Chapter 1
Just Tell Me How to Play: Texas Hold’em Basics
IN THIS CHAPTER
Playing in turn
Dealing the deck
Becoming blind
Betting and caring for your bankroll
Playing properly
Thirty years ago, Texas Hold’em lived in relative Poker obscurity. When co-author Mark “The Red” Harlan was playing in casinos, it was fairly common for people to come up and ask him about the game.
A little more than a decade ago, the perfect Hold’em storm was created: Chris Moneymaker won the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series (pocketing more than $2 million off of a $40 entry fee), the World Poker Tour became the most successful program in the history of the Travel Channel, and online play became prevalent. Today people of all backgrounds play Hold’em around the kitchen table, in casinos, and online. It’s the most popular variation of Poker around.
The first time you see Texas Hold’em played, it can feel a little bit like the inside joke that only you don’t get. Don’t sweat it, though. Hold’em is an easy game to understand.
What’s not as obvious is how much money you should take to the table, as well as the social standards of playing. We cover it all in this chapter.
The Order of Play
When Hold’em is played in a professional cardroom (be it online or in a brick-and-mortar casino), a dealer button acts as the theoretical point that the cards are being dealt from (more on that in the following section). This button moves one position clockwise around the table at the conclusion of every hand.
The player in the position immediately to the left of the dealer (that is to say, clockwise) posts an automatic bet called the small blind, and the player immediately to his left (or two places to the left of the dealer) posts an automatic bet known as the big blind. These are forced bets that players must make in order to get dealt into the game. All other players get to see their hands “for free.”
Players decide whether to play or fold (quit) in a clockwise position, starting with the player immediately to the left (clockwise) of the big blind. Any players who fold are no longer eligible for the pot and are skipped over in subsequent betting rounds for that specific hand.
In Hold’em, your position relative to the other players is critical. When you’re in the beginning of the betting order, your cards have to be of higher quality than the cards you would normally play in later position — especially if lots of players are left in the hand — because you have no idea what evil may lurk beyond. (For more detail on playing by position, see Book 3, Chapter 2.)
Likewise, if you’re riding at the back of the calling order, you can afford to play looser hands (those that aren’t as high quality) and hope to catch cards to break people’s dreams. In fact, pot odds (the amount you bet relative to the amount you would win) say that sometimes you should call, even when you have a lesser hand.
Understanding Who Deals: The Dealer Button
If you’re used to playing Poker at your kitchen table, you’re probably familiar with rotating the deal from player to player at the end of every hand.
In a professional cardroom, the house employee that deals the cards isn’t actually involved in the hand. That casino employee (also, a little confusingly, called the dealer) merely acts as a sometimes-wise-cracking card-distribution and pot-collection/distribution mechanism. The house doesn’t have a vested interest in the hand; instead, it makes its money through the rake (a percentage of every pot).
When cards are dealt, the house acts as though there is a virtual dealer at the table, using a small round white marker with a D on it (for dealer) to signify the chosen dealer of the moment. Cards are dealt around the table in an order as though they’re coming from the dealer marker, and all betting action starts immediately clockwise from that position.
Moving the dealer button around the table ensures that all people get to play all positions throughout a long session of cards.
Dealing the Cards
The order in which Hold’em is dealt is very specific and, assuming you’re playing with a table full of lucid, honest people, never changes.
The hole cards
Starting with the player clockwise from the dealer button, all players are dealt two hole cards, one at a time, in a clockwise fashion. You are allowed to look at your hole cards (in fact you should — unless your psychic powers are way, way up there, it would be hard to know exactly what kind of hand you had if you didn’t). However, for the most part you should not show these cards to other players, even when folding — more on that in the “Following Poker Etiquette” section, later in this chapter.
Be very careful to not expose your hole cards to other players as you peek at them. You’re allowed to use both of your hands to look at your cards (although you’re not allowed to take your cards off the edge of the table) and should do so to help keep them shielded from prying eyes. Always memorize your cards when you look at them, including the suit — this will keep you from having to refer to them again when something like a flush or straight draw hits the board (if you do, it’ll be obvious that you’re looking to see if you hit your straight or flush draw).
