This guide will teach you the basics in a number of small, interactive steps. The best way for beginners to start to the game is to master Texas Hold'em. Over the past 10 years this has become the most popular form of poker in the world. Poker is a game of your best five cards whatever version you play.

1. How To Play Ultimate Texas Holdem
2. Ultimate Texas Hold Em Online

I just wrote a post about Mississippi Stud, which is one of these new poker-based casino games that are slowly replacing blackjack tables in casinos throughout the world. The other new-ish and popular game of this ilk is Ultimate Texas Hold’em, which is a trademark of Bally Gaming, Inc. This post has no association with Bally—it’s just meant to be purely informational and educational.

1. The casino edge in Ultimate Texas Hold’em is not too bad. It is 2.2 percent of an ante or about 0.5 percent of all the bets made. There is a strategy to Ultimate Texas Hold’em that will allow you to get the casino edge as low as possible.
2. Ultimate Texas Holdem: The Beginner’s Guide There’s no denying that Ultimate Texas Holdem is fast becoming one of the most popular Texas Holdem variations. It blends skill, intensity and excitement with the speed and accessibility of other online casino games, so it’s not hard to see why so many people want to learn how to play it.
3. In Ultimate Texas Hold’em, the number of hands per hour is probably about 40. It could vary based on the dealer’s proficiency and the players at the table and how long they take to make decisions. If you’re betting $100 per hand and making 40 bets per hour, you’re putting $4000 per hour into action.

One thing I’d like to point out right away is that casino games like Ultimate Texas Hold’em aren’t really poker games. They’re casino games which use some of the aspects of poker for their game-play and rules. The difference is where the money comes from.

In a casino game, you’re playing against the house. It’s you versus the dealer or you versus the pay table. You don’t have to beat the other players at the table to win, and when you win, the other players don’t pay you off—the casino does. That’s a huge difference. It usually means that you can get an edge at a real poker game, by being more skilled than the other players. The same isn’t true of poker-based casino games like Ultimate Texas Hold’em.

You don’t have to know how to play real Texas holdem to play Ultimate Texas Hold’em, but it doesn’t hurt. Here’s how the game works, and it’s pretty easy:

Once you’ve checked or played, the dealer spreads 3 more face-up cards. This is the flop. These are community cards that you and the dealer both use to make your final hand. If there are other players at the table, they’re using the same community cards, too. Now there’s another betting round. If you checked before the flop, you can make a play bet of 2X the size of the ante. If you played before the flop, you can only check on the flop.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em combines the turn and the river into a single round. In other words, he deals 2 more cards face up, finishing the deal. If you checked on the previous 2 betting rounds, you now have the option to bet the size of the ante. If you’ve already bet on either of the 2 previous betting rounds, you have no option besides checking at this point.

Your payout depends on whether the dealer opens and on whether your hand is better than the dealer’s. The dealer opens if he has a pair or better. The size of your win for the various bets is based on the game’s pay table. The payouts also vary based on whether the casino is paying off the ante bet, the blind bet, or the play bet. If the dealer opens, and you win, then you win all 3 bets.

If the dealer DOESN’T open, and you win, then you win the blind bet and the play bet. The ante bet is a push, which means you get it back, but you don’t get any winnings with it. (A “push” is the same thing as a tie.) If the dealer opens, and the dealer wins, then you lose all 3 bets. If the dealer doesn’t open, and the dealer wins, then you lose the ante bet and the play bet. The blind is treated as a push. If you and the dealer tie—if you literally have a hand of the exact same poker ranking—then all bets are treated as a push. The pay table for the ante bet and the play bet is easy to remember. If those bets pay off, you win even money. In other words, if you bet $100, you win $100. That’s a 1 to 1 payout.

The blind bet is where the money comes from. The payouts for that bet are based on the final poker hand you have, as follows:

• A royal flush pays off at 500 to 1.
• A straight flush pays off at 50 to 1.
• A 4 of a kind pays off at 10 to 1.
• A full house pays off at 3 to 1.
• A flush pays off at 3 to 2.
• A straight pays off at even money.
• Any other hand is treated as a push.

The trips bet has its own pay table, and it pays off regardless of the dealer’s hand value. The casinos have 4 options to choose from for that pay table, but most of them are similar:

• The royal flush always pays off at 50 to 1.
• A straight flush always pays off at 40 to 1.
• A 4 of a kind pays off at 30 to 1 or 20 to 1, depending on which pay table you’re facing.
• A full house pays off at 9 to 1, 8 to 1, or 7 to 1, depending on the pay table.
• A flush pays off at either 7 to 1 or 6 to 1, depending on the pay table.
• A straight pays off at either 5 to 1 or 4 to 1, depending on the pay table.
• A 3 of a kind always pays off at 3 to 1.
• All other hands result in a loss on the trips bet.

