Texas Hold’em Rules – Part 3

The Flop, The Turn, The River

Flop

Once the big blind made his decision, we can move on to the flop. Usually the first card on top of the deck will be burned. Texas Hold’em rules state that the first card on top of the deck will be left face down and you’ll flip the following card. The flop consists of only 3 cards so once you’ve burned the first card, flip 3 cards. Now these are the first community cards that will help you decide if you want to see the next cards or not.

After the cards have been dealt, the first player to act will be the small blind and the last will be the button. You can either fold, check/call or raise. Obviously if nobody bet, folding becomes useless since you can check for free so remember to never fold if there’s no bet to call. You never know when you might get lucky and draw that one card that will give you a big payout.

At this stage, you have more information so it becomes easier in many cases to make a decision when you are raised by your opponent or if you should raise against your opponent. Remember these are only the first 3 cards and in total there are 5 community cards so don’t be in too much of a hurry, you never know when your opponent might outdraw you.

Tip: At this point, you should start taking guesses as to what your opponents might have and if their hand is strong enough to beat yours.

Turn

The next part of the Texas Hold’em rules is the turn which is the next community card in line. Just like the flop, you have to dispose of the first card on top of the deck before flipping the turn. The turn is only one card and can be one of the trickiest card to be shown. As you learn the odds you will realize that having only one card makes it really hard for your to draw a card that could beat an opponent who has you beat on the flop. That’s why you need to think carefully if someone raised on the flop to make you pay in order to see the turn.

This is where you will need to be extremely cautious or you can lose big and fast. This will require you to think and based on various factors such as the pot size, your outs, your opponent’s tendencies, etc. This is where calculated decisions can be the difference between winning and losing.

The betting does not change so the first to act is still the small blind and the last one to act will be the button.

River

The last card in the community cards is the most dramatic card, in my opinion. Again, as per Texas Hold’em rules you’ll need to dispose of one card before flipping the last card which is a very controversial card in the texas hold’em world. Because it is the last card, you either have the best hand or you don’t. Simple as that, or is it? The last card may feel like an easy decision but it’s not. With 5 community cards on the board and at least one opponent it can be hard for you to know if you have your opponent beat. Think about it, there are now 5 cards on the board plus 2 cards in his hole for a total of 7 cards. Out of those 7 cards, only 5 are needed.

It becomes much easier at this point for your opponent to make a better hand than top pair. The same goes for you, it becomes much easier to confuse your opponent with a better hand when you’re weak with the right kind of bet. Because there are no other cards coming, this is where the players who are involved must show their hand if someone called/checked the last bet. This is known as the showdown which will conclude the introduction in our next post so don’t stop reading now.

Oh and in case you haven’t notice, the betting order is still the same (surprising right?)

Related Posts

• Texas Hold’em Rules – Part 4
• Texas Hold’em Rules – Part 2
• Texas Hold’em Rules – Part 1