Texas Holdem - The Basics

The Texas Holdem  poker game has been designed to be as straightforward and intuitive as possible. Below is a short description of how the various buttons and functions in the game work.

The Basics

When you enter a poker table you will first be prompted for how much of the money in your Casino.co.uk Online Poker Room account you want to use when playing. Although you can use everything, it is recommended (at least for real money) that you give some thought to how much you are prepared to lose, should it come to that.

While seated you can either be active or passive, commonly known as sitting in or sitting out. Until you sit in you will not take part in the game (although you can follow what is going on and join the conversation). Once you are active, it is assumed that you wish to participate in each new hand, until you sit out again.

The action buttons will automatically appear when it is your turn to act. Click on an action button (for example "Check") or use the keyboard shortcuts to act. Please note that there is a time limit on how long you can think before deciding. Once a dialog box appears, you have roughly 30 seconds to make your choice. If you fail to act within that time, your hand will be automatically check/folded. Legitimate disconnections (caused by network problems, for example) will however only make you all-in, and your hand will still be protected. (See the FAQ page for details). Also note that there is a limit of 3 all-ins per 24 hour period. After that your hand will no longer be protected.

That limit is used in order to stop people from abusing the all-in system, by deliberately going all-in. You will see the number of all-ins you have left for the day when you arrive at a table. It says, for example, "Remaining all-ins: 2" in the text window. The control panel of the table window has a different kind of buttons. These concern your participation in the game. Sit in, Sit out and Leave should be fairly obvious. Cashier can be used if you change your mind about the amount you want to keep at the table. Clicking it brings up the initial cash dialog box. Finally, Lobby sends the lobby window to the front, like the Table button above does with the table window. Not all of these buttons are active at the same time.

 The Cashier option has been disabled in the example picture above. You can only use the Cashier function while you are sitting out. A popular feature in most online multiplayer card games is the option to decide in advance what to do when it is your turn to act. Apart from not having to wait for a dialog box to appear, you make the game transmit and process your choice while other people are thinking, so that your actions later get carried out in no time at all.