The rules of the game are fairly easy to learn. Limit Hold'em has structured betting, and the lowest limit you will find in most casinos is a $2/$4 or $3/$6 game. Other limits you may find are $5/$10 or $10/$20 or higher. I will be using the $3/$6 game as an example in this book. That means the minimum bet is $3 during the first two rounds of betting and the minimum bet is $6 during the last two betting rounds. These same limits are used when you raise as well.

The Dealer
Since the casino supplies a dealer, one player must be the "designated" dealer who will act last during the betting rounds. A disk or "button" is used to identify the dealer and this is rotated to the left after each hand. Unlike stud, all the players do not ante each round. Blind bets are posted to generate a starting pot.

The Start
To start a new hand two "blind" bets are put up or "posted." The Player immediately to the left of the player with the dealer button Puts up or "posts" the small blind which is approximately half the mmimum bet. Since there are no 50c chips, the small blind for the $3/$6 game is one dollar.

The player to the left of the small blind posts the big blind which is equal to the minimum bet which is $3 for this game. The rest of the players do not put up any money to start the hand. Because the button rotates around the table, each player will eventually act as the big blind, small blind and dealer. It will cost you $4 every time the deal makes a complete rotation around the table.

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Coast to coast, from the Connecticut casinos to the cardrooms of California, Texas Hold'em is rapidly becoming the most popular poker game among low-limit players. There are several reasons for its popularity.

Texas Hold'em is fast-paced, and easy to learn. The game can be played with more players, which means bigger pots, making it very exciting and quite profitable for those players who make the effort to learn to play correctly.

The basic concepts of Hold'em are easy to learn and understand. Each player is dealt two personal cards and then five community cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table. Since there are five community cards you do not have to keep track of all the dead cards that were folded by your opponents as you do in stud. You can easily learn guidelines for which starting hands to play and which to fold.

Hold'em is a positional game. A dealer button rotates to the left after each hand. The player to the left of the dealer button acts first. You will always act in the same order for the entire hand. If you have the dealer button you will act last during each betting round. The later you act, the more information you will have to help decide whether you should enter the pot or fold your hand.

There are no antes. The player to the left of the dealer button puts up a blind bet usually equal to half of the minimum bet for the first round and the player to his left puts in a bet equal to the mini-mum bet. These are called the blinds. The rest of the players do not have to put any money in the pot unless they are calling the blind bet. This means that in a ten-handed game you will get to see eight hands for free. If you don't have a playable starting hand you can toss it in and wait for your next hand.
Hold'em is a faster game than seven-card stud. You can play a hand in about two minutes. This means you will see more hands during your playing session. This allows you to be more selective which should lead to profitability if you capitalize on the poor play of your opponents.

The use of five community cards, called "board" cards, means that more players can play. A full game will have ten, or sometimes, 11 players. Since many players will enter a hand, there is a potential for bigger pots in Hold'em. There are a wide variety of hands that can be made from the five community cards and the player's two pocket cards. All of the players are using 71 percent of the same cards to make their hands. This means that there is no way to immediately determine who has the biggest hand. When you are playing stud, if you saw that your opponent had two Aces showing, you could determine if he had you beat and then fold. Since this is not the case in Texas Hold'em, more players will stay in the hand longer, adding to the total size of the pot.

In a low-limit $3/$6 game, there could be $30 in the pot before the first community cards are revealed. It is not uncommon to see pots in the $50-$100 ranges. In this game, if there were five players entering the pot and staying to the end, making minimum bets with no raising, the pot would be $90. You can afford to be selective in your starting hands because it is possible that winning one hand can cover the cost of your blind bets for the entire evening.

You always know how the strength of your hand stacks up against the best possible hand during each betting round. A pair of Aces is the best two-card starting hand. This changes once the first three community cards are flopped and again when the fourth and then the fifth cards are turned over. You can tell the best possible hand by looking at the board cards. Although it is not certain that one of your opponents will actually have the best hand, you can assess the strength of your hand in relation to the best theoretical hand and determine if you have a chance of winning the pot. This is known as reading the board and will be discussed in detail later in this book.

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I am frequently asked if there is an easy way to learn how to play casino games like blackjack or video poker. Although learning to play correctly is not easy, there is a practical approach that will make the learning process enjoyable.
If you want to learn to play a casino game, I always recommend three essential tools to get you started. These will help form the foundation of your knowledge of the game. The three essentials are:

1. A book to teach you the basics and the rules of the game.
2. A tutorial software program that allows you to play, practice, and learn the game at home before risking money in the casino.
3. A video to show you how the game is played and to help reinforce what you learned in the book.

