Best Poker Sites for Texas Hold’em
Texas Hold'em is by far the most dominate form of poker both live and online. This is true whether you're in North America, Europe or Asia; the game everyone is playing these days is Texas Hold'em. In this article we'll cover the best poker sites for playing Texas Hold'em online and conclude that with some general info on "how to play Texas Hold'em" and "learning Texas Hold'em".
When looking for the best Texas Hold'em site there are several factors that will come into play. Do you enjoy ring games, sit and goes or tournaments? Also what stakes do you prefer to play? Also are you interested in the more popular version of the game with no limit betting structure or the less popular fixed or pot limit structures. Perhaps you might also prefer heads-up (one versus one) games? Or maybe you'd like to play Texas Hold'em on your mobile phone? On this page we'll give a quick guide for the various categories starting with the easiest.
Best Poker Site for Texas Hold'em Tournaments
If you're a Texas Hold'em tournament player perhaps the best site for you is PokerStars. PokerStars has more tournament traffic than any other poker site with literally a Texas Hold'em tournament scheduled every few minutes. One factor though: the fields can be quite massive which is a reason some players might consider the second largest poker site, fulltiltpoker where the fields are still quite large but not as massive as PokerStars.
If you prefer smaller field tournaments, less prize money but a better chance to win (and perhaps better value) then we suggest Bodog.
Best Poker Site for Texas Hold'em Sit-N-Go (SNG) Players
Sit and goes is the first area where which poker site is best might not be so clear cut. If you're a serious hard core multi-tabler than your best choice here is PokerStars where tournaments fill up extremely quick at single table, 2-table, 3-table, 5-table and 10-table games at most stakes. If you're the type that is okay with a little wait time getting tables start and you're only looking to play a few single table SNGs at a time a much better option is Bodog. Here the games are extremely soft due to lots of spillover traffic from Bodog's integrated casino and sportsbook. While you won't be able to get in as many tables your win rate at Bodog Poker should be considerably higher than at other online poker sites, as Bodog Poker is truly a fish tank with many easy to beat games.
Best Poker Site for Texas Holdem Ring Games
This one we need to break down further:
High Stakes Games: Full Tilt Poker is best.
Fixed or Pot Limit Games: PokerStars is the top choice for this category.
No Limit Ring Games: If you're playing stakes $1/$2 and under you'll find the games are much softer at Bodog Poker and Sportsbook Poker than they are at all other online poker sites, this is again due to spillover traffic from the casino and sportbook each site offers. The only time we'd recommend playing at the larger sites (much tougher, but still beatable) is when you're looking to serious multi table. In this case we'd suggest either Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars.
Heads up Games: For mid to higher stakes heads-up your best bet is Full Tilt Poker. If you're playing lower stakes such as $100 buy-in games we suggest Cake Poker, due to the fact you can change your user name every couple weeks on their site and their site does not support many datamining or tracking programs. This is a strong feature for heads up players as data mining, hand history analysis and bum hunting is heavily used in modern online poker and Cake has the support you need to remain somewhat unknown and therefore keeping whatever edges you have while protecting yourself against weaknesses your opponents uncover about you. No doubt if there are games in the stakes you'd like to play Cake Poker is best for this.
Mobile Poker Games: No question the best site for mobile poker games is Cake Poker.
How to Play Texas Hold'em
There is an old saying about Texas Hold'em that it is a game that takes minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. This is not an exaggeration either. If you're new to the game the best way to learn is to start reading books. Winning Low-Limit Holdem by Lee Jones would be a good start and this book is available at Amazon or just about any large bookstore including your local Barnes and Nobles, you might even be able to pick a copy up cheap on eBay. While learning you'll want to sign up at Sportsbook (best site for beginners), deposit $50.00 (consider this a tuition, but who knows you might get lucky) and then play in the absolute lowest stakes offered (don't gamble too much you're learning and we want that $50 to last).
Now if you're truly new to Texas Hold'em as in have no idea how to play the game this quick video covers the basics. Of course you'll also need to know Texas Hold'em hand rankings which you can find in Wikipedia entry: List of Poker Hands.
Once again we suggest you learn by reading Lee Jones book Winning Low-Limit Hold'em and then playing the lowest stakes available at Sportsbook.
Once you start winning at the lowest stakes offered we suggest moving to Bodog and when you really have a grasp of the game then it's time to test your skills at Full Tilt Poker. Don't be in a rush to move up in games, learning poker can be expensive take your time and study and don't mistake lucky runs for knowing too much. This game can be quite profitable if you really take the time to get good at it and then use proper bankroll management.
