The Home Game

If you're going to host a home game, you're going to need a set of chips. If you want to impress your guests-going on the theory that impressed guests are more likely to return-think about investing in a set of good poker chips. The sound that a good chip makes as it hits the felt, or the "clickety-clack" as it's stacked and restacked with others of its kind, can be as beautiful as any symphony.

The Home Game: Setting

Two decks of cards allow you to shuffle one while the other is in play. A word of advice: Use different colors. Decks that too "samey" have a tendency to get mixed together. Having two players turn over the same king-high flush is embarrassing and could, should you find yourself in a game of Old West desperadoes, lead to unnecessary bloodshed.

The Home Game: Setting

Investing in a felt poker table has the added psychological benefit of creating return players. There's something about the allure of the felt. . . . Must . . . have . . . felt. . . . If you're not ready to invest in an actual poker table yet, throwing a blanket over a dining room table makes for a reasonable if low-rent substitute.

The Home Game: Setting

If you are using your actual home, and you don't want to ding up your dining room furniture, you're going to need a poker table. Felt is nice. Felt is better than nice. Felt is perfect. So are padded edges, which give you a place to rest your elbows and reduce the chance of severe brain damage during those times you have to bang your head against the table.

The Home Game: Setting

A home game doesn't have to be in your house. You can host one at a cigar club, in a hotel, or in the conference room at your office. Russ Hamilton, winner of the World Series in 1994, learned how to play in a West Virginia coal mine. High-stakes pro Jennifer Harman's first home game was in the backroom of her father's bar in Reno.

Tarot Cards Poker - Steven Wright

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.

-Steven Wright

The Home Game: Who to Invite

How many people should you invite? If you're trying to learn how to play poker the "right" way, you'll want to have at least six-any fewer than that, and you'll be playing short-handed, a condition that requires you to dramatically change your style of play. While you can deal hold'em to as many as twenty-three players, more than nine or ten will usually result in a game that's slow, chaotic, and extremely annoying if the cards aren't flowing your way.

The Home Game: Who to Invite

The best opponents will be people who share your general level of enthusiasm for the game. Don't worry if one or two of them have a bit more experience- you'll be smart enough to stay out of their way, and you might even pick up a few of their tricks in the process.

Poker at the Movies

"You can't bluff someone who's not paying attention."

-From the 1987 movie The House of Games. David Mamet's twisty thriller about a female psychiatrist who gets mixed up with a professional con artist includes a great scene at the poker table.

The Home Game: Who to Invite

You want to avoid supercompetitors, bullies poor sports, or people who will otherwise scare off any non-Type A personalities from returning to your game. Ditto on cheaters.

The Home Game: Who to Invite

You're probably familiar with the poker adage, "If you can't spot a sucker at the table, the sucker is you." There are some merits, however, to resisting that temptation to line your table with the dumbest and drunkest louts that you've somehow managed to stay acquainted with. Dumb and drunk people will slow down your game. They can also be models of bad behavior, encouraging you to develop your own awful habits that will ultimately cost you a small fortune.

Determine Stack Sizes and Odds

The Real Deal...

One of the most important factors in a No-limit Texas hold'em game is the amount of chips people have at the table. A person's stack size affects the strategy at the table in numerous ways. For example, the amount a person buys in for is often indicative of how well that person plays. Someone may buy in for a small amount because he is not very confident in his skills and does not want to risk much money.

However, the most important thing about stack sizes is how they affect implied odds. Implied odds is a fancy word for saying "how much you can expect to win in the future if you make a good hand, taking into account the chance of hitting that strong hand."

Say you hold 6 5 pre-flop. Your hand is obviously not that strong. It is also doubtful that you will hit a strong hand at the flop, like a straight or trips. However, you have a good chance of hitting a draw, such as a flush draw or a straight draw. To win a lot of money on this draw, you will probably need to call a bet on the flop and see the turn and river to get the card you need to make a strong hand. If you hit a strong hand, you will want to bet a lot when you have the strong hand.

If the stack sizes are small, you cannot expect to win much if you chase a flush or straight draw. Speculative hands like suited connectors do well when people have large stack sizes and perform poorly when people have small stack sizes.

