Texas Holdem River Meaning

Another common name for Bluff-Catching on the river is the 'Hero Call' - It's where we have a marginal hand which could only beat bluffs, and we make the call in the belief that our opponent is indeed bluffing. In this article we look at very situations and scenarios, and try to make sense of times when we should consider bluff-catching, other than trying to be the start at our home games! River – The fifth and final community card to be revealed. Fortunes can be won and lost on the river, as this conclusive card completes the board and leaves players with their final hand before the showdown. Set – Fortuitously forming three of a kind while holding a pocket pair is known in Texas Hold’em as hitting your set. In poker, 'no limit texas hold'em' is a game where each player at the table is dealt two hole cards and there are five cards in the middle (the flop, turn and river) that are considered to be community cards. Each player at the table can use their hole cards to make their best possible hand. They don’t always. I think the main reason is superstition. If you call an all-in bet, and two seconds later are told, “you lose,” you may feel cheated. It’s not rational, but most people want a short time to absorb the situation, and evaluate the. Probabilities in Texas Hold'em Introduction An understanding of basic probabilities will give your poker game a stronger foundation, for all game types. This article discusses all the important, and interesting, probabilities that you should be aware of. Probabilities in poker Probability means the degree of certainty that a possible event will.

“I had to call… I was pot committed!”

One of the more commonly uttered justifications for suspect decisions in poker is for players to claim they were “pot committed” in a hand when in they really weren’t. It’s a concept many think they understand, but sometimes they misapply it or are mistaken. But it’s one well worth learning, particularly when playing “big bet” games like no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha in which bets on successive streets can quickly transform a small skirmish into major melee.

The Point of No Return

Generally speaking, being pot committed means having arrived at a point in a poker hand at which folding to any bet or raise has become an incorrect play. Such a situation is determined by pot odds and how those odds compare to your chances of winning a hand.

It isn’t exactly the same, but being pot committed is sometimes likened to reaching a kind of “point of no return” such as might arise other contexts. Take the situation of opposing factions building toward conflict who make declarations suggesting a particular action or advancement necessarily removes peaceful alternatives. For example, when Julius Caesar led a legion southward toward Rome and crossed the Rubicon river, that action signaled an inexorable commitment to war, with the phrase “crossing the Rubicon” later coming to represent just such a commitment.

Military strategists have long discussed the “Rubicon” example and the mindset it represents, in particular the way committing to such an action necessarily reduces options going forward, including the one to avoid conflict altogether. A possible consequence of such thinking can be false rationalizations to support the decision after the fact — that is, after crossing the “Rubicon” (or some other “point of no return”) to avoid considering alternatives thereafter that might still exist but have been ruled out by the earlier-declared commitment.

Texas Holdem River Meaning Dictionary

In poker, players sometimes mistakenly describe themselves as having been “pot committed” as a justification for going all the way with a hand when they didn’t actually have to do so. Betting chips early in a hand sometimes makes it more difficult for some players to fold later on and concede losing those chips they’ve bet. Thus any bet or raise or call they make becomes justification for committing to battle for a pot to the very end... even if their opponent has assembled a much stronger “army” against them.

But just as in military strategy, it is generally not desirable in poker to seek situations in which you lessen your available options. Players in tournaments prefer amassing big stacks precisely because of the flexibility it gives them when playing hands, whereas those with short stacks find their options reduced. The same goes for cash games, in which those with bigger stacks can be more creative than those with less. One shouldn’t, then, actively look to become pot committed unless the situation is favorable for doing so — e.g., when holding a strong hand that rates to be better than an opponent’s, or when facing pot odds that make committing the rest of one’s stack correct.

A Math Problem in Which All Options Have Been Subtracted Away But One

To describe an extreme example, say you lose a big hand early in a full ring (nine-handed) no-limit hold’em tournament that knocks you back to just 1,000 chips at a time when the blinds are 400/800 with a 100 ante. Making matters worse, on the following hand you are in the big blind, meaning you only have 100 left after posting the ante and big blind. A player in middle position then raises and all fold around.

The action is on you. And you hold .

Here is an obvious example of being pot committed. The blinds and antes total 2,100, and after your opponent raises you have but 100 left to call, making the effective stacks between the two of you just 100. That means you are facing calling 100 to win a pot of 2,200 — that’s pot odds of 22-to-1.

Even if your opponent holds and has an 88.3% chance of beating you (according to the PokerNews Odds Calculator), that’s still just over a 7-to-1 advantage. In other words, mathematically speaking, you’re “priced in” to call no matter what two cards your opponent has. You are, as they say, pot committed.

Of course, you don’t have to call. The option to fold is still available to you, even if doing so would be foolhardy given how that would leave you even less likely to recover. But since you genuinely are pot committed, you should.

