Casinos are always looking for new games to offer bored gamblers. Over the last decade or 2, these games are more commonly related to poker than anything else. But games like these—including Scientific Gaming’s Ultimate Texas Holdem—are more akin to blackjack than to poker. In fact, dealing Ultimate Texas Holdem is considered dealing a novelty casino game. The College of Southern Nevada covers how to deal Ultimate Texas Holdem in their blackjack class.

• Casino Texas Holdem Game
• Casino Poker Texas Holdem
• Ignition Casino Texas Holdem Poker
• Playing Texas Holdem At Casino

Casino Texas Holdem Game

The selection of games at Ignition is fairly standard, but at least you will find a cash game of Texas Holdem, Omaha or Omaha Hi/Lo running most of the time at stakes from $0.02/$0.05 upwards. Ignition has its own fast-fold poker game – “Zone Poker” – although players are limited to. Play your best Texas Hold’em at Ignition by first knowing the rules. Each player is dealt two cards face down (called pocket cards). The dealer then deals five community cards face up. These are available to all the players to help make their hand.

What’s the big difference between Ultimate Texas Holdem (and games like it) and “real” poker games? The main difference is who you’re competing with. In a so-called real poker game, you’re competing with the other players at the table. If you win money, you’re winning it from them. If you lose money, you’re losing it to your competitors at the table.

Texas poker is a fast and lively game with Holdem being one of the most popular types of poker played today. Each player starts receives two hole-cards which are dealt face down. After that, each player receives additional cards that are dealt face up. The list is based mostly on your country, as many bonuses are only valid to players from certain countries. However, other ranging factors, such 113 Texas Holdem as the bonus value and the 113 Texas Holdem casino's rating, have 113 Texas Holdem been added into the mix as well. Ignition Casino is the hottest new online casino and poker room where you go to rev up the action.

This isn’t a value judgment. It’s perfectly all right to play house-banked casino games. Gamblers do it every day. I’m pointing out the distinction because it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you play a casino game.

With that as a premise—understanding in detail what you’re getting into when you’re playing a casino game—I offer you this post: “The Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” The idea is to share everything you would ever need or want to know about Ultimate Texas Holdem. Luckily, it’s not that complicated a game. There’s no need to write an entire book about it, like you would do with blackjack or poker.

Ultimate Texas Holdem is a card game where you play heads-up against a casino dealer. Other players at the table are also playing heads-up against the dealer. It features a progressive jackpot, among other payouts.

You start by making 2 equal-sized bets:

• The Ante Bet
• The Blind Bet

At most casinos, the minimum bet is either $5 or $10. The maximum bet is usually between $50 an $500.

You also have 2 optional bets you can make:

• The Trips Bonus Bet
• The Progressive Bet

You start by getting 2 hole cards from the dealer—these are 2 cards that are dealt to you face-down, just like in regular Texas holdem.

When you get those cards, you can choose from the following actions:

• Check
• Bet 3X the Ante (A “Play” Bet.)
• Bet 4X the Ante (Also a “Play” Bet.)

After you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals 3 face-up cards—the “flop.” (This is also how regular Texas holdem works.)

If you checked when you got your hole cards, you have the option now to place a bet of 2X the Ante (another example of a “Play Bet.”) After that decision is made, the dealer turns over 2 more face-up cards—the turn and the river, in Texas holdem terms. Note that the action here is different than in traditional Texas holdem. Normally you’d have a turn, followed by a betting round, then the river, followed by another betting round.

Once you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals her hole cards and announces the final hand. If your hand beats the dealer’s hand (using the standard poker hand rankings), you win even money on your Ante bets and the Play bets. On the other hand, if the dealer’s hand beats yours, you lose your Ante, Blind, and Play Bets. If you tie, then these bets are all treated as a “push.” (A push is when your original bet is returned to you, but without any winnings. You have neither a net win nor a net loss.)

The Blind Bet is handled differently. It pays off if you win AND if you have a straight or better. If you have less than a straight but still beat the dealer, the Blind Bet is treated as a push. The Blind Bet is paid off based on a pay table. The better your hand, the more it pays off. (It’s like video poker in this respect.)

