Texas Holden Poker Online Guide

Welcome to Texas Holden poker. Looking for a quick guide to Texas Holden poker online? Here you will find an introduction to Texas Holden poker, a guide to where to play and a quick look at Texas Holden basic rules.

Playing Texas Holden online
Online Texas Holden poker is now a well established poker game with the most popular poker rooms having up to 60,000 registered players. That means that you can play poker online pretty well at any time you want. Sure beats waiting for the next local game!
Check out the video >>>
Play the video on the right to get a feel for what an online holden game is like.

Where to Play Texas Holden

With over 200 poker rooms online today, you'll want to make sure that choose one of the better ones to get started. Having so many poker rooms available may be great for advanced players, but for the beginner, it can make the choice difficult. It's useful to know that many of the poker rooms actually use the same software provider and player base, so to make life easier all those poker rooms can be broken in smaller groups. The recommendations I have here are for a few of the top poker rooms for the most popular software providers online today. Another point to pay attention to is that it usually pays to play at the bigger ones. The larger poker rooms tend to have more poker action going on at any given moment. This includes more players online, a greater variety of games, more tournament action, and generally more money up for grabs. Besides that, most of the larger poker rooms have a good reputation also for their security and support. While each of us may have our personal favorites, you can't go wrong starting out with any of the Texas Holden poker rooms listed below.

Bodog Poker is the "coolest" Texas Holden destination. Having launched in 2004 it's certainly not one of the first poker rooms online, but its popularity has been growing from strength to strength. Featuring state of the art software and aggressive tournament offers - 5 million guaranteed monthly - it's no wonder why they're seeing growth. Bodog is also a sportsbook and casino operator, so you have the added bonus of waves of newbie poker players pouring over from the sportsbook and casino sections. This makes for some pretty loose action. Overall, Bodog poker is a good choice for a first-time player.

Poker Stars is also a top choice for a new player. Poker stars is currently the biggest online poker room, offering hoards of action for all player levels together with huge tournament guarantees and an impressive weekly lineup. The software is a pleasure and the support is excellent. You also may have noticed, that Poker Stars tends to be the poker room of choice for many of the pros. Take a look at the players who do well at the World Series of Poker. Many of the highest ranking ones - including 3 champions - made their way to the WSOP via online Poker Stars satellites.

Full Tilt Poker is another highly established and respected poker room. Currently Full Tilt the second biggest poker room - by number of active online players - so there is no shortage of holden action available nor freerolls and tournament guarantees. Full Tilt also has an impressive collection of pro players who frequent that tables, including: Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Clonie Gowen, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch and Gus Hansen. If you follow the pro circuits at all, you'll realize that's a pretty impressive list of pros. These guys are often online to play against or chat with. Full Tilt also houses a great deal of high stakes tables, plus is unique in that it's the only big program to offer mac software. All in all, a good bet.

Ultimate Bet is another top choice. Their software is state of the art with enticing promotions to match. There is a unique mini table view that you won't find at other providers plus a wider selection of games, including Texas Hold'em, Royal Hold’em, Omaha and Omaha 8/b, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud 8/b, RAZZ, Triple Draw, Pineapple, H.O.R.S.E., H.O.S.E., H.O. and Blackjack. Ultimate bet also has a crowd of pro players including Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Antonio Esfandiari and Dave Ulliot. In addition, they run World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker qualifiers, so you can win your way to the big games at Ultimate Bet.

Take your pick from the above rooms and you can't go wrong.

Texas Holden Rules

The online game works pretty much like the offline version. It's the same old game you're used to and learnt to love. If you're an experienced player I recommend heading straight over to the Texas Holden poker room of your choice to play a few free (no money) games to get the hang of it.

If you're a beginner here is a summary of how to play Texas Holden. What happens when:

1. One player acts as the dealer, otherwise known as the button, and each player takes a turn at being the dealer as the button rotates clockwise around the table after each hand.
2. The two players on the dealers left post the blinds, ie. put money into the pot before the game starts.
3. Each player gets two cards face down.
4. Betting begins starting with the player to the left of the big blind and continues moving clockwise.
5. After all the bets, the 3 community cards are dealt face up. Otherwise known as the flop.
6. The 2 nd round of betting begins, starting with the first remaining player to the left of the button (dealer).
7. The fourth community card is dealt. This is called the turn.
8. The 3 rd round of betting starts with the first remaining player to the left of the button.
9. This is followed by the fifth community card, ie. known as the river.
10. The 4 th round of betting occurs finalizing in a showdown for the pot.

The Make-up of a Texas Holden hand

Your final hand is made by combining your hole cards, or private cards that you hold, and three of the community cards to create the best 5-card Holden hand. It's possible to combine both hole cards, one or no hole cards to make the best Texas Holden hand.

The Rank of Texas Holden Hands

From 1 to 9, here are the best ranking Texas Holden hands:

1. Straight flush - the best straight flush hand: A-K-Q-J-T, all of the same suit
2. Four-of-a-kind - the best four-of-a-kind hand: A-A-A-A-K
3. Full house - the best full house hand: A-A-A-K-K
4. Flush - the best flush hand: any Ace-high flush
5. Straight - the best straight hand: A-K-Q-J-T
6. Three-of-a-kind - the best three-of-a-kind hand: A-A-A-K-Q
7. Two-pair - the best two-pair hand: A-A-K-K-Q
8. One-pair - the best one-pair hand: A-A-K-Q-J
9. No-pair - the best high hand: A-K-Q-J-9