Contents
Intro to Texas Hold’em
Hands and Hand Rankings in Texas Hold’em
How Texas Hold’em Game Play Works
How to Bet in Texas Hold’em
Limit, Pot Limit, and No Limit Texas Hold’em
How to Start Hands to Play
Hands to Play After the Flop
How to Use Pot Odds in Hold’em
Texas Hold’em Strategies
How to Play Position in Hold’em
How to Read Other Hold’em Players
Texas Hold’em Tournament Strategies
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How to Bet in Texas Hold’em
Betting in Texas hold’em is similar to betting in most other forms of poker, but with a few tweaks. To understand how to bet in Texas hold’em, you first need to know a few basic poker-betting concepts.
Betting Order
In Texas hold’em, the betting order moves leftward around the table, but there’s a slight difference in the betting order between the first betting round (after the hole cards are dealt) and subsequent betting rounds:
- Order of first betting round: The first player to bet in this round is the player to the left of the big blind.
- Order of subsequent betting rounds: The first player to bet in subsequent rounds is whichever remaining player is to the dealer’s immediate left.
Betting Options
When it’s your turn to bet in Texas hold’em (and poker in general), you’ll have a number of options to choose from, depending on the situation.
Check
If you’re the first to bet in a round, no player before you has bet, and there is no minimum required bet, you can check, which is a kind of pass—you neither bet nor fold. If your hand is weak and you have the option of checking, always check rather than fold. It’s possible that everyone else will also check, and you’ll get to see another card dealt without having to bet. That card might transform your hand from a weak one to a potentially strong one. To check, either say “check” or just tap the table.
The rules for checking in Texas hold’em are different for the first round than they are for all subsequent rounds:
- The first betting round: No checking is allowed in the first betting round—with one exception: each player in the first round must make a minimum bet equal to the amount in the big blind in order to stay in the game. Even the player who paid the small blind must put in additional chips to equal a total bet of at least the big blind. If no one raises, or bets more than the big blind, the player who put in the big blind can check.
- Subsequent betting rounds: In all betting rounds after the first, players can check if they’re the first to bet or if no previous players in the round have bet.
If you do check and someone else bets afterward, you’ll have to either call or raise the bet, or fold.
Bet
If you believe your cards are strong enough that you have a shot at winning the hand and no other players have bet, then you should bet. Depending on the variation of Texas hold’em that you’re playing and the betting round you’re in, you may have to bet a specific amount or you may be able to bet any amount as long as it’s at least equal to the big blind.
Call or Raise
If other players have already bet before it’s your turn to bet, then you have two betting options:
- Call: Calling means that you bet the same amount as the previous player. If other players have already bet, you must at least call in order to stay in the hand. If you don’t want to call, you must fold. To call, say “call” and put the appropriate chips in front of you.
- Raise: Raising means that you bet more than the previous player bet. If you raise, everyone who wants to remain in the hand must at least call your raise when the betting comes back around to them. If someone reraises (raises your raise), then everyone, including you, must at least call that raise to stay in the hand. In Texas hold’em, raises typically must equal at least the value of the big blind. For instance, if the big blind is $10, you must raise at least $10 or higher. You can’t raise just $5, since that’s less than the $10 big blind. To raise, say either how much you’re raising over the previous bet (“I raise $10”) or the amount you are raising the total to (“I raise to $20”), and put all the necessary chips in front of you at once.
Some variations of Texas hold’em limit the amount a player can raise at a time, as well as the number of times a player can reraise. (For more on limits, see Limit, Pot Limit, and No Limit Texas Hold’em.)
Fold
If your cards are too weak to justify getting involved in or continuing with betting, you can fold (give up your hand) and hope for better cards in the next hand. To fold, place your cards face down on the table and push them toward the dealer.
End of a Betting Round
A betting round comes to an end once all of the players have folded, once someone has called the highest raise, or if a reraising limit is in effect. At that point, the dealer should say “the pot is good” and bring everyone’s chips to the middle of the table. If there are more cards to be dealt, the dealer will deal them and another round of betting will begin.
If two or more players are still in the game at the end of the last betting round, the players show their hands in the following order to determine who wins:
- The first player to bet, or the player who raised most recently, shows his or her hand first.
- Continuing in clockwise order from that person, each player whose hand beats or ties the first person's hand shows his hand. If a player’s hand doesn’t beat or tie the first person’s hand, he mucks. Mucking refers to sliding your cards to the dealer without showing them.
Side Pots
If your stack of chips is low, it’s possible that another player will bet more chips than you have. You don’t have to fold in this situation—instead, you can stay in the hand by betting all your remaining chips, which is called “going all in.” When this occurs, a main pot is formed by pooling the chips bet by the player who has just gone all in with an equal number of chips bet by the other players. The rest of the chips bet go into a side pot, consisting of additional bets from the other active players. A player can only win a pot that she has money in. For example, imagine a scenario in which all the players call a $10 big blind preflop, leaving player A with $90 worth of chips, player B with $85, and player C with $15.
- After the flop, player A bets $25, player B calls the bet, and player C goes all in with his $15 to stay in the hand. The dealer puts together a main pot of the $30 bet preflop plus $15 each from players A, B, and C ($75 total.) The rest of the money, $20, goes into a side pot.
- The hand proceeds through the turn and river, which come up 6 of diamonds and Q of clubs. Player A bets $25 in both better rounds, and player B calls both bets. Their bets go into the side pot, which is now $120.
- Everyone turns up their cards. Player C has three of a kind (J-J-J-K-Q). Player A has two pair (J-J-2-2-K). Player B has one pair (K-K-Q-J-9). Player C has the best hand but is only eligible to win the $75 main pot. Player A wins the $120 side pot. If player A had had the best hand, he would have won both the side pot and the main pot.
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