How Do You Play Texas Holdem In A Casino

  

How to Beat Live Dealer Online Casino Hold’em Games

Play Opposite to Other Players Many people think that playing loose is the best way to play Texas Hold’em. However, many people do that in this poker game. Texas Hold 'Em Casino Rules In Texas Hold ‘Em, each player is dealt two pocket cards, and then five community cards are revealed. There are four rounds of bets–once after the hole cards are dealt, and then three rounds as different community cards are revealed. Players must make the best poker hand combination possible with their five cards.

Casino Holdem pitches your Texas Holdem skills against the house. This game first appeared in the early 2000s and saw a rise in popularity on the back of the 'poker boom'. Now you can find it spread in casinos across the world, from Las Vegas to Macau. The game is also a favourite of online casino players, and thanks to developments in technology, you can now enjoy Casino Holdem on Live Dealer tables too.

How Do You Play Texas Holdem In A Casino

Here you can find out the best strategy for playing Casino Holdem at the 888 Live Casino. The games are provided by Evolution Gaming and are ran by very friendly and professional dealers in Latvia and Malta. While the casino's software is used to interact and place your bets, all the action is real and can be watched via HD quality live streams. These games create the best casino experience you can find, without actually travelling to one, and by following the simple strategy below, you can increase your chances of being able to celebrate a win.

Best Live Dealer Casino Holdem Games Online

Non-US Players: My go-to studio is operated by Evolution Gaming, and is available via the leading big brand PlayTech powered casinos. If you are in the UK, then Titan Bet Casino is a very strong (and fully licensed) rec. Outside of the UK then I recommend the long-running Europa Casino instead.

US Based Players: The Vegas Technology studio offers this game, and the very easy recommendation of the casino which hosts them is the long-running BetOnline.ag. Based in Panama, this brand is already the leading US offshore sportsbook – and is fast becoming the go-to casino as well.

Live Dealer Casino Holdem - The Basics

Playing Casino Holdem is very similar to a regular Texas Hold'em game. The key differences are your ability to bet is restricted, and you are only playing against the house, not the other players.

If you wish to be dealt into a Casino Holdem hand, you must first place an ante. This can be anything within the table limits, although it is worth remembering this bet size controls your next wager, if you wish to play the hand to the end.

Two cards are dealt to both yourself and the dealer, with the dealers hand faced down. The Flop is then dealt and you decide if you wish to continue or not, based on the strength of your hand. If you do not think your hand is strong enough you can fold and give up your ante bet. If you wish to continue however, you can call for twice your ante amount.

The Turn and River cards are then dealt and the dealer reveals their hand. In order to be able to play, the dealer must qualify by having one pair or higher. This is based on their best five card hand, so if the board pairs then the dealers hand automatically qualifies, without needing any help from their hole cards.

Should the dealer have the best hand, you will lose both the ante and call bet. If the dealer does not qualify, you win the ante bet and the call bet is pushed back to you, or if the dealer qualifies and loses you win on both. While call bets are simply paid at even money, your ante bet is paid out as follows:

  • Royal Flush - 100/1
  • Straight Flush - 20/1
  • Four of a Kind - 10/1
  • Full House - 3/1
  • Flush - 2/1
  • Straight or Less - 1/1

Live Dealer Casino Holdem - The Best Strategy

While Casino Holdem appears a simple games of 'fit or fold' on the flop it is actually more complicated than that.

For a start if you keep folding when you miss you will give up far too many antes, plus you need to remember the dealer has to qualify in order to play their hand. You should also consider the chances of your hand improving on the Turn and River, as well as whether the payouts make your decision mathematically correct or not.

This all creates many variables, although learning optimal strategy can bring the house edge down to around 2.5%. Instead here are some easy to remember rules, which while not perfect, will bring the house edge down, near to this level.

  • Always call with a pair or higher
  • Always call if you are holding A high or K high, with your hole cards
  • Always call with two overcards
  • Call with Q high or J high, so long as the board is not suited and you do not hold that suit in your hand.
  • Call if you only need one card to complete a straight or flush
  • Unless you hold a card higher than 10, or a straight or flush draw, fold on paired boards
  • Fold everything else

Live Dealer Casino Holdem - Side Bets

The Casino Holdem game on 888 Live Casino, offers you an 'Aces or Better' side bet. While the payouts are attractive, like all side bets this is generally a sucker bet, where you give-up an unnecessary advantage to the house. In this case the house will gain a 6.26% edge.

If you wish to play the Ace or Better bet, you must place your wager in the marked area, before the deal. Once the Flop is dealt, if you can make a five card poker hand, ranking AA or higher your bet will be paid accordingly. The Aces or Better bet is paid out separately to the main ante and call bet, so you will still get paid out even if you lose the hand.

The payouts for Aces or Better are as follows:

  • Royal Flush - 100/1
  • Straight Flush - 50/1
  • Four of a Kind - 40/1
  • Full House - 30/1
  • Flush - 20/1
  • AA, Two Pair, Straight - 7/1

Those recommendations once again: where to find the best Casino Holdem live dealer games online!

Non-US Players: My go-to studio is operated by Evolution Gaming, and is available via the leading big brand PlayTech powered casinos. If you are in the UK, then Titan Bet Casino is a very strong (and fully licensed) rec. Outside of the UK then I recommend the long-running Europa Casino instead.

