Learn How to Play Texas Hold 'em

By Alison Pendergast

Date: Nov 4, 2005

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Texas Hold ’Em has become the world’s most popular poker game in large part because television has introduced the game to a whole new audience through shows such as ESPN’s World Series of Poker, Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour, and Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown. If you'd like to learn Texas Hold ’Em but aren't sure where to begin, this chapter will help you get started.

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In this chapter:

• Learn the basics of Limit, Pot-Limit, and No-Limit Texas Hold ’em

• Learn to evaluate your table position and starting hand

• Understand dealer position and blind bets

• Learn strategies for evaluating and betting your hand through each round of play

Texas Hold ’Em has become the world’s most popular poker game in large part because television has introduced the game to a whole new audience through shows such as ESPN’s World Series of Poker, Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour, and Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown. No doubt that the clever addition of lipstick cams, or tiny cameras placed under poker tables to reveal a player’s two-card starting hand, has helped make Texas Hold ’em more exciting than ever to watch, and easier than ever to follow and understand. For the first time, poker fans have an insider’s look at players’ starting hands, and can watch the drama unfold as players try to outwit and outmaneuver each other on their way to winning prize pools that might be in the millions. Because of Hold ’em’s newfound television audience, many fans are eager to make the leap from merely watching Hold ’em to playing Hold ’em online, in a home game, or even in a casino. This chapter covers the fundamental information you need to be able to "hold ’em or fold ’em" just like you see on TV.

To begin this chapter, you first learn the simple differences between the betting structures of Limit, Pot–Limit, and No-Limit Hold ’em. Next, you learn about how the basic game of Hold ’em is dealt—including how to post blind bets and the importance of being in the dealer position, also known as being on the button. This chapter also covers each betting round of the game, as well as the critical concepts of leveraging your table position and evaluating your starting hand. At the end of the chapter I include an easy way to roughly calculate the chance of making a hand by counting your outs or the number of cards left in the deck that will improve your hand. Being able to count outs in Hold ’em helps you make better decisions about which hands to play and which hands to fold, thus increasing your likelihood of winning more pots.

Learning the Basics of Limit, Pot–Limit, and No-Limit Hold ’em

Texas Hold ’em, or just Hold ’em, as it is known, can be played with anywhere from 2 to as many as 22 players but most casinos and online poker rooms seat between 9 and 10 players to a table. Hold ’Em is a Flop game, where three community cards (shared by all players) are dealt, or flopped, face up in the middle of the table. Players are also dealt two hole or pocket cards, which only they see. During two more rounds of play, two additional community cards are flopped. Players win by forming the best five-card poker hand using their two hole cards and three of the community cards. This chapter focuses on the three most common betting structures of the game, Limit Hold ’em, Pot-Limit Hold ’em, and No-Limit Hold ’em.

Texas Hold ’em is most often played with structured betting limits where the bets and raises are set at fixed dollar amounts, such as $2 and $4, $3 and $6, or $4 and $8, usually expressed with a "/" between. The first two rounds of betting and raises are exactly the smaller dollar amount of the agreed-upon bet limits, and the last two rounds of betting and raises are exactly the larger dollar amount. In casinos and online, you can find structured limit Hold ’em games in many denominations, ranging from those already mentioned to $5/$10, $10/$20, $15/$30 and on up to highs such as $100/$200, $300/$600, and even $5,000/$10,000!

In Pot-Limit Hold ’em, the minimum bet is a small fixed amount (such as $2 or $5) and the maximum bet is up to whatever is currently in the pot.

In No-Limit Hold ’em the minimum bet is also a small fixed amount, but the maximum bet is any amount of chips or money a player has in front of him at the beginning of the hand. Some poker players believe that No-Limit Hold ’em is the most challenging betting structure because a player can, at any time, push his entire stack of chips into the pot and declare "all-in." At a minimum, opponents must then match the amount (whatever it is) in order to keep playing the hand.

