Texas Hold’em is the most popular type of poker. There are 3 variants of this. Limit, No Limit and Pot Limit. The difference is in the betting. With Limit raises are limited. With Pot limit the raises are limited to the money in the pot and with No Limit you can bet what you want.

It maybe counter intuitive but No-limit Hold’em is the easiest for beginners. There is less scope for bluffing in Limit game and seasoned pro’s will be able to beat the novice. When the stakes are unlimited the game is levelled to an extent and the newb can beat the pro.

You get dealt two ‘hole’ cards, which are just for your own personal use. There are then 5 community cards dealt. You have to make the best 5 card poker hand out of these 7 cards. You can use all 5 community cards if you want. This will drastically reduce your chances of winning as the best you can hope for is a draw.

There are 4 rounds of betting. During each round everyone has three options: to call (match the current bet), raise, or fold their hand. A check is when you call the current bet when the current bet is zero. Everyone must put the same amount into the pot, if they wish to continue to the next round of betting, or the end game.

The first round of betting is after you have been dealt your 2 hole cards.

The second round is after the first 3 communal cards are dealt, known as the flop.

The next round is after the fourth communal card is dealt the turn or 4th street.

The final round of betting is after the final fifth communal card is dealt, and is often referred to as the river.

This should all be pretty straight forward and you can probably pick this up just observing a game for a few minutes.