To be precise, here is what I consider to be small, medium, and large stack sizes:

Small stacks 40 big blinds or fewer
Medium stacks 41 to 99 big blinds
Large stacks 100 big blinds or more

You will see different buy-ins for different types of games. For most home games, people buy in for small stacks. A home game with $.25-$.50 blinds will typically have $10 to $20 buy-ins (20 and 40 big blinds). These are small stacks.

The Real Deal casino games have variable stack sizes. Nowadays, it seems that most places in Vegas restrict the buy-ins to about 40 big blinds, so people tend to have short or medium stacks. However, there are brick and mortar games that do not cap the buy-ins, and people with 200 big blind stacks are common. The games at online poker rooms tend to restrict buy-ins to 100 big blinds, so many people have fairly large stacks.

Stack sizes do more than just increase the value of speculative hands. They also tend to make the game fancier. Bluffing becomes a more valuable tool when people have larger stacks. This is because you can threaten a much larger amount of money in relation to the pot when people have a lot of chips.

For example, suppose the flop is J 8 7. There is $10 in the pot. Your opponent has Q J. His top pair is a marginal hand. While it will beat most hands, there is a lot on the board that massacres his hand (straight, two pair, top pair with higher kicker, etc.)

Suppose you bet $10. If your opponent has a $10 stack, he will likely call you since he has so much already invested in the pot.

However, suppose your opponent has $100. He will be more wary of calling. If he calls and you fire another pot-sized bet on the turn, this means he will have to call $40 just to see the river. If you fire another pot or near-pot sized bet on the river, he stands to lose his entire stack due to this flimsy hand.

Large stacks tend to increase the value of bluffing, which also means marginal hands lose value. A hand like top pair will not get paid off when the stacks are large (except by draws or bluffs) because hands like middle pair are not going to pay off a large amount of money in relation to the pot.

Large stacks mean fewer hands go to a showdown, and the ones that do are much more likely to involve powerful hands like straights, flushes, and sets.

Insanity of that risk - Paul Auster

This was the first time he had seriously confronted what he was doing, and the force of that awareness came very abruptly-with a surging of his pulse and a frantic pounding in his head. He was about to gamble his life on that table, and the insanity of that risk filled him with a kind of awe.

-Paul Auster

The Home Game

The Internet has made it a lot easier to find a home game appropriate to your bankroll and level of skill-texashold-em-poker.blogspot.com, for example, allows players to advertise their regular games and tournaments, searchable by geographical area. But if you're looking to control the quality of the players-and the play itself-there's no substitute for hosting your own game.

Poker at the Movies

"Old Blue out of chute number two!"

-From the 1974 movie California Split. George Segal and Elliot Gould are L.A. gamblers trying to figure out if they're in it for the action or the score. Directed by Robert Altman, with a cameo by one :Amarillo Slim" Preston as, of course, himself.

The Home Game

Home games vary wildly in quality. Choose one that's to weak, and you'll find yourself playing five-card draw, hoping to catch one of the twos, threes, one-eyed jacks, suicide kings, or queens looking away from the flower that the dealer, already three sheets to the wind, has selected as the wild card. Stumble upon a game that's too tough, and you'll be risking your mortgage payment against aggressive sharps who have taken the night off from their usual $50/100 pot-limit game at the local Indian casino.

The Home Game

You're ready to play for real. Only you start to get the sweats at the thought of facing down a table of crocodiles at your local cardroom, or jumping into an online free-for-all game against someone who calls himself "Gotta Raise." Your best bet, so to speak, is to find a home game.

The Computer Hand

It's a story that reeks of being anecdotal, but it has managed to linger around long enough to earn its own place in poker lore. Apparently someone, somewhere, ran a computer simulation to see which hands in Texas Hold'em were worth playing, As the legend goes, this computer revealed that Q-7 was the worst of the profitable hands. In actuality, Q-7-which still carries the nickname of "the computer hand"-is a pretty awful holding, and there's not a winning poker player in the world who would play it with any regularity.

The Kicker

Many players in low-limit games will play any Ace regardless of the second card. These players have found themselves a loser when an Ace flops, and they are beat out by a player with a bigger kicker (an unpaired card in your hand that will determine the winner in the event of a tie).

Poker, Scientific Reasoning - Vannevar Bush

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.

