Gun Vs Gun Texas Holdem

'Poker is not a game of cards, it's a game of betting.'

Poker is played with various betting structures and rules for how much you can bet, raise or check-raise.

In some formats and games, for example, you can only bet a certain fixed amount for any bet and the amount of bets per round are capped; in other formats you can bet all your money in one go at any time.

Texas Holdem Gun Rack, are casino shuffle machines rigged, crazy hand of poker oar, clint black sandia casino. Different Kinds of Games. Here at New Casino Sites, you will find a great variety Texas Holdem Gun Rack of the various casinos and games. Some of them are undoubtedly well known to you already, but you are guaranteed to find something. In a game like Texas Hold'em or Omaha, the compulsory small and big blinds are placed and the hole cards (two cards) are distributed to each player. After this, the betting rounds begin.

If you've watched poker on TV you're likely most familiar with this form - aka 'No Limit' - which makes for spectacular 'all ins' and exciting showdowns.

The game usually being played on TV is No-Limit Texas Holdem so while these betting rules apply to many different forms of poker, consider these de facto Texas Holdem betting rules.

But No-Limit isn't the only way to make bets in poker. In fact for decades the most commonly played forms of poker were slow, steady 'Limit' betting rounds that kept variance and wild bankroll swings to a minimum. Pot-Limit formats (more on this below) are also quite common (eg Pot-Limit Omaha).

In this beginners guide to poker betting we'll take a look at the most common betting rules in Texas Hold'em and beyond. We'll start with the most popular one, of course - No Limit. It's easier to explain, even though it's not at all easy to master.

Beginners Guide to Poker Betting

No-Limit Poker

In No-Limit Poker, as soon as it's your turn to bet you're allowed to bet all the chips that you have in front of you into the pot. You don't even have to have the most chips at the the table -- you can go 'all in' with whatever you have in your stack.

As we mentioned it makes for great drama at the table and tense, cards exposed Texas Hold'em showdowns where one player is playing for their cash game or tournament life on the turn of a single card.

Don't get confused by the exaggerated scenarios of film or TV though - you still can't throw your car keys or your bearer bonds into the pot as they do it in the movies. You can't even dig into your wallet for more cash in the middle of a hand.

Today's No-Limit poker games always use a rule called 'table stakes.' It means that you can never bet anything above and beyond the money you had on the table when the hand started.

As the sharp observer will have noticed this means that there's a 'limit' to the betting after all. So 'no-limit' poker isn't actually without limits. But for the sake of simplicity, No Limit is the term used to describe it.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that no-limit poker is more dangerous for your bankroll than fixed-limit poker. It all depends on what stakes you play at. A game of Limit Texas Hold'em with blinds of $100/$200 certainly isn't cheaper than a No-Limit Texas Hold'em game with blinds of $1/$2.

Fixed-Limit Poker

In fixed-limit poker, the size of each bet is fixed in advance. In Hold'em and Omaha, the first two betting rounds use bets and raises the size of the big blind (called the small bet). In the following two betting rounds, bets and raises are twice the big blind (called the big bet).

When you specify the size of a fixed-limit game, the convention is to give the size of the small bet and the big bet. If the blinds are $1/$2, you'd say that the game is $2/$4. For the internet generation this may seem a bit odd, and it's different from no-limit and pot-limit poker. Still, it's common use.

Often, the number of raises in each betting round is limited to three or four, after which the betting is 'capped.' This means that you won't be able to put in more than $6 or $8 during the first round of betting in a Texas Hold'em game with blinds at $1/$2.

This rule is often put out of play when only two players remain in the hand, in which case they can continue raising until all their money is in the pot. If they want to, that is.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that fixed-limit poker is easier than no-limit poker. Sure, you don't stand to lose your entire stack after a single mistake, but on the other hand you won't double your stack in one single move either. Fixed-limit is another game altogether and you have to play it differently.

Pot-Limit Poker

In Pot-Limit poker the amount you can bet when it's your turn is limited by the size of the pot. The pot-limit rule goes like this:

You can raise up to the amount that is in the pot after you have called the previous bet.

This may sound a bit complicated and in practice it can get even trickier. Have courage though; there are some tricks you can use to master the pot bet. Read are in-depth guide to the pot bet here:

Don't make the mistake of thinking that pot-limit poker is safer for your bankroll than no-limit poker. Even if they are limited to the size of the pot, bets in pot-limit poker are generally not smaller than in no-limit.

Most bets in no-limit poker are actually the size of the pot or smaller.

How Betting Rounds Work in Poker

Each poker hand is made up of a number of betting rounds. The number of betting rounds depends on the poker variation.

In Texas Holdem there are four betting rounds. In Seven Card Stud there are five and in Five Card Draw there are just two betting rounds.

Fold, Call or Raise

In each betting round, the betting moves clockwise around the table. Each player in turn must either match the bet of the previous player (call) or get out of the hand (fold).

Or, instead of just calling, when it's your turn to bet you can also choose to bet more than the previous bet (raise).

When all players have either folded or called the last raise, the betting round is over. All bets that have been made during the betting round are added to the pot.

