What does NLHE mean in poker?
No-Limit Texas Holdem (NLHE), often shortened to No-Limit Holdem, is the most popular type of card game. It’s the chosen format for lots of major tournaments, including the $10,000 WSOP Main Event – the holy grail of poker events.
We’ll tell you about the basic rules of No-Limit Texas Holdem, the combinations to aim for, and how to play a hand of this famous game.
What is NLHE?
- N = No
- L = Limit
- H = Hold
- E = Em
The abbreviation NLHE (No-Limit Texas Holdem) is often used on the internet to name the tournament discipline. The full name is a little long and usually, there’s a lot of other information to display.
Basic Rules of No-Limit Holdem
No-Limit Holdem has gained incredible popularity due to the game’s simple rules. When you read them for the first time, you get the feeling that by the end of the text, you have figured out all the nuances.
With two cards in hand and five community cards, you need to create the best 5-card combination and win at showdown.
However, even professionals who have won millions of dollars in their careers continue to learn. If you don't do this, you risk being left behind by your opponents and starting to lose systematically.
The online poker world is the same – even at the lowest buy-ins. You won’t need to play like Daniel Negreanu at the micro-stakes, but you’ll want an edge to create profit.
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How Betting Works in NLHE Poker
Even before the dealer deals the cards, two players make mandatory bets – the small blind (SB) and the big blind (BB).
This is necessary, and without the blind mandatory bets, poker players would always wait for the best hands. There would be no incentive to make aggressive actions or attack the money in the pot, meaning that all players would be waiting for pocket kings or aces.
During the rounds of poker, you have several options:
- Fold: You fold your hand, meaning you will not lose any more money. The disadvantage is that you won’t be able to win the pot.
- Call: A passive action that equalizes a previous raise. Usually calling shows weakness and reluctance to invest a lot of money into the play (at least on the current street).
- Check: Another type of passive action is when you pass the turn to another player or end a betting round. An important condition: you are allowed to announce a check only in cases where no one has promoted you before.
- Raise: With this action, you raise the amount that other players must put in the pot. In NLHE, raises are not capped (no maximum). You are allowed to raise up to the limit of your stack (all-in).
How Does an NLHE Game Start and Finish?
Each NLHE hand consists of several betting rounds, also called “streets”:
- Preflop: At this beginning point of the poker hand, there are only blinds in the pot, and players have two cards (face down). The first action is from the player to the left of the BB (big blind position). That player has several options: fold, call, or raise, and in NLHE, you can push all the chips into the center of the table (if you choose).
- Flop: The dealer reveals three community cards – which we call the flop. Now the player in the small blind position will have to make the first action. If the small blind player already folded preflop, the action is on the next player to the left of the dealer button.
- Turn: The fourth community card. The betting rules are the same as they are for the flop.
- River: The final community card, with the same betting action as the flop and turn.
When players match the bets or check on the river, a showdown happens. All participants remaining competing for the pot open their cards (flipping them face-up), and the dealer determines the winner.
In online poker rooms, this whole process is automatic. You can automate a few other things if you want to, like rebuys, add-ons, seating, window arrangements, and your own hotkeys.
You can get that kind of functionality and more, on a few of the top poker sites:
How to Win in NHLE Poker Games
There are two ways to win a hand in Holdem:
- Present the best 5-card hand. This happens at showdown.
- Bluff your opponents. By betting, you can make players think your hand is stronger than theirs. Generally, people don’t call many bets when they think they have a losing combination.
NLHE Poker Sites to Try
We spend time working with site operators to create promotions, but we also review all of their poker rooms from head to toe. In doing this, we’ve found some that players should avoid and plenty of rooms that are worth your time.
Always remember that playing online poker involves investing money. This means that you should approach the choice of a room as carefully as possible. History knows many examples of newcomers trusting their money to dubious companies, and then unsuccessfully trying to get it back. We’ll guide you away from an experience like that.