-Vannevar Bush

Before Testing Skills out on Live Opponent

If you're looking to hone your skills before testing them out on a live opponent, you might find it helpful to get some practice against a simulator. There are all kinds of computer simulations out there, from virtual casinos to small applets you can play on your Palm Pilot. Unfortunately, most computers generally don't play a very good game of Texas Hold'em. The best of the bunch seem to be the "Turbo" series of programs developed by Bob Wilson, poker player, software entrepreneur, and longtime member of Mensa.

Poker at the Movies

"You know what cheers me up when I'm feeling shitty? Rolled-up aces over kings. Check-raising stupid tourists and taking huge pots off of them. Stacks and towers of checks I can't even see over. Playing all-night high-limit hold'em at the Taj, 'where the sand turns to gold.'"

-From the 1998 movie (Rounders).
Matt Damon is a gambler trying to reform his ways, Ed Norton is his old friend who is trying to stop him. It leads to a classic confrontation between Dan and John Malkovich, hamming it up as Russian poker sharp Teddy KGB.

The Toolbox: Slowplaying

The best time to slowplay is when your hand is not only a cinch or near-cinch to win, but when allowing your opponents to take a free card offers a decent chance of making them a second-best hand.

The Toolbox: Slowplaying

This is the tool most abused by new poker players, who fall in love with the idea of being of able to trap their opponents. For one thing, it's always dangerous to give free cards-very few hands are such absolute locks that your opponents will be drawing dead. Second, your opponents are often more likely to call a bet on the flop than on the more expensive turn or river, meaning that you may be sacrificing your only opportunity to milk any money out of them.

The Toolbox: Slowplaying

Sometimes a flop hits you so hard and looks so menacing that any aggression on your part will scare off your opponents. By slowplaying, or passively checking and calling on the early streets, you can sometimes lure opponents into making ill-advised bets and raises on the later, more expensive streets.

Henry David Thoreau

Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science.

-Henry David Thoreau

Overview: No-Limit Texas Hold'em

The "Dealer Button"
Texas Hold'em uses what is called a "dealer button" (a round indicator) to identify the oretical dealer of each hand. After each hand is completed, the dealer button moves clockwise to the next active player. This player will be considered " the dealer" for that hand. In this way each player has equal opportunities to be in early, middle and late positions during a round of play. At the start of the game, players will take a seat at the table. The dealer will deal one card face up to each player. The player with the highest card will be the first player to act as the dealer. If two or more players are dealt the same high card, the tie will be broken by order of suit, starting with the suit preference of spades, hearts, diamonds and then clubs.

The Blinds: Betting In The First Round
The two players immediately to the left of the dealer button place blind bets to start the pot (similar in principle to an ante). Instead of having every player ante each hand, the blind bets in combination with rotating dealer button accomplishes the same thing. The player to the left of the dealer button posts the "small blind". The player to the left of the small blind is required to post the "big blind". All the blinds in Hold'em poker are considered live bets and the players who posted them will have the option of calling, raising or folding when the betting returns to their position. Remember, the dealer button (and therefore the small blind and the big blind) move around the table clockwise after each hand, so each player will post the blind bets over time.

Once the blinds have been placed, each player is dealt two cards, face down, which are known as hole cards or pocket cards.

First Round of Betting: Because the two players immediately left of the dealer have already placed their "blind bets", the player to the left of the player who placed the big blind starts the betting for the first round. The big blind has the option to raise an otherwise unraised pot. Every player participating in the hand should have equal amounts of points bet as the previous players (includes bets, calls and raises). Until the time all the players have placed equal amounts in the pot, the betting will continue. In no-limit "Texas Hold'em" there is no limit to the number of raises that a player can make, or the amount of points the player raises each time. The only limit is that you cannot raise yourself. If all the other players in the hand only call or fold, the player would not get an option to raise, because he was the last and only player to raise. Minimum raise: The raise amount must be at least as much as the previous bet or raise in the same round. As an example, if the first player to act bets 100 Poker Points then the second player must raise a minimum of 100 Poker Points (total bet of 200 Poker Points). Maximum eligible raise: At any time, a player may "Go All-In" meaning that he bets all of the chips that he has in front of him.

The flop: Three community cards are dealt face up. The first three cards are referred to as the flop , while all of the community cards are collectively called the board .

The flop betting: Second round of betting, Starting with the player to the left of the dealer button, each player can check or bet. Once a bet has been made, each player can raise, call, or fold.

