<h3>Objective</h3> Like all variants of Poker players play for a pot, a collection of bets put in by the players themselves. The game is divided into a series of various betting rounds. The game generally ends in one of two ways. Either with a showdown in which all players show their cards and the highest ranked hand(s) win, or the alternative situation in which every player except for one folds.

<h3>Terminology</h3>

Blind: Bets that are placed before any cards are dealt. One person will be the 'big blind' and will place a bet equal to the minimum bet for that round. The 'small blind' places a bet equal to half the minimum bet for that round

Bluff: The act of playing as though you have a better hand than you really do in the hopes other players will fold.

Call: Placing a bet equal to the last bet.

Check: Staying in the round without placing a bet, you can only do this if no other bets have been placed in a betting round.

Community Cards: A set of five cards played up on the table, all players can use these cards in conjunction with their own to compose a hand.

Flop: The term for the first three community cards.

Flush: Five cards of the same suit in any denominations

Fold: Exiting play for that round.

River: The fifth and final community card.

Turn: The fourth community card.

<h3>Hands</h3> Royal Flush: Hand consisting of ten, jack, queen, king, ace.

Straight Flush: Five cards of the same suit in sequence.

Four of a Kind: Hand consisting of four cards of the same denomination

Full House: Hand consisting of a pair and three of a kind.

Flush: Five cards of the same suit

Straight: Five cards of any suit in sequence.

Three of a Kind: Hand consisting of three cards of the same denomination.

Two Pair: Two pairs of cards.

Pair: Any two cards of the same denomination.

These are ranked in order of best to worst. In the case where two players place down the same type of hands, the player with the higher value cards wins the pot. i.e.,

Player 1 places down 3 jacks, Player 2 places down 3 kings. Player 2 will win the pot.

<h3>Playing</h3> The game opens with the big blind placing an automatic bet equal to the current minimum bet and the small bind placing an automatic bet equal to half. The player after the big blind will then start the round, and has the option of calling, raising, or folding. This early stage is referred to as the pre-flop stage and will continue until there are no more raises or all the players except for one have folded(in which case that player will win, although this is an unlikely occurrence at such an early stage of the game.)

After this round the dealer will turn over three of the community cards, cards which all the players can collectively use as part of their own hands, these first three are referred to as the flop, and another round of betting will commence observing essentially the same rules. Upon reaching the same condition(no more raises or all players except one folded) this round will be over. At this point the dealer turns over the turn or fourth community card.

This essentially is how the following round will also play out, with the dealer at the end turning over the river or fifth community card.

This then commences the final betting around, at the conclusion of which if two or more players are left the players will flip their cards over, and the player with the best hand wins. If a true tie occurs(example, two people have a pair of twos) then the pot is split between them. In Texas Hold'em all suits are equal, therefore only the rank of the hand, and the denomination of the cards is the determining factor.

<h3>Basic Strategy</h3> Strategy is somewhat dependent upon the betting round. For instance in the pre-flop you have access to only the information in your own hands, your own cards. Some people will only call or weakly raise during this round, but this is generally considered a weak strategy, because you're either over-betting on a weak starting hand(i.e., a 2 and 6 of different suits) or under betting on a strong starting hand(any pair, but especially high pairs like KK, QQ, JJ, etc, also connecting cards like KQ) Generally calling or weakly raising is referred to as limping, but it's better if you have a weak hand to just fold and if you have a good starting hand to raise as an aggressive strategy to compel other people to fold.

In later betting rounds your strategy alters based upon the community cards. If you start with a pair for example that's still a decent hand, but not necessarily one where you should bet as aggressively as if you suddenly find yourself with three of a kind. Unless of course you're attempting to bluff.

On EM of course play is somewhat different. In the real world you could analyse opponent body language and posture and facial expressions in order to try and determine the strength of their hand. On EM you can only go by past experience playing with that person(i.e., if they're an extremely tight player and more likely to fold rather than deal with a high risk situation you can easily get away with playing worse hands) and in a more short-term way by analysing player bets, taking care to recognise those might be bluffs.