by Ted Pichler

Created on: July 08, 2010

Did you know that Texas Hold em` is the most played casino card game in North America and Europe? Texas Hold em` is a community card game which was reputed to have originated in Texas. Texas Hold em` can be played with or without real money, but almost all of the playing population plays with money rather than without. It is important to note that Texas Hold em` is an ever-growing sport and takes a lot of skill to master.

Texas Hold em` is enjoyed worldwide. It is a community card game, which means you and your opponents get an amount of hole (secret) cards, in Texas Hold em`s case two.  Then there is an amount of cards set out, in this case five, for everyone to use, these are called community cards. Players then combine their hole cards with the community cards to try and make the best five card hand out of everyone at the table. You can play with almost any amount of players. On one table there are usually nine to ten players, but in popular tournaments, more than one table must be used. In Texas Hold em` you cannot have any teams. It is illegal to gang up to try to eliminate players and you can be kicked out of the card room or online game if you do.

Although the origins of Texas Hold em` are not completely known at the time, non-conclusive evidence has been discovered to support the following thoughts. It is speculated that the first hands of Texas Hold em` were played in Robstown Texas, near Corpus Christi. It was reputed to have been played in the early 1900s and was thought to be a variation of seven card stud. A card game in which you were dealt two hole (secret) cards and then dealt five other cards to add to your hand.

One of the main contributing factors that made Texas Hold em` what it is today, was a high stakes poker tournament called the World Series of Poker or WSOP for short.  The first WSOP was played in 1970 and had only seven entrants. Not even a full table. In the latest WSOP there were 6,844 entrants. The World Series also helped spark the online Texas Hold em` craze. The first online Texas Hold em` site is unknown because they all started at the same time following a surge of Texas Hold em` players.

Today Texas Hold em` is very popular all over the world. In fact it is the most popular card game in North America and Europe. In today’s game, compared to the games of yesteryear, math is quite important. Calculating odds and risks of winning hands is an invaluable tool in the poker player’s arsenal. Most players will

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