A Simple Hold'em Poker Guide

Holdem Poker is a form of community poker with blind bets instead of betting antes. The most popular holdem poker game from which every other holdem game is derived, is Texas Hold'Em Poker.

Holdem games have designated betting limits, which include minimum and maximum bets, pot limit betting and no limit games.

Limit In a $1/$2 limit game, all bets and raises are $1 dollars in the preflop and flop betting rounds, and then $2 bets and raises in the turn and river betting rounds.
Pot Limit is a betting structure where the maximum size bet is the size of the pot plus the amount you would bet if you reraised (if you have already been raised).
No Limit is a betting structure with no maximum bet. Players may bet as many chips at any time, at any time they can declare themselves "All In" and bet all of their chips on a hand.
In holdem games, players pay blinds rather than betting an ante to create a pot before any cards are dealt. The blinds are paid in turns, moving around the table with each hand. This is to ensure there is always money in the pot.

Blinds are paid by the two players to the left of the dealer. In a casino, where there is a dedicated dealer, the dealer position moves around the table and is indicated by a "dealer button". The blinds are paid by the two players to the left of the dealer button.

The two blinds are called the "small blind" and the "big blind". When the small blind figure is set, the big blind is usually double the amount of the small blind. The minimum bet per hand is double the small blind (usually equal to the big blind).

When you are introduced to any game, these above conditions will usually be explained in the game type. For example, a "No Limit $200 ($1/$2)" game would be a game with no betting limits, a maximum buy-in of $200 and starting blinds of $1 and $2. The blinds are often abbreviated SB (small blind) and BB (big blind).

Prior to seeing their cards, the player directly to the left of the dealer puts the small blind into the pot and the player to the left of the small blind puts the big blind bet into the pot.

The player to the left of the big blind is the first player to actually see his hand before deciding to call the blinds or not, in poker this position is sometimes referred to as "under the gun" as you have to make the first decision of the hand.

The action goes around the table to the left of the dealer/blinds and each player can call the bet, raise or fold their hand. Unlike an ante, the blinds are considered a real money bet, so the players who paid the blind bets are already involved in the hand, so to call, they only need to match any further raises before them.

After the first betting round, three of the five community cards are turned face up in the middle of the table, in poker this is called "the flop".

After the flop, there is another round of betting starting from the player to the left of the dealer, there are no blinds paid in the other betting rounds and the dealer is the last player to call the action on the other rounds of betting.

After the second round of bets, a fourth card is turned face up in the middle of the table, this is called the "turn" card, sometimes also referred to as "fourth street".

Another betting round follows, then a fifth community card is drawn, in holdem poker, we call this the "River" card.

A final round of checks, folds, calls and raises follow, this final betting round leads to the showdown, where players turn over the cards to decide a winner.

Players reveal their hand from the player left of the dealer around to the left. If you know you are beaten by any player who reveals their cards before you, you can "muck" your hand, which means you throw it away without showing what you lost with.

If you don't know the order of winning poker hands, check out our poker hand rank chart.