By the way, if you’re familiar with Jacks or Better video poker, you’ll notice that the hands where the casino has flexibility in payouts are the same hands that vary on a Jacks or Better game—the full house and the flush. Ultimate Texas Hold’em pay tables also offer different payoffs for straights, but most of the changes come on those 2 key hands.

3- Ultimate Texas Hold’em House Edge

The house edge for Ultimate Texas Hold’em, assuming you’re making the optimal bets and raises from an expected value standpoint, is only 2.18%. If you’re using an “approximate” strategy that’s less than perfect, it’s more than that—maybe 2.5% or so using some of the published strategies on the internet. That’s far worse than most blackjack games, but it’s a lot better than many other table games, too.

According to Eliot Jacobson, one of the experts on advantage play in casino games, there are techniques for lowering that house edge even further, even to the point where a player might have an edge over the casino. Most of these techniques involve finding a sloppy dealer who either reveals his hole cards or one of the flop cards.

In advantage play lingo, this is called “hole carding.” It’s a common method of getting an edge at blackjack. When playing with a competent dealer, this is practically impossible. You can use the house edge for a game to compute your expected losses per hour. You just multiply the average number of hands per hour by how much you’re betting per hand. That gives you the total amount of action you’re bringing the casino each hour.

In Ultimate Texas Hold’em, the number of hands per hour is probably about 40. It could vary based on the dealer’s proficiency and the players at the table and how long they take to make decisions. If you’re betting $100 per hand and making 40 bets per hour, you’re putting $4000 per hour into action. If the house edge is 2.18%, you can expect to lose—in the long run, on average–$87.20 per hour.

You can use this information to estimate how much this kind of entertainment costs you and compare it other forms of entertainment. You should always keep in mind that this is an estimate based on the long term, which means 1000s of hands. In the short run, over a few hours, you could lose far more than this. You could also win.

4- Ultimate Texas Hold’em Strategy

Since you have meaningful decisions to make in Ultimate Texas Hold’em, this is a game where you can and should learn a strategy. In fact, that 2.18% house edge that I mentioned is a number that assumes you’re using the mathematically correct strategy. Most people can’t memorize or use an optimal strategy, so you should assume that even if you study an appropriate strategy, you might face an effective house edge of more like 2.5% or so. According to Eliot Jacobson, this is a reasonable approximation of the correct strategy for this game:

Preflop

Here’s how you should play the following hands preflop. You should make the maximum possible raise with any of the following hands whether the cards or suited or not:

• Any hand with an ace in it.
• Any hand with a king in it if the 2nd card is 5 or higher.
• Any hand with a queen in it if the 2nd card is 8 or higher.
• Any jack + 10.

If you have suited cards, you should also raise the maximum amount with these hands:

• K2, K3, or K4
• Q6 or Q/7
• J8 or J/9

Also, if you have a pair of 3s or better, raise the maximum amount. If you have ANY other cards, you should just check.

Strategy on the Flop

If you raised preflop, you have no choice but to check now. If you checked preflop, then you should raise in the following situations only:

• If you have 2 pair or better.
• If you have a pair of 3s or more using at least one of your hole cards.
• If you have a 4-card flush draw where at least one card is 10 or higher.

In any of those cases, you should raise the maximum amount. Otherwise, just check.

Strategy on the Turn + River Round

This is where the strategy gets most complicated. You should raise at this point if you have a pair of 3s or better using at least one of your hole cards, of if the dealer has less than 21 outs. “Outs” are cards that the dealer might have in the hole which will beat your hand. This is where being a poker player might come in handy, because understanding the concept of outs is fundamental to being a poker player.

Here’s an example of an out:

To the best of my knowledge, Ultimate Texas Hold’em is not available to online players for real money. It’s a trademarked game belonging to the Bally Corportation, and they’re pretty serious about protecting their intellectual property. I was able to find a couple of sites offering free versions of Ultimate Texas Hold’em that you can play online. These games use “play money” chips, which have no monetary value. There’s no substitute for actually trying a game and learning how it works before playing it in a live casino setting, by the way.

I don’t know how long any of these free versions of the games will be available on the internet, though, so I haven’t listed links to any of them here. I suspect that any site hosting a free version of Ultimate Texas Hold’em without getting Bally’s explicit permission first will receive a cease and desist at some point. But I don’t know.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em is a fun, skill-based, poker-based casino game that resembles Texas holdem. The biggest difference is that you’re playing against the casino dealer instead of the other players at the table. And instead of having a pot made up of the bets the other players made, you have a pay table that determines how much you get paid off if you win.

The house edge on the game is reasonable for this kind of game, but at 2.5%, it’s still not nearly as good as blackjack. Give it a try, though, if it sounds interesting. The basic strategy presented in this post isn’t that hard to follow.

Texas Holdem is the most popular card game in the world right now. It’s everywhere you look; your buddy is running a home game, large tournament winners are mentioned in the news, games are shown on TV and poker is available in brick and mortar casinos, on your phone and online.

Poker is huge, no doubt about it. Everyday new people are signing up online to play their first hand of Texas Holdem. Possibly even turn it into a career.