When you’re dealt your hole cards, it’s not a bad idea to wait and not look at either of them until it’s your turn to act. This way you can watch other players around the table as they glimpse at their cards for possible hints as to what they may have (see Book 3, Chapter 6 for more on tells). This strategy also keeps you from being obvious about whether you’re going to bet or fold well before it’s your turn to act.
If you do decide to wait to look at your hole cards, nearly every player at the table will be looking at you as you glimpse your cards. Have your best Poker face ready. (If you don’t have the ability to generate a good Poker face, sneak a peek at each of your cards, one at a time as they are dealt.)
The flop
After a round of betting for the hole cards (see “Betting” later in this chapter), a card is burned off the top of the deck (meaning discarded without being looked at — this is done in case the top card had somehow been exposed or marked), and three cards are dealt face-up to the center of the table. This is known as the flop and is the start of the community cards on the table — those cards that everyone may incorporate in his hand.
Everyone who has not folded now has a five-card hand — two hole cards combined with the three community cards. A round of betting takes place.
The turn
After the flop betting round, another card is burned from the deck and a fourth community card is exposed. This card is known as the turn (sometimes fourth street).
All players still in the hand now have six cards to choose from to make their best five-card Poker hands. There is another round of betting and one more card yet to be exposed.
The river
A card is burned and the most infamous of community cards, the river (sometimes called fifth street) is dealt. All remaining players have seven cards for selecting their best five-card Poker hand (their two hole cards combined with the five community cards). A round of betting takes place, and the best five-card hand at the table is the winner. (Book 3, Chapter 5 has more details about playing in the river.)
To determine their five-card hand, players may use zero, one, or both of their hole cards in combination with five, four, or three community cards, respectively.
Because a player is required to use at least three community cards to make a hand, there can be no flushes if there are not three cards of the same suit (multiple suits with no flush possibilities based on the current exposed community cards is known as a rainbow). Nor can there be a straight if there aren’t three cards from a five-card sequence (for example, 5-8-9).
In Figure 1-1, George is playing the board and has a king-high heart flush. John is using one hole card for an ace-high flush, but Ringo is the big winner using both hole cards for a straight flush.
The showdown
If everyone in a hand has folded, leaving a single player, that person wins the pot by default and is not required to show his hand to any player at the table in any way.
If more than one player at the table is still in a hand, and the final betting round has ended, the game has entered a phase known as the showdown (the part where people expose their cards to see who has won).
Anyone still in the hand may turn over his cards at this point, but people are usually reluctant to do so. If no one is making a motion to show his hand, the last person to raise (or the first person to bet if there were no raises on the river) in the final round of betting exposes his hand first — the theory being that this is the hand that everyone else called. (If no one bet on the river, the player closest to the dealer has to expose his hand first.)
Players are welcome, if not encouraged, to muck a losing hand without showing it. After a hand has been mucked (meaning turned face-down and pushed into the discards beyond the player’s control), the hand is considered dead and no longer in competition for the pot.
After the first hand is exposed, remaining players expose their hands in a clockwise order. The dealer will muck losing hands one by one, leaving only the winning hand exposed for the awarding of the pot. When the dealer has determined a winner, she will push the pot in the direction of the player, and at that point, the winner is welcome to drag the pot in.
Don’t ever trust another player when he announces a hand at the end of a showdown and muck your hand based on that information. After you’ve mucked your hand, it is truly dead and you can never bring it back. If there is an error on a player’s call, other players may lie to you as a “joke.” It’s even more likely that they’ll misread a hand. (We bet we’ve seen people read a combined hand of four spades and three clubs as a “flush” a hundred times in my life.) If you have any question as to who won a hand when you’re involved in a showdown, merely turn your hand over and let the dealer make the decision.
Posting Blinds
In order to start betting in Hold’em, forced bets (known as blinds) are made by the two players immediately clockwise from the dealer button. The person immediately clockwise from the dealer has the small blind, and the next player clockwise has the big blind. Making blind bets is known as posting, and this is done before any cards are dealt.
