Texas Holdem Hands River

• Texas Hold'em Hands Riverside
• Texas Holdem Hands In Order
• Top Hands In Texas Holdem
• Texas Holdem Hands Ranking

1.10 Odds On the Flop in Texas Hold’em. 1.10.1 Outs; 1.10.2 Straight and Flush Draw Odds; 1.10.3 On the flop, when you have: 1.11 Odds of hitting a hand by the river from the flop. 1.11.1 On the flop, when you have: 1.12 All-in One-on-One in Texas Hold’em. 1.12.1 Preflop matchups when played to showdown: 1.13 Just-for-Fun Texas Hold’em odds. A very common mistake made by new players to Texas Hold'em is to make wild bluffs on the river. Very often, a player will miss their draw or find themselves with a poor hand on the river, and so they make a last ditch effort to win the pot with a wild bluff. More often than not, the bluff gets called and the player is left feeling a little silly.

Plenty of articles and books cover how to pick the best games, how to choose
starting hands, and how to figure out pot odds, but quality advice about playing
Texas holdem after the flop is lacking. On this page we cover a variety of
situations on the river in Texas holdem games.

The page is designed as a group of quiz questions grouped together followed
by the answers grouped together on the second half of the page. We encourage you
to attempt to answer all of the questions before reading the answers to see how
you do.

While it may seem like a quiz wouldn’t be the first choice for advice about
Texas holdem river play, the way the answers are presented helps you learn how
to improve the thought process behind the decisions. Being told the best answer
can be helpful in many situations, but if you learn how to come up with the
right answer yourself it often helps you learn a great deal more.

Quiz Questions

Quiz Question 1

You’re playing in a limit Texas holdem cash game, flopped a straight, and
have been betting and being called by a single opponent. The river made a flush
possible and you know nothing about your opponent. You’re first to act. What do
you do?

• Bet
• Check

Quiz Question 2

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 1 except the game is no limit
Texas holdem. You’re relatively short stacked. What do you do?

• Check
• Make a normal size bet
• Move all in

Quiz Question 3

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 2 except you and your opponent
both have deep stacks. What do you do?

• Check
• Make a normal size bet
• Make a double the normal size bet
• Move all in

Quiz Question 4

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 1 except you know your opponent
well. She’s one of the best Texas holdem players you know and is a consistent
winner. She rarely makes big mistakes. What do you do?

• Bet
• Check

Quiz Question 5

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 2 except your opponent is the
same one in quiz question 4, a good player. What do you do?

• Check
• Make a normal size bet
• Move all in

Quiz Question 6

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 3 except your opponent is the
same one in quiz question 4, a good player. What do you do?

• Check
• Make a normal size bet
• Make a double the normal size bet
• Move all in

Quiz Question 7

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 1 except you know your opponent
well. She’s one of the worst Texas holdem players you know and is a consistent
losing player. She always makes big mistakes. What do you do?

• Bet
• Check

Quiz Question 8

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 2 except your opponent is the
same one in quiz question 7, not a good player. What do you do?

• Check
• Make a normal size bet
• Move all in

Quiz Question 9

You’re in the same situation as quiz question 3 except your opponent is the
same one in quiz question 7, not a good player. What do you do?

• Check
• Make a normal size bet
• Make a double the normal size bet
• Move all in

Quiz Question 10

In a no limit Texas holdem cash game you have a straight and the board just
paired. You’ve been the aggressor throughout the hand and your opponent just
raised all in after you made a standard size bet. Your opponent is an excellent
player and is capable of making advanced plays of any kind. The pot has $1,500
in it and you have to call $300. What do you do?

• Fold
• Call

Quiz Answers

Quiz Answer 1

It’s always a bit scary when a flush card hits on the river and you don’t
have a flush, but it doesn’t always mean your opponent has hit a flush.

In a limit Texas holdem game in this situation you need to bet.

The worst thing that can happen is your opponent raises. Because this is only
a single bet in a limit game you have to call if they raise because of the pot
odds. Most of the times when your opponent raises at the end it means they hit
their hand, but at this point in the hand the pot is large enough in comparison
to the bet you must call that it’s profitable to call in the long run.

