Texas holdem poker is played with a single deck of cards from the English deck. Said deck consists of 52 cards plus two jokers or jokers, said jokers are removed when the game starts, therefore Texas holdem poker is played with 52 cards .
Since poker is a game of probabilities and that such probabilities will depend on the number of cards in the deck and the number of players, there are game modes in which to give Texas holdem poker more dynamism and generate more games competitive, the number of cards used is determined based on the number of players participating in the game.
The best known systems to determine the number of cards are two, one based on a simple equivalence table :
- For four players or less it must be played with 32 cards discarding from 2 to 6.
- For five players, you should play with 40 cards discarding from 2 to 4, although there are people who prefer to also discard the fives (5) and play only with 36 cards.
- For six players you must play with 44 cards discarding deuces (2) and threes (3).
- For seven players or more, you must play with the full deck, that is, the 52 cards of the English deck.
The other system is the rule of 11 , so that to calculate the cards to discard a simple mathematical formula is used, the system is based on adding the number of players to the lowest card number, the total added is 11. For example, if there are six players at the table, then the lowest card number should be five (6 + 5 = 11), discarding cards 2-4.
How the cards are dealt in Texas holdem poker
Cards are always dealt clockwise one one until all participants have two cards in hand. Obviously the cards must be visible only to the corresponding player.
Random card distribution in online poker
Everyone knows how the dealing of cards works in a live texasholdem poker game, since a dealer shuffles the cards manually, however we may have doubts about how this action is carried out in online poker.
For this, the vast majority of poker rooms use what is known as a Random Number Generator (GNA), which is nothing more than a program that produces random number sequences. Based on these random number sequences, the online casino software generates the 52-card layout of the English deck before starting a Texas holdem poker game.
To guarantee this randomness, when a new hand starts, the cards are randomly moved until the moment the deal starts and the players receive their cards. It is at this point where the way the cards are dealt changes.
In some online poker sites the cards are continuously shuffled every time a card is dealt and until the hand is over, while in other sites the cards are only shuffled until the moment the deal to the first player begins, that is , as if we were playing Texas holdem poker in a real casino.
During these audits, a complete test of the random number generator (GNA) system and the algorithms in charge of shuffling the cards is carried out, as well as any software designed to protect the security of the GNA system. The results of these audits are always public and are accessible to any player in an online poker room, in this way we can be sure of the reliability and legality of an online casino.
Of course, in a Texas holdem poker game it is absolutely necessary that the shuffling and distribution of cards be carried out in a totally random way, for this it is an essential requirement that the GNA systems be duly audited, it is the only way to guarantee that your Chances of victory during a poker game depend exclusively on your luck and, above all, on your talent and skill in the game .
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