Texas Hold'em Poker Online

Texas hold 'em (also hold'em, holdem) is the most popular poker variation played in casinos in the United States. Hold 'em is a community card game where each player uses any combination of the five community cards and his or her own two hole cards to make a poker hand, in contrast to poker games like stud or draw where each player holds a separate individual hand.

The game is divided into a succession of hands or deals; at the close of each hand the pot is awarded to one or a few players. A hand ends either at the showdown (when the remaining players compare their hands), or when all but one player have folded and discarded their claims to the pot. The pot is then awarded to the player(s) who have not yet folded and have the best hand. This is typically only one player, but can be more in the case of a tie. The objective of winning players is not winning every individual hand, but rather making mathematically correct decisions. By making such decisions, successful poker players maximize their long run winnings, which is achieved by capitalizing on their expected utility on each round of betting. In recent times Hold 'em replaced 7 card stud as the most common game in U.S. casinos, almost totally eclipsing the once popular game.

The no-limit betting form is used in the extensively televised main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT).

Since each player only starts with two cards and the residual cards are shared, it presents an opportune game for strategic analysis (including mathematical analysis). Hold 'em's popularity and simplicity have inspired a wide variety of strategy books which provide recommendations for proper play.