The size of the bets is determined by the limits of the game that you’re playing, and the small blind is nearly always half of the big blind (for more, see “Betting,” later in this chapter). So a $2/$4 Limit Hold’em game has a small blind of $1 and a big blind of $2.
Blinds are forced bets. The players in these positions must make these bets or they aren’t dealt cards in the hand. These blinds, in turn, force betting action on the table after everyone has been dealt their hole cards.
Figure 1-2 shows a $2/$4 Limit Hold’em game. The hole cards have just been dealt, with Groucho as the dealer, Zeppo the small blind, and Chico the big blind. Harpo is the first to act and must now either call the $2 big blind bet, raise to $4, or fold (turn to “Limit Hold’em,” later in this chapter, for a description on Limit betting). Checking is not an option for Harpo, because the big blind counts as a bet. Harpo’s position of being first to act is known as being under the gun.
Betting: Just the Lowdown
A bet is when a player makes a wager on a Poker hand. In Hold’em, there are four betting rounds (times when players make betting action around the table). These rounds always come after players see the cards: after the hole cards are dealt, after the flop, after the turn, and after the river.
When it’s a player’s turn to act (meaning it’s his turn to bet), the player has a few choices. If no bets have previously been made in the round, he may:
- Check: That is, choose not to bet at the moment but still be in the hand.
- Bet: Make a bet on the hand.
If someone has already made a bet when it’s a player’s turn to act in a round, the player may:
- Fold: Muck his hand and lose any chance at winning the pot.
- Call: Match the bet that has been made previously. He still has full rights to winning the pot.
- Raise: Match the bet that was made previously and then add more (being careful not to string raise — see the “Poker Etiquette” section of this chapter for more). Everyone left at the table must call the size of this raise, or they can fold.
A betting round ends when all players have put the same amount of money into the pot (with the exception of all-in) and all players have had an opportunity to act.
The amount and the style in which you can bet in Hold’em are determined before the game has started. The betting types are known as Spread-Limit, Limit, Pot-Limit, and No-Limit.
Spread-Limit Hold’em
In Spread-Limit games, you’re allowed to bet any amount, within a given range, during a betting round. So in a $1 to $5 game you’re allowed to bet $1, $2, $3, $4, or $5.
About the only place you find Spread-Limit Hold’em is playing at other people’s kitchen-table home games. Professional card houses dealing a Spread-Limit game are very rare, indeed, tending to happen only in places sitting in Poker backwaters.
Typically in Spread-Limit, your raise must be at least equal in size to the bet in front of you. If someone bets $3 in a $1 to $5 game, and you want to raise, you can raise by $3, $4, or $5 only. Don’t be afraid to ask the dealer what the betting rules are if you come across a Spread-Limit game.
Usually, the minimum buy-in (the amount you need to start playing the game) in a Spread-Limit game is ten times the lowest betting amount — so $10 in a $1 to $5 game. There is no maximum.
Limit Hold’em
When you run into a Hold’em ring game (that is, a game where people are playing for money on the table, as opposed to a tournament with a prize structure) in a professional cardroom, the most common game you’ll find (especially in the lower betting ranges) is the form known as Limit. In Limit, assuming you don’t check, you must bet exactly the amounts prescribed by the game in each round — no more and no less.
Limit is always described by two numbers: The biggest is twice the size of the smallest — for example, $10/$20 (said, “ten-twenty” with the $ ignored). The smaller of the two numbers is the exact amount players must bet (or raise) after seeing their hole cards and the flop. This means the smaller number is also the size of the big blind (because that is the forced first bet in Hold’em) and the small blind is half that amount ($5 in a $10/$20 Limit game). The larger number is what must be bet (or raised) on the turn and the river.
In casinos and cardrooms, Limit games typically start at $2/$4 and run up into the hundreds of dollars. Limit typically has a minimum buy-in of ten times the smaller bet size. So a $2/$4 game requires a buy-in of at least $20. There is no maximum.
Limit tends to be the hardest variation of Poker to bluff (bet as though you have a good hand when you actually don’t in an effort to get others to fold) because the bet sizes are regulated. (See Book 3, Chapter 7 for more on bluffing.)