Many times your opponent will fold to your river bet or call with a weaker
hand. Top pair and two pair hands will often pay you off in this situation, more
than making up for the few time you lose. When you have a straight it’s often
hard for an opponent to put you on the hand, so they often assume you have a
pair or other made but weak hand.

The nice thing about limit Texas holdem is it limits the amount you must risk
in tough situations like this. The key to profitable play in Texas holdem on the
river is the same as in every other area of the game. You need to learn how to
determine if a situation has a positive expectation or negative expectation and
act accordingly.

Texas Hold'em Hands Riverside

As you’ll learn in some of the following quiz questions, making positive
expectation decisions can get trickier in no limit play. But the decision making
process is the same. Determine the chances of different outcomes and compare
them to the amount you can win and the amount you must invest.

In limit Texas holdem when you reach the river against a single opponent it’s
almost never the right decision to fold to a single bet. The positive
expectation calculation almost always requires a call in this situation.

Quiz Answer 2

In no limit Texas holdem you have to be a bit more concerned about losing to
a flush because you can lose a much larger amount of money in comparison to your
stack size than you can in limit play. But you still have to play a strong hand
like a straight in all but the most dangerous of situations.

In this situation you’re relatively safe because of your short stack. Even if
you have to get all in, the odds are, in the long run you’ll win often enough to
make it profitable because of the limited exposure the short stack creates.

If you move all in it can keep some weaker hands from calling, in turn costing you money.

If your opponent moves all in you’re probably beat, but once again because of
the short stack you need to call. If you have a deeper stack you might need to
make a different decision, as you’ll see in the next quiz.

Quiz Answer 3

In order to maximize your wins in the long run while playing no limit Texas
holdem you have to play your best hands in a way that lets you win as much as
possible. A straight is a strong hand and you need to play it like it’s going to
win until it’s clear that you aren’t going to win.

This doesn’t change just because you and your opponent both have deep stacks.
You need to make a bet on the river in this situation assuming you’re winning
the hand.

This means you need to make a standard size raise.

A standard raise will often get called by one pair, two pair, and three of a
kind hands. If you bet too much some of these hands will fold.

The problem is when you raise and your opponent suddenly makes a raise. If
it’s a reasonable size raise you need to call based on the pot odds most of the
time. But if your opponent makes a large raise and / or moves all in for a large
amount it can destroy the pot odds.

This is where knowing more about your opponent is helpful. In this situation
you don’t know anything about your opponent so you have to make an educated
guess.

You know how much is in the pot and you know how much you have to call.
Compare this ratio against how often you think you’ll win the hand when you call
to make the best play you can.

The pot has $1,000 in it and your opponent moves all in for another $500. So
if you call it costs you $500 and when you win you get back your $500 and $1,500
more. This means to break even you have to win one out of every four times. In
other words you need to win 25% of the time to break even, and more to be
profitable.

To play the situation four times it costs a total of $2,000, and when you win
you get back $2,000. This is how you know you have to win one out of four times,
or 25% of the time, to break even.

Will you win one out of four times in this situation? Is there a chance your
opponent is bluffing at least 25% of the time?

The other thing to keep in mind is if your opponent has a set they may play
the hand the same way, thinking they have the best hand because they don’t think
you have the straight.

In this situation it’s close, but because you don’t know your opponent a call
is probably the best play. But if the pot odds are much worse it quickly becomes
a folding situation.

Quiz Answer 4

The fact that your opponent is a good player is somewhat muted by the limited
exposure you have of only being at risk of losing a single additional bet if
they raise.

Just like some of the situations discussed earlier, even a good opponent will
call with a weaker hand sometimes because the pot odds are good enough to
warrant a call, and a good opponent will even raise every once in a while on the
river with a weaker hand.

The few times your opponent hits a flush you’ll simply have to pay them off.

Quiz Answer 5

This becomes slightly trickier, but your short stack sizes protect you much
lie in limit play.

The best play is to make a normal sized raise and put the
pressure on your opponent.

If she hits the flush she’s going to move all in, but
she’ll also make the same play sometimes with a hand you can beat.

Just like in limit Texas holdem, the best play is to make a standard raise
and call if you get raised.

Quiz Answer 6

This is one of the most difficult situations you’ll ever be in while playing
Texas holdem. This illustrates why position is so important. You have to act
first so you have to either bet or check.

