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Want to play poker? If you’re new to the game, catching on isn’t too bad. But there’s a lot more to poker than amateur players might think.

Poker is one of the most popular gambling games in America. And if you’ve been invited to play, typically you can assume that whoever’s asking you is referring to Texas Hold’em, probably the most well-known and played of the poker games.

Most poker players know the rules of Texas Hold’em like the back of their hand. If you’re new to poker, Texas Hold’em is definitely the game to learn. But you should also be aware of the many other versions of poker.

There are at least five other poker games, but some of them are rarer than others. Texas Hold’em itself can also be played in multiple ways – there’s a fixed limit, pot limit, and no-limit. No-limit Texas Hold’em is typically preferred over the other two.

The main difference between these three styles of Texas Hold’em is how much you can bet. Other than that, how you play the game is pretty much the same. 

The next most popular poker game, only second to Texas Hold’em, is Omaha. Omaha and Texas Hold’em are quite similar to each other. Both use a set of community cards and use those, in conjunction with their “hole cards,” to create a five-card hand. Hole cards are the cards that each player receives face down.

Typically in Texas Hold’em, each player receives two hole cards. However, in Omaha each player receives four cards, and the player chooses only two of their four cards to be considered with the three community cards to make a five-card hand. 

In both of the games, the community set consists of five cards. Only three of the cards are necessary if used with two hole cards. However, in Texas Hold’em, a player can also combine one hole card and four community cards, or just ‘play the board,’ meaning that they use all five community cards. 

Some other variations of poker include the seven-stud and five-stud poker, follow the queen and high/low Chicago. Generally, poker styles can be split into three primary categories: draw poker, stud poker, and community card poker. 

Texas Hold’em and Omaha belong to community card poker because they have a set of shared cards. Draw poker, including the five-card draw, consists of players each getting dealt five cards and then them trading in up to three to make the best hand.

Lastly, in stud poker, players get a mixed set of face-up and face-down cards usually in a set of rounds. Players bet in-between these rounds. Stud poker includes high/low Chicago, follow the queen, and both five and seven-stud poker.

But as mentioned before, if you’re going to learn or practice any style of poker, Texas Hold’em is the way to go. 

According to Gambling News Magazine, Texas Hold’em starts with two cards being dealt to each player. The cards are dealt one at a time, face-down, and clockwise, from the dealer. Then the community cards are dealt face-up in three stages.

When the community cards are dealt, the first three cards are known as the flop. After the flop, players make their first round of bets.

Following the flop, the fourth community card, ‘the turn’ is dealt. Once again, players can place their bets. 

The final and fifth community card is referred to as the river. If no one has one by this round, players again make their bets, and then each person’s hand is revealed, showing the winner.

But now the question is, how do you win?

You can win through two ways: (1) having the best hand, or (2) by default, after everyone else folds. Folding is when a player removes themselves from the round. This can be done during any betting stage. 

In each betting round, you can raise, call, or fold. Raising is increasing the amount required by each player to stay in the game. Calling is when you match the previous bet. And folding is when you forfeit the round.

Your hand is a set of five cards that consists of a combination of hole cards and community cards. There are ten possible poker hands, and here they are from best to worst. The player with the best hand wins.

To understand these hands, here are some definitions. The suit refers to the symbol of the card: diamond, heart, club, or spade. Rank refers to the ‘number,’ such as 2, 3, 4, etc. and jack, queen, king, or ace.

1. Royal flush – having the ace, king, queen, jack, and 10, all of the same suit
2. Straight flush  – having five cards in sequence  by rank and all of the same suit
3. Four of a kind – having four cards of the same rank
4. Full house – having three of a kind plus a pair
5. Flush – having five cards of the same suit (non-sequential)
6. Straight – having five cards in sequence (does not have to be the same suit)
7. Three of a kind – having three cards that have the same rank
8. Two pair – having two sets of pairs
9. Pair – having two cards of the same rank
10. High card – having the highest card (in which 2 is the lowest and the ace is the highest)

This may sound like a lot, but you’ll get the hang of it. And if you ever forget these hands, you can always look them up. But essentially, the best hand is the one that is least probable. 

And now you might be wondering, “how do I strategize?” One great thing to learn is how to bluff. Bluffing is when you try to implicitly suggest that you have a great set of cards by not folding or raising the bet.

People have actually built machines and artificial intelligence that have become poker pros. One of their main assets is that they show no fear and can bluff really well because they’re not human.

The skill and adeptness of A.I. in poker suggest that poker really can be learned, and as the player, there are better and worse moves. But being human, it’s difficult to tell what move will put you at the top. When should you fold or bluff or just keep going?

Part of being good at poker is being in control over your own emotions/the expression of your emotions and being good at reading people. You need to be able to gauge how good your hand is relative to others’. And if you don’t have a good hand, you need to know if someone has a really good hand and if someone will be able to call your bluff. 

But a lot of this comes with practice. Because poker is skill-based, people have become pros at it, even turning poker into a source of income. But as many people have noted, making money off of poker takes a lot of practice. 

