Chapter 1

A Bird's-Eye View of Texas Hold'em

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting your poker goal

Scoping out the game

Getting more hard core

Finding a place to play

Thirty years ago, Texas Hold'em lived in relative poker obscurity. When I was playing in casinos, it was fairly common for people to come up and ask me about the game.

A decade ago, the perfect Hold'em storm was created: Chris Moneymaker won the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series of Poker (pocketing more than $2 million off an $86 entry fee satellite), the World Poker Tour became the most successful program in the history of the Travel Channel, and online play became prevalent.

The poker craze got so out of hand that my mom now tells me about watching poker on TV: "It's a lot like quilting. You really have to pay attention to catch the nuances." Not exactly the way I look at the game, but the fact that she's even watching speaks volumes.

In this chapter, I give you an overview of everything else you can expect from the book. Read on and then venture forth where you will.

Oh yes, and good luck to you! Time to shuffle up and deal.

Considering Why You Want to Play

Before you ever cozy up to a card table, you should ask yourself a critical question: Why am I here?

There are several possible answers to this question:

• I want to make money.
• I want to just chill out with my pals and have a good time.
• I want to sharpen my game.
• Hold'em has just crossed onto my mental radar, and I want to find out more about it.
• Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

Your reason may even be a combination of those things. Whatever your motive for being at the table, setting a main goal for your play and trying to reach it is critically important.

What I'm about to say will sound like I'm joking, but I assure you I'm not: You do not have to set a goal of making money at the table. Media pressure, and general public attention on Hold'em, has set up an expectation that you can, must, and should win.

The sad fact is that roughly 95 percent of the people who play poker in professional establishments lose money. It's a devilishly hard game to beat. Because of the rake (a small percentage of the pot that the house takes to run the game - see Chapter 3 for more), and because the vagaries of chance even out over time, you have to truly maximize your wins and minimize your losses, or you'll watch your wallet slowly shrink.

If you decide from the outset that you have a goal other than winning, you won't beat yourself up when you don't. And believe me, no one at your table will argue with you if you don't mind losing.

Don't get me wrong, one of my requirements for sitting at a table is that I play to win - when I don't, it puts me in a foul mood for hours if not days. Because you're playing against other mortals - people full of pride and fallibility - you can beat the game. My friends and I have proven it over a mathematically significant period of time.

But winning takes perseverance, attention, and thought. Reading this book is a great start. Keep going. Your will is already stronger than the average Friday-night player - now's the time to get your ability up there as well.

Working with Game Dynamics

To begin appreciating the complexities of Hold'em, you need to understand two basic elements of the game: your position at the table and the particular way the game is dealt.

The importance of position

When Hold'em is played in a professional card room (be it online or in a brick-and-mortar casino), a dealer button acts as the theoretical point that the cards are being dealt from. This button moves one position clockwise around the table at the conclusion of every hand.

The player in the position immediately to the left of the dealer (that is to say, clockwise) posts an automatic bet called the small blind, and the player immediately to their left (or two places to the left of the dealer) posts an automatic bet known as the big blind. These are forced bets that players must make to get dealt into the game. All other players get to see their hands "for free." (To get a better understanding of the dealer button and blinds, flip to Chapter 3.)

Players decide whether to play or fold (quit) in a clockwise position, starting with the player immediately to the left (clockwise) of the big blind.

In Hold'em, your position relative to the other players is critical. When you're in the beginning of the betting order, your cards have to be of higher quality than the cards you would normally play in a later position - especially if lots of players are left in the hand - because you have no idea what evil may lurk beyond. (For more detail on playing by position, see Chapter 4.)

Likewise, if you're riding at the back of the calling order, you can afford to play looser hands (those that aren't as high quality) and hope to catch cards to break your opponents' dreams. In fact, pot odds (the amount you bet relative to the amount you would win) say that sometimes you should call, even when you have a lesser hand. (Chapter 12 gives you more detail on pot odds and all things mathematical.)

Playing move by move

Like all poker games, Hold'em has a very specific order in which the cards are dealt and played. (Chapter 2 has diagrams of Hold'em hands being dealt if you want to see what they look like in action on a table.)

Hole cards

At the start of a Hold'em hand, after the two blinds have been posted, all players are dealt two cards facedown. These are known as the hole or pocket cards. Players then make a decision to call the blinds (match the big blind), raise the blinds (increase the bet), or fold (quit playing and throw their cards away, facedown, to the middle of the table - known as mucking).

In the form of Hold'em known as Limit, the bets have to be of a specified amount. In No-Limit, players may bet any amount of their chips on the table. (You can find more on the different types of betting limits and how they work in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4 [and on the Cheat Sheet], you can find more on the types of hands you should play as hole cards, according to your position, as well as information on how to bet them.)

If you've just been invited to a poker party and don't have the time to even browse Chapter 4, here's a general rule I tell newbies that works remarkably well:

If both of your hole cards are not 10s or higher (Jacks, Queens, Kings, or Aces), fold.

Yes, it sounds harsh, but it'll keep you pretty much playing only the cards that you should - and about the right frequency of hands.

Make sure not to show your hole cards to other players at the table (even if those other players are no longer in the hand). And after you've looked at your cards, you should protect them from being collected by the dealer by placing an extra poker chip (or some other small object) on top of them.

The flop

After the betting action is done on the round with the hole cards (also known as pre-flop), the dealer displays three cards simultaneously to the center of the poker table - this is known as the flop. At this point, each player at the table has a unique five-card poker hand consisting of their two hole cards and the three community cards.

Because of the raw number of cards involved, the flop typically gives you the general tenor of the poker hand and definitely gives you a good idea of the kind of hand to look for as a winner. For example, an all-Spade flop (especially with a lot of players still in the hand) will be hinting at a flush as a strong possibility for a winner.

Betting begins with the first person still in the hand to the left (clockwise) of the dealer button. As a general rule, you want your hand to match the flop, and you should fold if it doesn't; sharpies call this "flop or drop." (Chapter 5 is all about how to play the flop.)

In Limit play, the size of the bet you can make on the flop is identical to the amount you can wager pre-flop.

The turn

After the flop betting round is completed, another community card is placed, known as the turn (or sometimes fourth street). Each of the remaining players now has a six-card poker hand made up of their two private hole cards and the four community cards. Hold'em is a game where only five cards count toward a poker hand, so everyone has a theoretical "extra" card at this point.

In Limit, the betting is now twice the amount that was bet pre- and post-flop.

Poker wags like to say the turn plays itself, meaning your hand gets better and you bet it, or it doesn't and you start giving serious thoughts to folding. This is more or less true. (You can swerve over to Chapter 6 for details about playing the turn.)

The...