The turn: A fourth card is added face-up to the community cards. This fourth card is known as the turn card , or fourth street .

The turn betting: Third round of betting It follows the same format as the second round.

The river: A fifth and final card is added to the community cards. This fifth card is known as the river card , or fifth street .

The river betting: Final round of betting It follows the same format as the second and third rounds.

1. The Flop
2. The Turn
3. The River

The showdown: Once all the bets are complete, there are two possible outcomes: either all the players but one have folded (and hence the remaining at person wins the pot), or the remaining players reveal their hands and the best hand wins the pot. This latter scenario is often called the showdown.

Using the best five-card combination of their hole cards and the community cards, the remaining players show their hands. The highest five-card hand wins the pot. (In case of a tie, the pot is evenly split among the winning hands.

What happens when a player is all in?
In some situations, a player may be "All-In" meaning he has bet all of his chips. Here is an example explaining how "All-In" situations are handled. Player A has 3,000 chips. Player B has 2,000 chips and Player C has 1,000 Chips. Player A goes all in, before the flop holding two queens. Player B, holding two kings, calls. Player C, holding two aces, also calls. Player A is immediately returned 1,000 chips because Player B only had 2,000 chips. Fur the r, a side-pot is created between Player A and B of 2,000 chips (because Player C only had 1,000 chips with which to call A and B's 2,000 chip bet). Player C cannot win this side pot. If the Board reveals a 3, 5, 7, ten and jack (and assuming no flushes), Player C would win the main pot containing 3,000 chips and Player B would win the side-pot containing 2,000 chips.

Texas Hold'em: Playing in Tournaments

Single Table Tournament
Single-Table tournaments can have a maximum of 10 players where all players begin with an equal number of chips. The stakes (antes, blinds) increase over time. Players are knocked out of the tournament as they lose all of their chips to other players. The winner is the player who eventually ends up with all of the chips on the table. The entry fee for a tournament (i.e. 100 Poker Points per player) is multiplied by the number of players (i.e. 10) to determine the total prizes awarded (in this case 1,000 poker points). In a ten player tournament, first place receives 50% of the points (i.e. 500) with second and third receiving 30% and 20% respectively.

Multi Table Tournament
In a Multi-Table tournament, there can be multiple tables of players with a maximum of 10 players per table. Each player starts with an equal number of chips. The stakes (antes, blinds) increase over time. Players are knocked out of the tournament as players lose all of their chips to their opponents. Remaining players are periodically re-assigned seats on other tables to keep tables full. This will eliminate tables over time until the last surviving players with chips remain at a final table. The eventual winner is the last player at the last table that ends up with all the chips. The tournaments on this site award points and/or prizes to the top finishers. In tournaments awarding points, the total points awarded is equal to the entry fee (in points) per player multiplied by the number of players participating. These points are then awarded as indicated in the tournament detail screen.

Hand Rankings, Here are the poker hands from highest to lowest.

1. Royal flush
A, K, Q, J, 10, all the same suit.

2. Straight flush
Five cards in a sequence, all in the same suit.

3. Four of a kind
All four cards of the same rank.

4. Full house
Three of a kind with a pair.

5. Flush
Any five cards of the same suit, but not in a sequence.

6. Straight
Five cards in a sequence, but not of the same suit.

7. Three of a kind
Three cards of the same rank.

8. Two pair
Two different pairs.

9. Pair
Two cards of the same rank.

10. High Card
When you haven't made any of the hands above, the highest card plays.
In the example you will find, the jack plays as the highest card.

The Toolbox: Check-Raising

Check-raising is most effective against one other opponent, especially when a seemingly innocuous card has helped you, or when you want to "clear the field" with a double-bet.

The Toolbox: Check-Raising

You have to be very confident that someone is going to bet behind you in order to check-raise. If no one takes the bait, not only have you failed to make any money from this particular street, but you've given all of your opponents a dreaded free card, possibly allowing them to draw out on you. When in doubt, it's almost better just to bet your stronger hands.

The Toolbox: Check-Raising

The Toolbox: Check-Raising

This play has endured some criticism over the years-some players of old believed that this particular type of duplicity constituted bad manners-but in today's game, the check-raise is an undeniably valuable tool, helping you to extract the most money possible with your winning hands. It also may be one of the most overused.