All players who remain in the hand have now put in the same amount. They have all matched the biggest bet in that betting round. You can think of this as a negotiation - players agreeing on the price to see another card.

When the betting round is over, if all players except one have folded, the remaining player wins the pot. If everybody else but you folds, you don't even have to show your cards to win. That's what makes bluffing possible in poker.

The Check

Before a bet has been made in the current betting round, the player whose turn it is can choose not to bet (check). Checking simply means passing on the turn to the next player without making a bet.

If it helps, you can think of checking as calling a zero bet. It it doesn't help you, please just forget about it.

The Check-Raise

Let's say that a player checks and another player puts in a bet. When the betting comes around to the player who checked may either fold, call the additional but - or raise!

If he raises here his move is called a 'check-raise.' This is not really a rule per se but it's still good to know what check-raising means.

Texas Hold'em Betting Order & The Blinds

At the start of each poker hand some players have to make a bet even before the cards are dealt.

This is to create a small pot to compete for. Without those 'forced bets' all players could fold every hand without any cost and poker would probably be a very slow game.

In some poker variations, the forced bets are called Blinds. The player to the left of the dealer puts in the small blind and the next player to the left puts in the big blind.

This is how it works in Texas Hold'em and Omaha. Blinds are 'live bets,' which means that they count as valid bets in the first betting round.

Once the cards have been dealt it is the player to the left of the big blind who starts the first betting round (this position is called 'under the gun'.)

He or she must either match the big blind, fold, or raise. Checking is not an option since the big blind is considered as a valid bet. Remember that you can only check if no player has bet before you in that betting round.

Important note: In subsequent Texas Hold'em betting rounds the player closest to the left of the dealer begins the betting round. SO that means while the small and big blind get to act last in the first round, if they are still in the hand they will act first after the flop is dealt.

The player with (or closest to) the dealer button will act last for the rest of the betting rounds. This is called 'having position' in Texas Hold'em and it is a very important concept for playing proper Texas Hold'em strategy.

Big Blind Has an Option

Normally in a betting round, when all players have either folded or called the current bet, the betting round is over. However, when you play with blinds there is an exception to this rule in the first betting round.

In the first betting round of Texas Holdem or Omaha, if all players fold or call the big blind the player in the big blind has an option: He or she may either check or bet.

Antes Instead of Blinds

Some poker variations use antes instead of blinds. An ante is a forced bet that all players have to put in the pot before the cards are dealt. As opposed to blinds, antes are not live bets. They are just put in the middle to stimulate the betting but do not count in betting for any one player.

When there are no blinds there must be some other rule to decide who begins the betting. In Seven Card Stud the player with the lowest card showing must start by putting in a half or a whole small bet (called bring in).

From there, the betting goes on a usual. Since there's no big blind there's also no big blind option in the first betting round.

The Showdown

When the last betting round is over, if two or more players remain in the hand there is a showdown. Players show down their cards and the best hand wins the pot. If two hands are equally good, the pot is split equally between them.

Who Shows Cards First in Poker Showdown?

If the pot was raised, it's the player who put in the last raise
If there was a bet but the pot wasn't raised, it's the player who put in the first bet
If there was no betting, it's the first remaining player to the left of the dealer

The player who shows first has to show down his or her cards. Then the other remaining players show their cards in clockwise order. If their hands are losing hands, they don't have to show their cards - they can just slide their hands to the dealer without revealing what they hold.

You can, however, always show your cards if you feel like it.

Read More:

More Poker Games Rules

Poker Tools:

The truth is that most of our money will not be made from playing in early position. Nevertheless these positions are important and do contribute to our overall profits. We want to avoid making mistakes from this position which eat into our overall winrate.

What is Under The Gun?

Under the gun is a poker term which essentially means “first to act”. So it will be a different position at the table depending on whether it’s a short-handed or full-ring game.

Since there are so many players left to act after us, especially in the case of a full-ring game, it makes sense to play very tight poker. Let’s have a look at some basic raise-first-in ranges for both a 6max cash game and a 9max cash game.

6-Max UTG

We can see that this is a pretty tightrange, and UTG on a FR table will be even more so. The most common mistake players make when opening from UTG is to open hands like ATo and KJo. While these offsuit broadway type hands play very well in a late position battle they are often going to run into trouble when opening from an early position.

The reason for this is down to domination. In a late position battle our opponents can show up with all kinds of worse Kx and Ax hands. When we open from UTG and someone calls we will often find ourselves playing against better Ax hands such as AJ,AQ or AK. Hopefully you can see why this is potentially problematic. If the flop comes Axx. It will be very difficult for us to get away from our hand assuming we flop top-pair with something like ATo.

FR – UTG

Assuming we play FR we need to tighten our ranges up even further as we can see above.

Players make similar mistakes in FR and will try to open hands such as KQo and AJo. These hands will get us into a lot of trouble since they are often dominated.

Notice also that we prefer opening a hand like 9Ts to QJs. 9Ts is way less dominated than QJs (our opponents are playing less hands with a Nine or a Ten in them), and 9Ts can make a larger number of straights and hence has better playability than the QJs.

