A Beginners Guide to Live Dealer Casino Holdem
Thanks to movies like “Rounders” and the popularity surrounding the annual World Series of Poker, Texas Hold’em has enjoyed a resurgence over the past two decades. However, most of us don’t have the $10,000 WSOP entry fee hiding between our couch cushions. Now, thanks to advances in online casino technology, even the poker player with the most modest of bankrolls can compete in live dealer casino hold’em. It’s an online, interactive video experience that engages poker players and dealers from all over the world.
BEST LIVE DEALER HOLD’EM ONLINE CASINOS
This online guide will introduce you to the basics of Texas Hold’em and why live dealer casino hold’em continues to gain followers as a complement to the original game.
- How do you play Texas Hold’em Poker?
- What is the difference between regular and Live Dealer poker?
- What are the winning hands?
- What are the different variations of Live Dealer Casino Hold’em?
- What’s the mobile capability?
How do you play Texas Hold’em Poker?
Without getting into the weeds and minutiae of Texas Hold’em poker, here is a general overview of how to play.
Each Texas Hold’Em player at the table is dealt two cards face down. These are also known as the pocket or hole cards. A round of betting occurs.
The dealer then flips over three community cards referred to as “the flop,” which anybody at the table can use to improve their hand. A round of betting occurs. The dealer then flips over another community card, referred to as “the turn.” A round of betting occurs. Finally, the dealer flips over the fifth and final community card, referred to as “the river,” and final bets are placed.
The goal in Texas Hold’em is to finish with the best five-card hand. You can see which hands are better than others in the section below.
What is the difference between Regular and Live Dealer Texas Hold’Em Poker?
The primary difference between regular and LIVE dealer Texas Hold’em is that, in regular poker, you’re competing against the other players at the table, while in LIVE dealer, you’re betting that your hand beats the dealer’s.
Live dealer casino hold’em places you at a virtual casino table, but unlike other online poker rooms, the flashy graphics and random card generators are replaced by a real-life dealer and a real card deck seen via live video stream. Thanks to this live video stream, you can interact with the dealer and fellow players just as if you were at a real casino, sitting at your favorite poker table.
The primary difference between regular and LIVE dealer Texas Hold’em is that in regular poker you’re competing against the other players at the table, while in LIVE dealer, you’re betting that your hand beats the dealer’s.
Winning hands
Below are Texas Hold’em winning hands, ranked strongest to weakest:
- Royal Flush — five cards of the same suit, ranked Ace through 10 (ex: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10 of Hearts)
- Straight Flush — five cards of the same suit and consecutively ranked (ex: Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight of Diamonds)
- Four of a Kind — four cards of the same rank (ex: four 9s)
- Full House — three cards of the same rank and two more cards of the same rank (ex: Three 8s, Two 5s)
- Flush — any five cards of the same suit (ex: Queen, Jack, Seven, Four, Two of Hearts)
- Straight — any five cards consecutively ranked (ex: 4 of Clubs, 5 of Diamonds, 6 of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, 8 of Spades)
- Three of a Kind — three cards of the same rank (ex: three 5s)
- Two Pair — two cards of the same rank and two more cards of the same rank (ex: Two Queens, Two Kings)
- One Pair — two cards of the same rank (ex: Two Aces)
- High Card — five unmatched cards (ex: no pairs, high card wins)
Different variations of Live Dealer Casino Hold’Em
While there are more than a dozen variations of Texas Hold’em, like Omaha and Pineapple, the most common, and most popular among new players, are these three:
- Limit – the size of the bets are determined before the start of the game, but wagers in the first two rounds are smaller than bets placed in the final two rounds. If you’re playing a $10/$20 limit Texas Hold’em game, you can wager in multiples of $10 after receiving your cards and after the flop, but bets increase to $20 following the turn and the river.
- Pot Limit – the maximum amount players can wager per round is whatever the total is in the pot. If after the flop, there’s $50 in the pot, no player may wager more than $50.
- No Limit – exactly what it suggests. So long as they have the chips in front of them to cover the bet, a player may wager as much as they wish per betting round. The World Series of Poker is played under No-Limit Hold’em rules.
Mobile Compatibility
Thanks to technology, live dealer casino games have become mobile-friendly just in the past few years. You should be able to play at most mobile casinos. However, remember to try and connect to Wi-Fi because you will drain your data in a hurry playing over your cellular network.