you know how to play Texas Hold Em, you know that the dealer will deal two cards to each player face down so no one else can see what they are except the player to whom they are dealt, and these are referred to as the "hole" cards. Each player scrutinizes their own hole cards and decides from that holding if he should continue to play, or throw in his cards and fold.

The betting starts after the two hole cards are dealt, and the player to the left of the big blind starts the betting. He will either check, call, raise, or fold; and the betting proceeds around the table until all players have placed a bet or folded their cards. Next, the dealer will deal 3 cards face up on the table so all players can see them---these are the community cards or the "flop". The betting proceeds again with the player to the left of the dealer initiating the betting. After all players still in the game have placed their bets, then the dealer places another community card face up on the table---this is referred to as the "turn". This is when it is important to know how to play Texas Hold Em poker because you must evaluate your two hole cards with the 4 cards face up on the table and decide if you have a running chance to make any kind of a good hand that can win the pot. If it looks pretty bleak, then you should fold.

Now, the game is at the point where the last community or face up card is dealt by the dealer and this card is the "river". All the players that are left in the game at this point, re-evaluate their hands, and place their bets accordingly. But remember, if you know how to play Texas Hold Em, you know that there may be a player left who has been bluffing his way throughout the game, and he really doesn't have a good hand at all, he just wants you to think that, so he can jack up the ante and make more money if he can pull off the bluff. This is where the psychology of the game enters in, players psyching each other out, and putting their best "poker faces" on.

The final round of betting has now taken place, and all players that are still playing at this point must show their hands. The player with the best 5 card combo ------that includes the cards on the table that are face up for you to use, and the 2 hole cards that you have------the best combo from all these cards will win the pot. If it turns out that there are 2 players who have identical hands in value, then they must split the pot. Sometimes it happens that the hole cards that each player has, are not worth anything as far as making up a winning 5 card combo, and the face up (community cards) cards on the table are the best combination overall for everyone. In that case, the pot is split by all the players that are in the game at this point. The dealer button now is moved clockwise to the next player, and he now is the designated dealer for the next hand.

You'll find that if you learn how to play Texas Hold Em, that a whole new world of fun, excitement, strategy, and psychology will open up for you in a way you can only imagine. Texas Hold Em truly is the most popular form of poker, and this is for good reason---it has wonderful strategy, fun to play, relatively easy to learn, and something that will make you want to keep playing for years and years.