Zynga Texas HoldEm Poker Basics

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Another cross-game promotion is going on.  I've blocked Treasure Isle and now it's time to unblock Texas HoldEm Poker.  The World Series of Poker started on May 26th and will be going on until July 15th.  Since I'm playing in a few of the events, this promotion is way more interesting to me than Treasure Isle was.  We can now get a prize for our Mafia Wars accounts everyday for winning 3 hands of Texas HoldEm Poker.  To learn about getting started and what types of prizes you can expect to get.  Visit the Mafia Wars Maniac and read the article titled Zynga Poker Reward.  If you haven't gotten the in-game message yet, click HERE to start playing now (link provided by The Mafia Wars Maniac).  In addition to the daily prizes we can receive, we can also earn The Ace in The Sleeve and Pocket Rockets loot items and Achievement Badges (unless you have already done this).  You can get the Ace in The Sleeve by reaching Level 6 and The Pocket Rockets by gaining 3 more levels.
If you click on the link and it doesn't work, chances are you have blocked the application.  To learn how to unblock it, read my article titled Unblock and Unhide Mafia Wars and substitute Mafia Wars with Texas HoldEm Poker.  Once you are finished, try the link again and allow access.

If you don't know how to play Texas HoldEm, there is a tutorial within the game.  Click on learn to play.  It's not a hard game.  "Poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master" is a famous quote that is very true.  The only thing I saw that is different in this game than the real Texas HoldEm is the betting structure.  There are no poker games that I know of where you can raise yourself.  In addition to the raise button there should also be a bet button.  In this game if you want to place a bet, you need to click raise.  This is the way Zynga rolls so I had to get used to it.

UPDATE: After playing a few days with the winning 3 hands the quickest way possible strategy, I was wrong about people playing conservatively in the beginning of the shoot outs.  The best way now is to do the same thing but fold your first hand.  Just about everybody will go all in and the winner of that hand will eliminate the majority of the people at the table.  Once the first hand is over, you're playing against fewer players so your odds of winning the next hand are greatly increased.  You can also play in sit-n-go tournaments with 5 players.  These cost more money so you need to have a lot of chips to play.  Choosing the 9 person sit-n-go tournament and applying the above strategy should also work too.  The shoot-outs just seem easier for me.

The best strategy (as far as spending the least amount of time as possible) I have found with Zyngas version of Texas HoldEm is to play in a shoot out tournament.  Most players (not counting the Mafia Wars people) want to move on and make it to Round 3 so they will be more cautious and it's easier for you to get them to fold and win 3 hands early in the tournament.  The cash games are more of a crap shoot and everybody tends to play each hand.  It takes much longer to win 3 hands in the cash games.  If you're competitive like me and can't stop after you won your 3 hands than this is not the best way to go as far as time is concerned.  I found myself determined to win the shoot out and it took longer than anticipated.

Once you click on Round 1, you will be seated at a table with 9 other players.  Just play every hand until you win three.  If you lose and get knocked out, click on Round 1 again to start over.  I got pocked Aces and lost the hand to some donkey who played K4 off suite and sucked out with 2 pair on the river!!! I was the chip leader so it didn't hurt me too bad but made me want to kick his butt even more.  I then waited patiently and folded most of my hands until it was down to three of us. 

By the time I won my third hand, I no longer cared about my Mafia Wars prize and clicked claim prize later on the pop-up.  I was a little mad because when the tournament was over, there was no option for me to claim the prize.  Because this is a Zynga game, I wasn't surprised.

The third guy got knocked out and I was now playing heads up against a level 54.  Since I'm only a level 9 and he was the massive chip leader, he assumed he had the game in the bag.  He never saw it coming and I was able to beat him and win the shoot-out.  Too bad this wasn't for real money and I never did get my prize. When I come back to play tomorrow, I WILL stop after I win 3 hands and get back to Mafia Wars as soon as possible.