Hello friends, and welcome to Community Casino's first 'How-To' article!
I was lucky enough to learn how to play Texas Hold'em with friends. We had cards, plastic betting chips and swivel chairs around a sticky dining room table. It was lovely.
It was also stress-free. I don't know about y'all, but I don't enjoy being publicly humiliated, something which I was certain was going to happen if I tried to learn how to play at an actual casino.
Our game, Community Poker, is set up for people who either don't know how to play or don't have the time to sit at lucksacks.com with us just yet.
My friend and yours, 
https://steemit.com/contest/@nicnas/community-casino-poker-round-2-20-sbd-guaranteed
Go there, read what to do, there are nice clear instructions, but mainly you simply upvote and comment on the post declaring in your own personal way (but very clearly!) that YOU want a hand!
Now, let's pretend you're at a casino. You sit down in an open chair and you see something like this:
(there won't be a chat box obviously, work with me here)
Broad strokes of Hold'em Poker: It's a five card poker game. You get two cards, your 'hole' cards. Five cards are placed in front of everyone playing, face up. Those are the 'Community Cards' and everyone gets to use them. The goal is to make the best poker hand you can - pairs, trips, straight, flush, full house etc., using at least one of your hole cards and the community cards, five total cards per hand.
Ok, so let's say you sit down in the open seat to the right of 'investwar'. Notice that white, round thing in front of Luj? That's the Dealer Button, or 'the button'. That person is considered the dealer even though there's an actual person doing the dealing. (We can get into details later, just go with it for now)
The button starts the hand. It moves clockwise and everyone will be the button at some point.
The person just to the left of the button is called the 'Small Blind'. This person will need to pay a small blind in order to get cards. You can't escape the blinds, you don't get to play unless you pay them. The person to the left of the small blind is the big blind, and they will need to pay twice what the small blind is.
For instance, if the blinds are $50/$100, the small blind will pay $50 and the big blind will pay $100. Everyone pays a small rake on lucksacks, but it's automatic (yeah, they just TAKE that shit, lol) so you don't really have to worry about it for now.
Then you get cards. Everyone gets two 'hole' cards, face down at a casino but our game, Community Poker, obviously everyone can see each other's hole cards, or 'pocket' cards.
In a regular casino, now the betting begins!
So my buddy luj is the button, so he gets to go last. Small blind, leb, is up first. Now leb has two options; he can 'check' or he can 'bet'. Of course he can fold but a 'check' doesn't cost anything, so he checks. Next is the big blind's turn, and he checks as well.
the person in this pic is 'knocking' on the table... meaning he checks
Now it's your turn. Remember, you sat down to the right of investwar.
You, our lucky friend, were dealt 'pocket Aces'!
This hand is legendary and considered by many to be the 'best' starting hand. So you decide to bet.
In No Limit hold'em, there is... uhh... 'no limit' to what you can bet, but people usually bet in increments of the blinds... so you decide to bet double the big blind - $200.
Investwar goes next, and he 'calls'. That means he's like, 'yup, i want to play' so he throws out $200.
The small blind and the big blind are already 'in the pot', with their blinds, so they call, too.
Now the 'pot is right', and the dealer (the real dealer, not the button) burns a card (puts a card in a 'dump' pile, these cards won't be used) and turns over the 'flop'.
The flop comes A 5 K
You, my friends, now have 'trips', three of the same card. This is GOOD.
The betting once again starts with Leb, small blind, who checks. Then Christ checks and it's to you again.
Of course you bet! You're new, sometimes you don't bet but you're a beginner, bet that shit. another $200 bucks from you goes into the pot.
Investwar folds - his favorite hand didn't hold up. Luj and Leb both call and christ folds.
Dealer declares the pot to be right and burns another card before flipping over 'the turn'. That's the fourth card. The card that was shown is a 4.
Another round of betting occurs, and this time Leb leads out with a monster bet; $600! Everyone calls.
Pot is right, dealer burns and turns over the 'river', the final card to be played. It's another Ace!
You officially have four-of-a-kind, Aces... 'the nuts', congratulations! The nuts are whatever the best possible hand for that game is.
Another, final betting round occurs. Everyone checks. You make a nice bet, $800, and Luj folds.
Little do you know, Leb has pocket Kings... trip Kings' which is a very nice hand. So he RAISES you; that means he makes the bet bigger. You bet $800, he raises you to $1600.
Remember, you have to have a poker face! You are about to win this hand and the pot is HUGE. You decide to re-raise him and make the bet $2000 to play.
Leb is now very worried, but he's 'pot committed'; meaning that he has a LOT of money in the pot, so he goes ahead and calls you.
You flip over your cards and !voila! Four of a kind, winner, winner, chicken dinner!! (say it out loud, it's fun)
Congratulations!
I hope this helps and I hope you'll go to our Community Casino and play some hold'em with us!
Have a lucky day!
Community Casino is a casino with a soul. We are here to have fun, and we are here to enact real, positive change in our community.
Did you know that one in four people, an estimated 450 MILLION souls world wide, suffer from depression?
We are proud to partner with @Voiceshares, a 'token backed community project' whose goal is to "create a support system for all the suppressed voices". They are here to give you, and me, the safe space we need to share our voices - our stories about our battles with depression.
Here is their latest post.
I hope if you or someone you love is suffering from depression, you will check them out and find the support system that is so vitally important to our survival.
Good luck to us all!
Peace and love