One of the most popular poker games, and my personal favorite, is Texas Hold’em Poker. In this guide, I will help you understand how to is to play it on 888poker.
Getting started with 888poker
The first thing to do is to download the software and set up an account. Once I navigated to the Texas Hold’em section of the app, I had the option to choose a table based on bet limits.
I found cash game tables ranging from $0.01 to $0.02 or bet up to $25 to $50 on No-Limits tables. If you don’t know how to play Texas Hold’em, I’d recommend sticking to the low tables until you have enough experience to move up to big bets.
I’d also suggest trying the interactive poker guide that walks you through the steps. Although I already knew how to play Hold’em, the guide did help me understand how the process works electronically, which was something I didn’t know. The guide breaks down each step, from start to finish.
Things to Know about Playing Texas Hold’em Poker
For me, playing Texas Hold’em on 888 was a fun and easy experience. I was happy to see the game is set up just like in a brick and mortar casino, so if you’ve played Hold’em before, there’s nothing new to learn.
For those new to Texas Hold’em poker, there are a few rules to understand, which you’d learn from the interactive guide. The good news is you don’t have to do a lot of mental math to figure out how much you’ll need to play each hand.
Texas Hold’em Rules
The rules are simple. To win, a player must have the best hand (five cards ordered together). In Hold’em, each player has two cards in their hand that the other players cannot see. These cards are your pocket or hole cards.
Players use these two cards, in addition to the five community cards laid face up on the table, to create the hand. Anyone can use the community cards, and I experienced multiple rounds where players claimed the same hands.
Winning Hands
I loved that there was a downloadable PDF that you can refer to for making winning hands. If you’re new to Hold’em, you may want to keep a copy close by until you’ve learned the rankings.
The possible hands you can create with your five cards are (in order of best hand to least) are:
- Royal Flush – Ace, Queen, King, Jack, and ten, all the same suit
- Straight Flush – Five sequentially ordered cards of one suit (6, 7, 8, 9, 10 all hearts)
- Four of a Kind – All four suits of one number (Queen of Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs), with a kicker (different numbered card)
- Full House – Three cards of a number and two of a separate number (three Jacks and two 8s)
- Flush – five cards of the same suit, non-sequential. (all diamonds, clubs, hearts, or spades); if more than one player has a flush, the winner is the highest card)
- Straight – five sequential cards not of the same suit (2 of diamonds, 3 of spades, 4 of hearts, 5 of spades, 6 of clubs)
- Three of a kind – three cards of one number with two nonrelated cards (three 9s)
- Two pair – one kicker, two cards of one number, and two cards of another number (two 3s, two 7s, and a six)
- One (A) pair – two cards of the same number and three nonrelated cards (two Aces)
- High card – When there is no hand, a player wins based on their highest card (King, two, nine, four, seven – King wins)
Dealing
In Texas Hold’em Poker on 888, the dealer changes in a clockwise pattern after each hand. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about screwing the hand up with a misdeal. The process is automated.
After opening bets, the dealer hands out the first two pocket cards. After a round of betting, the community cards go down in the middle of the table, face up. These go down in a specific order:
- Flop – three cards laid face up
- Turn – fourth community card
- River – fifth and final community card
How to Bet 888poker
I figured out that one of the most important things you’ll need to learn about Texas Hold’em Poker on 888 is how to bet. This game has multiple rounds of betting and the table rules will affect the limits. I appreciate that 888poker offers multiple options, so there’s something for beginners or high rollers. You can choose:
- PL (Pot-limit) – limited on how high the pot can go but no limit on the bets
- NL (No limit) – no limits on betting
- Mixed Texas Hold’em – games switch between No limits and Limit tables
- Limit – Restrictions on how high bets can go each round
When browsing through the game offerings in the poker room, I learned that 888 makes it easy to determine each table’s betting limits. Most games will have the small blind and big blind in the name – $10/$20 Hold’em.
In the game, I had five options for betting. You can choose to:
- Call – Match the previous bet; the first bet after the big blind can be the same or raised
- Check – Skip betting
- Raise – Increase the bet amount. The betting must continue around the table until all players have matched their bets.
- Fold – Forfeiting your hand and any claims to the earnings
- All-in – When a player doesn’t have enough chips to cover the bet, they go all-in. If they win, they receive the value of what they had to bet.
Betting Rounds
Most tables have a buy-in, which means I had to put up money – an ante – to enter a table. I appreciated that many of these were reasonably affordable. Placing bets for the different rounds in Texas Hold’em is easy, but it does require attention.
I realized pretty quickly that it’s essential to understand the table’s small and big blinds – both are mandatory. Small blinds are the player sitting clockwise next to the dealer. Big blinds are the player sitting next to the small blind.
Big blind bets are twice the price of small blinds but vary by no-limits versus limited bets. Limit games allow the small blind to be 50% of the big blind, a small bet. A $4/$8 game allows for a $2 small blind and $4 big blind.
Once we completed the blind bets, the game began. The dealer gives out the two pocket cards. Players then go through another round of betting, called the preflop.
Then the dealer lays down the three flop cards, and another round of betting happens for the flop bet. Next, the dealer lays out the turn or fourth card. And again, more betting. Finally, the dealer lays down the fifth card or river. Then, the last round of betting.
After final bets, the final players enter the showdown. Here, the players show their cards, and a winner is declared. This step ends the hand, and a new round starts. As a self-proclaimed card shark, I figured out that it’s pretty easy to bluff your way into the showdown while playing 888 Texas Hold’em poker.
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