Live Casino Hold’em Guide

We take a look at Live Casino Hold'em, one of the many Live Poker variations offered by Hollywoodbets through Evolution Gaming.

Hollywoodbets offers you the opportunity to bet on Live Casino Hold’em which is a live poker game based on the card game Texas Holdem Poker.

In traditional Texas Hold’em, players are dealt two personal cards, with five community cards and attempt to beat each by making the best five-card poker hand out of the seven cards dealt.

Casino Hold’em by Evolution Gaming is slightly different.

How does Live Casino Hold’em work?

The main objective of Live Casino Hold’em is to beat the dealer, by having a better five-card hand. This allows an unlimited number of people to play against the dealer with one set of cards.

The game is played with a standard 52 card deck. The deck is shuffled and changed after every hand. Hands are ranked according to a preset value – more on this later.

At Hollywoodbets, all bets are taken or placed before any cards are dealt and again after the flop or the first three community cards have been dealt.

To get going, will need to place an Ante bet. You can also raise the stakes by placing a bonus bet that pays out at fixed odds if a pair of Aces or higher is dealt in the first five cards. See the bonus table below for these potential payouts.

The dealer will then deal two face-up cards to the player and two face-down cards to him/herself. Three face-up community cards will then be dealt in the middle of the playing read. These community cards are used by both the dealer and the player for making up the final hand

Once these cards have been dealt, you are required to choose whether you’d like to PLAY 2x or FOLD. If you choose PLAY 2x, you will need to place a bet equal to double your Ante bet to keep playing. FOLD is to be chosen if you’d like to end the round and forfeit your Ante bet. Remember, that the bonus bet is NOT affected by the decision to PLAY or FOLD.

Once you have decided what you want to do, the dealer will deal the final two community cards which are referred to as the “river”. The dealer will then also reveal his/her two cards. The winner is determined by whoever has the best hand made up using five of the seven cards available to the dealer and the player.

Bet types

There are three different betting opportunities in Live Casino Hold’em Poker.

The first is the Ante Bet. This bet is placed before any cards are dealt.

The second is an optional bonus or AA side bet. This is placed at the same time as the Ante Bet.

Outcomes and Payouts

There are five different outcomes that can occur in Live Casino Hold’em based on a number of factors. These can be determined based on comparing the player’s and the dealer’s best five-card hands by combining the player’s/dealer’s two cards along with the five community cards.

It’s also worth noting that the dealer has to qualify for certain bets to come into play. The dealer needs a pair of fours or higher in order to qualify.

Take a look at the table below to see whether you win, lose or tie:

Result	Ante	Play
Dealer doesn’t qualify and you win	Win*	Push
Dealer qualifies and you win	Win*	1/1
Dealer qualifies and you lose	Lose	Lose
Dealer qualifies and you tie	Push	Push
Player folds	Lose	Lose

*ante bet pays according to the below table

Ante Bet

Hand	Payout
Royal Flush	100/1
Straight Flush	20/1
Four of a Kind	10/1
Full House	3/1
Flush	2/1
Straight Flush	1/1
Three of a Kind	1/1
Two Pairs	1/1
One Pair or less	1/1

Bonus

Remember that the bonus bet is optional and can’t be placed without an Ante bet. This bet is evaluated on your first hand of five cards only. If you have a pair of Aces or greater, you will win the bonus bet and be paid out at fixed odds as per the below table.

Hand	Payout
Royal Flush	100/1
Straight Flush	50/1
Four of a Kind	40/1
Full House	30/1
Flush	20/1
Straight	7/1
Three of a Kind	7/1
Two Pairs	7/1
Pair of Aces	7/1

Winning Hands

Below we’ll take a look at winning hands from the strongest (Royal Flush) to the weakest (High Cards).

Royal Flush

The Royal Flush is the best hand you can be dealt in poker. This hand features five cards in consecutive order and of the same suit in order of value from 10 to ace.

Straight Flush

Similar to a Royal Flush, this hand contains five cards of consecutive values of the same suit that isn’t a Royal Flush is considered a Straight Flush. This hand can only be beaten in two ways: by a Royal Flush or another Straight Flush that includes higher-ranking cards.

Four of a Kind

As the name implies, a Four of a Kind hand sees the same card in each of the four different suits.

Full House

Simply put, this hand contains a Three of a Kind (three cards of the same rank in three different suits) and a Pair (two cards of the same rank in different suits). In the event that more than Full House is present on the table, the player with the higher value Three of a Kind will be the winner.

Flush

This hand contains five cards of the same suit in any order. When two players have flushes, the hand featuring the highest value hand will be declared the winner.

Straight

A straight is made up of five cards in consecutive numerical order of more than one suit. If there is an Ace in the hand, it can rank as either high (above a King) or low (below a 2). These two types of straights have nicknames. A Wheel straight runs A, 2, 3, 4, 5 while a Broadway straight (the strongest of all straight hands, runs 10, J, Q, K, A.