So because the game is so popular and people are signing up everyday to learn how to play, we thought we’d create a guide to help beginners get started. Take them by the hand and teach them the rules, lingo and basic strategies to help them become profitable faster. I think we’ve accomplished that. Take a look at our guides below and see for yourself.

Texas Holdem Guides

Below are our 4 guides to Texas Holdem. These guides were written with the beginner in mind. We wanted you to be able to read these, not knowing a thing about Texas Holdem, then being able to sit down at your first game and act as if you’ve been playing for years.

These guides aren’t in any particular order, although I do recommend starting with Part 1 since that contains the rules, betting options and formats. Other than that, take your time and take notes, and I’m sure you’ll catch on quickly.

Texas Holdem Guide Part 1 – Texas Hold’em Rules & Betting

The absolute basics are covered in the first part of our holdem guide. The idea is to take someone new to Texas Holdem and give them just enough information so that they can play their first game. The topics I cover in this guide include the rules to Texas Holdem, what hands win in Texas Holdem, betting formats & actions and betting basics.

Texas Holdem Guide Part 2 – Understanding poker math and table image

Our second guide builds on the first one. Now that you already know the rules it’s time to learn how to start playing poker profitably. The first thing I cover is table image aka how your opponents perceive you, how you perceive them and how this will affect your strategy. After that I cover poker math. This is basic math, like addition, multiplication and division. So if you finished grade school math you should be fine. You’ll want to learn this math so you know how to draw to hands profitably, and so that you can see why drawing to gut-shot draws is nearly always a bad idea.

Texas Hold’em Guide Part 3

Part 3 of our Texas Holdem guide focuses on a few areas that new players get wrong — very wrong. To start, I talk about table position, where you sit in relation to your opponents and where you sit in relation to the dealer button. More importantly, I explain why table position is the most important concept to understand in poker and how it affects your strategy. I then move into playing from the blinds, which is an extension of table position. Last, I talk about bluffing, including what makes a successful bluff and how to make sure your bluffs work more often than not.

Read Part 3 Now

Texas Hold’em Guide Part 4 – Best Starting Hands & Variance

In our last guide I cover a few more topics I feel are important for new poker players to learn and understand. I first cover starting hands, including why having a static chart is a bad idea and what you should do instead. I then discuss a big leak that new (or bad) players have — always calling instead of raising — and why it’s costing you money. I then talk about dealing with bad beats and why you shouldn’t let them bother you. I finish off the guide with 10 tips that will improve your poker game.

History of Texas Holdem

The history of origin of Texas Holdem is unclear. However, it’s been said that holdem originated in Robstown, Texas, back in the early 1900s. That’s where the “Texas” in Texas Holdem comes from.

The game didn’t stay there long though. It made it’s way to Las Vegas in the late 1960s, instantly becoming a favorite of professional poker players. They liked holdem because there were more betting rounds compared to games like 5-card draw, creating more opportunities to outthink and outplay their opponents.

Texas Holdem started to increase with popularity with the start of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Originally the Gambling Fraternity Convention, Benny and Jack Binion acquired the rights to the convention and renamed it the World Series of Poker in 1970.

The early days of the WSOP would shock most players today. For example, take a look at these Main Event stats:

• The first WSOP Main Event tournament had 7 players. The buy-in was $5,000.
• The first 6-figure prize pool was in 1973.
• The first time the tournament had 100+ players was in 1982.
• The first place winner didn’t start receiving 1 million dollar prizes until 1991.
• The Main Event field didn’t exceed 1,000 players until 2004.

This is pretty shocking given the thousands of players that enter the tournament nowadays, or the millions of dollars that first place earns.

But the WSOP (and the Main Event) just didn’t take off until the 2004 season. This was after the 2003 Main Event where Chris Moneymaker, your average accountant, won a seat to the Main Event for $39 on PokerStars and parlayed that into a Main Event win. That win was good for a bracelet, $2.5 million dollars and overnight celebrity status.

From there Texas Holdem exploded, being dubbed the Moneymaker Effect. The following WSOP (2004) saw a 300% increase in attendance, doubling the first place prize for first place.

The WSOP has only grown since then. Every WSOP since 2006 has seen over 6,000 players, with a couple Main Events exceeding 7,000. First place prizes have been as high as 12 million, with the average being right around 8 million.

It’s not just live poker that exploded as a result of Moneymaker either. Online poker has, too. There are half a million players (if not more) online everyday, playing for fun and for real money. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, are wagered everyday.

Because the internet enables players to play lots of hand, dive into the math and play multiple tables, players are getting better at breakneck speeds. No longer does it take a dedicated player years of his life to become a great player. It’s now possible to become a great player, earning 6 and 7-figure incomes annually, in just a matter of months, weeks or even days.

How To Play Ultimate Texas Holdem

So that leaves me one question; if they can do it — if Moneymaker can do it — then why not you?

Ultimate Texas Hold Em Online