Texas Hold ‘Em is a variant of Poker, one of many card games played the world over. According to many surveys and observable trends, Texas Hold ‘Em is the most popularly played of all poker games. Texas Hold ‘Em Poker involves the use of community cards instead of the conventional use of an individual card hand as witnessed in games like stud Poker. Texas Hold ‘Em games are made up of players using the five community cards in a variety of combinations as well as utilizing two of their own hole cards. While Texas Hold ‘Em Poker has been around for a long time it reached its current popularity only in recent times. Recurrent Texas Holdemd is plays of and references to the game on mediums of mass communication such as television programs, books and magazines, internet sites and so have made the game extremely trendy with the masses.
The game involves a lot of skill and techniques because each player is allowed only two separate cards and the other five cards are commonly used by all the players. Strategizing and careful evaluation of each move are integral to the game. Prior to the No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em variant coming into style, the 7 Stud version of the game was all the rage. As Texas Hold ‘Em gained more and more repute, especially during the 2000s, it began to take the place of 7 Stud Poker as the most in-demand game in casinos across the United States.
The aim of the game is to win the money that is placed as bets by the players themselves. Unlike some other versions of poker, the cards that are being dealt in the game are not in individual sets for each of the players but to be shared between them. As this lessens the influence of the players on the cards they control, the strategy shifts from having power over the card hands to learning to manage with the two separate hole cards and shifting combinations of the shared cards in order to be able to control the money at stake.
The game progresses in a number of stages that are normally known either as deals or as hands. At the closure of each hand the pot of money collected thus far is given to the one player who is at the top of the game at the time. When one player emerges as holding the supreme combination, he or she is declared as the winner of the hand and the deal is closed and he or she receives the money pot. If the winner is not chosen because of a direct victory, he or she is chosen on the basis of the exclusion principle. In other words, when only one remaining player is left in the game because the others have declared their hands to be “folded”, the one left still playing is decided to be the winner.
Unlike the common perception, victory at individual rounds is not the aim of playing Texas Hold ‘Em. Rather, the focus is on being able to make the largest possible profit by concentrating on making decisions of betting, timing, folding and calling the cards such that one lasts throughout the game and reaches the end with the returns on each bet being more pronounced each time.