It’s incredible just how popular poker has become across the world – especially here in the Great White North. As we go to press, Canada has four live tournament players on the top 20 all-time money list, led by the former World’s No. 1:
7. Daniel Negreanu: $54.5 MM (USD)
17. Timothy Adams: $38.9 MM
19. Daniel Dvoress: $38.7 MM
20. Sam Greenwood: $36.9 MM
Canada was also Ground Zero for the internet poker boom in the early Aughts. We had thousands of players who moved across the border to play Texas Hold’em at Bodog Poker. Despite all of the changes the online poker world has seen since their arrival, Bodog is still the preferred choice for players in Canada and across the Americas.
Chances are you’ll be spending most of your time at the Hold’em tables. Texas Hold’em is easily the world’s favourite poker variant, still surfing that wave of popularity from Chris Moneymaker’s World Series of Poker win in 2003. We’re also proud of our Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo games here at Bodog Poker, but for now, let’s focus on the great Hold’em games on our menu, and how to play your cards the right way.
Types of Texas Hold’em Games
There are actually several different ways you can play Hold’em at Bodog. Will it be tournaments (including Sit-and-Gos) or cash poker? Are you playing for real money? If so, what are the stakes? You can play cash poker for anywhere between a few pennies and several thousands of dollars per hand, or maybe even bag a six-figure prize by winning one of our featured tourneys.
You can learn more about all these different types of Texas Hold’em games here at Bodog Poker. But let’s take a moment to look at the three main categories of Hold’em you’ll find on our menu:
No-Limit Texas Hold’em
This is the most popular way to play Texas Hold’em – and it’s all thanks to the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which has featured No-Limit Hold’em as their Main Event since 1970. The name says it all: There are no betting limits when it comes to this game. If you like, you can risk your entire stack of chips when it’s your move.
Okay, technically there are some betting limits when you play No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE). There’s a minimum bet size to open the pot (the size of the big blind, which we’ll explain shortly), and if you’re going to raise, it can’t be by a smaller amount than the previous raise, unless you’re going “all-in” with the rest of your stack. You’re also not allowed to re-raise when someone goes all-in like this with insufficient chips; calling or folding are your only options.
Aside from technicalities like these, you’re free to shove all your chips in the middle at any time. This is why No-Limit Hold’em is the most popular way to play at Bodog Poker. It’s all about risk vs. reward, so make sure you come prepared with the right battle plan if you’re going to hit the NLHE tables.
Fixed-Limit Texas Hold’em
This was the No. 1 poker variant before the dawn of the Moneymaker Era. If you were playing in the 1990s or early 2000s, you were probably playing Fixed-Limit Hold’em, or “Limit Hold’em” (LHE) for short. This variant uses fixed sizes for betting and raising; there’s the “small bet” for the first two betting rounds (pre-flop and flop), and the “big bet” for the last two (turn and river).
The small bet is half the size of the big bet, and both sizes correspond to the stakes you’re playing. For example, if you open a $1/$2 LHE table at Bodog Poker, that means the small bet is $1 and the big bet is $2. Don’t confuse these bets with the blinds, which are the forced bets going into each hand that indicate the stakes at a No-Limit table. The blinds at a $1/$2 Limit game are 50 cents for the small blind and $1 for the big blind, not $1 and $2 like they are at a $1/$2 NLHE game.
You might only be allowed to bet and raise these relatively small amounts, but that’s exactly what makes Fixed-Limit Hold’em a worthwhile game to play. The risk is lower and the strategy is easier, so if you’re just starting out or you’re naturally risk-averse, Limit Hold’em is the game for you.
Pot-Limit Texas Hold’em
In between these two betting limits, we have Pot-Limit Hold’em, where the maximum bet/raise is the size of the pot. This structure is more commonly used in Omaha games, but it can also be applied to Hold’em. You’ll see this variant pop up on Bodog Poker’s tournament schedule and at the WSOP from time to time.
Rules of Texas Hold’em
Just about everyone on this side of the Atlantic gets introduced to poker at some point. Depending on how old you are, someone may have taught you how to play 5-Card Draw, or maybe 7-Card Stud. These were the poker games that most people played before Texas Hold’em took over at the turn of the millennium.
The rules of Texas Hold’em aren’t all that different. You’ve got the same 52-card deck, no Jokers included in standard games, and the same rankings for poker hands, listed here from most to least powerful:
– Royal Flush (As-Ks-Qs-Js-Ts)
– Straight Flush (9h-8h-7h-6h-5h)
– Four of a Kind (Ts-Tc-Th-Td-3c)
– Full House (Ks-Kd-Kc-6d-6s)
– Flush (As-Ks-Qs-Js-2s)
– Straight (5s-4c-3s-2d-Ah)
– Three of a Kind (Js-Jc-Jd-As-5h)
– Two Pair (As-Ad-8s-8c-Qh)
– Pair (3c-3s-Ah-Ks-Qd)
– High Card (As-Qc-9d-4h-3c)
The big difference between Texas Hold’em and those other Draw and Stud games is the community cards. You and your opponents each receive two “hole” cards, face down; all remaining cards, if any, will be dealt face-up in the middle of the table. To make your 5-card poker hand, you can use any combination of five cards from those you can see, meaning your own hole cards and the community cards.