Understanding Dealer Position

In Hold ’Em, the dealer position is used to keep track of who bets first. One player is designated as the dealer in each Hold ’Em hand, although this player might or might not actually deal the cards; casinos, for example, use professional dealers. A small button or disk is used to identify the dealer position; it moves clockwise around the table each time a new hand is dealt. If you are the player currently in the dealer position, you are said to be on the button.

Posting Blind Bets

Unlike Stud games that use an ante, Flop games such as Texas Hold ’em are played with blind bets, or bets made by players before they have seen their cards. Some games use three blind bets to increase the betting action; however, two blind bets are most common. Blind bets are posted by the two players immediately to the left of the dealer position. Here’s how blind bets are determined:

• The small blind bet is almost always half the big blind bet. So, for example, if the table limits are $2/$4 and the big blind is $2, the small blind bet is $1.

• The big blind bet amount is almost always the low end of the table’s structured betting limit. For example, if the table betting limits are $2/$4, the big blind bet is $2. If the limits are $100/$200, the big blind is $100.

Figure 3.1 shows a typical nine player $2/$4 Texas Hold ’em Table on Full Tilt Poker. The player habs is on the button, and the two players to his immediate left have posted the small blind and big blind bets, respectively.

The following table lists some sample table stakes and the small blind and big blind bets that would apply to those stakes.

Table Stakes	Small Blind Amount	Big Blind Amount
$1/$2	$.50	$1
$2/$4	$1	$2
$4/$8	$2	$4
$10/$20	$5	$10
$20/$40	$10	$20
$30/$60	$15	$30
$60/$120	$30	$60
$100/$200	$50	$100

Playing the Starting Hand Round

Before the Flop, and after the two players to the left of the button post their blind bets, every player is dealt a starting hand of two face-down cards, called hole or pocket cards. The player to the left of the big blind is the first player to act on the starting hand. This player is known as being under the gun, and has these options:

• Bet or raise—Because blind bets are already on the table, this player cannot simply check (pass play on to the next player without betting). She must match or raise the bet on the table. A raise is an amount equal to the bet. So, if the table stakes are $2/$4, the player must match the big blind bet of $2 and add another $2 for the raise. Most games allow a maximum of three raises per betting round before raising is capped or stopped.

• Fold or muck her hand—If the player does not like her cards and would prefer not to play the hand, she can simply fold her cards and have no further claim or obligation to the pot.

The play moves around the table until all players except the small and big blind players have had a chance to act on their first two cards. When play comes to the small blind player, she has these options:

• Complete her small blind bet to a full bet and play the hand. For example, on a $2/$4 table, the small blind is $1. In order for the small blind player to play this hand, she has to add another $1 to her existing bet to complete the bet to a full bet of $2.

• Raise the pot by completing her small blind bet to a full bet and adding another full bet for the raise. For example, on a $2/$4 table, the small blind player is in the hand for $1. If she wants to raise, she would bet an additional $1 to complete her original bet to $2 and add another $2 to account for the raise, making a total bet of $4.

• Fold her hand and surrender her small blind bet.

After the small blind player has acted, play comes to the big blind player. Because this player has already made a complete bet in the blind, he has these options:

• Check his hand because he is already in the hand having made a full bet on the blind

• Raise the pot by making an additional full bet

• Call a raise if another player acting before him has raised the pot

Playing the Flop

After every player around the table has had a chance to act on their starting hand, the next round of play—called the Flop—begins. The dealer burns a card, or takes it off the top of the deck and puts it aside and then flops three community cards on the board (the table). These three community cards now become part of everyone’s hands.

Betting action starts with the first player to the left of the player on the button and moves clockwise around the table. Players can choose to check their hands and pass the betting option to the next player. After a player does make a bet, checking is no longer permitted and all subsequent players must match the bet, make a raise, or fold their hands.

Playing Fourth Street, or the Turn

After all players still contesting the pot have had a chance to act on the Flop, the dealer then burns another card and turns a fourth card face up on the board. This card is known as the Turn or Fourth Street. Betting action again starts with the first player still in the hand to the left of the dealer button and moves around the table. However, on this round (and the final round), the minimum bet doubles in size; so in a $2/$4 game, the minimum bet on Fourth Street is $4. After a bet has been made, players must match the bet, make a raise, or fold their hands.

