All About Poker - Written by Pixel-Lotteries.com

A Few Poker Tips

2005-12-23T13:04:00.000Z

Try to sit to the left of a loose player. This means allows you to consider whether or not you should bother calling the bet. Nothing more annoying that calling and then getting raised big time.
Bluffing shouldn't be done when you have absolutely nothing! It means give off the impression you have a better hand than you actually do. If you bluff with nothing and they call, you could end up in big trouble.
When playing at casinos or online, try and take in the maximum possible amount onto the table with you. This allows you to maximize any wins you get.
Learn to be patient!! Even if you keep getting bad hands it doesn't mean the table owes you winning hands.
Be realistic - last time you folded a 27 you flopped a full-house? That was a good fold so don't bother playing next time either - it was just luck that you flopped a full-house.
Just because you've lost some money don't go crazy and loose more! Money saved is just as useful as money won.
Loose player suddenly checking? Could be a sign of danger so don't bluff!
No 27 unsuited is NOT your lucky hand, fold it!
Playing with reflective sunglasses is not a good idea... Yes one of my friends did this without realising and you could see his cards!
Don't play poker with what you can't afford.
Learn to give up great starting hands. Realise that AA or AK suited CAN still lose.
It's not about how much money you have put in the pot. It's about the money you need to put in at present.
You make money by making good decisions.

Things To Note About Shuffling

2005-12-23T13:01:00.001Z

Cutting The Cards

Once the cards have been shuffled they should be presented to one of the players (the one to the left of the dealer chip if playing at home). That player should then "cut the cards" by taking a number of cards from the top and placing them at the bottom of the remaining cards. This is another method of reducing the ability for someone to cheat.

Speeing Up the Game

To play poker more quickly it is advisable to use two decks of cards. Obviously they should be distinguishable so that you don't get them mixed up/no one cheats by keeping some of the cards.

The two decks of cards should be used alternately. See the instructions below:

Use one deck as normal. The other deck should be placed shuffled and ready to the right of the dealer.
Play the round as usual.
Once the round is over, the dealer that just dealt will pass the already prepared deck to the player to their left (i.e. the new dealer).
The new dealer will then deal.
At the same time the old dealer collects the deck of cards that were just used and shuffles, cuts them and then places it in front of him.
Repeat from step 2.

Burn Cards

2005-12-23T13:01:00.000Z

If you play poker in casinos or a poker club you will notice that before the flop, turn and river, a single card is dealt but not turned over to reveal it's face value. This is just traditional and reduces the chance of someone cheating.

The Types of Texas Holdem

2005-12-23T12:58:00.000Z

There are 3 types Texas Holdem poker that you can play:

1. Money/Standard - In these games you are playing with real money and can sit in or leave the table at anytime. It is important to note that the blinds are fixed. There are in fact four types of standard games:

No Limit, NL - This refers to a table that has no limit to how much you can bet, You may bet all your chips at anytime, which is called all in. Note that there are usually maximum amounts of cash that you can bring onto a table though. This is to stop showoffs/stupid players etc... bringing for example $1,000 onto a $0.01/$0.02 table.
Pot Limit, PL - This refers to when there is a set maximum amount that a player can bet, which is the equivilance of the pot. This means that at the maximum bets at the beginning are small but increase as the game progresses.
Set Limit, SL - A set maximum bet throughout the game.
Limit - The betting is very restricted.

2. Single Table Tournaments (STT) - STTs have a buy-in fee which determines the size of the prizes at the end. There are usually 6, 9 or 10 players at a table therefore the prize pool will be equal to the buy-in fee multiplied by the number of players.

Unlike standard games, in STT every player is given a set number of chips. The game carries on until only one player is left, i.e. it is a knockout game. The pot is then distributed between either the top 3 places or the winner gets all - check the tournament details to find out which it is.
Another fundamental difference between standard games of poker and STT is the fact that the blinds increase every x minutes. This is to ensure that players are eliminated as the game progresses.

3. Multi Table Tournaments (MTT) - MTT is the same as STT but with multiple tables. This means that there is a larger prize pool and therefore can yield much more cash than you invested in the first place. There can be over 100 players in these types of games and therefore it takes a very long time. Don't worry though as there are usually toilet/drink breaks every
hour.

