Featured Article: (CPMR Editor) PartyPoker.ComAs Big As They Claim To Be? |
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| TEXAS HOLD'EM IS AMERICA'S NEW NATIONAL PAST TIME! |
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By: Jon Hartson |
Move over baseball, here comes poker! In case you haven't heard -- there is a new national pastime, and that is POKER. Hold'Em Has taken America by storm and what a storm it has created. Everyone from your neighbor to your grandfather are digging up their old set of cards and setting up a weekly poker tournament. Don't believe me? Turn on your TV, you can't switch a dozen channels without seeing Poker! Over (5) Major Networks have purchased rights to broadcast major poker tournaments such as the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker, and Celebrity Poker Showdown. The growth is also in part due to the increasing popularity of modern online gambling. Sites such as Party Poker, Pacific Poker are growing larger with every passing moment. If your not registered online at such sites, you are being left behind! As recent as September 2004, Google released a list of the most popular searches with poker surging to 3rd place. With over 200million people alone seeking to know more information about the new phenomenon. Isn't it about time you got in on this and start winning some play or real money playing poker? Give PartyPoker a try today.
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How to Play Texas Hold'em:
Players make their best five-card poker hands using seven cards - two personal cards dealt to each player and five community cards available to all players.
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Texas Holdem Rules Review
For those of you unfamiliar, Lets review the standard rules of Texas Holdem
Texas Hold'em is a "community card" game, meaning that some cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table and shared by all the players. Each player has two down cards that are theirs alone, and combines them with the five community cards to make the best possible five-card hand.
Play begins by dealing two cards face down to each player; these are known as "hole cards" or "pocket cards". This is followed by a round of betting. Most hold'em games get the betting started with one or two "blind bets" to the left of the dealer. These are forced bets which must be made before seeing one's cards. Play proceeds clockwise from the blinds, with each player free to fold, call the blind bet, or raise. Usually the blinds are "live", meaning that they may raise themselves when the action gets back around to them.
Now three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table; this is called the "flop". A round of betting ensues, with action starting on the first blind, immediately to the dealers left. Another card is dealt face up (the "turn"), followed by another round of betting, again beginning to the dealer's left. Then the final card (the "river") is dealt followed by the final round of betting. In a structured-limit game, the bets on the turn and river are usually double the size of those before and on the flop.
The game is usually played for high only, and each player makes the best five-card combination to compete for the pot. Players usually use both their hole cards to make their best hand, but this is not required. A player may even choose to "play the board" and use no hole cards at all. Identical five-card hands split the pot; the sixth and seventh cards are not used to break ties.