Playing the River

After all remaining players have acted on Fourth Street, the dealer burns another card and deals the last card face up, known as the River card or Fifth Street. Players now see all the cards that will be dealt in this hand, and they must make the best five-card hand out of the seven cards dealt (the five community cards on the board and their two pocket cards). The final round of betting begins the same way as previous betting rounds, with the first remaining player to the left of the dealer button checking the hand or making a bet. All subsequent players still vying for the pot must also check, bet, raise, or fold their hands.

After the betting round is complete, if more than one player is still vying for the pot, all active players complete a showdown and turn over their cards. The player with the highest poker hand made by using any combination of the five community cards and two pocket cards wins the pot.

Assessing Your Table Position and Starting Hand

Two of the most critical concepts in playing winning Hold ’em are understanding table position—the position of every player at the table in relationship to the dealer button—and learning how to evaluate your two pocket cards, or starting hand. In Hold ’em, you often need both seat position and starting hand selection working in your favor to win pots. If you play weak cards in a weak table position, you’re less likely to win pots, and you expose yourself to the potential of being raised by players still left to bet their cards. Knowing how to evaluate your seat position and starting hand help you risk the least amount of money and win the biggest pots—the goal of all poker games.

Evaluating Your Table Position

Table position is most often divided into three categories: early, middle, and late position. Early position is commonly viewed as the first three seats to the left of the button (dealer position), which include the small blind and big blind bet positions. Middle position is the next two (or perhaps three) seats going clockwise around the table, and late position is the last three seats to act (including the dealer position). Your table position changes as the dealer button moves around the table with each hand.

The impact of table position on your betting strategy is simple; the later you are to act on your cards, the more information you have to decide whether your cards are worth playing. When you are in early position, only play hands where you would be prepared to call multiple raises, because you have to assume that with the rest of the table left to act, you might be raised one or more times.

Generally speaking, the later your position at the table, the more leverage you have when deciding whether to bet on your hand because you can first evaluate what the majority of other players have chosen to do. If everyone acting before you folds their hands, in most cases your cards are more valuable regardless of what they are. If three people before you decide to raise the pot, you have to look at your cards pretty closely to determine if they have enough starting value to play.

The worst scenario you can find yourself in is being the first to bet with a weak hand. If the three players after you raise, you will essentially have to throw the hand away—along with the bet you made because you played marginal cards in early position.

Evaluating Your Starting Hand

The better your two-card starting hand, the more likely you are to win the pot. It is just that simple. Like in any sport, you want to give yourself the best possible chance of doing well. In golf, you wouldn’t consciously use the wrong club, and in baseball you would not pick up a bat that is too short or too heavy for your frame. The same is true in poker. You must choose to play hands that you believe will help you win more pots than your opponents. Learning to evaluate starting hands and play them in relation to your table position is probably the most critical skills you can acquire early on in playing Texas Hold ’em.

Couple a premium hand with good table position and you can not only maximize your chance of winning the hand, but also maximize your chance of winning a big pot to go along with it. This has been proven by calculating the odds of hands beating other hands using computer simulation. Professional poker players (and very good amateur poker players) know the value of starting hands and work hard to memorize the relative strength of every possible two-card combination you can be dealt in a Hold ’em game. Included in a tear-out sheet in the back of this book is an extremely valuable power chart showing the statistical strength of every possible two-card starting hand in Hold ’em. The portable chart is an excellent reference tool to help guide your decisions about which starting hands to play, and in which position to play them.