I knew I would use this approach to learn casino poker but I wasn't sure which game to learn first or which products were best to teach me what I needed to know. I wanted to get some expert advice. Since I was on my way to Las Vegas I contacted the Gambler's Book Shop to see if they could advise me. I met with General Manager Peter Ruchman and Marketing Director Howard Schwartz and discussed my project with them. Peter is an excellent poker player and advised me to learn how to play Texas Hold'em. He explained that it was more popular than stud and there were plenty of low-limit games available. I have played stud poker before, but since I have never played Hold'em I knew I was in for a real challenge. I asked Peter which products would be most helpful to a beginning player and he gave me his recommendations.

I picked up a book, two videotapes, and a software program. Now I had the tools I needed to start my poker education. I read the book on my flight back home and had a good grasp on the basics of the game.

There are two other things that you will need in your quest to learn casino games that cannot be purchased in a store. They are patience and discipline^. These traits are important no matter which game you are trying to learn but they are vital to playing winning poker.

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I have tried every game on the main floor of the casino. When a new game comes along I at least give it a cursory try. Although I had played poker, I had never played in a casino poker room.

I had the misconception that casino poker was mostly no-limit games for professional players. This perception was bolstered by stories in the media about high stakes tournaments like the World Series of Poker in which players put up thousands of dollars just to enter. The truth is there are many low-limit games being played by average people every day in cardrooms around the country.

Poker is a game of skill. In the casino you are playing against the other players instead of the house. You will find all types of players in the cardroom. The skill levels of the players vary from the beginner just having fun to the skilled professional. By practicing and gaining experience some players win consistently.

I firmly believe that a player of average intelligence can learn to be successful playing in the casinos if he takes the time to educate himself about the casinos and the games. In my articles, I advocate that players take the time to learn all about the game they wish to play before venturing into the casino and risking any money at the tables.

Since I had never played casino poker, I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice what I preach. I planned to show that by using a disciplined approach I could be successful. I started to document the process that I used to learn how to play Texas Hold'em. I had originally planned to write a few articles about the experience, sharing the knowledge that I learned, including my successes and mistakes, with my readers.

After achieving success with playing Texas Hold'em it was suggested that I publish a detailed account of how I learned to play the game. This book is more than a text about how to play Texas Hold'em. It is also a journal of my journey from the kitchen to the cardroom

I was not sure which poker game I wanted to learn to play first, so I took a ride to the casino to check out the poker rooms. I live close to Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, so I had the opportunity to observe players in two poker rooms in the same afternoon. Both casinos offered two games for low limit player. Seven-card stud with $l-$5 limits and $3/$6 Texas Hold'em. I was familiar with seven-card stud but Texas Hold'em was completely foreign to me.

I took the time to talk with a few players of each game and I was given conflicting opinions about which game is better for new players to learn. As expected, each player thought his particular choice was the best. I decided to hold off choosing my game until I could gather some more information.

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Your main strategy at High-Low will depend to a large degree on your ability to put your opponent(s) on a particular hand. That is, you'll have to make an educated guess about the quality of hand your opponent is likely to have. What will help you determine that factor (with a reasonable degree of accuracy) is your line on his play — which you'll adjust based on the position he's in.

For example, if you know that he's a solid player (by having carefully observed his play) and he gets in the pot in an early position, then you can safely assume he's in there
„ith a pretty decent starting hand. But, if that same player cornes in the pot raising from the steal position, you'll then make a different assessment of the kind of hand he's likely to have. In the first case, you wouldn't get in the pot with anything but a very strong hand because you'd know he's probably got a very strong hand also. In the second case, you'd probably loosen up your standards because you'd know he's a good enough player to be taking advantage of his (steal) position. But, even though you "know" what he's doing (ante-stealing), there'll be times when you'll just have to let him grab the antes simply because your hand at the time is just not playable (under any circumstances). However, there'll be other times when you'll "know" he's on the steal and you might try to re-steal the pot from him. Of course, re-stealing is a higher level of art than simply taking advantage of the steal position. So, whenever you play at that level of sophistication, you'll really have to "know your man" and your hand will have to have some Ouis.

On the other hand, if you're in the pot with someone who you know is a bad (weak) player, then you make the appropriate strategy adjustment. In this case, you can relax your standards somewhat and still be in there with a starting hand that's probably better than his. Or, even if you think this particular (bad) player started with a decent hand, but you know that he'll routinely call on Fourth St. if he catches a "Paint" (picture card) and you catch a good card. . .then, you can give him a play on Third St. even if you suspect your hand is marginal (let's say a 6-7-9) and is probably worse than his.

