Texas Hold’em is more commonly known as ‘hold’em’ and has taken the world by storm. Known as the Cadillac of poker Texas Hold’em can now be found in all casinos, card rooms and poker sites around the world.

Its origin has been claimed by the Texans of Robstown, Texas, in the early 1900’s. The game of no limit Texas Hold’em wasn’t a popular casino game until the world series of poker started in the 1970’s. But what kicked off this boom for Texas Hold’em?

The game of Texas Hold’em really didn’t get to the forefront of poker until producers of poker T.V shows installed cameras in the table so viewers at home could see the cards and all the action from the players point of view. T.V shows such as the WPT or World Poker Tour, Late Night Poker and more recently the WSOP broadcast by ESPN, have really escalated the popularity of Texas Hold’em by bringing Texas Hold’em into living rooms and really capturing the interest of people into the game of Texas Hold’em.

Also around the same time saw the online poker boom. Online poker made it very easy for a beginner to learn, seeing that you sit at a table and the software prompts you through all the different actions.

The Worls Series of Poker is held annually in Texas Hold’ems now official home that of Las Vegas, Nevada. The World Series of Poker is a series of different types of tournaments all culminating in the grand finale that being the $10,000 buy in Texas Hold’em main event. In 2003 an amateur poker player by the name of Chris Moneymaker (yes that’s right his last name is Moneymaker) used the online Texas Hold’em phenomenon to satellite into the main event for as $39, he then took on a field of 839 players to eventually win the event and a life changing $2.5 million dollars. By satelliting in from an online Texas Hold’em provider Chris has paved the way for the industry to grow and helped change Texas Hold’em forever.

Once Moneymaker had won the main event and it was televised and publicized all over the globe Texas Hold’em really did start to turn heads and saw a lot of Texas Hold’em players flooding the online poker site trying to rein act Moneymakers fortunes by turning a small buy-in into a main event buy-in. Becasue of this the main event attracted 839 when Moneymaker won in 2003 but in 2004 the main event attracted a massive field of 2,576 players generating a prizepool of $25.76 million dollars.

Joe Hachem is a house hold name in Australia now and this is because he changed the landscape for Texas Hold’em in Australia by winning the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event. By winning and pocketing $7.5 million he instantly sparked the popularity of Texas Hold’em within Australia. Australia now sees Texas Hold’em played in every casino and a lot of clubs and pubs due to the free poker league module. More and more Australians are flocking to their local pub or club to play in Australia’s favourite pastime, Texas Hold’em. 

In Hold’em unlike a lot of stud and draw variations you start with two hole cards which are dealt face down to each player at the table. The dealer button moves clockwise around the table after each hand, with the two players to the left of the dealer button assuming small and big blinds respectively. The blinds are a forced bet that rotates clockwise around the table after each hand.
After the hole cards are dealt there is a round of betting in which players have three options, fold, call/check or raise/bet. Once that betting round is complete three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table called the ‘flop’ which become community cards for all remaining players to use.

There is then another round of betting and when that round is complete a fourth community card is dealt called the ‘turn’. Again another round of betting is had and then a final fifth community card is dealt called the ’river’. Once the river is dealt the final round of betting commences into which if a bet is called the players go into a ‘showdown’ where their cards are tabled and the best five card hand is declared.

The best way to learn how to play Texas Hold’em is by playing online poker, in the many online card rooms around the internet today. Its FREE to download and you can also play for free on one of the many play money tables. What ultimately this means is you can sit and play a serious game of poker while learning the game and you do not have to put any of your own money up.

Maybe soon after that you can be sitting at a table with Australia’s own Joe Hachem or playing online aganst Chris Moneymaker.

You can play with Chris and Joe online for free at PokerStars. CLICK HERE to download the free software.