When you check it gives your opponent an opportunity to make a play for the
pot because you’re showing weakness, but if you bet it gives your opponent an
opportunity to extract as much money as possible out of you when they hit the
flush, or make a large move on the pot representing the flush.

The best players can sense weakness and they know how to apply the exact
amount of pressure to make your decision difficult.

Once you consider everything, the best play is to make a standard size bet.

This can create a tricky situation, but it’s still the best play.

When you bet three things can happen. When your opponent folds or calls you
don’t have to make an additional decision, so they’re easy. But when they raise
you need to make an important decision.

It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that you should fold if they raise
because they’re a good player, but the opposite is actually true.

A good player is good enough to make a raise in this situation if they
determine they have a good chance of getting you to fold, even if they have a
weaker hand.

Against the best Texas holdem players the smaller the raise the more
dangerous the hand becomes. When a good player has a winning hand they start
planning on how to get as much out of the hand without making their opponent
fold. A small raise usually is designed to get a call. A small raise also is
small enough that the pot odds require a call.

On the other hand, if your opponent is good enough to recognize that you’re a
strong player the may make an oversized bet that looks like a bluff when they
have a flush to get you to call.

If your head is spinning, it’s because when you play out of position against a
good player it’s easy to get taken advantage of. This is a perfect example of
why you do your best to avoid this situation by not playing out of position.

If you find yourself in this situation and face a raise all you can do is
look at the pot odds and try to guess your chances of winning the hand. You’ll
find that you usually have to call the raise but being profitable is tricky.

Quiz Answer 7

As we discussed in answers 1 and 4,

It doesn’t matter if your opponent is good or bad; the most profitable play is
to bet. If your opponent raises simply call. In the long run you’re going to
show a profit.

Texas Holdem Hands In Order

Quiz Answer 8

Making a normal size bet is the best play in this situation and calling a
raise of all in are the most profitable ways to play this hand against a poor
opponent. You’ll find that a poor opponent will be more likely to raise in this
situation with a weaker hand, so this adds more to your overall profit. Of course
they also chase more flushes than other players so they’ll hit the flush and
take your money sometimes to.

Quiz Answer 9

Against a weak opponent the best play is the same as against an unknown
opponent.

You need to make a standard size raise and see what your opponent does.

When they fold or call you’re in good shape. If they make a reasonable raise
you need to call because of the pot odds, but when they move all in it almost
always means they’ve hit their flush.

But you still need to try to determine your pot odds and your chances of
winning. Poor players are often unpredictable so it’s hard to accurately guess
what they have.

This is another example of how playing out of position can cost you money.
Even a poor player can use position to their advantage, even if they don’t
understand why it helps them.

Quiz Answer 10

The only hands that can beat a straight helped by the board pairing are four
of a kind and a full house. This is such a small range of hands and the pot is
offering five times what you have to call.

But just as important as what can beat you is what other hands an opponent
might have with the board pairing where they’d make this play. They might have
hit three of a kind or two pair, but they also might have missed everything and
are trying to steal the pot at the end with a bluff.

You’ll make this call and lose occasionally, but you may be surprised at how
often you win the hand. In comparison to the pot odds you’ll win more often than
you need to do so to break even.

Conclusion

It’s important to learn how to play well on the river if you want to be a
winning Texas holdem player. While most of the quiz questions and answers on
this page are similar, they illustrate how you must view all of your decisions
on the river.

By learning how to think through each river hand listed above you can use the
same process to find the best play in most situations. Use all of the
information you can, including the ability of your opponent, how the hand has
played out, and the stack sizes, to make the best decision. The more you
practice and think about these river situations the better your long term
results will be.

The game of Texas Holdem is by far the most popular form of poker being played today. Its popularity is due in large part to its exposure on T.V. with the World Series of Poker being televised on ESPN. And ever since Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event for over $1 million back in 2003 playing Texas Hold Em, its popularity skyrocketed

But, the main reason people love playing Texas Hold Em, is the fact that it’s one of the easier games to learn and play. There’s a saying in the poker community that says Texas Hold Em takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master. This statement is very true and one of the reasons why I love it. While it only takes a few minutes to learn the rules, the game is always throwing a curve ball at you and you never stop learning new strategies.

