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texas hold'em graphics & features

Card games such as Blackjack are hugely popular on the casino floor and are responsible for an enormous chunk of the revenues they collect each year. It’s, therefore, not all that surprising to hear that casinos are always interested in trying out new table games when they are invented – provided that the game has already proven popular with another casino, that is! In reality, very few new table games have found a spot on the casino floor for more than a century. Of those who have managed to break through and gain long-term interest from gamblers, the overwhelming majority are heavily influenced by other games, such as Poker.

I’ve spotted about half a dozen variants of this particular Texas Hold’em table game at my favourite online casinos, most of which are the work of smaller software houses rather than the industry’s ‘big boys’. The more prominent developers seem to have primarily focused on an alternative Hold’em inspired game that is frequently referred to as Casino Hold’em; the two games are relatively similar overall, although Casino Hold’em has the definite advantage of a varied paytable with bigger prizes paid for hitting valuable poker hands such as a Straight or Flush. That one change alone makes Casino Hold’em feel much more authentic to experienced poker players, and there isn’t even a penalty for this in terms of the game's RTP. 

Don’t expect much in terms of user-selectable settings from Texas Hold’em – the menu has options for enabling and disabling the music, voices, and sound effects, but not much else. Interestingly, there is an option to prove the fairness of the current round using a hash value and client seed – you’ll need a little technical knowledge to make use of this feature (which was borrowed directly from Bitcoin-based online casinos, interestingly enough!). However, it’s still nice to have.

how to play texas hold'em

I gave a brief summary of the order of play during the opening paragraphs – be sure to give that a quick read before moving on to this section if you skipped it the first time around. Each round begins by placing an ante bet, after which you will be dealt an initial two card hand. If you don’t like the look of those cards, you can opt to end the hand immediately by folding – if you wish to continue, you’ll need to make a raise of double the amount of your ante bet. 

Next, three community cards will be dealt face up in the middle of the table. As with traditional Texas Hold’em, these cards can be used by both you and the dealer to help you make the best possible five-card poker hand. The first three cards are known as the ‘flop’ – after seeing them, you either check (continue without betting) or make a further bet equal to your ante bet.

There are two further betting stages, each accompanied by an additional community card known as the ‘turn’ and ‘river’. Once all the cards are on the table, the game will automatically compare your hand with the dealer to determine the winner of the current round. A draw is possible, although quite unlikely; in most cases, you’ll be paid even money (minus a 10% commission) or nothing should you lose. 

Betting options available in Texas Hold’em are relatively limited – you place your bets using one or more chips, with minimum/maximum limits of £1.00 and £100.00, respectively. Should you bet £1 initially, you’ll have to post a minimum of £3 to continue to the end of that round. If you want to place a bet at every possible stage, that increases further to a maximum of £5 – quite a sum considering that the maximum you can win is just £9, including the return of your stake. 

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