The reason you can give him a play ("gamble" with him) is because you wouldn't be giving up that much. In faet, if he's the type of player I've defined — one who'll routinely call on Fourth St. when he catches a Paint and you catch good. . .then you actually have the best of him — even though he may have started with a better hand than yours. Here's why:
A player who does that as a matter of course is violating a rule of High-Low Split that you must observe automa-tically (in almost all cases). In faet, it's a rule you must be a slave to. The rule is:

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You can consider that $15 ante normal. If the ante was jt you could also consider it normal. . .that is, not really low' So with a $10 ante, your game plan (strategy) would be basically unchanged.

However, if the ante was $25 in the $100 and $200 game.. .then you'd have to make some strategy adjustments. You'd have to start coming in more and play more aggressively (looser). You'd also have to try to steal more antes.. .a strategy you wouldn't be as much concerned about in a low ante game. Of course, you shouldn't interpret this to mean that you'd »indiscriminately take a shot at the antes. Never do that. Only go after the antes when you're in the steal position or when you've got a legitimaiely playable hand (both to be defined later). You've got to have some Outs when you're on the steal and get caught. Don't try to steal with a garbage hand when you're out of position.

What's more. . .once you get picked off, you must be able to put on the brakes. That's another big weakness in most High-Low Split players (and Poker players in general) —they don't know when to quit. It's a lot of people's downfall. Especially in High-Low Split. Don't get tied-on to a hand in the early stages. If you're going to get off a hand (get out of the pot). . .do it early.

You should also realize that as the ante gets higher, your ability to steal antes and the psychological aspects of the game become more and more important. Correspond-ingly, your technical knowledge of the game — that is, what to do against fairly well-known hånds — becomes less and less important as the ante increases.

As you can see, ante-stealing is more of an art than it is a science. But, there are guidelines you can use until you've perfected your personal art of ante-stealing. For example, let's say you have a Baby (a Five or lower) as your first up-card and it's the next-to-last Baby-card in-sight. You're in an excellent position to steal (actually called the steal position) because there's only one Baby-card behind you that you have to worry about. But, any time there's more than one Baby-card behind you, you must have a legitimate hand to play. It's usually not worth going after the antes then because the chance that you'll get called is too great.

Most of your ante-stealing situations will require a lot of judgment and a certain "feel" — both of which you acquire mainly through experience. That's why there's so much "art" to it. But, as you gain experience, you'll be able to search your memory-bank and you'll recall that a certain play worked in a similar situation. So you'll use that play again. And you'll wind up with the antes again. As in all judgment situations, your own experience will be a far superior guideline than any hard-and-fast rule.

Ante-stealing and other bluffing situations will be discussed again later when I'll give you additional guidelines you can use. I'll also show you (with specific examples) how to use the guidelines and how to get a "feel" for a particular situation so you can exercise good judgment even with limited experience. But, you should realize that any type of bluffing (or semi-bluffing) you'll do will only be a minor part of your overall strategy. As is true with any form of Limit Poker, whatever bluffing you do must be done with discretion. . .and cautiously. So now, I'll get on with what will be your main strategy and primary goal.

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I rarely play in a game with limits as low as $100 and $200. But. . .since most of you probably won't be playing in games with limits that "high", I'm going to use that game as the standard around which the discussion in this section will be based. As such, it'll be simple to make an arithmetical adjustment from that game to any other game you may play that has a different limit and ante structure.

Generally, the ante's about 15% of the lower limit. Sometimes it's a little less (10%). . .and occasionally it's higher (25%). But, usually, it's $15 in the $100 and $200 High-Low Split game played in Vegas.

In that game, in order to force the action, the first high card brings it in for (a compulsory bet of) $25. (This is the only time the high card must aet first. After this, the low hand is considered "High" and must aet first — check or bet.) The first raiser (optionally) makes it $75 to go. From then on, all other bets and raises are in increments of $100 up to and including Fourth Street (the fourth card). Starting with Fifth Street (until all the cards are out), all bets and raises are $200. As long as there are more than two players in the pot there's a limit of one bet and (usually) three raises on each round of betting. (The limit on the number of raises prevents partners from putting another player in the middle.) However, when the action's head-up, there's no limit on raises —the two players involved can continue raising each other until one of them is all-in.

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