In How To Play Poker Texas Holdem Style - Part II we talked about what takes place each step of the way during the betting rounds of a hand of texas holdem poker. Now we're going to walk through a sample hand of texas holdem to give you a more concrete idea of how a hand is played. You'll be playing texas holdem in no time.

As I mentioned in part II there are four rounds of betting in limit texas holdem. Round one takes place before the flop and you can bet in one-unit increases.

Round two is directly after the flop (three community cards are dealt) and the same betting format is played out. You can bet and raise in one-unit increases.

Round three takes place after the fourth card (fourth street or the turn card) is dealt. All bets and raises are now made in two-unit increases.

Round four takes place after the fifth card (fifth street or the river card) is dealt. All bets and raises are now made in two-unit increases.

Let's run through a sample limit holdem hand so you can see how this works. We'll go with a $2-$4 limit holdem game as we discussed in part II. The dealer deals out two cards face down to everyone in the game.

The small blind of $1 and the big blind of $2 have been anted up. Player one holds ace-10 off suit (A-10) and raises, making it $4 to call the bet. Players 2, 3 and 4 all fold. Player five holds A-Q and calls. Player six folds. The dealer and the small blind fold. The big blind calls with J-9. Remember he already has $2 in the pot so it only costs him $2 to call the bet.

The dealer deals the flop and the three community cards show up 10-4-8. The situation has now changed. Player five no longer holds the bet hand although he may think so based on the flop. The big blind how has a potential straight draw and player one has a pair of tens with a top kicker.

The big blind bets the $2 on his straight draw. Both player one and five call the $2 bet. Even though player five didn't hit a pair, based on the flop he feels he may still have the strongest hand, although he's unsure about another player being on a straight draw with the 10 and 8 on the flop.

A Q comes down on the turn. The big blind has hit his straight and makes a $4 bet. Remember, we are now in betting round three and the bets have doubled. Player 1 still thinks his tens may be good and he calls the $4 bet. Player five also calls, now holding a pair of queens with an ace high kicker.

The dealer flips over the river card, another 10. The big blind, having already hit his straight, makes another $4 bet. Player one, holding trips (three of a kind) raises the bet to $8. Player five wisely folds his queens. The big blind calls the $4 raise of player one.

The players flip their hole cards face up to determine who won the hand. Player 1, thinking he must've won, is shocked to see that his three of a kind falls to the big blind's queen high straight. Ouch!

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