There are exactly 169 2-card starting hands in Texas Hold ’em that can be made from a deck of 52 cards. For simplicity’s sake, I have divided these 169 card combinations into one of five categories:

• Pairs—Two cards of the same rank (A,A; K,K; Q,Q; J,J)

• Connected and suited—Two cards that fall next to each other in sequence and are of the same suit (A♣,K♣; K♥,Q♥; Q♠,J♠; J♦,10♦; 10♣,9♣)

• Connected and unsuited—Two cards that fall next to each other in sequence, but are of two different suits (10♣,9♥; 7♥,6♠; 5♦,4♠)

• Unconnected and suited—Two cards that aren’t in sequence, but share the same suit (A♠,Q♠; K♣,J♣; Q♥,10♥; 9♦,7♦)

• Unconnected and unsuited—Two cards that are out of sequence and of different suits (A♣,Q♠; K♠,J♥; 10♣,7♦; 8♥,5♦)

There are a few well-known systems for evaluating starting hands, some using as many as 14 categories. To keep this explanation simple, let’s divide starting hands into just four categories: premium, good, marginal, and trash.

Premium starting hands are just what the word implies—extremely valuable. Premium hands include high pairs and face cards such as A,A; K,K; Q,Q; A,K; A,Q (either suited or unsuited). These are the cards you can play no matter your position at the table, and the cards you will most likely use to raise the pot. You get premium cards fairly infrequently, so when you do get them, you want to make sure you profit from them and play them to their maximum value.

Good starting hands are still valuable—just not as good as premium hands. These are cards you have to evaluate carefully and play in just the right table position. You can profit from these cards, but they are a little trickier to maneuver and can sometimes be costly if they do not carry you through the hand. Examples of good starting hands include

• A,J; K,Q; K,J (either suited or unsuited)

• Medium pairs such as jacks, tens, and nines

• Two cards above eight that are in sequence (connected) and suited, such as 10♣,J♣.

Marginal starting hands are the hardest to play. In the right situation with the right table position, marginal hands can be played but they remain high-risk cards. As a beginner, you should focus your attention on premium and good starting hands and then slowly incorporate marginal starting hands into your game as you gain more experience. Examples of marginal hands include low pairs such as 4s and 3s and cards that are close in sequence, such as J♥,9♣ (also known as gapped cards).

All other two-card combinations besides those discussed above are trash, plain and simple. Being able to toss starting hands considered trash elevates your play for these reasons:

• Your opponents will quickly realize that you have some understanding of the value of good starting hands—and know how to play them.

• Throwing away trash hands saves you money. A wager saved is as good as a bet won. (The following table summarizes starting hands and table positions.)

Texas Hold ’em Suggested Starting Hand Chart

Two-Card Starting Hand	Aces	Kings	Queens	Jacks	Tens and below	Plays in Position
Premium hands	A,A	K,K	Q,Q	J,J	10,10	Early, middle, or late
	A,K	K,Q	Q,J(s)
	A,Q	K,J(s)
	A,J(s)
	A,10(s)
Good hands	A,J(u)	K,J(u)	Q,J(u)	J,10(s)	10,9(s)	Middle or late
	A,10(u)	K,10(s)	Q,10(s)	J,9(s)
	A,9(s)	K,9(s)	Q,9(s)
	A,8(s)
	A,7(s)
	A,6(s)
	A,5(s)
	A,4(s)
	A,3(s)
	Plus pairs 9,9; 8,8; 7,7
Marginal hands	A,9(u)	K,10(u)	Q,10(u)	J,10(u)	10,9(u)	Late for one bet
	A,8(u)	K,9(u)	Q,8(s)	J,8	10,8
	A,7(u)	K,8(s)			10,7(s)
	A,2(s)	K,7(s)			9,8
		K,6(s)			9,7(s)
		K,5(s)			9,6(s)
		K,4(s)			8,7(s)
		K,3(s)			8,6(s)
		K,2(s)			7,6(s)
					6,5(s)
					5,4(s)
					Plus Pairs 6,6; 5,5; 4,4; 3,3; 2,2
Trash hands	Any combination not included above					Never
Note: (s) denotes suited cards and (u) denotes unsuited cards. Otherwise, the cards can be either suited or unsuited.