Understanding Postflop Ranges

It’s important to understand that when our open-raise gets called, the situation is going to be somewhat different compared to when our late position open gets called. We might have exactly the same hand on the same board texture, but the best way to play the hand can be different. Why is this the case?

It essentially comes down to our opponent’s preflop range. When we open-raise from UTG our opponents perceive us to be stronger compared to when we open-raise in late position. As a result it’s common for our opponents to cold-call tighter when facing an early-position open. The effect of this can be quite dramatic.

Check out the ranges below. The first range is what someone might typically cold-call BB versus a BTN open, while the second is what someone may typically cold-call BB versus a UTG open.

Hopefully we can see that difference is huge. That’s a 9% cold-calling range compared to a 31% cold-calling range. We should be able to see that it will be a little tougher to extract thin value from our opponent after they call against our early-position open. A decent chunk of their defending range is actually going to be pocket-pairs looking to set-mine, whereas versus a late position open they have a much larger amount of speculative holdings.

Defending vs 3bets

A common problem when opening UTG is facing a 3bet. It’s important to keep in mind that since our opponents already perceive us as strong, it’s unlikely they are 3betting us with an especially wide range. As a result our continuing range is nearly always going to be very strong.

A mistake here will usually be calling with dominated broadways such as AJo and speculative hands such as Axs or suited-connectors. While suited-connectors might seem a reasonable choice at first glance since they can flop big, the truth is that they don’t flop well often enough for us to make back all the money we lose when we miss.

There are exceptions however. Assuming the stacks get considerably deeper than 100bb then we may be able to make enough money when we hit to make speculative hands a viable defend.

Let’s imagine we open from UTG on a 6-handed table with 100bb effective stacks. What should our calling range versus a 3bet look like?

As we can see this is an extremely tight range (3.54%). You might be wondering why some of the hands are marked in a darker shade of blue. The reason for the AA/KK hands is quite simple. We will likely be 4betting these hands a decent chunk of the time when facing a 3bet. However, it’s also acceptable to slowplay them some percentage of the time preflop.

The pocket pairs are marked in dark blue for a different reason. Find out why below.

Can we Setmine vs a 3bet?

If we had a dollar for every time someone asked us this question well... we would have a lot of dollars! There seems to be advocates on both sides of the fence, some saying it’s completely incorrect, others insisting that it is standard.

The actual answer to this question is as follows. It depends. Like many situations in poker it is not possible to give a categorical answer. So what does it depend on? In short, our implied odds. Implied odds is essentially a fancy way of saying “how much will we make when we hit?”.

Seeing as we miss our set around 87.5% of the time, we need to be somewhat assured that will have a sufficiently big payout if we do hit. So essentially where the 88-TT are marked in dark blue it means “Call if we have good implieds, but fold if we don’t”.

So how do we know if we have good implieds? We won’t get into a big discussion on implied odds right now, but you can check out Bitesize Poker Concept - Implied Odds a brief video on the concept. There are two main things we are looking for though.

1 – Opponent has a strong range (often the case when 3betting vs UTG).
2 – Opponent has deeper stacks than 100bb.

If either of these things are true then we can usually look to set-mine at least 88+. Remember that the stacks need to be at least 100bb or we will not have the right implied odds.

Keep in mind that if the stacks are close to 100bb we will not typically make a lot of money with our set-mines. Close to nothing in fact. However it won’t necessarily be a losing play and there are some other additional advantages, such as we won’t be folding to every 3bet and our opponents will not be so inclined to 3bet bluff us.

FR UTG vs 3bet

So let’s take a quick look at how we adjust our strategy when opening from UTG on a 9-handed table and facing a 3bet.

At first glance there may not appear to be a big difference. The differences are mainly subtle.

Firstly we can see AQs is gone, it’s not really strong enough to call with in most FR games. JJ and AK have turned to dark blue. This means that JJ is no longer a call for value but has been demoted to set-mine. We need the right implied odds or we fold. With AKo we can now seriously consider folding to a 3bet, it really depends how tight our opponents are. We will often find that at lower limit FR guys, many players are purely 3betting KK/AA, sometimes even just AA, vs a UTG open, meaning AKo can be potentially be garbage.

Note that KK has now changed to light blue meaning that it is nearly always a call. So if we open from UTG with KK and a player in the SB decides to 3bet us we should just call rather than 4betting.

If we 4bet we will very often only get action from AA. You will hear it said a lot that KK is always a stack off preflop no-matter the situation and that it’s a cooler if we run into AA. In this particular case, it isn’t.

We can actually see then that our only 4-bet for value hand is AA when opening UTG in FR. This is potentially unbalanced, but doesn’t matter in the slightest in lower limit games. Keep in mind that if this ever becomes a problem we can just choose to have zero 4-betting range and flat AA when we face a 3bet!

Putting it Together

Remember that unlike the blinds, our winrate from UTG should be positive. Just because we have to play tight in this position doesn’t mean we can’t make money.

If you follow the advice in this article and avoid getting out of line with marginal or speculative hands then there is no reason why your UTG play can’t give a nice boost to your overall winrate.