It is held annually in Las Vegas – where else? – and the tournament lasts for a bit more than a month. Texas Hold’em is the Main Event, but all varieties of poker are played; Omaha Hold’em, Seven Card Stud and Lowball, for example. You really have to know your poker rules. It is not only “no limit” being played, but also “straight limit” and “pot limit”. More and more people are participating in the tournament and a few of those have actually won the championship twice. Johnny Moss is one of them, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson as well. But no one has had more success than Stu Ungar who actually won the championship three times.

It takes a $10,000 buy-in to participate in the Main Event, but if you are one of the winners in the satellite tournaments you reach the finals free of charge. It might seem like a large entry fee, but bear in mind that if you win you will leave with millions of dollars.
It has been 38 years since the WSOP was held the first time in 1970. Since 1973 there has also been television coverage of the tournaments, something that gets more and more appreciated every year.
The tournaments are held at the Binion’s Horseshoes Casino, but as from 2005 the contestants are so many that the tournaments are initially held in the conference room at Rio, which is a large casino that is situated in Las Vegas as well. It doesn’t matter what your sex, your nationality or your age is – as long as you are over 21 years old.

Since 2004, the poker player with the most collected points has received a Player of the Year Award. The Main Event isn’t included in that count and neither is the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E competition. Only events where everyone can participate are valid.
The champion of the World Series of Poker 2007 is named Jerry Yang. He is born in ’68 and comes from California. He had only been playing poker for two years before winning, and had mostly participated in local contests. He claimed that his tournament strategy was to rise every time he sensed some weakness from another player. After winning the Heads-up against Tuan Lam, he left from the contest with $8,250,000. He donated 10% of it to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Feed the Children, The Ronald McDonald House and Loma Linda University. He now ranks 8th in the all time money list for live tournaments.

When he first came in the scene, he was nicknamed Money Machine after he lost hundreds of dollars. He then mastered the game and has become on of the highly respected players in the world. He has taken in apprentices with whom he shares his knowledge of the game.

Omaha Hold’Em or simply Omaha is another community poker game. The hand ranks are pretty much the same as any other poker game. It is much similar to Texas Hold’em Poker except for two major differences. Instead of two cards that are dealt, players in Omaha Poker are dealt with four private cards. Then in the showdown, players must use 2 of their private cards and three of the community cards. Unlike in Texas Hold’Em, a player can’t play can’t use four or five cards on the table with fewer than two of his hole cards, nor could he use three or four of his own cards to make the best draw.

As you can see, there will be a change in strategy while playing Omaha. Although Texas Hold’em and Omaha might look similar, they are really different. A Texas Hold’em player might find the transition to Omaha rather difficult in the beginning.

Here’s how Omaha Poker is played. Just like in Texas Hold’em, a button will designate the dealer. The dealer button rotates clockwise around the table, one player at a time, after each hand. In other words, the button will move to the left of the dealer.

Before cards are dealt by the dealer, a pot is formed from the blind bets. The player to the left of the dealer places the first bet called the small blind. The player next to him places the second bet called the big blind. The small blind is smaller in amount than the big blind, that’s why they’re called like that. Usually the small blind is half the minimum bet while the big blind is equal to the minimum. They’re called blinds because they are bets that are placed without seeing any cards. The blinds are live bets therefore they can be check, raise, call, or fold when the action goes back around them.

Just like what was stated before, in Omaha Poker each player will be dealt four private cards. These will not be shown to anyone except the player the cards are dealt to.

Then the player to the left of the big blind starts the round of betting. Betting will go clockwise as well. Players can call, raise or fold to the bets.

After that, three cards will be dealt faced up on the table to start the second round of betting called the flop. These cards are called community cards because they’re available for everyone. Then the player left of the dealer will be the first to bet or check.

Then a card will be dealt faced up in the middle of the table to start the third round of betting called the turn. On this round, the amount of the betting will be double that of the previous round.

Finally, we have the river. The last community card will be dealt in the middle of the table faced up. After which begins the fifth and final round of betting. Lastly, we have the showdown. The player with the strongest hand wins the money in the pot.

You should take note that players can make only one bet and three raises in a round of betting. This would mean one bet, one raise, one re-raise and a cap. The last is called cap because it can’t be raised anymore. When a player calls a cap, his opponents could only call or fold to it.

