Rules of Texas Hold'em Poker

Now that you know the rules of Five Card Draw, Let It Ride and Pai Gow, it’s time to learn the most popular community poker game: Texas Hold’em. It has grown exponentially with tournaments like the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour. It has grown even more online with young people.

Texas Hold’em uses a standard 52-card deck with no Jokers. You form the best five-card poker hand from seven total cards. You bet chips into a pot and standard hand rankings apply. This poker game has four rounds of betting and you start with two hole cards dealt face down. A series of five community cards are dealt face up in the center of the table with a round of betting in between each deal. Hold’em has different varieties like limit, no-limit, Omaha and antes. Hold’em using blinds is the most popular.

With blinds, you have a small blind (person to the left of the dealer) and a big blind (person to the left of the small blind). As you might expect, the big blind is double the size of the small blind. The blinds are thrown in before the hole cards are dealt. The player to the left of the big blind starts each round of betting. They can call the big blind, raise or fold. No Limit Hold’em has no maximum on the amount of raises. Limit has a maximum of twice the big blind.

The first three community cards are known as the flop. This is followed by a round of betting, then the turn (fourth community card), another round of betting, then the river (final community card), and another round of betting. The river decides the outcome of those left in the hand. If there are only two players left, it’s called going heads-up. The pot gets bigger as play progresses, so it’s important to practice proper poker strategy. I will go over more on that in my next post.

Rules of Video Poker

Now that you know all about the different forms of poker like Pai Gow and Let It Ride, you should learn about video poker, which is basically an electronic version of Five Card Draw with variations.

Video poker is played against the dealer and has better than other electronic games like slots. Since it is just you and the dealer, you have plenty of time to make a decision. There isn’t the pressure of the action falling on you like in poker. Though there are many different video poker games, they all stem from standard hand rankings. The value of some cards change with each video poker game so read up before you start playing. Begin your video poker conquest for free with fun money at an online casino.

With some hands, you may have to discard everything if you have no high cards or possible straights. Avoid inside straight draws like 2, 3, 5, 6. There are only four possible winning cards, plus the wild cards if there are any. You have better odds with an outside straight draw like 3, 4, 5, 6. This gives you eight possible cards for a win in addition to the wild cards.

Always keep a pair over a single high card because you have a chance at a bigger payout like three of a kind. Always keep a winning hand unless you’re going after a Royal Flush, which is the best hand in video poker. Don’t fall for the bonus games. They are just like slot bonus games and based entirely on luck. Video poker is a strategy game so you don’t need to risk your win on luck.

Rules of Let It Ride Poker

Let It Ride is like Pai Gow Poker in that it is a different and popular form of poker, but that’s about all the two have in common. You play the dealer in Let It Ride Poker and the betting is quite different than Five Card Draw Poker.

The Let It Ride Poker table is shaped like a blackjack table and the rules are simple. It’s the betting that is tricky. Five cards are dealt face down with two going to the dealer and three to the player. The goal of Let It Ride is still to form the best five-card poker hand. You just have more rounds of betting before you can see all five cards. That doesn’t mean that Let It Ride is an expensive game though, as the rounds of betting can be minimal. Each player has three spots labeled 1, 2 and $.

So, after looking at your three cards, you can take away bet 1 to fold or you can stay in the hand, hence letting it ride. The dealer then turns over their first card to be added as the fourth card in your hand. Then, you can remove bet 2 or let it ride again. Next, the dealer turns of the second and last card to complete your hand. Now, all players left in the hand must turn their cards over to determine a winner, which is based on standard poker hand rankings. Let It Ride Poker is sort of like a combination of blackjack and poker in that it is fast-paced and requires strategy in addition to luck.

Rules of Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is pretty different than your standard Five Card Draw Poker. It’s quite a different take but it's a pretty popular casino game. It originated in China and you play only the dealer and not other players.

There are players, a dealer and a banker for a total of seven spots at the Pai Gow table. The players each get dealt seven cards and must form two separate hands in an effort to beat the banker. The banker’s role switches to another player every hand. The banker can also be the dealer. The dealer plays the hand like any other player when not the banker. Each player bets and the whole deck is dealt as each player gets seven cards.

The two hands each player makes is composed of five cards and two cards. The tricky part is the two-card hand must be lower in value than the five-card hand. It’s harder than it sounds because your first intention based on the standard rules of poker is to use the top pair but you can’t do this in Pai Gow.

The two hands of the player must beat that of the banker’s. The banker wins if the hands are equal. If one hand wins and one loses, it’s a push and you get your money back. The winning players get paid by the dealer from the banker’s funds. Thus, there can be more than one winning player. Losing player bets are paid to the banker. In general, the house takes a 5% commission on winning bets in Pai Gow Poker.