Texas Holdem has risen to the peak of online poker as the most popular poker variation. No-Limit Holdem is probably the most exciting variation of poker and is used to crown the World Series of Poker Main Event Champion.

ALRIGHT, let's start at the beginning. Texas Holdem is a speedy 7-card game that's the most popular form of poker played today. If you've ever watched poker on the TV, chances are that you were watching A round of No-Limit Texas Holdem. The all important aim of the game is to make the best 5 card hand that you can, using you're hole cards (the two cards that you're dealt face down) and the five community cards dealt face up in the middle of the table

The Flow of Texas Holdem - The dealer button

Every hand, one player will get the dealer button (a small disk marked with a D in live and online poker). The position of the dealer is important, as the two players to the dealer's left post the blinds. The dealer button moves to the left after each hand, so everyone gets a chance to be the virtual dealer and everyone is required to post blinds (forcing you to pick and choose hands wisely).

The Blinds

The player to the left of the player dubbed as the dealer posts the small blind, and the next player in order posts the big blind. The blinds are placed in the pot to jumpstart the betting and give players an incentive to enter the hand. They also make it so that the winner of hand will never walk away without winning a few chips. The size of the blinds are dictated by the stakes of the table that you're playing at in a cash game. In a tournament they are dictated by how long the tournament has been running, meaning that they escalate either with time, or by the number of hands played. The small blind is typically half the minimum bet of the round, while the big blind is typically the same as the rounds minimum bet. It's probably best illustrated by an example: if you're playing at a $5/$10 table, the small blind will be $2.50 and the big blind $5.

The opening deal

Once the blinds have been posted, it's time for some cards to be dealt. Moving clockwise round the table from the dealer, each player receives two cards dealt face down that only they get to see. These are referred to as a players pocket cards or hole cards. The next step is for the player immediately after the blig blind to either bet or raise.

Betting after the opening deal

At this stage in the round, each player is betting on what hand they feel their pocket cards could lead to. The betting starts with the player to the immediate left of the big blind. For this round of betting, each player has three choices: to fold, raise, or call the big blind...

Because the players who posted the blinds have effectively opened the betting, each player has to at least call this bet (the amount of the big blind) to stay in the hand, so checking isn't an option at this stage. The betting goes around the table in a clockwise direction until each player has either called, folded or raised. If no-one has raised by the time the betting returns to the person who posted the big blind, this player may check his own blind, fold or raise. The first round of betting is at the lower level of table stakes, so in a $5/$10 game all raises are increments of at least $5. Once the betting is completed it's time to see the flop.

The flop

The next Stage is the “flop” – where the game really starts to get interesting. The flop is the set of three cards that are dealt face up in the middle of the table, and each player can use these community cards to build their hand. The middle of the table where these cards are dealt is commonly known as the board. Now it's time for another round of betting, again at the lower levels of the table stakes. This time, the betting starts with the player to the immediate left of the dealer, regardless of whether the dealer is still active in the hand or not. The player to the left of the dealer will keep the initial action for the rest of the hand. Apart from that, the betting process is the same as pre-flop betting.

The turn card

Once the round of betting has finished, it's time for another card to be dealt face up on the board. This fourth card is called the turn card, and again can be used by all players to construct their hand. The betting after the turn is now at the higher level of the table stakes, so in a $2/$4 game all bets will now be increments of $4.

The river

Four down, one to go. It's now time for the fifth and final community card to be dealt: the river. Now that all the cards have been dealt, each player remaining in the hand can now see what their best five card hand is. It's now time for the final round of betting, again at the higher level of the table stakes.

The showdown

It's now time to see who's the man and takes the pot: the showdown. Each player who's still in the hand shows their cards. The winner is decided using these universal hand rankings. If a player wins a pot by default, that is every other player has folded, there is no showdown and the winning player can decide whether to show their cards or not. Most people don't, it's always nice to keep people guessing.

A final note on texas holdem... Reading this article might have seemed to take forever but an actual round usually goes very fast. And if you're worried of getting stung while you're still learning how to play, make sure that you take full advantage of freerolls or very low stakes cash games and sit-n-go's.

Limit Vs. No-Limit Holdem

The only technical difference between limit and no-limit holdem is that with limit holdem, a player is limited to raising the size of the big blind. In No-Limit Holdem A player can wager all of his chips on any betting turn....A small technical difference, but this difference changes the strategic approach to each variation of Holdem.