If you want to practice playing poker, a great way to do it is to play with friends. The games don’t have to be that serious, and you don’t have to play for real money. But if you don’t have time to get together with actual people, you can also play online. 

There are a lot of great websites and online casinos to check out. OnlineCasinoGems.com is an amazing site that curates the best poker games and online poker offers. From there you can pick and choose which variation of poker you want to try out. 

Texas Hold’em is widely considered one of the most classic varieties of poker. Whether or not it was actually one of the first styles played, when people ask you to play poker, you can pretty much just assume that they’re asking you to play Texas Hold’em.

The game itself is well-known for famous tournaments and can be associated with the tables in Las Vegas casinos. But there’s a lot more to the rise of Texas Hold’em and its popularity.

Unlike other casino games, Texas Hold’em is a game of strategy. This means that you can build up skills and familiarity, essentially increasing your chances of winning. 

Its status as a strategy-based game puts it in high regard among players who love a challenge. Knowing that winning isn’t just a stroke of luck, players feel a heightened sense of control. And as players get better at strategizing and reading other players, their control over each game can potentially increase.

Texas Hold’em (and poker more generally) is also known for being kind of a mind game. What makes it so exciting is that this part of the game is so dynamic. As a player, you have to navigate the psychology of other players which changes between games and even as the conditions in a single poker game change. 

So, unlike luck-based games, when playing Texas Hold’em you have to keep your head in the game and make sure you’re aware of the other players but that they aren’t as aware of you. 

But there is a little bit of luck that comes into play. Though winning in a game of Texas Hold’em or any other form of poker requires a high level of skill, starting off with a great pair of hole cards can really ensure your win.

If you’re not familiar with some of the vocabulary in Texas Hold’em, ‘hole cards’ refer to the two cards that each player receives. In other varieties of poker, players can receive more than two hole cards, such as Omaha in which players have four.

Hole cards are contrasted with what is called ‘community cards.’ These are the cards that are displayed for all players. They’re the cards involved in ‘the flop,’ ‘the turn,’ and ‘the river.’

A good player knows how to play even when they have a bad set of hole cards. But these players also know that if they can have great cards to start off with, then that’s all the better. 

So what are the best starting hands? Here are seven.

1. Pocket Aces
2. Pocket Kings
3. Pocket Queens
4. Pocket Jacks
5. Ace – King suited
6. Ace-Queen suited
7. King – Queen suited

Now you might be wondering, how are these the best starting hands?

Well, to start off, each of these seven possible hands contains high cards. So, if no one has anything better than a high card (straight, pair, etc.), having the highest cards will ensure that you beat out at least most of the competition.

The first four starting hands also refer to having pairs of each highest card. So if you can’t make anything from the community cards, you at least have a high pair. They also put you in a good place for getting three of a kind.

Numbers five, six, and seven, all have the potential for a royal flush, a straight flush, a flush, and possibly even pairs. The royal flush is the rarest. It requires that you have an ace, king, queen, jack, and 10, all of the same suit. 

Though the odds of getting a royal flush are so low, having these starting hands (five, six, seven) gives you a good shot at hands that are more common.

Having a great starting hand can also help you strategize. Since you don’t have to worry as much about people calling your bluff (because you aren’t), then you can start employing methods to get more money in the pot. 

But of course, as mentioned before, poker isn’t about just having the best starting hand. Because what’s considered a great hand will also depend on what the community cards are. So, for example, if only numbered cards are revealed (i.e. no face cards), then the starting hands listed above might not help as much. 

Poker, and specifically Texas Hold’em, really is a strategy and skill-based game. Researchers have even been able to program machines to find optimal moves, being able to beat even top poker players. 

So, if you want to make sure you win in a game of poker, you can’t just be hoping to get good cards. You need to work on your strategy and critical thinking.

The best way to improve is to practice! And if you’re like most people, you probably don’t have a lot of time to travel to a casino and play poker all day or even host people at your home for friendly poker competitions.

Instead, you could try online poker. Websites like NJGamblingFun curate the best online poker legal offers in the US. So you can play a lot and save some money while you do.

Online poker sites offer a variety of poker styles and playing styles. You can play more than just Texas Hold’em and you also choose to play against a machine or against other people. If you have the guts, you can even try joining an online poker tournament. 

While many people may be skeptical of online gambling, there have been many instances of people hitting jackpots and making huge wins. 

One of these people is Doyle Brunson who won over $6.1 million playing online Texas Hold’em. It took a long time to build up the skill, but at one point, Little was winning around $100 per hour. He even quit his two minimum wage jobs and gave up his college scholarship to pursue poker full time.

Even if you don’t plan on going pro like Jonathan Little, knowing a little more about Texas Hold’em before going into your next game can help you navigate the dynamic and fluctuating setting. 

Texas Hold’em is one of the most beloved games in the world, but if you’re constantly losing, it can get frustrating really quickly. With the seven starting hands mentioned previously, you’re sure to have a leg up in each game. But those hands are not enough – you should be working on your strategy too.