If you happen to be new to online casinos, one thing that will likely surprise and overwhelm you the first time is the sheer number of games on offer. Even if you are a veteran brick-and-mortar casino player, having hundreds of casino games to choose from at your fingertips can be a shock.
Most beginners find their gambling feet playing slots. These aren’t just readily available everywhere, but they’re also super easy to play and don’t require much previous knowledge. However, there are so many other games that you might love but could be afraid to try if you lack experience.
Ultimate Texas Hold’em is one of these games. It is a table game played with cards and chips, and it offers a lot of excitement and social interaction if you play in a live setting. But is it a game that a casino novice could pick up quickly and actually enjoy? Well, everyone is different, so let’s find out if it’s right for you.
Learning Rules Will Take Some Time
You’ll likely enjoy Ultimate Texas Hold’em much more as a casino novice if you at least have had an opportunity to play some poker with your friends at home or at a local club.
This game is a simplified version of Texas Hold’em, but instead of playing against other players, everybody at the table plays against the dealer, and the only goal is to beat the dealer’s hand.
If you don’t know anything about poker whatsoever, this is probably not the game to start with. You should learn poker hand rankings, at the very least, before giving it a go.
The betting rules are a bit more complicated than in games like roulette or blackjack, where you can pretty much place your initial bet and not worry about betting until the next round.
In Ultimate Texas Hold’em, you begin by placing the ante bet and the blind bet. Then, after you receive your first two cards, you need to decide if you want to continue by placing the Play bet (3x or 4x the ante bet) or by checking (not betting any additional chips).
Then, the flop (three community cards) is dealt, and once again, you get to decide if you want to bet or check. Finally, the dealer will reveal the turn and the river (the last two cards), and you’ll once again have the option to bet or fold (give up).
You can learn all about the rules of the game in our extensive Ultimate Texas Hold’em guide, but as you can see, there are several decision points in this game, which may be a bit intimidating for a beginner. Plus, how do you know what the right decision is at any point?
Ultimate Hold’em Has Some Strategy to It
Unlike games such as roulette and slots, which are entirely luck-based, Ultimate Texas Hold’em has an element of skill to it. This element isn’t huge and you can never become good enough to beat the house (it is mathematically impossible), but it will influence your long-term results playing this game.
The strategy boils down to learning what hands you should be continuing with at any street (before the flop, on the flop, and on the turn/river). It’s not hard to memorize this, but it’s important to have this knowledge before you sit down to play, even if you use a chart,.
The house edge of this game is quite player-friendly (2.2%), but if you are constantly making wrong decisions, that number can get higher. So, you should learn these pretty simple basics before you sit down to play.
Is Ultimate Texas Hold’em Good for Beginners?
At the end of the day, Ultimate Texas Hold’em isn’t some scary or overly complicated game. All you need to know about it, you can easily learn in a couple of hours — and that’s without putting much effort into it.
That said, if you are new to casino gaming and have absolutely no clue about how the game works, you’ll probably have more fun playing something else. If Ultimate Hold’em piques your interest, check some resources like our guide first, and you’ll be all set to give it a go on your next visit!