There is a variation of Omaha called the Omaha Hi/Lo. This is the most common type of Omaha being played online and in live casinos. Its game play is still like regular Omaha except each player must make a separate 5-card high and 5 card low. The highest and lowest hand splits the pot. A player can be both the highest and lowest hand. For the hand to qualify as a low quality one, it must not use a card higher than 8.

An example of a low hand is five unpaired cards with eight being the highest. The best low hand would be A-2-3-4-5. This can also be used as a straight for the high. The ace could be used bought in the high and the low. Flushes and straights don’t apply to low hands. If no player has a qualified low hand, the high hand wins all the pot.

Some players will play for the best high cards while other might go for the best low cards. Then there are the skilled ones who would go for the entire pot. This brings more action than any other poker game type around.

Here’s how 7 Card stud is played. Before the cards are dealt, each player must put in an ante. Remember that 7 Card Stud is dealt in streets or rounds. It begins with the initial deal of three cards, two of which will be faced down called private or hole cards and one faced up called door or up card.

Then the first round of betting will begin. The player with the lowest card value and suit will start. In 7 Card Stud, Spades are considered the highest and followed by Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs in descending order. The first bet is considered bring-in or force bet. Suits will only be regarded during this time of the game. Each player must call, raise or fold. Checking is impossible because of bring in action.

Some starting hands are good while some are junk. The best starting hand in 7 Card Stud would be a pair of aces. This is a powerful hand. The player would be tempted to make money at once. Raising high in the beginning might make his opponents to fold. The best way to deal with this is to play the hand slow.

Then each player will be dealt another faced up card called the fourth street. Then the second round of betting will commence. The player with the highest two card value will start this time. Settling a hand tie is easy in 7 Card Stud. The player with the highest hand that’s sitting closest to the left of the dealer will be the one having the action. This is known as having the action. He can either check or bet. If he checks then succeeding players can check as well until a bet is made. When a bet is made, players can wither call, raise it or fold. The round ends if all hands have placed their bets.

After betting, the players will again be dealt a faced up card called the fifth street. The betting will start with the player who has the highest three card value. This is one thing that 7 Card Stud differs from Hold’Em where positions remain the same all throughout the hand. In 7 Card Stud, positions can change every round. The action would be the same as the fourth street where the betting rotates clockwise.

After that, the players will be dealt the sixth street, which is another faced up card. The fourth round of betting will begin with the player with the highest four card value.

Finally, the last card or the river will be dealt faced down to each player. There are times that the cards are not enough for each player. If this happens a community card will be placed in the middle of the table. This will be shared by everyone. They will treat it as their seventh card. Then the final betting round will start with the player that possesses the highest valued hand.

After all the bets are made, now it’s time for the showdown. The remaining players would show their hands. The player with the highest value hand using five of his seven cards will win the pot. The dealer button will go to the next player to start the next hand. Just like any other poker game, the highest hand is a straight flush. The other hands in descending order are four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, pair, and a high card.

5 Card Draw does share some rules with Texas Hold’Em style poker. There will be a dealer button to designate a player as the dealer of the hand. The button will rotate clockwise to the left after each hand, just like in Hold’Em.

Just like any other flop game, a pot is formed by placing blind bets before any cards are dealt to each player. The person next to the left of the dealer places he first blind bet called the small blind. The person next to him will place the second bet called the big blind. They are named like that since the first bet is usually small than the second bet. Since these bets are placed without any cards dealt, they are named blinds. Blinds are considered live bets therefore they can be called, checked, raised or folded to. In house games all players usually place a small ante into the pot.

Then the players will be given five cards faced down or hole cards, starting with the player on the left of the dealer, going clockwise. Each player will check the cards dealt to them. The player left of the blind will make the first bet to begin the first round of betting. The other players can raise, call or fold the bets on the table.

After the betting, players can choose cards from his hand to discard. He can opt to discard from zero to five cards. A player can choose not to discard any card if the hand dealt to him is already good. It is called staying. The player will then draw the number of cards he discarded from the deck.

After that, the second and final round will begin. When the betting is done, it is now time for the showdown. The player that possesses the highest hand wins the pot. When there are two or more hands that have the same value, the players involved in the tie will split the pot.

Then the dealer button will move to the left to start the next hand.

There are different house rules with regards to 5 Card Draw. The most common one is that no one can replace more than three cards unless he has an ace and he has to draw four cards. In this case, he had to show his ace. This is done typically on low stakes social games where a lot of players would opt to stay on the draw. The reasoning for this rule is to avoid the depletion of the deck. Serious games such as those in casinos don’t need this rule.