Making Smart Choices Through Each Round of Play

High cards, or face cards such as jacks, queens, kings, and aces, are the bread and butter of Hold ’em. Although it is true that holding starting hands of A,K and 9,8 have equal chance of making a pair, the A,K is a more valuable starting hand because a pair of aces or a pair of kings would beat a pair of nines or a pair of eights. If neither hand were to improve after all cards are dealt, or both hands were to improve equally (both players made one pair), the A,K would still win.

Consider a hand in which you hold A,K; your opponent holds 9,8; and the board shows the community cards illustrated in Figure 3.2.

In this example, both players make a full house but your full house of fives full of aces (5,5,5,A,A) is higher than your opponent’s full house made up of fives full of eights (5,5,5,8,8). High cards make premium hands; you can play them in any position and feel fairly confident calling a raise or reraising.

Deciding When to Play Suited, Connected, or Medium Pocket Pairs

There are entire chapters in some Hold ’em poker books on how best to play specific suited, connected, or starting hands made up of medium or low pairs when in various table positions. It can get complicated. The basic principle to remember is that suited cards and connected cards are considered drawing hands. If you hold two unpaired suited cards, you are drawing for a flush; if you hold a pair of connected cards, you are drawing for a straight.

Since such hands are harder to make than one or even two pair, you want to make sure there is sufficient money in the pot to warrant playing the hand. You learn how to calculate pot odds, later in the chapter, but for now, the simple rule is that the harder the hand is to make, the bigger the pot needs to make playing the hand a good bet. In most cases, this means more players need to be in the hand. If it is just you and one or two other players contesting the pot, it is usually not profitable to play a drawing hand.

Evaluating Your Hand After the Flop

Now that you have a better understanding of which starting hands to play, the next major decision you make is whether to continue to bet your hand after the Flop. Premium starting hands can quickly turn to trash after the Flop. Consider an example in which you hold A♠,K♠ and the Flop comes 7♥,9♥,10♥. In this example, your great hand has lost some of its starting value because it does not connect with the Flop. On the other hand, if you were holding the A,K of hearts instead of spades, you would have flopped an ace-high flush by using your A,K and the 7♥,9♥,10♥ on the board. In that case, your only decision is how to extract the most money from your opponents.

In Hold ’em, after the first three community cards or Flop is dealt, you will have seen 71% of your hand or five of seven total cards. At this point, you must carefully determine whether your starting hand connected with the Flop in some way. For example, did one of your cards pair a card on the Flop? Did two or more of the same suit come on the Flop, giving you a flush draw? If your two starting cards did connect in some way with the Flop, you must evaluate how many players are likely to stay in the hand with you if a bet is made, how much it will cost you to stay in the hand (bets and raises), and how much you’re likely to win if your hand holds up to be the winning hand.

Analyzing the Flop

In analyzing the Flop, look for these possible outcomes:

• You flopped a power hand. A power hand occurs, for example, if you hold pocket aces and two more aces and a king came on the Flop, giving you four of a kind (called quads). Other power hands might include the nut flush, nut straight, or full house. You hold Q,10 and Q,Q,10 comes on the Flop. You play any of these power hands, and must determine how to bet the hand in order to extract the most money out of the other players.

• You flopped a hand with good-to-great potential. For example, you hold a pair of sevens and the Flop is 2♣,7[Right Arrow],J♥. In this case, you made a set or three of a kind. There is a very low probability of a flush or straight and the only other way you could be beat is if someone else was holding a pair of jacks and made a higher set. Another example is a drawing hand. If you hold the A♣,9♣ and the Flop comes 7♣,4♣,J♥, you’re drawing to the nut flush, or the highest flush that can be made, given the Flop. This is where experienced poker players use pot odds to evaluate the risk or cost of playing the hand versus their expected return, which is the amount of money in the pot. (You learn more about calculating these and other odds in the next section of this chapter).