Pot-Limit Hold’em
Pot-Limit is the rarest form of Hold’em played today. We’re listing it just to be complete, but don’t sweat the details — you’ll probably play a lot of Hold’em before you run across a Pot-Limit game.
Like Limit, Pot-Limit is always listed as two dollar figures, say $1/$2. You’re typically allowed to buy in for a minimum of ten times the smaller dollar figure with no maximum.
In Pot-Limit, the amount you’re allowed to bet is the same as it would be in Limit, but the amount you’re allowed to raise is equal to the size of the pot. For example, say you’re playing in a $1/$2 Pot-Limit game and you’re under the gun. The blinds in front of you are $1 and $2. If you want to play in the hand, your minimum call is $2, just as if it had been a Limit game.
If you want to raise, the pot is calculated as though you already had called. You’re allowed to raise anywhere between the amount of the bet to call and the size of the pot. In the $1/$2 game we’ve been talking about here, if you’re under the gun, you could raise anything from $2 up to $5 (the pot being the two blinds [$1 + $2], plus the theoretical “call” you would have made of the big blind [$2]: $2 + $2 + $1 = $5). Additional raises are handled similarly
As you can see, it gets pricey fast (and with all this calculation, it’s no wonder people never play it).
No-Limit Hold’em
It the olden days, say 30 years ago, No-Limit was a rarely played version of Hold’em — mostly, if not exclusively, attended by the extremely well heeled and the terminally vicious. Learning was an exercise in how far you were willing to drain your checking account.
Today, thanks to televised Poker broadcasting, running the gamut from the World Poker Tour to Stars You Never Really Liked Play Poker!, No-Limit is probably the best-known version of the game.
No-Limit Hold’em is a vicious and diabolical game, where the rules are only slightly more complicated than “you can bet any amount at any time.”
The most common way to see a ring game No-Limit table described is something like “$1/$2.” When you do, these are the amounts of the blinds and the lower limits of the betting. The upper limit that can be bet on any given hand is however much any player has sitting on a table.
Buy-in is typically limited to a minimum of ten times the lower dollar figure and 100 times the upper dollar figure, so for a $1/$2 No-Limit game, your buy-in could be anything between $10 and $200. (The other way you’ll sometimes see No-Limit described is by the maximum buy-in, say “$200.” If you see a single number describing a No-Limit game, this is the maximum buy-in for that game — ask the dealer what the blinds are.)
As a general rule, you want to have something very close to the upper limit of the buy-in when you sit down at a table so you’re not immediately intimidated (or just flat cleaned out) in a hand by someone with a considerably larger stack.
When you sit at a No-Limit table, you’re not allowed to remove chips from the table (that is to, say, pocket some of your winnings) until you leave the game altogether. When you do leave a game, you’re typically not allowed to reenter for a specified time limit (usually 30 minutes or more).
In case you haven’t figured it out by now, No-Limit is an extremely dangerous form of the game. Just like doing trapeze without a net, the lack of limits on the betting doesn’t make the tricks any more difficult — it just makes the penalties more severe. Starting out your Hold’em career with something like a No-Limit ring game is a very good way to watch your wallet walk south.
If you’re interested in learning No-Limit, you should play Limit first until you’re comfortable, and then move along to small buy-in tournaments.
Grasping the Importance of Your Bankroll
You have to pay to play, but all that play isn’t going to last very long if you don’t have enough supporting cash behind your game to survive the bad times.
You don’t have to play Poker to win. It’s perfectly fine to just have your time at the table as a form of entertainment, but if you’re playing to win, the total cash available to you (your bankroll) will make the difference between ongoing enjoyment of the game and sitting on the rail wondering what’s on TV.
If you’ve never been exposed to the basic concept of necessary bankroll before, you’re probably going to be shocked about the amount of money we’re talking about here. So take a deep breath. Meditate. Go to your happy place. That’s right, play with the cute puppy. Okay, now, read on… .
Recommended bankroll sizes
A bankroll is what will help you prosper when you’re winning and stave off the poor times when you’re losing. Because of the vagaries of luck, you need to have a thick cushion under you if you take a big fall.