While this article won’t make you a master at playing Texas Holdem online, it will teach everything you need to know about how to play the game. By the end of this reading, you will know exactly how to play hold Em and can start playing online, in a casino or start throwing your own home games.

The Goal

The general goal behind Texas Hold Em is to either showdown the best hand and beat your opponents, or to bluff them off the pot in order to win. Bluffing and stealing pots is a more advanced concept that will be discussed in further articles. For now, let’s just focus on the rules and how to play. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.

The overall plan is to use the 2 cards you are dealt in connection with the cards that are dealt face up in the middle to make the best5 card hand. You will see a total of 7 cards including the 2 in your hand, but may only use 5 of them. Don’t worry; well cover all this in more detail in just a few, so bear with us.

The basics

The beginning of a hand of Hold Em starts with everyone getting dealt 2 cards. These cards are face down so that no one can see them but you. The deal goes clockwise with each player getting one card at a time.

To determine who the dealer is a disc called the button, will be what determines who is dealer. The dealer will switch after every hand and the button disc will move clockwise to the next person.

When you play online or in a casino, this will be done automatically for you. There is no need to keep track of who deals next and who gets a card, everything is done. The only time you will need to keep track of all this is when you play a home game, but this will be easy after a round or 2.

The button will also dictate who becomes the small and big blind. These blinds are forced bets that the 2 players to immediate left of the button must place. The big blind will be the size of the table stakes and the small blind will be half the size. For example:

If the blinds are $1-$2, the big blind would be $2 and the small blind, $1.

Before any cards are dealt out, the blinds must be placed. Again, when playing online the software will do this for you.

A hand of Hold Em is broken down into sections that have names. There are as follows.

• Pre-flop
• Flop
• Turn
• River

You may hear these referred to as other names such as 4^th street, 5^th street and so on, but they all mean the same thing.

The pre-flop term refers to the action before any cards are dealt out.

The flop will be the first 3 cards dealt out by the dealer face up that are all community cards. These cards that are dealt face up can be used by all the players in the hand.

The turn is the next card dealt after the flop face up as well. Again, all players can use the turn card, along with the 3 on the flop to make the best hand with the 2 in their hand.

If you decide to raise, you must raise at least double the big blind. And, depending on what type of Hold Em you are playing will determine how much you can raise.

Betting Styles

There are 3 types of betting structures in Texas Holdem Poker: no limit, pot limit and limit. No limit is the most common and allows you to bet as much as you want so long as it’s on the table. If you have $100 in your stack, you can bet the full $100 at any given point in the hand.

Pot limit only lets you bet up to the amount in the pot. If the pot only has $10 in it, you can bet between $1 and $10. The amount you can bet will change as the pot grows, but as long as you don’t bet over the amount in the pot, you’ll be fine.

Limit Holdem has a fixed amount to bet during the hand based on the blinds. If the blinds are $1 and $2, you can bet $1 during the pre-flop and flop betting rounds. Then you must bet $2 on the turn and river.

Betting

Once all the cards dealt, players have their choice to bet, raise, or fold when it is their turn.

The player who is immediately to the right of the big blind will be first to act. This position is called under the gun or early position. This player may elect to fold their hand, call the amount of the big blind or raise.

Once the first player makes their decision, the action moves clockwise to the next player. This player will have the same choices depending on what happened before them. If everyone has folded their hand before you, you may still fold, call the big blind or raise.

If someone before you has raised, you must call their bet amount to stay in the hand. Even if the blinds are $1-$2, and a player bets $10, you must call the $100 to stay in the hand. You may still fold as well and of course you can raise the bet made.

Raising another players bet pre-flop is called a 3 bet in the poker world. There are rules as to what you can raise, but it’s simple. You must raise at least amount of the bet that you are raising. If a player bets $10, you must raise at least $10 to a total of $20.

Top Hands In Texas Holdem

Depending on which limit type you are playing will also decide how much you can raise. This was already covered in the betting structure section. Just to refresh quickly. If you’re playing no-limit, you raise as much as you wish. If it is l, you may only raise a set amount. If its pot limit, you can only raise up to the amount in the pot.

