You’ve probably heard Beyonce’s new single, Texas Hold’em, which was released earlier this year and quickly flew to number one, but here are seven things you might not have known about the much-loved game:
1. Origins
Although it is generally believed that Texas Hold’em originated in Robstown Texas, hence its name, there is actually very little evidence that this is the case. However, this has not stopped Texas legislation from claiming that the first hand of Hold’em was indeed played in their state during the early 1900s.
2. Blondie Forbes
To begin with, Texas Hold’em was almost unfamiliar from the game it is now. Players could swap their cards with others in the deck and there usually weren’t any community cards. The rules, such as the two card hand players begin with, were first set down in the 1920s by a man named Blondie Forbes. For this, in the 1980’s, Blondie earned his rightful place in the Poker Hall of Fame.
Once the rules had been properly established, Texas Hold’em quickly took off and is now one of the most popular casino games in the world. In fact, according to Heechan Kim from B2C KR, many players now enjoy the game online as poker sites offer welcome bonuses, loyalty programs, and special tournaments, which add extra value to your gaming. He adds that the best sites offer a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, e-wallets, and cryptocurrencies, and boast fast processing times, making online play more convenient than ever before for players.
3. Poker Bots
For a while now, many academics and poker fanatics have been looking for a way to create the perfect poker player through the use of AI. Many of these bots have won games against some of the best poker players in the world and have even taught themselves the more human aspects of the game, such as how to bluff and feign. In 2008 a poker bot created by academics at the University of Alberta, named Polaris, became the first bot to win a game of Texas Hold’em live against a group of professionals.
4. Named Hands
Most Texas Hold’em players know the nicknames of certain hands, but you may not know where these names actually came from. The two-pair hand of two Aces and two Eights is often referred to as the dead man’s hand, and, as can be expected, the origin of this name has a dark past. In the 1830s lawman Hickok was in a game of five-card stud when a gambler called Jack Mcall slipped behind him and shot him in the back of the head. The hand he was holding when he died? Two Aces and two Eights. Another popular hand in Texas Hold’em is the Ace and King, named Anna Kournikova, or A.K. This is based on the famous Russian tennis player of the same name, who rose to celebrity status due to her looks, despite rarely winning a game. The meaning of the A.K hand? Looks good, but rarely wins.
5. The Royal Flush
If you have played any kind of poker, you will have heard of the royal flush and how sought after it is. The royal flush is the highest possible card in the same suit. For example, a royal flush of Hearts would include the Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten of Hearts. Many poker players say that these cards are a once-in-a-lifetime hand, and the stats suggest they aren’t wrong. The probability of getting a royal flush in a game of Texas Hold’em is actually one in 649,739 which can also be translated to 0.000154%.
6. Texas Hold’em in Casino Royale
Many people are aware of the prevalence of Texas Hold’em in Hollywood movies. For me, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the words ‘Hold’em’ is the high-stakes scene in the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale, where Bond (Daniel Craig) faces off against Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen.) What many people don’t know, however, is the sheer amount of work that went into making these moments as dramatic and suspenseful as they are in the final cut. To create this scene, which itself sits in the 30-minute long section of the film that takes place in a casino, the production team hired professional poker player Tom Sambrook as a formal poker consultant. He taught the main actors, as well as multiple members of the crew, how to play and got a lot of them into the game for the first time
7. Combinations
So, you now know the rarity of the royal flush, but have you ever wondered how many different combinations of cards you can have in your hand in a game of Texas Hold’em? The answer is 1326, and these can be represented in a grid that is usually referred to as the hand matrix. Knowing how many combinations can be made, and knowing how this number can be decreased, such as through blockers and dead cards, can be a vital part of poker strategy and even has its own name: Combinatorics.