A very popular saying is that Texas Hold’em takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. Learning how to play poker and the Texas Hold'em rules is simple but it will take practice and study to become a profitable player.

My book, Internet Texas Hold’em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro, and this website ought to help you improve your poker game by grasping the poker rules to become a profitable player of Texas Hold’em.

Texas Holdem is the most popular form of poker played in casinos worldwide and on the Internet. Watching a poker program on television can help you learn how to play poker like the pros but realize that it will take months and years to try and reach their levels. You will enjoy watching poker a lot more with a better understanding of the rules of poker, especially Texas Holdem rules.

A backdoor draw is one in which you need to hit a card on both the turn and river to improve your hand. For example, you hold the Ac 4c and the flop is Qs 9c 6d. A club on the turn and the river would give you a flush. Backdoor draws are of little value by themselves, as you rarely are getting sufficient implied pot odds to draw solely on the merits of a backdoor draw; however, sometimes they add just enough value to your hand to draw when you have other outs, such as overcards or bottom pair and an overcard. I often hear people at the poker table say, “I had middle pair and a backdoor-flush draw.” Backdoor-flush draws should rarely impact your strategy, yet I frequently hear players talking about them.

This is the last article in a series called Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. The mistakes are not given in any particular order. Most of the mistakes apply to live play also although two or three of them are more applicable to online play. So far we have discussed the following mistakes:

#1: Playing Too Many Starting Hands
#2: Drawing to Outs That Won’t Help You Win
#3: Miscalculating Odds with Two Cards to Come
#4: Calling Raises Too Often on the Turn
#5: Automatically Betting or Raising the River When They Think They Have the Best Hand
#6 Playing at Limits Too High in Relation to Their Bankroll
#7 Not Paying Attention
#8 Bluffing Too Much
#9 Trying to Get Back to Even

This leads us into our next common mistake…

This is the eighth article in a series called Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. The mistakes are not given in any particular order. Most of the mistakes apply to live play also although two or three of them are more applicable to online play. So far we have discussed the following mistakes:

#1: Playing Too Many Starting Hands
#2: Drawing to Outs That Won’t Help You Win
#3: Miscalculating Odds with Two Cards to Come
#4: Calling Raises Too Often on the Turn
#5: Automatically Betting or Raising the River When They Think They Have the Best Hand
#6 Playing at Limits Too High in Relation to Their Bankroll
#7 Not Paying Attention

This leads us into our next common mistake…

The fifth article in a series: Automatically Betting or Raising the River When They Think They Have the Best Hand

This is the fifth article in a series called Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. The mistakes are not given in any particular order. Most of the mistakes apply to live play also although two or three of them are most applicable to online play. So far we have discussed the following mistakes:

This leads us into our next common mistake…

This is the fourth article in a series called Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. The mistakes are not given in any particular order. Most of the mistakes apply to live play also although two or three of them are most applicable to online play. So far we have discussed the following mistakes:

#1: Playing Too Many Starting Hands and #2: Drawing To Outs That Won’t Help You Win #3: Miscalculating Odds with Two Cards to Come

This leads us into our next common mistake…

Poker Hands Rankings / Probability of Poker Hands

The following poker hands ranking are from lowest to highest. In addition, each poker hands probability in five cards is shown. Realize that the poker hands probability will be higher in Texas Holdem since there is a total of seven cards.

This is the second article in a series called Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. The mistakes are not given in any particular order. Most of the mistakes apply to live play also although two or three of them are most applicable to online play. Last month we discussed mistake #1, Playing Too Many Starting Hands which leads us now into mistake #2.

This is the third article in a series called Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. The mistakes are not given in any particular order. Most of the mistakes apply to live poker play also although two or three of them are most applicable to online play. So far we have discussed the following mistakes:
#1: Playing Too Many Starting Poker Hands and
#2: Drawing To Outs That Won’t Help You Win

This leads us into our next common mistake…

This is the first article in a series that I am calling the Top 10 Mistakes of Online Poker Players. Each month I will be speaking about a particular common mistake. These are the mistakes that make it easy to separate the men from the boys or the women from the girls. When I see one of these mistakes from a player I can start to generalize about their overall play. These are the mistakes from opponents that make poker such a profitable game.

This is the second of a two-part article on schooling. The first part can be found here.

Schooling is a controversial poker concept describing the behavior of groups of weak players, typically in low-limit games. The theory suggests that a large number of loose players in a limit hold’em game help each other out by pooling outs and giving each other better pot odds. In fact, some say that games with too many players are actually harder to beat than games with only a few loose players.

You are dealt AcKc in early position, and you raise your premium holding. Three players cold-call your raise, as do both the blinds.

The flop is a nice looking Kh6s4s. You bet and all five opponents call.

The turn is 9c. You bet and three of your five opponents call.

The river is Qd. You bet and get raised. You make a crying call and are shown JdTs for the straight.

As I sift through the ITH forums, it seems there is a recurring theme, whereby beginning to intermediate players make play errors due to misunderstanding certain concepts. After a long time noticing this, I thought it was time to compile an explanation for some of the most commonly misunderstood concepts in poker.