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Texas Hold'em is a form of Poker where players are dealt two cards prior to a voluntary betting round. Ultimately five cards are dealt face up, for all the players to use, to make the best five card combination from the two cards in their hand and the five community cards on the board.
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There is no definitive birth date of Texas Hold'em, but it is generally accepted that the origins of the game began in Texas in the early 1900s. Many have propagated the lore that the seven card derivative was borne out of the Texas cattle drives or by Texas ranch hands as a way to include more players in the game, using a single deck. Although the cattle drive theory has an element of Western charm, the era of the Texas cattle drives had come to an end by the 1890s with the proliferation of the railroad and more regional meat packing plants.
In 2007 the Texas Legislature recognized Robstown, Texas as the games official birthplace. So if Robstown is indeed the game's birthplace, it was more likely to be played by Czech and German immigrant farmers, who had moved to Robstown in search of cheap farmland, than cowboys.
But whether it was first played by ranchers or farmers, Texas hold'em had found a foothold among Texas road gamblers by the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some of Texas Hold'em's early and well known players include Crandell Addington, Doyle Brunson, "Amarillo Slim" Preston, Johnny Moss and Brian "Sailor" Roberts. Felton "Corky" McCorquodale is credited with introducing Texas hold'em to Las Vegas in 1963 at the now extinct California Club. Brunson, Slim and Addington could be found playing it, soon after, at the Golden Nugget, next door.
In 1969, the Texas professionals were invited to play Texas hold 'em at the entrance of the Dunes Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Attracting a slew of inexperienced tourists, the game at the Dunes was very lucrative for the professionals. The big games at the Dunes would also be where three-time World Series of Poker Champion Stu Ungar honed his skills. In 1971, the second year of Benny Binion's World Series of Poker, the event was changed to no limit Texas hold'em. The main event of the World Series has been Texas hold'em ever since.
Texas hold'em gained in popularity in the first few years of the 2000s, fostered in part by the movie Rounders and the advent on online Poker. But it exploded in 2003, when an unknown online player, Chris Moneymaker, won the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour debuted on the Travel Channel Network.
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Texas hold'em is played with two forced blinds before the deal. The player to the immediate left of the dealer posts the small blind, and the player two seats to the left of the dealer posts the big blind. Each player is then dealt two cards face down, followed by a round of betting. This betting action, called the "pre-flop" action starts with the player to the immediate left of the big blind. Until a player has bet on the hand, all players may check or bet when it is their turn to act. Once a player has bet the hand, subsequent players may call, raise or fold to the bet. If no player has raised pre-flop by the time the action reaches the small blind, he or she can call by "completing" the bet, calling the difference between the opening bet amount and the small blind. Likewise, if no player has raised pre-flop by the time the action reaches the big blind, they may check the action to see the hand. Texas hold'em is played with a number of betting structures and is most commonly played as a fixed limit or a no limit game in casinos. Although pot limit is also played online and in tournaments.
Three community cards, called the "flop," are dealt face up, followed by a round of betting. A fourth community card, called the "turn," is dealt face up, followed by a round of betting. And a last and fifth community card, called the "river," is dealt face up, followed by the final betting round. In all of the post-flop betting rounds, the betting action begins with the first player to the dealers left who is still in the hand.
If more than one player remains after the betting action on the river, players reveal their cards, starting with the player who was the first to bet the action on the river. If no player bet the river, the remaining player to the dealer's left is the first to reveal his or her hand. The best five card hand, derived from the two cards in a player's hand and the five community cards, wins. If two or more players have the same hand, the pot is divided equally among them.
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It is commonly said that "Texas hold'em takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master." While the mechanics of the game are fairly straightforward, a winning strategy is derived by a complex combination of mathematical probabilities and psychology. While starting hand selection is critical, most experts will claim that position in the betting round is paramount. The later a player is in the betting round, the more information, and thus more leverage, he or she has to work with.
As the popularity of Texas hold'em grew, so did the availability of literature on Texas hold'em strategy. While there are many dozens of books to choose from, there are some that are considered classics, most notably including works by David Sklansky to name a few.
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1. Mary G. Ramos, Cattle Drives, 1990-1991 Texas Almanac.
2. Texas State Legislature - House (May 11, 2007), "80(R) HCR 109," House Resolution.
3. Robstown History, Robstown Area Development Commission.
4. Doyle Brunson's Super System 2: A Course in Power Poker (2005) ISBN-13: 978-1580421362.
5. Nolan Dalla, Peter Alson and Mike Sexton, One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player (2005) ISBN-13: 978-0743476584
6. David Sklansky, The Theory of Poker (1987) ISBN-13: 978-1880685006, Hold'em Poker (1989) ISBN-13: 978-1880685082, and more.
7. Dan Harrington, Harrington on Hold'em (2004, 2005, 2006) ISBN 1-880685-33-7, ISBN 1-880685-35-3, ISBN 1-880685-36-1, and more.
8. Lou Krieger, Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner (1999) ISBN-13: 978-1886070141, Poker For Dummies (2000) ISBN-13: 978-0764552328, and more.
9. Phil Gordon, Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em (2005) ISBN-13: 978-1416903673, and more.
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