• You flop an overpair, top pair, or two pair. For example, you hold J♥,J♣ and 3♥,9♠,4♠ comes on the Flop. In this example, your pocket pair of jacks is higher than any card on the Flop, so if an opponent was holding a nine, for example, your jacks would be considered an overpair. Another example of such a Flop occurs when you make top pair or two pair. For example, you hold 10♠,9♠ and the Flop comes 10♥,6♦,9♣. You not only have top pair with your tens, but two pairs (10,10; 9,9). Unless someone has an overpair to your tens, your hand will most likely be the winning hand. Stay with your two pair, high top pair, or overpair as long as it does not cost too much. If it looks and feels as though you might be beat with two or more players raising the pot, you might have to surrender your cards.

• You see a scary flop. Scary flops include those where you have high pair but your second card, or kicker, is very low. For example, you start with A♣,6♣ and the Flop comes A♥,J♦,7♣. You have the high pair, but a low kicker. Anyone else also holding an ace with a higher kicker will have you beat. Another scary Flop is one that includes any pair such as Q,Q,7 or 9,9,5. If you paired the low card (the seven or five in this case), your decision gets even more tricky because you might be up against someone who has made a trips. Sometimes raising the pot will tease out whether another player has trips, because he would most likely reraise you.

• You get a flop in which all the cards are of the same suit or connected. In this case, expect that someone might have flopped a straight or flush. These situations can be very ticklish, especially if you make a set on one of these Flops. You hold 3,3 and the Flop comes 3[Right Arrow],4♦,5♦. Yes, you have made a set but you could be up against an opponent that’s made a straight, flush, or even a straight flush. If a number of players stay in the pot and there is a lot of action, you have to decide whether to try to hit the full house because that is the best hand you could possibly make—and even that might not win the pot.

Knowing when and how to bet your hand after the Flop can be tricky. However, understanding the risk/return ratio is helpful. That is, if you can weigh how much you have to bet against the chances of winning the hand, it will help you make better betting decisions.

Determining the Nuts

The term nuts in poker slang refers to a hand that can’t be beat. Unlike other types of poker games, Hold ’em is a game where it’s possible to deduce the nuts, or the best possible hand that can be made given the cards on the board. The nuts can change after the Flop, when the Turn or the River is dealt, so knowing where your hand stands relative to the nuts helps you make better betting decisions. In an earlier example, the A♥,K♥ is the nut flush, but there is even one higher hand possible. Given the 7♥,9♥,10♥ Flop, if a player is holding the 8♥,J♥ or the 6♥,8♥, he is holding a straight flush, the true nuts of the game. In this example, your flush is only the second-best hand; if you bet, and another player raises, you must consider the possibility that he might be holding the true nuts.

Calculating Outs and Odds After the Flop

As you learned in Chapter 1, "Introduction to Playing Poker," outs refer to the unseen cards still left in the deck that will improve your hand after the Flop. As you might guess, the more cards left in the deck that will improve your hand, the better. That’s why, after the Flop, you want to stay with hands that can be improved in a number of ways. The more outs or ways your hand can potentially improve on the Turn or the River, the better your chances of winning the pot. By counting your outs, you can do a very rough, quick calculation to estimate your percent chance of improving your hand after the Flop, and hopefully having a winning hand. Knowing how likely (or unlikely) you are to improve will help you make a better decision about how much (or little) to invest in the hand.

Counting Outs

Counting outs is as simple as determining what hand you need to make in order to most likely win the pot, and then counting the cards left in the deck that will give you that hand. For example, if you hold a pocket pair of sevens as your two-card starting hand and believe you need to make a set to win the pot, you have a total of two outs because there are two sevens left in the deck. If you have four cards to a flush after the Flop (or four of one suit), then you have nine outs to make your flush because there are thirteen cards per suit in a deck and you hold four. Thirteen minus four is nine outs. What if you hold a K,Q in your hand and the Flop comes A,10,6? Because you know that any jack will give you a straight, and there are four jacks in the deck, you have four outs.

To calculate the percent chance of improving your hand after the Flop, multiply your total number of outs by four. If your hand still does not improve on the Turn, then calculate your outs by two to estimate your percent chance of improving on the River.

