Poker Texas Hold'em

01Discover the game

In Texas Hold'em, each person receives two secret cards and also uses five common cards. You can win thanks to your combination or by having others give up. This chapter presents the limitless, with tokens without money. The overall difficulty is hard: the rules hold in a few pages, but judging the probabilities, bets and intentions requires a lot of practice.

02Equipment

Take 52 cards without joker, a "donor" marker and tokens. For the proposed discovery part, give each 100 units: twenty tokens of value 1, six of value 5 and five of value 10, or 31 tokens per person. These quantities are a practical organization of the book. Schedule two to ten places and a sheet for the ranking if you play a tournament.

03The goal

With each deal, win the pot, all bet chips. If everyone gives up except you, you win without showing your cards. Otherwise, the best combination of five cards wins. The friendly tournament ends when only one person has all the chips.

04Preparing for places and forced placings

Choose a first random donor and place his mark in front of him. On his left is the small blind, which is set 1 unit; the next person is the big blind, which is set 2. These bets are mandatory and already count in the first round. Here we keep the blinds at 1 and 2 throughout the tournament; increasing them is an option to agree before playing.

Mix, cut, and give two hidden cards to each person, one by one, starting to the left of the marker. We play in the clockwise direction. Only two, the donor sets the small blind, the other the big blind. The donor speaks first before the flop and last after the flop.

Enlarge ↗

05The four rounds and the actions

Understand a bet

When it's yours, clearly announce your action before moving your chips. To go to bed means giving up this: your bets already paid stay in the pot. Word, or check, keep your hand without adding tokens, only if no one has bet more than you in this tower. Follow complete your bet up to the amount requested. Mise open a bet when no one has done it yet. Relaunch increases the amount to be equalized.

The minimum opening bet is the big blind, here 2. A recovery must add at least as much as the last complete increase. For example, after a bet of 6 and then a raise to 14, the increase is 8: the following minimum re-launch is 22. Before the flop, the big blind of 2 allows a first minimal re-launch to 4. "Without limit" means that you can engage all the chips in front of you, never those of another person.

A bet trick is over when each person still in the deal has had the opportunity to act after the last bet or restart, and has matched the amount requested or made carpet. If nobody bets, everyone must have said word. The big blind can still restart when the others only followed it before the flop.

Before the flop, then flop, turning and river

Before the flop, the first person to speak is the one to the left of the big blind. After this turn, the donor spreads a hidden card, called a burned card, then returns three common cards: the flop. New bets, starting with the first person still in play to the left of the donor.

Burn another map and reveal a fourth common map, the turning. Take a new bet. Burn a third card and reveal the fifth one, the river. Take the last round of bets. At any time, if there is only one person left, she takes the pot immediately and the remaining common cards are not necessary.

The carpet and the separate pots

If you don't have enough to follow, you can hire all your chips: you make carpets. You stay in the game, but you can only win from each opponent the amount you were able to match. Then separate the main pot and the accompanying pots. A bet that has no opponent to equal it is returned to its author.

Example: Alice engages 20, Bob 50 and Chloe 50. The main pot contains 20 × 3 = 60, accessible to the three. The attached pot contains 30 × 2 = 60, accessible only to Bob and Chloe. Alice's cards can win the first pot without giving it the second. The bets of the sleeping people remain in the corresponding pots, but they can no longer win them.

A carpet that is less than a full restart does not automatically give a new opportunity to revive those who have already acted: they can follow the difference or lie down. To begin with, announce the amount of the last complete restart aloud. If no more bet is possible because all but possibly a player are carpeted, reveal the cards and normally distribute the remaining common cards.

Compare hands

Choose the five best cards from your two cards and the five communes. You can use zero, one or two personal cards. From the strongest to the weakest:

• Quinte flush : five cards that follow each other in the same sign. As-Roi-Dame-Valet-10 is the highest, called royal.
• Square : four cards of the same value, plus another.
• Full : a brelan and a pair.
• Colour : five cards of the same sign, no need for further action.
• Quinte : five consecutive values, of any signs.
• Brelan : three cards of the same value, plus two more.
• Two pairs : two groups of two cards, plus another.
• A pair Two cards of the same value plus three more.
• High card : none of the previous combinations.

The ace ranks highest, but it can also start the low straight A-2-3-4-5, which is a 5-high straight. It cannot connect king-ace-2. Within a hand category, compare the key ranks first, such as the four of a kind, the three of a kind in a full house, the top of a straight or the pair. For two pair, compare the higher pair, then the lower pair. To break a remaining tie, compare the kickers from highest to lowest. For a flush or high card, compare all five ranks In this order, no sign beats another.

Enlarge ↗

06An example to understand

You hold the ace and queen of hearts. The community cards are the king, jack and 10 of hearts, the 2 of spades and the 2 of clubs. Your best five are the ace, king, queen, jack and 10 of hearts: a royal flush. The two community 2s do not force you to use a pair.

Enlarge ↗

Another case: the tray is As-Roi-Dame-Valet-10 of five cards without full color. Everyone can use these five common cards. A hidden pair does not beat this quaint: if no one forms better, the pot is shared in the hands still running.

07Show cards and finish

After the river, the last player who bet or restarted normally shows his cards first. Without a final bet, we start to the left of the donor. To learn, all the hands still at stake can be shown. Compare each pot separately and share it in equal shares between the best hands on a tie. A remaining indivisible token goes to the first winner met to the left of the donor, current table convention.

Move the button of a seat in the clockwise direction, remix the 52 cards and start over again. A person without chips is eliminated. To avoid any ambiguity with empty places, remove his seat and use a simple rotation between the remaining players; this is the friendly convention of the book. The last participant with tokens wins. You can also stop at an agreed time and compare the batteries, provided you have decided before the start.

08Frequent errors

Don't compare seven cards: only five count. Don't think that a red color, mixing hearts and tiles, is a color to poker: you need the same sign. Don't take back the chips of a bet after you're laid. Don't say a word in front of an unmatched bet. Don't give the whole pot to a small carpet without separating the accessible amounts.

09Start well

Play first a few cards visible, without bluff. Don't go into all hands: two cards weak and remote often require a lot of luck. Look at the board before your cards and look for the best possible combinations in others. Learn how to lie down: losing a small bet can preserve the necessary chips on the next good occasions.