US Based Players: The Vegas Technology studio offers this game, and the very easy recommendation of the casino which hosts them is the long-running BetOnline.ag. Based in Panama, this brand is already the leading US offshore sportsbook – and is fast becoming the go-to casino as well.

More Casino Articles

Poker is definitely one of the most popular games in casinos, and it competes with slot machines for the top dog position. Unlike slots, though, poker doesn’t have any house edge. The players don’t even play against the house but against each other. That leads many to uncertainty about ways casinos earn money from card games.

Casinos would never host a game that doesn’t make them money, and just because Texas Hold’em is trendy, it doesn’t mean it’s an exception to this rule. The most apparent way casinos earn money from it are poker tournament entry fees.

Most of you have heard of insane sums of money being awarded to players topping tournaments. What’s even more mind-blowing is that the fees participants pay are usually even more substantial than the prize pool. Casinos can also receive money from sponsors or advertise certain products during the competition.

StyleHow Do You Play Texas Holdem In A Casino

Another, albeit much more roundabout, way casinos earn money through tournaments is publicity. Tourneys are a big draw, not only for players but for viewers as well. Some are even televised or streamed online, drawing players to the casino.

Some casinos, besides hosting tournaments, will charge poker players to even sit down at their tables. That represents a guaranteed profit without much effort for the casino.

Tipping the Dealer

No table game would be enjoyable without a competent person running it. Poker etiquette suggests you tip the dealer if they are doing a good job. The rule of thumb most seem to agree on is to tip at least a dollar per a winning hand. The dealer will surely be thankful if you give them more than that, but you should be cautious — tipping too much is a great way to cut down your winnings.

A piece of advice seasoned poker players like to give is not to withhold tips based on how the game is going. It’s not the dealer’s fault you got a few bad hands in a row, and tips are often their primary source of income. While casino owners don’t make any money off of tips, they are crucial for dealers. Make sure you tip great dealers at least something as it helps keep them around.

Another means in which a casino can profit, and the most common one, is raking players. That means they take a certain amount of money from any pot played at the poker table. Sometimes rakes can be collected even if a player hasn’t contributed to the pot at all; this is called a dead drop.

Rakes can be both fixed and percentage-based and are the most common in online poker due to the ease of collecting them.

Calculating Rakes

How rakes are calculated differs from casino to casino. The three most common methods of collecting fixed rakes are: dealt, contributed, and weight-contributed.

Dealt rakes are essentially dead drops; they are taken from each player at the table. If the rake was $5 and there were ten players present, each would need to pay 50 cents. Contributed are similar, but are only collected from players who added to the pot. Say five players fold right away; the others would need to pay $1.

Weight-contributed rakes are a bit more strenuous to calculate. They are taken from each player that contributes to the pot, based on the weight of their contribution. It’s easier to understand through an example, so we’ll give you one.

Four players are playing a hand, and the rake is $4. Two players bet $5 and end up folding, the other two finish off the round each betting $15. The former get raked 50 cents, and the latter pay $1.5. Since the last two contributed three times as more to the pot, they are raked three times as hard.

The other two variations of rakes are percentage-based rakes and timed rakes.

Percentage-based rakes simply take a portion out of each pot. Land-based casinos generally use timed rakes since they are easier to collect and don’t disrupt the game much. The casino will charge players in certain intervals, usually of 30–60 minutes.

Rakes, although they may seem insignificant, can drastically impact how much poker players profit. An average Texas Hold’em player could expect to break even over a longer period. That is due to poker being a game with no innate house edge. However, rakes make it so that average and even slightly above average players are actually at a loss due to giving part of their winnings to the casino.

Ways Online Casinos Make Money on Texas Hold’em

Many opt for enjoying the experience poker provides from their phone or PC instead of visiting a casino. The structure of online casinos also allows them to circumvent some of the ways traditional ones need to tax players.

Texas Hold Em Cheat Sheet

One of the methods that these casinos can afford to use is charging a subscription fee. Some will provide weekly or monthly events that take a lot less effort and money to organize than live poker tournaments. They can also host a larger number of players as they aren’t restricted by physical space.

Some online casinos will offer rakebacks, which are a system that returns a portion of rakes to players. Rakebacks actually lose online casinos but are an excellent way to retain players. The casinos are hoping that poker players who stay on the site for a while eventually move on to more lucrative games like slots.

Rakebacks are calculated similarly to rakes themselves. Dealt rakebacks award each player equally, no matter how much they contributed to the pot. Contributed rakebacks are the opposite, with casinos returning money based on the wager the players make.

How Do You Play Texas Holdem In A Casino

Players skilled enough to play in multiple poker rooms at once can use rakebacks to their advantage. Depending on how many hands they play, they can earn up to thousands of dollars per month, allowing them to minimize their losses.

Conclusion

Ultimate

In a sense, casinos have a love-hate relationship with Texas Hold’em. On the one hand, they’d prefer you to play anything else, where the house edge is higher, and the chance for profit is more significant. On the other, they can’t remove poker tables due to how many players enjoy it. Doing that would nearly guarantee that the casino runs out of business fairly quickly.

How Do You Play Texas Holdem In A Casino Game

Over the years, casinos have adapted to the situation. They have learned to use poker, not as a huge moneymaker, but a powerful advertising tool. It’s no wonder we’re starting to see more hype generated around poker tournaments recently, and we doubt the marketing campaign is stopping anytime soon.