That’s a simple and relatively rare example, though. More often your decisions will be less cut-and-dry, although understanding how to calculate pot odds and thus determine whether or not committing your last chips is mathematically correct will help a great deal when making them.

Having Committed Chips ≠ Being Pot Committed

Do note, however, that being pot committed has to do with pot odds and how they compare to your chances of winning, not with how much of your stack you have already committed in pursuit of winning a pot. In the above example, you are not pot committed because you have already committed 900 chips (the big blind and ante) and have but 100 left. You are pot committed because of the pot odds being offered to you and your chances of winning the hand with .

It is a common mistake to consider committing a high percentage of chips in one’s stack already as causing one to be pot committed and thus without options when it comes to deciding what to do with the rest. Those two circumstances often coincide, but you shouldn’t believe yourself obligated to put the last of your stack in just because you have already bet a certain amount before.

Again to fashion a somewhat obvious example, let’s say I play a hand recklessly and keep calling an opponent’s bets all of the way down to the river as I crazily chase a straight draw. I start the hand with 1,000 chips holding and call an opponent’s raise to 200. The flop comes and I call another bet of 300. The turn is the , my opponent bets 400, and I call again, leaving myself just 100 chips. Then the river brings the and my opponent bets one more time, enough to put me all in.

I’ve played the hand miserably, spewing 900 chips from my starting stack of 1,000 chasing that straight. But calling the last 100 here would be even worse. I’m not pot committed because of the chips I’ve already bet. I might be pot committed if I thought my chance of winning the hand if I called were better than the approximately 20-to-1 pot odds I was facing — but with just five-high, I don’t.

Sometimes we do want to be pot committed, say in a tournament in which we are down to a short stack and finally get dealt a premium hand like or . Then we want to get all of our chips in the middle, and thus might bet in a way that increases the likelihood we’ll be getting the remainder of our stack in sooner than later.

But generally speaking, unless you know you are getting favorable pot odds given the hand you hold and it’s chances of being best, being pot committed isn’t desirable. You want to have the option to fold available to you, especially in a tournament when doing so enables you to continue.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

• Tags

  cash game strategytournament strategypot oddsno-limit hold'em

Casinos are always looking for new games to offer bored gamblers. Over the last decade or 2, these games are more commonly related to poker than anything else. But games like these—including Scientific Gaming’s Ultimate Texas Holdem—are more akin to blackjack than to poker. In fact, dealing Ultimate Texas Holdem is considered dealing a novelty casino game. The College of Southern Nevada covers how to deal Ultimate Texas Holdem in their blackjack class.

What’s the big difference between Ultimate Texas Holdem (and games like it) and “real” poker games? The main difference is who you’re competing with. In a so-called real poker game, you’re competing with the other players at the table. If you win money, you’re winning it from them. If you lose money, you’re losing it to your competitors at the table.

This isn’t a value judgment. It’s perfectly all right to play house-banked casino games. Gamblers do it every day. I’m pointing out the distinction because it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you play a casino game.

With that as a premise—understanding in detail what you’re getting into when you’re playing a casino game—I offer you this post: “The Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” The idea is to share everything you would ever need or want to know about Ultimate Texas Holdem. Luckily, it’s not that complicated a game. There’s no need to write an entire book about it, like you would do with blackjack or poker.

Ultimate Texas Holdem is a card game where you play heads-up against a casino dealer. Other players at the table are also playing heads-up against the dealer. It features a progressive jackpot, among other payouts.

You start by making 2 equal-sized bets:

• The Ante Bet
• The Blind Bet

Texas Holdem River Meaning List

At most casinos, the minimum bet is either $5 or $10. The maximum bet is usually between $50 an $500.

You also have 2 optional bets you can make:

• The Trips Bonus Bet
• The Progressive Bet

You start by getting 2 hole cards from the dealer—these are 2 cards that are dealt to you face-down, just like in regular Texas holdem.

When you get those cards, you can choose from the following actions:

• Check
• Bet 3X the Ante (A “Play” Bet.)
• Bet 4X the Ante (Also a “Play” Bet.)

After you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals 3 face-up cards—the “flop.” (This is also how regular Texas holdem works.)

If you checked when you got your hole cards, you have the option now to place a bet of 2X the Ante (another example of a “Play Bet.”) After that decision is made, the dealer turns over 2 more face-up cards—the turn and the river, in Texas holdem terms. Note that the action here is different than in traditional Texas holdem. Normally you’d have a turn, followed by a betting round, then the river, followed by another betting round.

Once you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals her hole cards and announces the final hand. If your hand beats the dealer’s hand (using the standard poker hand rankings), you win even money on your Ante bets and the Play bets. On the other hand, if the dealer’s hand beats yours, you lose your Ante, Blind, and Play Bets. If you tie, then these bets are all treated as a “push.” (A push is when your original bet is returned to you, but without any winnings. You have neither a net win nor a net loss.)