Once all the betting, folding and all players have made their decisions, we will move on to the flop.

I would like to note, that not every hand will make it to the flop. Often times, everyone will fold their hand which awards the player in the big blind, who is last to act, with the money from the blinds.

The Flop

The dealer will deal 3 cards out in the middle all face up that all players still in the hand can use with their own. The player who is closest to the left of the big blind on the flop will act first. If the player in the small blind or big blind is still in the pot, they will go first on the flop.

Whoevers turn it is will have 2 choices-check or bet. To check means that you don’t want to bet, yet you still keep your hand in the pot. You are not folding; you are in sense deferring to the other players left in the pot.

You may also bet if you so choose. The amount you can bet must be at least the amount of the big blind. It’s not recommended to bet so small, but this is a bit advanced to talk about betting strategy, but as a rule of thumb, betting the minimum is usually never a good idea.

Texas Holdem Hands Ranking

If the player first to act bets, then all players in the pot can call this bet, fold or raise. If the first player checks, then all remaining players can check themselves, or bet.

Let’s use an example to clarify this.

Say you are first to act on the flop. You elect to bet and now it’s the other players turn. They must either call this bet to stay in the hand or raise. If they don’t want to stay in the hand, they can fold and you would win the money in the pot.

Now, if you check and the other player decides to bet, the action will be back on you. You must now decide whether or not you want to call or fold. You can also raise which is called check-raising and is considered very powerful.

If everyone in the hand checks, we would move on to the next card. If someone bets and all remaining players fold, the player who bet would win the money in the pot.

That’s the gist of the flop; now let’s move on to the turn.

The Turn

The turn is basically the same as the flop with one exception. Instead of 3 cards dealt out, only 1 is dealt face up. All players may use this card along with the 3 on the flop and the 2 in your hand as well.

The action is once again determined by who is closest to the left of the blinds or the person in the blinds. If the player who acted first on the flop had folded, but 2 players were still in the hand, the first to act on the turn would change to the next person who is closest to the left of the blinds.

The same exact choices you had on the flop will apply on the turn. You can check, bet, raise, check raise or fold.

The River

The final card dealt face up is called the river or sometimes fifth street. The same exact rules that applied to the turn and the flop and turn will apply to the river.

This will be where the winner is determined if no one folds as well. If everyone checks on the river card, players will show their cards, and the one with the best hand will win the pot. If someone bets and gets called, the player who bet must show their hand first and if no one can beat it, they would win.

Some important notes about the river and the showdown. The showdown is just a name used to describe the part where players show their hands.

First, the player who makes the bet and gets called must show their hand first, no ifs ands or buts.

If everyone has checked, then the player who was first to act on the river will show their hand first and then you go clockwise around the table.

Lastly and probably most important is the rule about showing your hand. If you were the one called the bet and your opponent shows their hand first, you are not obligated to show your hand if you cannot beat it. You can throw your hand away and never have to show. Players may ask you to show or try to bully you into doing so to get some information, but don’t let them fool you.

Quick re-cap

Let’s go over the rules real quick just to refresh in case you forgot anything.

Two players post the big blind and the small blind. Two cards are dealt face down to everyone at the table. Players can choose to bet, fold, call or raise.

The dealer will deal out 3 cards face up in the middle which all players in the hand can use with their own. Players can now check, bet, call fold, or raise.

The 4^th card, or the turn is dealt face up again and players will have the same choices as on the flop-call, fold, check, and raise.

The 5^th and final card is again dealt face up. Once all players check, call, fold, bet or raise, the remaining players will showdown their hands to see who has the best hand.

At any point in the hand if everyone folds, the last remaining player will win the money in the pot. The goal is to either show the best hand using your 2 cards and the 5 in the middle to make the best 5 card combination.

That’s the short abridged rules just to come back to and refresh if you ever need to.

If you play online, all of this will be taken of for you, so there will be need to pay attention to this. But, if you play in a casino, it’s important to know this rule.

That’s the basics of playing Texas Holdem; it’s really not that difficult and easy to learn. Once you start playing, you can begin to learn strategies that will help you to win. You can find a ton of strategy articles right here if you want to get started right away, but we recommend to take it slow at first. Trying to learn too much at once, will likely confuse you.

Good luck and have fun!