Texas Hold'em

The shape of a hand

Two players post forced bets — the small blind and the big blind — so there is always something to fight over. Everyone receives two private hole cards. Then four betting rounds, separated by community cards dealt face up in the middle:

• Preflop — hole cards only. Action starts left of the big blind.
• Flop — three community cards.
• Turn — a fourth.
• River — a fifth, then the last bet.

At showdown you make the best five-card hand from any combination of your two cards and the five on the board. You may use both, one, or — rarely — neither, playing the board.

No-limit means you can push your entire stack forward at any point, which is why hold'em is a game about pressure rather than cards.

Hand rankings, from the top

Pot odds: a real decision, worked through

This is the single most useful piece of arithmetic in poker, and it takes about ten seconds once you have done it a few times.

You hold 9♥ 8♥. The flop comes A♥ 5♥ 2♣ — nine high, no pair, but four hearts to a flush. The pot holds $4,000. Your opponent bets $2,000.

Step one: count your outs. Thirteen hearts in the deck, four accounted for, so nine hearts complete your flush.

Step two: convert outs to a percentage. With two cards to come, multiply outs by four: 9 × 4 = about 36%. With one card to come, multiply by two.

Step three: price the call. You must put in $2,000 to win a pot that will contain $6,000 after your call — so you need to win 2,000 ÷ 8,000 = 25% of the time to break even.

You win 36% of the time and only need 25%. Calling is clearly correct, and it stays correct even though you will miss the flush nearly two times in three. That is the discipline poker demands: correct decisions lose constantly and still make money.

One caution — the 36% figure assumes you see both remaining cards. If your opponent will bet again on the turn, use the one-card number (18%) against the immediate price instead.

Position, and why it is worth more than cards

Acting last on every postflop street means you make every decision with more information than anyone else. The consequences are large enough that the same hand is profitable on the button and unprofitable under the gun.

• Early position — play tight. Big pairs, big aces, little else.
• Middle position — add suited broadway cards and medium pairs.
• Late position / button — widen substantially. Suited connectors, suited aces, any pair.
• Blinds — you act first for the rest of the hand. Defend selectively; the discount is a trap.

If you take one habit away from this page, make it this: fold more hands from early position than feels comfortable, and steal more pots from late position than feels polite.

The Million Dollar Tournament

Beyond the ring games, Lucky's runs a single freezeout with a $100,000 buy-in. Blinds escalate, there are no rebuys, and busting means you are out for the night. It is the largest legitimate prize available in the building and the only route to the judge's ten million that does not involve the back room.

Tournament play differs from cash play in one fundamental way: chips do not have linear value. Doubling your stack does not double your equity in the prize pool, because you can only win the tournament once but you can bust out completely. That asymmetry means you should:

• Play tighter than cash early, when the blinds are cheap relative to stacks.
• Play far more aggressively as the blinds rise — folding into oblivion is a losing strategy.
• Attack short stacks near a pay jump and avoid coin flips against bigger stacks.
• Under 15 big blinds, stop min-raising. Shove or fold.

The mistakes that cost the most

1. Calling too much. Calling wins only at showdown; betting wins two ways.
2. Playing every suited hand. Two suited cards make a flush about 6.5% of the time. Suitedness is a tiebreaker, not a reason.
3. Ignoring stack sizes. A hand's value is defined by what it can win, which is capped by the shortest stack in the pot.
4. Bluffing players who never fold. A bluff is an argument. Some opponents are not listening.

How our game differs from a real casino

The cards, the rankings and the betting structure are standard. What is different is who you are sitting with. The opponents at Lucky's are characters, not bots: they have tells, moods, grudges and relationships with you that persist across the night. Beating a patron out of a large pot damages your standing with them, and standing matters later when you need information rather than chips.

Poker is also the quietest way to move serious money. Big table wins spike Suspicion; poker wins are attributed to the loser rather than the house, so the pit stays calmer. If you need to build a bankroll without the floor noticing, this is the room.

Common questions

What are the best starting hands?

A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K suited and J-J are the premium group. They make up about 3% of all hands dealt, which tells you how much of poker is played with something else.

Does the house take a rake?

A small one from each cash pot, as in any real poker room. The tournament charges its fee up front in the buy-in.

Can I win a hand without the best cards?

Constantly. Most hands end before showdown, which is the entire reason bluffing works.

Is bluffing worth it against these opponents?

Against the tight ones, yes. Against the drunk ones, almost never. Learn which is which before you commit chips to the question.

Compare poker's rake against the house edges elsewhere on the odds page.

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