Bankroll for Limit
If you begin as a Limit player, you should have a bankroll that is at least 300 times the maximum bet size. So for a $2/$4 game, you should have $1,200 earmarked for your Poker play.
That’s not to say you should walk up to a $2/$4 table with $1,200 in your pocket (in fact, you definitely should not do that), but that amount should be the amount of cash that you think of being at your disposal against your Poker quests as a whole.
It’s not unusual for a beginning player to lose as many as 50 big bets over the first several hours of Poker play. A bigger bankroll will let you ride over the top of this initial loss to watch things grow later on.
Bankroll for No-Limit
As you would guess, No-Limit, due to the brutal nature of the game, requires even more cushion. You should have an absolute minimum bankroll of ten maximum buy-ins for the game you’re interested in playing. A $1/$2 No-Limit ring game will probably have a maximum buy-in of $200, so a minimum bankroll for this game would be $2,000 (and double that would actually be safer).
Bankroll for tournament play
Tournaments tend to have wilder swings — especially multi-table tournaments where you might have a dry streak that runs for weeks, only to hit a big one to win it all back.
For single-table tournaments (like satellites for bigger tourneys), you should have 100 times the buy-in. If you play in $10 tournaments, that means $1,000.
For multiple tables, you need even more. A bare minimum of 300 times the buy-in is more appropriate (and don’t forget to count rebuys as part of the tournament fee). So if you’re playing in $10 tournaments where you’re rebuying twice, from your bankroll’s point of view that’s actually a $30 tournament. This means you need — yes, that’s right — $9,000 to weather the storm. Told ya this would get your blood pressure up.
Moving up and moving down in limits
When you’ve got a nice cushy bankroll under you, you still have to be able to adjust to your wins and losses as you play merrily along.
Keeping records
Assuming you want to be a winning player, to keep tabs on how you’re doing overall, you must keep records of your play. You can be as sophisticated as you’d like (who was playing, time of day, what you ate), but really the most important thing is to track your wins and losses across each Poker session.
A simple spreadsheet or even just a small hard-bound notebook (spirals lose pages too easily) that you take with you will do the trick. Write down every session, no matter how big or how small the losses. And don’t make an excuse to not record something, “I was really drunk at the time” doesn’t matter to a diminishing stack of George Washingtons in your bank account.
How important is keeping records? If two players have exactly the same level of skill — one keeps records, and the other doesn’t — the record keeper will win more money over time because he’s more aware of how his game is affecting his bottom line and can adjust accordingly.
Going down
You need to be more leery of losing than winning, so it’s the red ink in your ledger that you should be keeping an eye on. If you find that you’ve lost half your bankroll for the limit you assigned yourself, you need to move down one level in the limits that you play. So if your $2/$4 bankroll was $1,200 and you’ve seen it whittle down to $600, you need to move over to the $1/$2 table.
You also should examine your play in general for any leaks in your play — that is, mistakes that are costing you money.
Movin’ on up
If you’re in the envious position of having doubled your bankroll, you’re now able to move up one limit at will. Yes, doubling your bankroll is a lot to win before moving, but it will prove, without a doubt, that you’re not on a lucky streak and give you both the experience and confidence you need for the next level.
Moving up one limit in Poker is always harder. If you assume that after you move up you’ll automatically be as successful as you just were, you’re opening yourself up for a (small) world of heartache.
Following Poker Etiquette
Poker etiquette goes beyond just being nice, being pleasant, saying “excuse me,” and not chucking your chair at the dealer when he turns an unfriendly card. It’s mostly rituals and customs for what happens around a card table. Repeatedly ignoring any of the rules listed in this section may get you removed from a professional Poker room.
Handling your cards
To play cards, you first have to know how to physically handle them.
- When you get your hole cards, don’t take them beyond the edge of the table. Look at them quickly, memorize them, and then protect them.
- If the cards you’re playing with are cardboard-based (like the kind you messed around with when you were a kid), be careful not to bend or warp them. If you notice a deck is being warped, notify your dealer. (All-plastic playing cards, such as Kem brand, can be bent considerably more without warping effects.)