Casinos generally use a shuffling machine called an “i-Deal single deck specialty shuffler.” That’s because this game was created by Shufflemaster, which is now a division of Scientific Games. Shufflemaster’s reason for existence is to sell shuffling machines to casinos, so creating new cards is something they do in service to this goal.

The Blind Bet and the Trips Bonus Bet have 2 different pay tables.

Here’s a common pay table for the Blind Bet:

Keep in mind that the Blind Bet pays off regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. Also, notice that 3 of a kind doesn’t pay off for the Blind Bet, which is an interesting quirk of the game. The pay tables can vary—the casino gets to choose from multiple options. For example, some casinos pay off 40 to 1 instead of 50 to 1 for a straight flush. This changes the house edge for the game, of course.

Here’s a common pay table for the Trips Bonus Bet:

Here are a couple of facts to keep in mind about the Trips Bonus Bet:

• Your hand doesn’t have to win. It pays off regardless of whether you or the dealer wins.
• It wins even if you don’t have to use your hole cards. You can just play the board (the flop, turn, and river.)
• It wins even if you fold.

How the Progressive Bet and Jackpot Works

The progressive bet in Ultimate Texas Holdem is also an optional side bet. At most casinos, this bet is a flat $1 bet. But at some casinos, the Progressive Bet is $5. You can win 1 of 2 progressive jackpots in this game—the smaller jackpot, or the larger jackpot. To win the smaller progressive jackpot, you must use at least 1 of your hole cards. The smaller progressive pays off for hands that are a full house or better.

To win the bigger progressive jackpot—which is 100% of the jackpot—you must use both your hole cards and the flop to form a royal flush. If you hit the royal flush on the turn or the river, you don’t win the bigger progressive. You can also win a percentage of the full big progressive jackpot

Casinos also feature something called an “Envy Bonus.” This is a bonus paid to any player at the table when one of the other players wins the progressive jackpot.

Casino games where you make decisions usually have a house edge that varies based on how well you make those decisions. In other words, your strategy matters. There’s always a mathematically correct play in every situation. In Ultimate Texas Holdem, your strategy is limited to whether you make Play Bets during the various stages of the game. For me, this isn’t an intuitive decision. You can find various websites offering strategies for this, but I have another recommendation:

The house edge is the amount of each bet that the casino projects you’ll lose on average based on the probabilities behind the game. Obviously, the lower the house edge, the better for the player. You should do everything you can to minimize the house edge on any casino game you play.

If you use perfect basic strategy on Ultimate Texas Holdem, the house expects to win a little over 2%. Let’s assume that the house edge is 10% if you don’t know basic strategy. What does that do to the cost of playing the game in the long run?

There’s an interesting post at Two Plus Two from a gambler describing his basic strategy for Ultimate Texas Holdem. I don’t know how close it mirrors a mathematically perfect strategy, but here’s what “nonprofitgambler” says is the correct way to play:

Preflop, he suggests raising with any of the following hands:

• Any ace
• Any k5+, and any king suited
• Q5s+, Q8+
• J8s+, JT+
• 33+ for pocket pairs

That small “s” after the number means that the cards are of the same suit (they’re “suited.”) On the flop, he says most people play the same, and that it’s correct—if you pair anything, you raise. But those obviously aren’t the only hands you should raise with here. You should also bet flush draws, straight draws, and combination draws. This means you have 4 cards to a big hand. On the river, you should bet any kind of made hand, but some boards are scarier than others.

Finally, I’d like to point out that the house edge on Ultimate Texas Holdem isn’t outrageous, but blackjack is still almost always a better deal. With perfect basic strategy, many blackjack games have a house edge of just 0.5%. This means you get the same kind of entertainment for closer to $2/hour instead of $8/hour.

You can play a nice, free version of Ultimate Texas Holdem at this site. It has a place where you can toggle the sound on and off. You can also toggle the “give advice” button off an on. If you’ve never played Ultimate Texas Holdem before, this page is a great way to practice. It’s refreshingly free of advertising, too, which is rare and unusual in this industry.