The Complete Proceedings in Texas Holdem

2005-12-23T12:54:00.000Z

Now that we have discussed the basic poker proceedings, dealer chip and the betting process we can look at the complete proceedings in a round of Texas Holdem:

Blinds posted.
Cards dealt.
Round of betting. Action starts from the left of the big blind.
Flop, i.e. the first 3 community cards are dealt.
Round of betting. Aciton starts from the left of the dealer.
The Turn/4th street dealt.
Round of betting. Action starts from the left of the dealer.
The River/5th street dealt.
Last and final round of betting. Action starts from the left of the dealer.
Hands revealed from the left of the dealer. This only applies to the players still playing (haven't folded). The player to the left of the dealer HAS to show his cards but the rest do not unless they have a better hand. They can just simply throw it away, which is called "muck". For example using the 6 player table as discussed before, if the dealer chip is on player A and player B & C are the only 2 players left at the end of the game, player B has to show their hand. Lets say that it's a pair of jacks. If player C has a pair of tens he can decide not to show his cards and much his hand. On the other hand if he has a better hand than B, for example 3 of a kind tens, he must show his cards to prove that he has the most powerful hand.
Pot collected by the winner.
Dealer chip moved.
Cards collected, shuffled and then process starts again.

Betting

2005-12-23T12:42:00.000Z

In a round of betting the players take it in turn to bet, starting with the player with the action. Please note that each round of betting is independent and does not have any influence from the previous rounds of betting.

At the start of the round of bets the player with the action is presented with a choice of 3 actions:

Check
Bet
Fold

Please note that a player can only check when the players before them have checked. As discussed in the "Poker Terminology" section "check" refers to when you do not want to bet anything yet. You are basically passing the action onto the next player, i.e. the player to your left, until either everyone checks in which case that round of betting is over, or someone
bets in which case the action will carry on going around the table until everyone has bet the equal amount (or indeed fold).

When someone has bet, the choices the players have are as follows:

Call - Match the bet that the highest bettor has posted.
Fold - Give up
Re-Raise - Bet even more. Please note that this has to be integar multiples of what the previous bettor has posted.

In case this is unclear we shall use the following example. It may help to draw this out on paper. Diagrams will be added instead sometime in the near future but we need to draw them first:

Consider a 6 player table, with players A-F sitting down.
Blinds are $0.01/$0.02 - meaning that the small blind is $0.01 and the big blind is $0.02.
The dealer chip is on player A.
A round of poker starts.
Firstly the two blinds must be posted before anything else can occur. Therefore player B posts the small blind $0.01, and player C posts the big blind $0.02.
The two cards are then dealt out to each player and player D (remember - left of the big blind starts the action in the preflop betting round) starts the action.
Player D calls as he has good cards (AT suited). Note he could have checked, bet or folded.
Player E bets twice the minimum bet 2 x $0.02 = $0.04. Note that everyone must now at least match this value to play on and also that the betting must now be integar multiples of this value.
Player F,A and B fold.
Player C in fact has pocket aces (AA dealt to him) so re-raises to 8 x $0.04 = $0.32. Note that he could have called, re-raised or folded.
Player D folds.
Player E calls.
Round of betting over - goto next stage which is in this case the dealing of the flop.

Hopefully that example has helped to clarify things and not confused you further!

The Dealer Chip

2005-12-23T12:38:00.000Z

In any game of poker there is what is called a dealer chip, which basically determines the order of betting and who the first card is dealt to etc... At the beginning of the session a single card is dealt out to each of the players and the player with the highest ranking card is nominated as the initial dealer. Please note that in poker aces are normally assumed to be the highest ranking card, the only exception being when in use for a low straight (A2345). After the end of each round the dealer chip is passed onto the player to the left, i.e. the dealer chip moves in a clockwise direction after each round.

So what's the significance of the dealer chip? Why bother having it at all? Well if you're playing at home it means that everyone has to have their turn at dealing, which is much fairer. However they even have this little chip in casinos where there are professional dealers dealing for you - i.e. this isn't the main purpose of the dealer chip.

There are in fact three reasons for having the dealer chip:

Dealing - At the beginning of each round the cards are dealt to each player starting with the player to the left of the dealer. Note that the cards are dealt again in a clockwise fasion. Each player is dealt one card at a time, i.e. every player will have one card before the player to the left of the dealer receives their second card.
Blinds - In Texas Holdem there are small compulsory bets that have to be posted before the round starts. These are called blinds and there are two types, the small blind and the big blind. The big blind is double the value of the small blind and these are posted by the two players to the left of the dealer - the player sitting directly next to the dealer posts the small blind and the player to the left of him the big blind. The blinds exist to ensure that there is always some chips/cash in the pot, and also to set the minimum bet in a game of poker. The minimum bet is equal to the value of the big blind set at the table at that particular point in time. The exact betting procedure will be discussed in a later posting.
Action - Except for the preflop betting round the action always starts to the left of the dealer. Note - preflop the action in fact starts to the player to the left of the big blind.

As you can see the dealer chip is an essential part of playing poker so the points discussed above should be learnt. In fact just learn everything on this site!

