WinHoldEm

January 31st, 2010

WinHoldEm is an online Texas hold ‘em bot, created by Ray Bornert. Bots of this kind can sometimes be used in online poker play, but this is considered cheating by poker rooms, and grounds for account termination. The bot is loaded, and will play in lieu of a real human, calculating pot [...]

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Texas hold ‘em hand groups

October 18th, 2009

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth [1] assigned each hand to a group, and proposed all hands in the group could normally be played similarly. Stronger starting hands are identified by a lower number. Hands without a number are the weakest starting hands.

Pre-Flop Basic Strategy

A
K
Q
J
T
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2

A
1
2
2
3
3
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
8

K
2
1
2
3
7
7
7

Q
3
4
1
3
8

J
3
4
4
1
3

T
4
7
8
7
2
6

9
8
7

3
6

8
8

4
6

[...]

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Essentials in Texas hold ‘em hands

September 25th, 2009

There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold ‘em, but since suits have no relative value in poker, many of these hands are identical in value before the flop. For example, A♣J♣ and A♥J♥ are identical, because each is [...]

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Texas hold ‘em hands

September 17th, 2009

In the poker game Texas hold ‘em, a player’s hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand.
The player’s [...]

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Runner-runner outs in Texas hold ‘em

September 8th, 2009

Some outs for a hand require drawing an out on both the turn and the river—making two consecutive outs is called a runner-runner. Examples would be needing two cards to make a straight, flush, or three or four of a kind. Runner-runner outs can either draw from a common set of outs [...]

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Flopping overcards when holding a pocket pair

July 7th, 2009

It is useful to look at the chances different starting hands have of either improving on the flop, or of weakening on the flop. One interesting circumstance concerns pocket pairs. When holding a pocket pair, overcards (cards of higher rank than the pair) weaken the hand because of the potential that an [...]

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Seven-card stud

June 29th, 2009

Seven-card stud is a variant of stud poker. Until the recent increase in popularity of Texas hold ‘em, seven-card stud was the most popular poker variant in home games across the United States, and in casinos in the eastern part of the country. Seven-card stud is also played in western American casinos, [...]

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Texas hold ‘em – Starting hands heads up

April 7th, 2009

For any given starting hand, there are 50 × 49 ÷ 2 = 1,225 hands that an opponent can have before the flop. (After the flop, the number of possible hands an opponent can have is reduced by the three community cards revealed on the flop to 47 × 46 ÷ 2 [...]

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Community card poker – Omaha hold ‘em

March 26th, 2009

Another hold ‘em variant is Omaha hold’em. Each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards is identical to Texas hold ‘em. At showdown, each player’s hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the [...]

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Probability for starting hands in Texas Hold ‘em

March 25th, 2009

The probability of being dealt various starting hands can be explicitly calculated. In Texas Hold ‘em, a player is dealt two down (or hole) cards. The first card can be any one of 52 playing cards in the deck and the second card can be any one of the 51 remaining cards. [...]

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Community card poker – Texas hold ‘em

March 15th, 2009

This is the most popular community card game today. Each player is dealt two private cards, after which there is a betting round. Then three community cards are dealt face up (in no particular order or pattern), followed by a second betting round. A fourth community card is followed by a third [...]

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Poker probability for Texas hold ‘em

March 13th, 2009

In poker, the probability of many events can be determined by direct calculation. This article discusses how to compute the probabilities for many commonly occurring events in the game of Texas hold ‘em and provides some probabilities and odds[1] for specific situations. In most cases, the probabilities and odds are approximations [...]

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Community card poker

March 2nd, 2009

About the time of World War II, many modern poker games used community cards (also called “shared cards” or “window cards”), which are cards dealt face up to the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand (“hole cards”), which [...]

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Texas hold ‘em in popular culture

February 28th, 2009

Joe Hachem, winner of 2005 World Series of Poker main event
In 1998, the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton gave moviegoers a romantic view of poker as a way of life. Texas hold ‘em was the main game played during the movie and the no-limit variety was described, [...]

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Nut hand

November 30th, 2008

In poker, the nut hand, or just the nuts, is the strongest hand possible in any particular situation. The term applies mostly to community card poker games to mean the individual holding that makes the strongest hand possible with the given board of community cards. By extension, the term is used [...]

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Dominating hand

November 6th, 2008

In poker, a dominating hand is one with an overwhelming statistical advantage over another specific hand. For example, in Seven-card stud, while a Starting hand of K♠ K♥ Q♦ has the lead over A♦ K♦ 10♥, the latter has many outs (ways to improve) to beat the former (catching an ace, [...]

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Poker big bet

September 5th, 2008

In a fixed-limit poker game, a big bet (BB) is the larger of two fixed bet amounts. A big bet is used in the final rounds of a game to increase the pot amount and thereby enable the possibility of a bluff. Big bets are generally double the wager of the initial [...]

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Poker bad beat

July 18th, 2008

In poker, a bad beat occurs when a hand, which was at one time a big favourite to win, loses. Typically the term is only applied in this way when the player holding the eventual winning hand misplayed it spectacularly.Alternatively, the term is also applied when a particularly strong hand loses to [...]

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Texas hold ‘em terminology and strategy

July 9th, 2008

Starting hand terminology and notation
There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck. However, since suits are only relevant for flushes, many of these hands are indistinguishable from the point of view of pre-flop strategy. In fact, considering suits to be equivalent [...]

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World Poker Tour

July 7th, 2008

World Poker Tour

Sport
Texas Hold ‘em

Founded
2002

Commissioner
Steven Lipscomb

Motto
“May all your cards be live, and your pots be monsters” (Unofficial)

No. of teams
No officially recognized teams

Country(ies)
United States (Founded)

Most recent
champion(s)
David Chiu, 2008 WPT Championship

TV partner(s)
Travel Channel, NBC, GSN

Official website
www.WorldPokerTour.com

The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a series of poker tournaments featuring most of the world’s professional players. It was [...]

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