Also, if you like Ultimate Texas Holdem, I suggest you give multiplayer Texas holdem in the poker room a try—if you haven’t already. It’s a lot more fun, and you have more of an opportunity to get an edge, since you’re competing against other players.

That’s it for my “Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” I can’t imagine any information you could want about the game that I’ve left out. But if I did miss something, or if you have questions about Ultimate Texas Holdem that remain unanswered, please put a note in the comments.

Ignition Poker is the US-exclusive “skin” of the Pai Wang Luo Network (formerly the Bodog Poker Network) – a worldwide network that has a particularly strong following in United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Far East. The Network is the third-largest online poker network in the world, and – through Ignition Poker – the largest network on which U.S. players can play Texas Holdem Poker online.

Ignition Poker Recent History

In the summer of 2016, Ignition Poker appeared as an option on the Ignition Casino website – a website that had only been launched in March that year. The Ignition Casino had many similarities to Bodog-related online casinos such as bovada.lv and slots.lv. In August 2016, it was announced Bovada Poker was to close and that players should transfer their balances to Ignition Poker – reinforcing the theory that Ignition Poker was about to become the new name for Bovada Poker.

At the time of writing this Ignition Poker review, the migration of accounts has happened quickly and smoothly. This is mostly due to a series of promotions offered to former Bovada players to encourage them to transfer their accounts prior to the deadline. Players who failed to meet the deadline can still withdraw funds from their Bovada accounts, manually create a new account with Ignition Poker and make a fresh deposit.

Ignition Poker Download

If you are a new player – or a player who did not complete the migration process from Bovada Poker before the deadline – the first thing you need to do before you can start playing at the site is to download the Ignition Poker software. In order to do this, follow our links to the site and click on the button to the right of the screen that reads “Download Now”.

The download of the software will start automatically and, once completed, there is a simple installation process to complete. A Set-Up Wizard will guide you through the installation process, at the end of which the poker client will load onto your screen and you will be invited to create your account. The Ignition Poker download is available for Windows and Mac operating systems that meet the following minimum system requirements:

• Operating System: Windows 7/Mac OS X 10.7 or later.
• Processor: Equivalent to Intel Core Duo or later.
• Memory: 1Gb RAM or greater.
• Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768.
• Free Space: Minimum of 200Mb
• Flash Player: Version 16 or higher

Ignition Poker also has an excellent mobile platform players can access via their iPhones or Android Smartphones. The mobile platform has superb functionality and provides access to the whole portfolio of poker games, plus a limited selection of casino games. The Ignition Poker mobile site currently only allows you to play one table at a time, but you can conduct banking transactions and contact customer support as well.

Creating Your Ignition Account

When you create an Ignition account, it serves both Ignition Poker and Ignition Casino. The account creation process consist of completing a single page with your personal details and reading the terms and conditions of using the site. You can leave the optional field “How Did You Hear About Us” blank, as there is no Ignition Poker bonus code required to take advantage of the site´s Welcome Package.

Please ensure you complete your personal details as they appear on any documents you will use to verify your account in the future. You will need to verify your account before being able to make a withdrawal. Unfortunately, if you live in New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada, Pennsylvania, or Maryland, you will be barred from creating an account.

Ignition Banking Options

It is important that you understand the banking options at Ignition Poker, because charges apply to every deposit and every withdrawal you make unless you use Bitcoin for your financial transactions. These fees can significantly affect the profitability of playing at the site. Bitcoin deposits are free, but deposits made by methods other than Bitcoin attract the following fees:

• Visa: 5.9%.
• MasterCard: 7.9%.
• Discover: 7.9%.
• American Express: 9.9%.
• Rapid Transfer: $12.00 flat fee.

Withdrawals made by Bitcoin are also free and processed much quicker than the alternate withdrawal options of Rapid Transfer, Visa, or check by courier. One free withdrawal by Rapid Transfer, Visa or check is allowed every four months. Additional withdrawals are charged at $50.00 (Rapid Transfer) and $75.00 (Visa or check) per withdrawal. Basically, get yourself some Bitcoin if you intend playing at Ignition Poker.

