The game of Texas Hold'em

Texas Hold'em poker is the most popular type of poker. For the last few years the interest in poker has been booming. Especially Texas Hold'em is becoming popular and the No Limit (NL) tournaments draw million of TV viewers from around the world.
The rules for Texas Hold'em are quite simple but mastering the game of poker is the quest of a lifetime.
Texas Hold'em poker is a game with somewhere between 2-10 players (most online games offer 6 or 10 seat tables).

A game of Texas Hold'em can be divided into several stages.

The Button 
Texas Hold'em poker usually involves at table with 10 players. One player is arbitrarily labelled as "dealer". The dealer is represented by a dealer button and often referred to as "the button". The game starts to the left of the dealer and continues in a clockwise order.

After each hand the button moves one position to the left making the next person dealer. In most cases either a designated dealer or a computer program will deal the cards, however the game is played in relation to the position of the "button". The "button" is last to act in every betting round besides from the first, which makes it the best position on the table.

Posting Blinds 
Before cards are dealt the blinds must be posted. Blinds are a forced bets in order to enter the game. There are two blind positions after the dealer. Small blind (SB) is the person sitting in the first position to the left of the dealer. The second position to the left of the dealer is Big Blind (BB). The blinds move around the table when the dealer button moves.

The Small Blind has to bet ½ of the minimum bet at the table, while the Big Blind has to bet equal to the minimum bet.

First betting round 
When the blinds have been posted each player is dealt two cards face down. These are the player's private cards (hole cards) and can/should only bee seen by the player himself. When each player has received their cards the betting commences. In the first betting round the player sitting on the left hand of the Big Blind (BB) begins the betting. Each player can either "fold", "call" or "raise".

If a player "raises" the following players must either match the raise("call"), re-reaise or fold their hand. This way, everyone still in the game has contributed an equal amount of money to the pot when the first betting round ends.

The Flop 
After the initial betting round three cards are dealt from the deck face-up in the middle of the table. These three cards are known as "the flop" and the cards are community cards shared by everyone at the table.

The second betting round starts after the flop initiated by the player to the left of the "button".

The Turn 
After the second betting round, a 4th community card is dealt. The 4 th community card is referred to as "the turn"

When the "turn" has been dealt a third betting round is initiated by the player sitting to the left of the dealer.

The River 
When the fourth betting round is done, one final community card is dealt. The 5 th and final community card is known as the "the river". When the "river" is dealt one fourth and last betting round begins. The betting begins by the first player to the left of the dealer.

If two or more players stay in the pot to showdown the winning players is the one who is able to make the best "poker hand" using the two "hole cards" and five community cards. A hand can be made with any combination of the community cards and "hole cards". If two players can make the same hand the pot is split between them.

After showdown a new game of Texas Hold'em can begin. The cards are shuffled and the dealer button moved one position to the left.