In many casinos there is a rule that a player can’t draw five consecutive cards from the deck. If he wishes to discard five cards, the dealer would deal him four cards first and deal the other players, then the dealer will go back to the first player and deal him his fifth card. If no other player draws then the dealer would have to burn a card first.

Another common house rule is that the bottom card could not be used as a replacement card. This is to avoid the possibility of someone actually seeing the bottom card and use it to his advantage. If by chance the deck is depleted before everyone has been dealt their replacement cards, the replacement cards could be gotten from those discarded by the other players.

There are various variants of the 5 Card Draw. One of which is the Jackpots. In this variation, a player must have pairs of Jacks or higher in the dealt hand in order to start the betting. If no player has one, everyone folds the hands, ante up again and a new hand will be dealt. The recycle will continue until a player possesses a pair of Jacks or better.

Then there’s the Double Draw. It is just like regular 5 Card Draw except there is an extra draw phase. So the players will be drawing twice instead of the single draw of the regular 5 Card Draw game. There’s also an extra round of betting after the second draw phase.

Lastly, we have the Lowball. Lowball or sometimes called the California Lowball is just like regular 5 Card Draw but instead of the highest hand winning, in Lowball the lowest takes the pot.

Texas Hold’Em might look complicated but it’s not. Here’s a low down on how it’s supposed to be played. First up, let’s talk about the concept of dealer. A small button will identify who the dealer on the table is. The dealer button moves clockwise around the table after each hand thus changing the position of the big and small blinds along with it.

When there are only two players left in the table, there are special heads up rules to follow in the posting of blinds. The person with the dealer button will be the small blind while the opponent will be the big blind. The dealer will be the first to act before the flop. After the flop, the dealer will be the last to move.

Before any cards are dealt in Texas Hold’Em, a pot is formed from blind bets. It is called blinds because the players are betting without seeing the cards. The player to the left of the dealer is called the small blind. The small blind is usually half of the big blind’s bet. This leads us to the big blind. The big blind sits to the left of the small blind. The big blind’s bet is equal to the minimum bet of the table. The blinds could be checked, raised, called, or folded.

After that, the payers will be dealt two cards each faced down. These are called private cards. No one can see these cards except the player the cards are dealt to. These cards will only be shown if the player does not fold before the showdown phase. This makes Texas Hold’em a closed poker game. The player on the left of the big blind will start the betting and goes around the table clockwise. Pre-flop bets are live bets therefore players can either check, call or fold. When the bettings reaches the big blind, he can either check or raise the pot.

If there are at least two players left after the pre-flop, three more cards will be dealt in the middle of the table to start the second betting stage or the flop. The three cards are called community cards because they are available for everyone. The player left of the dealer bets first in this stage and the betting will move to his left clockwise.

When this is done, a fourth community card is dealt in the middle of the table to start the third betting stage called the turn. This round is sometimes called the fourth street. In this phase, the bets are twice the amount of the flop. Again, players can either check, call, raise or fold.

After that, the fifth and final community card will be dealt in the middle of the table to start the last betting stage called the river. This is sometimes called the fifth street. When all the betting is done, it’s time for the showdown.

If a player bets and all the rest folds, then the pot will be awarded to the remaining player. He will not be required to show his private cards. On the showdown, a player can use the highest poker hand he can make from his hole cards and the community cards. It doesn’t matter what the combination is made out of. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. If there are identical hands, the players will split the pot. Then the dealer button will move to the next player. You should note that suits are irrelevant in Texas Hold’em.

That’s how you play Texas Hold’Em Poker. There are three common variations of this poker type. These are limit, no-limit, and pot-limit hold’em. Limit hold’em is the most popular among the three. In limit hold’em, the bets and raises during the pre-flop and flop should be equal to the big blind. The minimum amount is called small bet. In the turn and the river, the bets would be raised to twice the amount of the big blind. This amount is called the big bet.

No-limit Hold’em is the most televised form among the three hold’em poker types. It is this type that’s played in the main event of the World Series of Poker. In this hold’em type, players can bet or raise any number of chips over the minimum raise up. This means that a player can go all in. Typically the minimum raise is equal to the amount of the big blind. If another player wishes to re-raise, the amount must be at least the same amount as the previous raise or higher. The difference of pot-limit hold’em is that the raise is limited to the current amount of the pot.