Texas Hold'em Basics

Texas Hold’em, or simply Hold’em is the most popular poker game in the world. Hold’em belongs to the flop poker family, where players receive an incomplete hand of two cards, and then a number of face-up "community cards" are dealt to the center of the table (as opposed to draw games, where no card is revealed before showdown). Each face up card can be used by one or more of the players to make a 5-card hand.

Because community cards are common to every player, players are able to get a rough idea of what their opponent’s possibilities are. This combination of private and common cards creates an interesting balance between strategy and psychology. This in part explains the world wide success of Texas Hold’em.