For example, you hold in your hand A,K, and the Flop comes Q,J,5. You first determine that you have four outs to make a straight (A,K,Q,J,10); there are four tens in the deck and any one of them could improve your hand. As such, you multiply 4 x 4 and you find you have roughly a 16% chance of making this hand.

If you do not get a 10 on the Turn, your percentage chance of hitting a 10 on the River decreases to 2 x 4 or roughly 8%. Of course, keep in mind that there are other cards—such as another ace—that could improve the sample hand, but the goal is to figure the number of outs that will most likely give you the winning hand.

Calculating Pot Odds After the Flop

As you gain more experience playing Hold ’em, you might decide to invest time in learning how to calculate the exact odds of making a particular hand so you will make more informed wagers. For now, if you can practice calculating your correct number of outs, and then use the preceding formula to translate your outs into a percent chance of making a hand, you will be far ahead of most casual poker players.

Fortunately, because every hand of Hold ’em is played with exactly the same number of cards (two per player and five community cards), it is possible to calculate the number of outs for common Hold ’em scenarios. The following chart simplifies common Hold ’em hands players hold after the Flop and the percent chance of improving the hand on the Turn and River. In the last column, I have included a rough pot size amount you need to see in order to justify calling a bet with each of these sample hands. You should immediately see that the fewer outs you have to make your hand, the bigger the pot size needs to be to justify calling a bet. Understanding how big a pot needs to be in relation to the size of the bet you must make to win the pot is called pot odds and as is used by players to ensure they are getting the proper potential return on their bet.

Number of Outs	Your Hand After the Flop	The Hand You’re Drawing to on the Turn/River to Win the Pot	Your Odds of Completing	Percent Chance on the Turn/River (Rounded)	Pot Odds or Rough Approximation of the Minimum $$ Needed in the Pot to Continue Playing the Hand
1	3 of a kind or inside straight flush draw	4 of a kind or straight flush	46 to 1	4%	46 times your call bet
2	Pair or open-ended straight flush draw	3 of a kind or straight flush	23 to 1	8%	23 times your call bet
3	1 high overcard (aces)	Pair	15 to 1	12%	15 times your call bet
4	2 pair or inside straight draw	Full house or straight	11 to 1	16.5%	11 times your call bet
5	Pair	2 pair or 3 of a kind	8 to 1	20%	8 times your call bet
6	2 high hole overcards (A,K)	Pair	7 to 1	24%	7 times your call bet
7	3 of a kind	Full house or 4 of a kind	6 to 1	28%	6 times your call bet
8	Open-ended Straight draw	Straight	5 to 1	31%	5 times your call bet
9	Flush draw	Flush	4 to 1	35%	4 times your call bet
12	Inside Straight flush draw	Straight flush, flush, or straight	3 to 1	45%	3 times your call bet
15	Open-ended straight flush draw	Straight flush, flush, or straight	2 to 1	54%	2 times your call bet

Re-evaluating Your Hand on the Turn

The Turn card, or Fourth Street, might or might not improve your hand (or those of your opponents). Because the bet size usually doubles on Fourth Street, it is important to carefully evaluate your overall possibility of holding the best hand or drawing to the best hand.

More times than not, the Turn card won’t help your hand; when it does, you should be excited. If you have top pair, or top two pair and no one bets, you should bet when the action comes to you. This bet might induce players to fold who are trying to make a straight or even a flush. If you check along with everyone else, and let players get a free card, you risk losing the hand to a player making a bigger hand than yours because of the free card.

If you have top two pair after the Turn and someone does bet in front of you, you should raise, except if there is a pair on the board, three connected cards, or three suited cards; in any of those cases, you should just call. Any of these situations might suggest your two pair is beat, so proceed with caution. Consider these examples:

• You hold J,Q and the board flops 7,J,10 of mixed suit and then turns a Q. Your top two pair could be beat by a straight if your opponent holds either an 8,9 or A,K.

• You hold J,10 and the board shows J,10,K,K. Your top two pair could be beat by three of a kind if your opponent is holding at least one king or even a full house if your opponent is holding K,10 or K,J.

