Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
3. The house charge (rake) depends on the particular Poker room
3. The house charge (rake) depends on the particular Texas Hold'em Poker room and the size of the limits. In the low-limit games, the charge is higher in terms of percentage and can run as high as 25%. In the very high- limit games the charge varies from Texas Hold'em Poker room to Poker room and is usually based on the hour. 4. The ante also varies, but for a $1 and $3 game it is usually 10 cents, 25 cents, or 50 cents and goes up in proportion to the betting limits. 5. After the cards have been shuffled and cut by the house dealer, he "burns" the top card of the deck by dealing it face down in front of him, out of play. He then proceeds to deal each player two face-down cards, one at a time in clockwise fashion beginning with the leader (player on the left of the button), who is the first player to bet and thus is under the gun. In most Hold Em high-limit games the dealer burns the top card of the deck before dealing each additional round of cards. In high-limit and table stakes Hold Em, the game is usually played
with a blind. The leader is said to be "in the blind" and must make a
with a blind. The leader is said to be "in the blind" and must make a forced bet to start the action. The blind is also "live," permitting the leader the option of raising when the turn of play gets back to him— or he can play (call) without putting any more chips into the pot provided his blind bet has not been raised. In low-limit Hold Em there is usually an opening blind preceded by an ante from each player. Often the high-limit version is played with multiple blinds and no ante.