- Keep your cards visible at all times. This lets the other players and the dealer know that you still have a vested interest in the game.
- Don’t rip your cards in half when you take the most unbelievable beat of your life from the guy who started dating your ex-girlfriend and who is now mocking you. Well, maybe.
- Don’t fold out of turn. When you do fold, push them face-down to the dealer across the felt. After you’ve pushed your hand and let go of it, it’s officially mucked and dead.
Handling your chips
You should know Poker chip basics as well.
- Keep in mind that only the chips on the table are eligible for that given hand. You are not allowed to pull chips out of your pocket to play in a hand after cards have been dealt.
- In No-Limit, you’re not allowed to take chips off the table until you’ve decided that you’re going to leave the game.
- In tournament play, you must keep your keeps stacked and readily visible/countable to all players and tournament officials. You also have to carry them in full sight of everyone when you move from table to table.
- When you want to raise a player, say “raise” to the dealer and then place the bet on the table. If you’re playing No-Limit, you must move the total amount of the raise in one motion or you should call the exact amount you want to bet. (Putting money on the table as though it were a call and then saying “raise” to put more money out is strictly prohibited. Doing so is known as a string raise.)
- Place your bets out in front of you on the table, not mixed in with the rest of the pot (mixing with the rest of the pot is known as splashing). Placing your bets in front of you lets the dealer make sure the pot has the correct bets and amounts from all the players in it.
- Do not touch another player’s chips. Even if your halo is glowing that day.
- Do not start moving a pot toward you until the dealer has declared your hand a winner and is moving the pot toward you.
- Do not bet out of turn.
Playing in turn
Poker is played clockwise, with the first person to act being to the left of the dealer button (or to the left of the big blind pre-flop). The closest player to your right must act before you do, so you should be cuing off of her play. If you’re sitting next to a player who tends to act out of turn, base your movement on the player to her right.
Playing in turn is especially important on the river. Be certain that all betting action has ceased and no one is still waiting to make a betting decision before you turn over your cards.
Tipping the dealer
In ring game play, tipping the dealer a buck when you win a hand is customary. Most dealers only make minimum wage and depend on your tips to make a living. Not to play the guilt card or anything… .
Keeping an eye on the game
When you play Poker, especially if you’re in an unfamiliar environment, keep an eye on what’s going on around you. You have two people you can turn to, your dealer and the floorperson.
Talking to your dealer
If you run across any problem at a table — be it the way a hand was declared or an incorrect deal — talk to the dealer immediately. The dealer is the boss of the table. You’ll be amazed at how many know-it-alls on a table will try to straighten out problems or solve big messes. They don’t have any authority in a Poker room, but the dealer does. Again, talk to the dealer.
Asking for a floorperson
In our experience, dealers are most likely to make mistakes in one of two ways:
- By incorrectly paying a board that has been counterfeited
- By getting too deeply involved in a conversation with someone else around the table
If the dealer has made a mistake — for example, paid a hand off incorrectly, called a winning hand incorrectly, or allowed some type of action at the table that you think is clearly egregious — ask for the floorperson. The floorperson handles any problems at the table and is essentially the dealer’s supervisor.
If you do need a floorperson, the demeanor of the table is likely going to be fairly aggravated and hot. Explain the situation with the floorperson and only speak when spoken to. Don’t argue with other players, even if those players are talking directly to you.
Watching your manners
If you play Poker long enough, you will be beaten by the turn of an unlucky card. It’s not a question of “if,” it’s a question of “when.” If you can’t deal with the pure concept of chance, you should seriously consider taking up an all-skill game like chess.
Nobody wants to hear someone whine about a beat he just took, and if you’re new to the game, you can be certain someone else sitting at the table has just had exactly the same kind of horror unleashed upon her. Just suck it up and live with it.
It’s never okay to insult another player, throw cards at a dealer, or hurl your beer bottle through the mirror behind the bar. If the game is getting too tough or too intense, take a walk or call it a night. There’s always another game somewhere.
It’s just a game, unless you’re a professional. And if you’re a professional, you should behave like one.