The Basic Proceedings in Texas Holdem

2005-12-23T12:35:00.000Z

Below is a very simplified description of what happens in a round of Texas Holdem poker:

Two cards are dealt to each player and then five cards are dealt onto the table. These five cards are referred to as the "community cards".
Each player will select five out of the possible seven cards (two in their hand, five on the table) to form what is called a "hand". At the end of the round the players will compare their hands to find out who has the best hand and therefore wins the pot.
The cards are shuffled and the next round is started.

It is vital that you understand these proceeding before you read on to try and learn the more complex issues concerned with Texas Holdem poker.

Poker - The Hierarchy of Hands

2005-12-08T17:24:00.000Z

Each hand in poker has a certain value and some are more powerful than others. Below is the list of the different hands. Please note that they are listed most powerful at the top and least powerful at the bottom:

The Hierarchy of Hands

Royal Flush
Straight Flush
4 of a Kind
Full-House
Flush
Straight
3 of a Kind
2 Pair
Pair
High Card

Explanation into what is what will be added soon.

Poker - Technical Terms

2005-12-08T16:54:00.000Z

Before we start getting into the actual proceedings in a game of poker it's important to get two things sorted:

1. The Technical Terminology
2. The Hierarchy of Hands

In this particular post we'll be discussing some technical poker terminology. The reason we're splitting the 2 topics up is so it's easier for visitors to navigate this page and find what they're looking for.

Poker - Technical Terms

4th Street - See "The Turn"
5th Street - See "The River"
Action - Same meaning as "turn". "The action is on you" would mean "it's your turn".
All-in - The betting of all your chips in one go.
Blind - A small compulsory bet posted by the two players to the left of the dealer.
Burn Card - Everytime the dealer deals a set of cards onto the table, he will discard the first card by placing it on the table but not turning it over. This is traditional and ensures that noone knows what cards are going to come up.
Call - When you match someones bet. E.g. The player to your right bets 10p, if you see that 10p you are "calling".
Chase - Chasing a hand means that you are waiting for a particular card and are willing to keep playing in order to try and obtain that hand.
Check - If no one before you has bet you can "check", which means that you don't want to bet yet. The action will then move to the player to the left of you.
Community Cards - The 5 cards dealt onto the table that everyone can use are called "community cards".
Dealer - The person who deals the cards. Also more importantly, it dictates the order in which the players play as we'll discuss in later topics.
Draw - Refers to the fact that you are waiting for one more card to get the hand you want. It's most commonly used in the cases of a straight or a flush.
Flop - The first 3 cards to be dealt onto the table.
Fold - When you give up your cards and don't carry on in that round.
Hand - The 5 cards you select from the 2 dealt to you and the 5 dealt on the table that makes the best possible combination.
Kicker - If you have a pair, and one of the cards is in your hand and one on the table (community card), then the other card in your hand is refered to as a kicker. For example if the cards dealt to you are AK and there is a K in the community cards, your A will be your kicker (and a good one at that!).
Loose - Refers to a type of play. Referring to someone as a loose player means that they are risk takers and will take chances as long as there is a chance of winning.
Nut - The best hand possible in a round.
Outs - Refers to the cards in the deck that are still available that would give you a winning hand.
Pocket Pair - If the two cards dealt to you at the beginning of the game are a pair, e.g. AA, it is referred as a "pocket pair".
Pot - The total amount of cash the players have bet in a particular round. The winner will win the pot.
Raise - Pretty self-explanatory. If someone bets a certain amount and you bet more than that, it is called a "raise".
Re-Raise - Raising someone who has already raised is called a "re-raise".
Side-Pot - Sometimes the pot is split into several different pots. This is refered to as the "side-pot".
The River - The last card dealt onto the table out of the 5 cards.
The Turn - The 4th card to be dealt onto the table out of the 5 cards.

These definitions of the terms used in poker maybe a little confusing at first but it will make sense once you read the lessons above.

Please leave a comment if there's some missing as we're sure we haven't got all the terms.

Why Texas Hold 'em Poker?

2005-12-08T16:45:00.000Z

Texas Hold 'em (or Texas Holdem) poker seems to have caught on the most out of all the types of poker. If you play poker at all you'll most likely play Texas Holdem. The reason why Texas Hold 'em caught on so much is the fact that it requires a great deal of skill and time to master. The fact that you are constantly trying to outdo and outsmart your opponents is a great thrill and appeals to players.

Introduction

2005-12-08T16:36:00.000Z

Why have we decided to create a blog about poker? Well since our site is a gambling related site we only saw it fitting that we should create some gambling related blogs too to try and make our site a more useful resource.

This said we're not saying that we're great at playing poker, but we do have experience at playing it and in this blog we'll be looking at Texas Hold 'em rules, tactics etc...

So we hope that you find this blog useful!

Writen by: Hodaka Hashi (Webmaster Pixel-Lotteies.com)