The Blind Bet is handled differently. It pays off if you win AND if you have a straight or better. If you have less than a straight but still beat the dealer, the Blind Bet is treated as a push. The Blind Bet is paid off based on a pay table. The better your hand, the more it pays off. (It’s like video poker in this respect.)

Casinos generally use a shuffling machine called an “i-Deal single deck specialty shuffler.” That’s because this game was created by Shufflemaster, which is now a division of Scientific Games. Shufflemaster’s reason for existence is to sell shuffling machines to casinos, so creating new cards is something they do in service to this goal.

The Blind Bet and the Trips Bonus Bet have 2 different pay tables.

Here’s a common pay table for the Blind Bet:

Keep in mind that the Blind Bet pays off regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. Also, notice that 3 of a kind doesn’t pay off for the Blind Bet, which is an interesting quirk of the game. The pay tables can vary—the casino gets to choose from multiple options. For example, some casinos pay off 40 to 1 instead of 50 to 1 for a straight flush. This changes the house edge for the game, of course.

Here’s a common pay table for the Trips Bonus Bet:

Here are a couple of facts to keep in mind about the Trips Bonus Bet:

• Your hand doesn’t have to win. It pays off regardless of whether you or the dealer wins.
• It wins even if you don’t have to use your hole cards. You can just play the board (the flop, turn, and river.)
• It wins even if you fold.

How the Progressive Bet and Jackpot Works

The progressive bet in Ultimate Texas Holdem is also an optional side bet. At most casinos, this bet is a flat $1 bet. But at some casinos, the Progressive Bet is $5. You can win 1 of 2 progressive jackpots in this game—the smaller jackpot, or the larger jackpot. To win the smaller progressive jackpot, you must use at least 1 of your hole cards. The smaller progressive pays off for hands that are a full house or better.

To win the bigger progressive jackpot—which is 100% of the jackpot—you must use both your hole cards and the flop to form a royal flush. If you hit the royal flush on the turn or the river, you don’t win the bigger progressive. You can also win a percentage of the full big progressive jackpot

Casinos also feature something called an “Envy Bonus.” This is a bonus paid to any player at the table when one of the other players wins the progressive jackpot.

Casino games where you make decisions usually have a house edge that varies based on how well you make those decisions. In other words, your strategy matters. There’s always a mathematically correct play in every situation. In Ultimate Texas Holdem, your strategy is limited to whether you make Play Bets during the various stages of the game. For me, this isn’t an intuitive decision. You can find various websites offering strategies for this, but I have another recommendation:

The house edge is the amount of each bet that the casino projects you’ll lose on average based on the probabilities behind the game. Obviously, the lower the house edge, the better for the player. You should do everything you can to minimize the house edge on any casino game you play.

Texas Holdem River Meaning Dictionary

If you use perfect basic strategy on Ultimate Texas Holdem, the house expects to win a little over 2%. Let’s assume that the house edge is 10% if you don’t know basic strategy. What does that do to the cost of playing the game in the long run?

There’s an interesting post at Two Plus Two from a gambler describing his basic strategy for Ultimate Texas Holdem. I don’t know how close it mirrors a mathematically perfect strategy, but here’s what “nonprofitgambler” says is the correct way to play:

Preflop, he suggests raising with any of the following hands:

• Any ace
• Any k5+, and any king suited
• Q5s+, Q8+
• J8s+, JT+
• 33+ for pocket pairs

That small “s” after the number means that the cards are of the same suit (they’re “suited.”) On the flop, he says most people play the same, and that it’s correct—if you pair anything, you raise. But those obviously aren’t the only hands you should raise with here. You should also bet flush draws, straight draws, and combination draws. This means you have 4 cards to a big hand. On the river, you should bet any kind of made hand, but some boards are scarier than others.

Finally, I’d like to point out that the house edge on Ultimate Texas Holdem isn’t outrageous, but blackjack is still almost always a better deal. With perfect basic strategy, many blackjack games have a house edge of just 0.5%. This means you get the same kind of entertainment for closer to $2/hour instead of $8/hour.

You can play a nice, free version of Ultimate Texas Holdem at this site. It has a place where you can toggle the sound on and off. You can also toggle the “give advice” button off an on. If you’ve never played Ultimate Texas Holdem before, this page is a great way to practice. It’s refreshingly free of advertising, too, which is rare and unusual in this industry.

Also, if you like Ultimate Texas Holdem, I suggest you give multiplayer Texas holdem in the poker room a try—if you haven’t already. It’s a lot more fun, and you have more of an opportunity to get an edge, since you’re competing against other players.

That’s it for my “Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” I can’t imagine any information you could want about the game that I’ve left out. But if I did miss something, or if you have questions about Ultimate Texas Holdem that remain unanswered, please put a note in the comments.

Texas Holdem River Meaning Chart

Texas Holdem River Meaning List