Casino Hold’Em Rules – Learn How to Play Casino Hold‘Em

Casino Hold‘Em is a casino game based on the immensely popular Texas Hold‘Em poker game and it is different from it in that it is played against the house and not by competing with the other players in a direct battle against them, which gives the player bigger chances of winning. The game was created in the year 2000, and now appears across many land-based and online casinos.

The game first appeared in Great Britain in 2002 at the International Casino Exhibition and five years later it got licensed across the entire country. The game quickly gained popularity and today it is played in casinos on all continents. This text will inform you about the rules of Casino Hold‘Em, what are the basics of the game, and at the end we will give you a basic strategy that you can use if you are a beginner in this game.

Casino Hold’Em Rules

Casino Hold‘Em follows the rules of poker and Texas Hold‘Em poker in general, with some minor differences. These are the rules of the game:

• Each player needs to make an Ante bet before the cards are dealt.
• The dealer places three community cards on the Casino Hold‘Em table that are faced up, and can be used by all the players to form their hands. The players and the dealer on the other hand, receive two hole cards that can be combined with the community cards in order to form a playing hand.
• When the round has started, the players can fold or call, just like in standard poker games, a decision that they make based on their hand. If the player believes he has a strong playing hand, he ‘calls’ the bet and wagers the same amount but no more than two times the Ante bet, but if he is hesitant he can ‘fold’ and cease risking additional money.
• After that, the dealer will place additional community cards, two in total, and will display his cards.
• The hands will be valued according to the Casino Hold‘Em ranks, and are measured according to the two cards in each player’s hand and the community cards.
• A significant detail in Casino Hold‘Em is that the dealer has to qualify in order to proceed. He needs at least a pair of 4s or higher. When the dealer hasn’t succeeded in qualifying, the call bet is pushed and the Ante is paid out according to the paytable.
• When the dealer has qualified, while the player has lost, the player loses both bets, the call bet and the Ante bet.
• If the player manages to beat the dealer, but the dealer has qualified anyway, the Ante is paid according to the paytable.
• If it’s a tie, both bets are pushed.
• Casino Hold‘Em is played with a standard deck of cards consisted of 52 cards.

The Basics of Casino Hold‘Em

Objective of the Game

The objective is simple enough, all the players have to beat the dealer’s hand. This is achieved by collecting the best five cards that can be used to form the highest ranking hand possible. Although the game is played with only one deck of cards, 52 cards in total, the deck is shuffled and replaced with another after every round.

Casino Hold‘Em Hand Rankings

This game follows the same hand rankings as in standard poker. The strongest hand is the Royal Flush, followed by Straight Flush and so on all the way to the lowest hand which is a Pair. In general, the house edge in Casino Hold‘Em is something little over 2%. The highest card is as always the Ace followed by the King and the other face cards, all the way down to the lowest, which is 2.

Payouts

The lowest payout you can get is 1 to 1, also called even money or the same amount that you have wagered. The highest payout is 100 to 1 given for a Royal Flush hand. Straight Flush is the second best hand and pays much less, only 20 to 1. However, that is why the AA side bet is here. If you have made a successful AA side bet, the payout for Straight Flush increases to 50 to 1. Four of a Kind is paid 10 to 1, or 40 to 1 with an AA side bet. Full House pays 3 to 1, and ten times more with the side bet, totaling to 30 to 1. If you have a Flush, you will get 2 to 1, or 7 to 1 with the side bet.

Bet Limits

If you want to play Casino Hold‘Em we would advise you to do it online because of the more favorable betting limits. For example, at Playtech casinos you can make Casino Hold‘Em wagers as low as $1 and in chip denominations all the way down to $0.01. In general, you can use chips of $0.05, $1, $5, $10, $25 and $100. At most cases, the maximum bet in Casino Hold‘Em at online casinos will be $100. If you have decided to play online Casino Hold‘Em, look for casinos that have live dealer Casino Hold‘Em games too in order to complete the true gambling feel.

AA Side Bet

Casino Hold‘Em allows an additional AA side bet, which can bring you bonus given as extra profit on your Ante if the three community cards that you will combine with your two cards contain two Aces. This side bet is placed at the same time with the Ante bet and if your hand is successful, all the payouts increase, hence bonus money. The AA bet pays out if the first 5 cards are dealt along with two Aces.

A Simple Strategy to Use

Once you begin playing the game and get enough familiar with it, you will probably devise your own playing style or strategy. However, there is no hundred percent successful strategy for playing poker, because the outcome always will depend on the cards dealt, so the best is to use optimal situational strategies that are based on your hand at the moment. We can give you some simple tips of when to call, or when to fold, and these tips are generally supplied by Casino Hold‘Em players based on their experience from playing the game. So, you shouldn’t fold if you have a Straight Flush or any flush that is open-ended or gut-shot. (A little clarification: open-ended hand is when you have 4 cards in a row you need a high or low card to make a straight, while a gut-shot hand is when you already have four cards for a Straight and you need the middle card). Also, you should never fold if you have a pair of high Ace or high King.

You can consider folding, but it is recommended not to fold if you have a high Queen or a gut-shot Straight draw. However, gut-shot Straight Draws are less likely to succeed compared to open-ended. If you have a high Jack or better and if there is a pair on the table you should fold very rarely, but you should always fold in the same situation if you have high Ten or lower, unless you are in a gut-shot situation. The situations in which you should always fold and thus avoid losing, are cases in which you have very low cards and cannot match them with the community cards.

You should always raise if your two cards dealt by the dealer are higher in value compared to the 3 community cards on the table.

Summary

Casino Hold‘Em is probably the most popular variation of Texas Hold‘Em. Both games can be learned easily and can be fun, just pick if you want to play against other players or just against the dealer. Casino Hold‘Em is probably best for more inexperienced players that don’t have the skill or the guts to go head to head against other poker players, because here the only opponent you have is the house. That fact alone makes a Casino Hold‘Em a game in which you are more likely to win.

Useful Casino Hold‘Em Glossary

– All-In: this is a very common poker term used in every poker variation. This is when a player puts all chips into play.

– Ante: in poker there is a pot, which is formed with opening bets and the player that wins in the end takes all the money from the pot. Ante bets are placed before the dealing of the cards, and are made separately from your playing bet that you make when you have your hand in front of you.

– Board: this term is used in Hold‘Em poker games to refer to the community cards on the table.

– Rake: poker rooms usually impose Rakes, which are specified amounts that you need to give in return for something. The rake is usually a percentage of each pot or a specific amount and is considered as a commission charged by the poker room.

– Dead Money: when a player has folded but has already placed a bet, and that bet is considered as dead money.

Visit our Casino Hold’em Glossary section for more terms and phrases.