Texas hold'em research.

I have gathered a deal of information on the game of Texas Hold'em and compiled it in my own to use as the body copy for my publication. The copy can be found below.

"The Rules:

The objective of the game is to compete for an amount of money or chips (the pot) by forming the best possible hand from the player own two cards and the five community cards.

The deck is shuffled, and two cards are dealt to each player, and the first round of betting begins. The dealer discards the top card of the deck, this is called the burning card, and is done to ensure no one accidently saw the top card. The dealer then flips the next three cards face up on the table. These cards are called the flop.

The second round of betting begins.

The dealer burns another card and plays one face up onto the table. this forth card is called the turn.

The third round of betting begins.

The dealer burns another card, before placing the final card face up on the table. This card is called the river.

The final round of betting begins.

players can now use any combination of the seven cards -- five community and their own two cards known to them -- to form the best possible five card poker hand.

Poker Terminology

Flop
The first three community cards.

Kicker
Refers to a players tie breaking card.

River
The fifth and final of the community cards.

Turn
The fourth of the community cards.

Semi Bluff
The act of betting on your hand when your hand is not yet made. i.e. Needing one more card to form a straight.

Call
Matching an opposition bet.

Raise
Increasing upon an opposition bet.

Fold
Submit the hand, removing any change of winning the pot.

Bad Beat
This refers to losing a hand when you were strong odds favorite to win.

Blinds
The compulsory bet that two players must bet, referred to as the big and small blind. The big blind is usually the amount of the minimum bet (e.g £1) The small blind is usually the half the big blind.

Board
Refers to the community cards dealt face up on the table.

Check
The act of not betting e.g in the second round of betting all players could check and no bets would be made.

Check Raise
Checking a hand, in hopes of luring your opponent to bet, so you may raise him and build a bigger pot to win.



Position

Position is a valuable commodity to have at the poker table.

Position basically means that you are the last to act in the hand, meaning that you would have the dealer button. Position during a poker game can give you a number of advantages over you opponents, you will always have more information in the hand than your opponents, due to being able to see how the have reacted before you. This will allow you to bet more accurately, it allows gives you more effective bluffing opportunities. Due to you having last action, position will give you more control over the final pot size.


Play Fewer Hands

In Texas Hold 'em, there are 169 different possible starting hands, out of all of these, only five are considered premium.

AA QQ KK AK(suited) JJ

Regardless of position, a premium hand should always be played. If there is a raise ahead of you, especially if there are callers or re-raises, it can sometimes be a mistake to play anything below aces or kings.

When you play Texas Hold ‘em in this light, you’ll realise that you should be folding around 80% more hands than you should be playing. As a begginner player you should stick to playing only the top 10 - 15 hands, as you become better you can begin to add more hands to your playlist.

AA KK QQ AK(s) 1010 AQ(s) AJ(s) AK(off) KQ(s) A10(s) KJ(s) AQ(off) JQ(s) 99

Folding

No mistake costs beginners more money than refusing to fold a losing hand. When the pots get large, it can be hard to sign off and pass on the action.

Beginners are known to get excited by larger pots, refusing to let go of their hands. Hands in good standing pre-flop can be easy to get married to. The size of the pot is irrelevant when you don’t have the winning hand. One of the golden rules to stick to as a beginner is to remember
“If you think someone has you beat, they probably do”


The C-Bet

When you follow up a pre-flop raise with a bet on the flop, this is commonly termed as a continuation bet, or C-Bet.

Continuation bets take advantage of the initiative you gain by being the pre-flop aggressor, and carries it over to the flop. The basic principle is that when you raise before the flop you are telling the table “I like my hand” when the flop comes and the C-bet is played, it tells your opponent “ I still like my hand.” As the aggressor your opponent will usually fold, forfeiting the pot.

Caution should be taken when using this strategy, as you can easily become pot committed, and can sometimes lead to a bad beat.


Bluffing

Poker is not just a mathematical game. It also entails a lot of psychological combat, such as bluffing.

Bluffing
At the flop with a high card on the board represents a pair, and raising with a flush draw out represents the flush.

Semi-Bluffing
Semi-bluffing is the name for bluffing when you hold strong cards after the flop that could develop in later betting rounds.

Slow playing
Slow playing means deceiving your opponents into thinking you have a weak hand, when in fact you hold a power house.


Betting

In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing. Different games are played using different types of bets, but for the most part the following rules and protocol are observed by the majority of poker players.

Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation (acting out of turn can negatively affect other players). When it is a player's turn to act, the first verbal declaration or action he takes binds him to his choice of action; this rule prevents a player from changing his action after seeing how other players react to his initial action.

Until the first bet is made each player in turn may "check," which is to not place a bet, or "open," which is to make the first bet. After the first bet each player may "fold," which is to drop out of the hand losing any bets they have already made; "call," which is to match the highest bet so far made; or "raise," which is to increase the previous high bet.


Synopsis

10 Things you should know about...
Is a part of a series of instructional guides to help gain introduction and understanding into a range of different subjects.

10 things about Texas Hold 'em aims to introduce new players to the game and give them a basic knowledge of the mechanics of the game and an understanding into basic strategy."