• You hold Q♥,J♠ and the board shows J♥,Q♣,7♥,2♥. In this scenario, when the two of hearts came on the Turn, it could have given your opponent her flush.

In playing the Turn, it is important to be able to read the cards on the board and your opponents, and analyze the various hands that could keep your opponents in the pot. You should bet if you think you have the best hand or check if the Turn card proved scary and could have potentially helped your opponent.

Choosing Your Strategies As You Play Through to the River

As you can see, the decisions regarding how you play your Hold ’em poker hand get more difficult as more cards are revealed. The value of hands is shifting and you must focus not only on your cards, but on your opponents’ play as well. If you’re still in the hand at the River, you must factor into your decision-making not just the hands that have already been made, but also those players that might still be holding drawing hands, such as straights and flushes. Your decision to stay to the River card must be predicated on the fact that you either believe you hold the best hand or are at least drawing to what will become the best hand. If you’re on a draw hand, you have to evaluate the size of the pot to ensure the risk/return ratio is still there. As I have said before, you do not want to bet big on the chance of making a longshot hand, only to win a little pot.

One other common feature of the River is that most often, the number of players contesting the pot has been significantly reduced from six or seven down to two or three. Because of this, having a sense of your opponents and how they have played their hands up to the River should be an important factor in how you bet your hand.

Betting When You Have Top Pair or Top Two Pair

If you have top pair, are in early position, and there are more than two opponents left in the pot, consider checking your hand—especially if there is a flush or straight potential on the board. If you bet in early position and someone has made a straight or a flush, you expose yourself to a potential raise. If you are in late position and no one ahead of you bet, bet your hand (again, only when there is no straight or flush potential showing). By betting in this position, everyone has already had a chance to act before you, so unless someone check-raises you, it’s likely your top pair is the best hand. By betting, you might induce one or more players to fold—especially the players still on a draw hand that are looking to make a flush or a straight on the River.

If you have top two pair and there is no flush or straight potential, bet even in early position.

When You Make Your Straight or Flush on the River

There is some poker wisdom that suggests you check-raise a big hand, such as a straight or flush, in early position to give someone else a chance to bet first, so you can then make a raise when the action comes back to you. A check-raise bet is used when you first check your hand in the round and then raise after someone else bets in the same round. Many people use check-raising to make bigger pots. You should use a check-raise only if it is allowed in your game and you are relatively certain you will have at least one opponent bet if you do check your hand—otherwise, you will lose bets. If you are unsure if another player will bet if you check, simply bet your hand in early position—especially if you are fairly certain you have the highest hand.

When the pot is especially big and there has been a lot of action after the Flop, be aware that some opponents might try to bluff and buy the pot by making a bet or even a raise. This is especially true when the board looks threatening with a straight or flush potential. Even if a player did not make her straight or flush on the River, she will still bet or raise anyway to make you think she did. In this case, with so much invested in the pot, it is better to call one bet with a second-place hand than to fold the winning hand.

Summary

As you can see, Hold’ Em is a deceptively simple game, and that’s most likely the reason so many people love playing it! In this chapter, you learned about Hold ’em’s betting structure, including what it means to be in the dealer position and how to post blind bets. You learned the importance of knowing how to use your seat position to your advantage, as well as how to evaluate your first two starting cards. Keep in mind that of the 169 possible starting hands, less than half are actually worth playing. In addition, the later you are to act on your cards, the more marginal hands you can play. After the Flop, it is important to carefully analyze your hand to determine your outs and percent chance of improving in order to make a more informed decision about how much (or little) to wager. As the Turn and River cards are dealt, you must re-evaluate the strength of your hand relative to how other players are betting their cards to help you decide if you should continue to make or call bets. Last, you learned how to count the number of outs that will improve your hand, and then roughly convert this number to a more usable percentage figure to help estimate your chances of making your hand and winning the pot. With all of these skills combined, you’re ready to "get the cards in the air" and play your first hand of Texas Hold ’em.

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