Hold um Poker
Poker rooms in Las Vegas and around the world are enjoying a boom due to the popularity of on-line poker rooms and televised tournaments by the Travel Channel, Fox Sports and ESPN to name a few. Coming very soon is a dedicated cable channel in the United States for poker and other casino related games.
One of the most popular games both online and at poker room's around the world is Hold'em aka Hold um, Holden, Hold'in and even Hold'um. Hold um is played with as many as 11 players', there's just one dealer, usually with a small
Ante of less than 10% of the minimum bet. We will deal with Internet play here.
Hold um Player Positions
The dealer is stationary, so a button is used to identify player position relative to the rotation of the deal. This is to ensure that every participating player has an equal turn in the seating arrangement to take advantage of the positional aspects the betting sequence.
The person to the left of the button (imaginary dealer) makes the first bet and the button holder him/herself makes the last bet. The betting sequence is important because as the betting progresses each player to the left of the dealer (starting with position 2) has the opportunity to evaluate the player/players action to his/her immediate right with the last player (the player to the right of the button (imaginary dealer) getting a full view of what every players action has been.
Hold um Blind Bets
Hold um usually has a blind bet. A blind bet is a bet made by the player to the directly to the buttons left and is made before this player looks at his/her cards. The blind is done to increase the pot and promote action in the game. A blind bet is normally less the average be, an example would be in a $10-20$ game the blind would be about $2 to $4 and this bet can be raised by normally double the blind. The blind can vary from game to game so you must check with the room you're in to verify its rules.
Hold um Card Dealing
Each player receives two cards from the dealer dealt face down on at a time. The player to the left of the button is dealt the first card and the dealing sequence proceeds until each player has two cards with the player to the right of the button (imaginary dealer) receiving the last card.
Hold um First Betting Round
The first betting round opens after the last player receives his or her card with the blind making the first bet and each player to the left of the previous player then has the option to call (match the previous bet) the blind bet, raise the bet or fold (throw in his cards and option out of the game). Players are not allowed to check (checking simple means that the player opts not to bet) in the opening round.
The Flop Hold um
The flop in Hold um occurs after all players have made their choice to call or fold their hands. The dealer then turns face up 3 cards on the table. These are the first of 5 community cards with the first three known as the flop. Community cards can be used by all of the remaining players to make or form their individual best hands. In Hold um a total of sever cards are dealt, two face down to each player and five face up which can be used by all remaining players to form the best possible 5 card hand.
Hold um Second Betting Round
The flop begins the second betting round with the blind making the bet; if he has folded his cards prior to the flop the player who is closest to the left of the button (imaginary dealer) makes the first second bet. In this round a player has the option to check (stay in the game without making a bet) and any player may open the second round if the players before him have opted to check. Depending on the game limits, to open the round of betting a player must bet the minimum set limit. Example if it's a $10-$20 game then the bet must be at least $10, and this bet can be raised in increments of $10 by any an all players who are left in the game.
The betting round continues until all bet have been called or all of the remaining players to the left of the last raise have folded their hand. In which case the last player to raise wins the hand.
Hold um The Turn/ Fourth Street
After the second betting round is complete the next card is dealt which is known as Fourth Street, this card is dealt face up and is also a community card that can be used by all remaining players.
Hold um Third Betting Round
The third betting round proceeds much like the second except that the upper limits are used. The first player left in the game to the left of the button makes the bet and in our example $10-$20 game he/she must at least bet $20 and all sub quant raises must be in increments of $20. In this round as in the second round of betting, players have the choice of calling, raising or checking to the next player.
The betting round continues until all bet have been called or all of the remaining players to the left of the last raise have folded their hand. In which case the last player to raise wins the hand.
Hold um The River/Fifth Street
The fifth card is dealt face up after the third round of betting is complete. This community card can be used by all remaining players is know as the River/Fifth Street, completes the dealing and is the last chance for a player to form or make a winning hand.
Hold um Fourth/Last Betting Round
Dealing the River card begins the last round of betting which proceeds as the third round until all bets and raises have been made and called or a player has opted to fold. If there are two or more players remaining after this round, then there is a showdown, with each player showing his/her cards with the highest hand winning the pot. In the case when all players refuse to call a bet or raise in any round of betting the last player to raise or bet wins the hand and does not have to show his/her cards.
Hold um Strategy
Before you undertake to play Hold um you need to understand two fundamental rules to becoming a winning Hold um player, cards to stay with and your position at the table.
First dealing with the cards to stay with breaks down into three groups.
- Power Hold um Hands.
- Strong Hold um Hands.
- Cautious Hold um Hands
First know this, all of these hands are hands that you can lose with. The stronger your cards are at the beginning of play, the more money you stand to lose unless you become very aggressive and begin to raise no matter what position you're in. The reason for this is that you may allow other players with beginning weaker hands to beat you at the flop, turn or river. So if you are the type that attempts to "milk the pot" (allow players to stay in thinking that you can win a bigger pot) then you will soon find out that you'll lose most of the pots with this strategy. Let's look at each of the above categories.
- Power Hold um Hands
- A A
- K K
- A K (suited)
- Q Q
- A Q
You need to get out there and bet these cards at the outset aggressively regardless of your table position. The reason as stated above is that when the flop comes even these Power hands can weaken. Don't allow players with Strong and Cautious hands to hang around and beat you on the draw. You'll be in good shape even if other players call you unless the flop shows three of a kind, four flush or four straight that your hand isn't involved with (the flop is no help to your hand).
Poker is a game of patience, with a patience approach to the game you can greatly increase your chances of consistently winning. Remember, poker is a dynamic game, and understanding the dynamics is as much a key to winning as is knowing the hand rank or other fundamentals of the game.
With the above cards you have a 90% chance that you are in command at the outset of the game, but on the flop that percentage drops in proportion to how many players remain in the game. The more players left in the game to bigger the odds are that you'll be out drawn (someone will hit their card and beat you). So when you have to Power hands, get tough and play aggressive.
- Strong Hold um Hands
- A K (not suited)
- A Q (not suited)
- A J (not suited)
- A 10 (suited)
- K Q (suited)
Ace hands are king in Texas Hold um because a pair of aces is generally the winning hand. Holding a K Q of diamonds; if the 9 of spades, 6 of diamonds and 3 of clubs comes on the flop. With these cards you have lost the advantage and are not the favorite because one of the other players most likely has an ace or even to aces in their hand.
Any card that comes up on the Turn (Fourth Street) except for a diamond, king or queen on the River.
If you don't get it forget about these cards. A flop of King of spades, 10 of clubs, 5 of hearts followed by Fourth Street of 2 of diamonds and 5th Street of Ace of clubs buries you (this according to expert J. Edward Allen, author of many poker books including "The Bascis of Winning Poker"). Consider the Ace a scare card and figure that someone has combined for at least aces win an ace in their hand.
- Cautious Hold um Hands
- J J
- 10 10
- A J (not suited)
- A 10 (not suited)
- K J (suited)
- 9 9
- 8 8
- Q J (suited)
- J 10 (suited)
Hold these cards you must play very cautious, and attempt to stay in the game cheap until the flop to improve your hand. Example, you stay in with K J suited in clubs, and the flop comes up A of spades, 4 of diamonds and 3 of hearts.
At this point, you have to expect another player to have at least a pair of aces. You are dead and must throw in your cards.
This brings up another principle of Hold um, as stated above if you have the power cards bet them before the draw to prevent the strong and cautious hands from improving on the flop. This of course can be accomplished if you are positioned at the end of betting rounds.
