What’s that Poker Hold Game Really Called?

My grandmother called the other day and said she wanted me to take her to go buy a computer. I said that was a great idea and we could send her pictures of the kids by email.

“I don’t know nothing about no email,” she said. “I want a computer so I can play me some poker hold like I saw on TV last night.” I said she must mean Texas Hold ‘Em. I almost choked when she said “Hell, I ain’t going to no Texas. I’m going to play poker hold on the computer right here in my living room. Now get over here and take me to the store.”

I had an old computer in the garage so I brought it to her house. I told her she was going to need an Internet connection and how much that would cost. “Good,” she said. “You can buy me that for Christmas. Now tell me how you play this poker hold.”

I told said the real name was Texas Hold ‘em, or simply hold em poker, and she didn’t have to go to Texas to play it. There were hundreds of online poker sites where she could play anytime day or night.

She was impressed and wanted to know how many people in the word actually played. I told her that Texas Hold ‘Em is the most popular card game in casinos, card rooms and online poker sites. It’s so popular that it surpassed the former favorite, 7 card stud, back in the early 2000’s.

Like 7 card stud, each player is deal two cards face down. These are called the hole cards. But that’s where the resemblance ends. From that point on, only 5 more cards are dealt, and they’re all flipped over in the middle of the table. They are called community cards. This means that all of the players can use those cards, along with their hole cards, to make the best 5 card hand they can. There’s a round of betting after each card is dealt, and the highest poker hand wins.

“Yep; that’s what they were playing on TV last night,” gram said. “They were winning a lot more money than I ever won playing bingo,” she added. “You’re a pretty smart grandson. I just don’t understand why you don’t know that game is called poker hold.”