As we mentioned earlier, there are four betting rounds in Texas Hold’em. The pre-flop round is when you get your hole cards. The player to the left of the big blind goes first, then everyone else gets a turn going clockwise around the table. You can raise, call, or simply fold your hand and wait for the next one. If there’s an “open-limp” with no raises, the big blind can either raise or continue for free by checking, and if nobody enters the pot pre-flop, the big blind automatically wins in a “walk.”
Assuming more than two players are still competing in the hand when the pre-flop betting round concludes, it’s off to the next round: the flop, which is also the name for the three community cards the dealer will put on the table. This time, the betting begins with the player to the left of the button (all these poker table seat names are included in our glossary), who will either bet or check; the action goes clockwise from there, with raising added to the list of options if anyone bets. You can still fold your hand at any time as long as the action is on you.
Has a winner been declared yet? If not, we move to the turn, with one more community card added to the board. And if necessary, the last betting round is the river, also with one more community card. However many rounds you end up playing, if the hand is still being contested when all the betting is done, those still active reveal their hole cards and the winner is declared. In the case of a tie, “kickers” included, the chips are divided evenly among the winners.
Those are the basic rules of Texas Hold’em. You can find out more by consulting our FAQ and Help guides here at Bodog Poker, but for now, you’ve got enough to get started. Try some Play Money games to get familiar with the rules and gameplay. Once you’re comfortable, then it’s time to hone those poker skills at the Real Money tables by applying some smart Hold’em strategy.
Texas Hold’em: No-Limit Strategies and Tips
We have dozens of useful articles covering Texas Hold’em strategies here at Bodog Poker, but in a nutshell, poker can be thought of like a very big game of Tic-Tac-Toe. If you make the “game-theory optimal” (GTO) plays, the worst you can do in the long run is tie. Your profit will come from the mistakes your opponents make.
That’s all in the long run, though. In the short run, there will be times when you’ve got pocket Aces and your opponent has Seven-Deuce, and they still take your whole stack after the flop comes T-2-2. Protect yourself in Texas Hold’em No-Limit games by making sure you have at least 20 buy-ins for the stakes you’re playing, e.g. $1,000 in your Bodog account if you’re playing 100 big blinds deep at the 25c/50c cash tables. If it’s a tournament, have at least 100X the buy-in before entering.
In the meantime, try to maintain a “tight-aggressive” approach when you’re just starting out with Hold’em. The “tight” part means you favour strong starting hands like medium-to-high pocket pairs and suited Broadways (two cards of the same suit between Ace and Ten), while also carefully speculating with smaller pairs and suited connectors when the entry price is low and the stacks are big enough.
The “aggressive” part means you tend to bet and raise rather than call. This gives you two ways to win: Either you have the best hand at showdown, or you get your opponents to fold. Calling can be the right play sometimes, but until you’re more experienced, it’s best used sparingly against opponents who are clearly bluffing way more than they “should” be. Focus more on minimizing mistakes than trying to extract every last chip from your opponents with risky plays; when in doubt, check or fold.
Texas Hold’em: Fixed-Limit Strategies and Tips
Limit Hold’em strategy is actually much the same as No-Limit, except you don’t have to worry about choosing which bet size to make. It’s not as easy to get your opponents to fold as it is with NLHE, so ideally, you should bluff less often. Bet more marginal made hands for value instead, and use only the tastiest “semi-bluffs” where you’ve got four cards to a Flush, Straight or some other big hand. That way, if your opponent doesn’t fold, you might still win if the community cards come your way.
Texas Hold’em: Pot-Limit Strategies and Tips
Pot-Limit Hold’em is even closer to No-Limit Hold’em when it comes to strategy. Pot-sized bets and raises will put pressure on your opponents, so use them selectively; in all these variants, you normally want to be the last player to act, so you can respond to your opponents’ moves. This advantage is known as “position,” and it becomes increasingly important as you move up the ladder from Fixed-Limit to No-Limit.
Play Texas Hold’em at Bodog Poker
Learning the right poker strategy will help you unlock better results, but in the end, the best way to improve your Hold’em game is to hit the tables at Bodog Poker. The more you practice, the more you’ll see how this game works. You’ll soon figure out which mistakes your opponents are making – and even more importantly, which ones you’re making.
While you’re learning the ropes here at Bodog, you can protect yourself from experienced “sharks” by playing Hold’em at our anonymous tables. Instead of displaying a username that your opponents can use to track your play, you’ll be assigned a new seat number every time you open a table. Nobody will know who you are or what your style is. Of course, this also means you don’t have any history on your opponents, but if you pay attention, you may be able to figure out their tendencies before they leave the table. To disguise yourself even more, try Zone Poker, our fast-fold variant that puts you at a brand new table every time you play a hand.
Bodog will also give your bankroll a boost with our generous bonus packages, starting with our 100% Poker Welcome Bonus for up to $1,000 in hard Canadian cash. You can learn how to claim this bonus and all the extra goodies we have up for grabs by visiting our Promotions page; then it’s time to playTexas Hold’em Poker at Bodog, Canada’s favourite destination for online poker. Whether you believe poker to be a game of skill or luck, you’ll want to read our top tips for staying focused playing online poker here at Bodog Casino.