Texas Holdem Poker Hand Odds

April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Common Texas Holdem Odds You Need to Know

One problem with people who consistently make calling and betting mistakes while playing texas hold’em is that they don’t do their poker odds research. And it is very easy to make a bad call when one has no idea what they’re facing with regards to their texas holdem poker hand odds.

Fortunately, it’s also very easy to study texas holdem odds charts to make poker odds simple. Even better, hundreds of people before you have done all the hard mathematical work to calculate the odds of poker so you won’t have to. All you have to do is simply sit back and read what’s already been determined.

The best place to start with common texas holdem odds is before the flop happens. Your probability of getting a pair pre-flop is 1 out of 16 times while your odds of getting a certain pair like pocket rockets is 1 out of 222 times. The poker hand percentages odds of picking up suited cards is a lot better at 23.5 % while getting connecters will happen about 15.7% of the time, although after I downloadPoker Stars and started playing there I have to say my opponents seem to get unreal odds to draw out on me, but that’s for a different article.

Once the flop hits, that’s when things get really crazy and it’s tougher to keep track of the odds of each hand in poker. If your hole cards are suited the odds of flopping a flush or three suited cards is only going to happen about 1 out of every 119 times. In fact, your odds are better on holding unsuited cards and making a flush on the river. However, odds aren’t too bad of getting a flush draw when holding two suited cards as this happens about 1 out of every 9 times.

If you happen to be holding a small pocket pair and really need to flop trips or quads in order to have a made hand, it will happen about 11.8% of the time. The probability of getting any kind of hand in a pair, 2 pair, trips, or quads after the flop is 32.4% of the time. But don’t really count on the quads part of the equation that much as even when holding a pocket pair you’ll only get them 1 out of every 407 times.

If you’re looking for an inside or gutshot straight draw to come through, this will happen about 16.5% of the time while the open-ended draw will be a lot more reliable as it occurs 31.5% of the time. If you’ve got a flush draw, your chances of getting the last card on either the turn or river will occur about 35% of the time while, if you’re lucky enough to have cards allowing for a flush and open-ended straight draw, your hand will hit 54.1% of the time.

When you know these excerpts from texas holdem odds charts, it makes it a lot easier to calculate texas hold em pot odds. And once you master the two and put them together, your poker hands odds cards will improve greatly and you will put yourself in  much better position to start winning more playing Texas Holdem.

Texas Hold Em General Rules

April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Texas Hold em Rule Book

Everyday, more and more people are jumping on the poker bandwagon because their friends are playing it or they see it on TV. But many of these people don’t even know simple poker rules. Now imagine that; playing when you don’t even understand the basic poker rules. And when I speak of the basic rules of poker, I’m talking about the rules of texas holdem.

Texas Hold Em RulesAnd why just the rules for texas holdem? After all, the official poker rules encompass a wide variety of games. Well, it’s because texas holdem has become the most popular form of poker on the planet by far. And for that reason, many people avoid looking at other rules for poker games and go straight to the texas hold em rule book. More specifically, they look at the texas no limit holdem rules.

Now it has often been said that the rules to texas holdem take minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. And if you believe in this statement, learning the texas holdem poker rules and regulations should be the easy part. So let’s get started!

To begin, each player is dealt two downcards, or holecards, that are theirs and only theirs to be used. This is pretty easy to comprehend since most card game poker rules allow players to have at least some personal cards. After the two cards are dealt to each player, a betting round occurs.

In a betting round, the basic rules for playing poker call for everyone after the blinds (two bets laid down before deal to ensure betting occurs) to call, raise, or fold. Now in a limit game, there would be some cap on how much one could raise on a hand, but the texas hold em rules on raising in a no limit game allow for one to raise as much as they want.

After the first betting round is over, the flop (first three community cards) is shown and yet another round of betting ensues. The same rules for poker games bet applies here as it did before the flop. After these bets are placed, the turn card (fourth card) is shown and another betting round happens. When all bets are placed, the final card in the river is dealt followed by the final round for bets.

When all bets are placed, everyone still in the hand shows their cards and whoever makes the best hand out of the five community cards and the two they hold wins. Then the next hand is dealt and everything starts all over again.

One last thing that’s important to note is that the rules for a home poker game can vary as, depending on the amount of players, there might only be one blind. However, texas holdem tournament rules usually stay pretty consistent with the standard as there are enough people then. Other than that, this is pretty much the way texas hold em is played everywhere.