Casino Poker Texas Holdem

Ignition Poker Interface

One of Ignition Poker´s features that has obviously had a lot of thought put into it is its interface. The poker client and the mobile platform are simple to navigate and, when you arrive at your game of choice, the action is seamless. There are multiple settings players can take advantage of to customize their experience, plus a comprehensive admin section.

Recent positively-received updates to the Ignition Poker interface mean that players can now increase the rate at which they earn Ignition Miles towards the clearing the Ignition Poker bonus and the site´s Rewards Program by multitabling up to 20 tables at a time. It is also possible to have a mix of cash games, Sit & Go games, Zone Poker games and MTTs underway at the same time.

Games on Ignition Poker

The selection of games at Ignition is fairly standard, but at least you will find a cash game of Texas Holdem, Omaha or Omaha Hi/Lo running most of the time at stakes from $0.02/$0.05 upwards. Ignition has its own fast-fold poker game – “Zone Poker” – although players are limited to competing at two tables at a time. Most other sites offering a fast-fold option allow players to play at up to four tables simultaneously.

The tournament schedule at Ignition is excellent. A good range of tournaments at varied disciplines, formats and buy-ins is available for players of all calibers, and the weekly feature $100,000 guaranteed tournament has one of the lowest buy-ins of all the US-friendly poker sites (considering the prize to buy-in ratio). Qualifying routes for big feature tournaments start at just $1.10; and, you will be in the money in the target tournament if you finish within the top 20% of players.

Ignition Poker Review – Level of Competition

Although Ignition Poker attracts the type of player who prefers anonymous poker, it does not mean the games are soft or easy to beat. Some recreational players are highly skilled; and, because of the perception that Ignition Poker is a soft site to play at, you will find a lot of skillful players at the tables who don´t necessarily need software aids to enjoy winning sessions.

The best advice I can give anybody playing at Ignition Poker is to follow careful bankroll management. It´s not a sexy subject to discuss, but it is the most practical way to approach playing anonymously when you don´t know the skill level of the players you are playing against. In this respect, it is important to be conscious of how often you are using the “Add Chips” button at the tables.

Ignition Poker Review 2021 – Cool Features and UnCool Features

The coolest features at Ignition Poker are the software and the traffic. The software is not quite up to Full Tilt Poker at its prime, but certainly better than other options available to U.S.-based players. The volume of traffic always ensures that there is a game available, and anonymous tables keep players away that would use poker tracking software to take advantage of inexperienced players.

What certainly is not cool are the fess attached to deposits and withdrawals that can seriously affect your profitability. These fees are necessary because of high payment processing fees and if Ignition was to assume the cost themselves, it would mean a reduction of benefits elsewhere across the site. Inasmuch as the fees are understandable – and not Ignition Poker´s fault – they are still uncool.

Ignition Poker 2021 Review – New Player Bonus

The Ignition Poker bonus for new players is a 100% like-for-like match on your first deposit up to $1,000. There is also a similar 100% match bonus of first deposits at the casino. The poker bonus is cleared by earning “Ignition Miles” when you pay an entry fee to play in a Sit n Go game or multi table poker tournament, or contribute to the rake deducted from cash game pots.

Ignition Casino Texas Holdem Poker

The bonus is cleared in $5 increments for every 150 Ignition Miles you collect; and, as Ignition Miles are awarded at the rate of 15 per $1.00 paid in entry fees or contributed to the rake, this equates to a very good rate of rakeback. However, you cannot hang around when clearing the Ignition Poker first deposit bonus, as the offer is only valid for thirty days, after which any uncleared bonus is forfeited.

Ignition Poker Review – Conclusion

The team at Texas Holdem Poker Online are divided between whether Ignition Poker justifies its position as the most popular US-facing online poker site or not. The fact that there is good software, a mobile poker product, and that players´ funds are secure is good enough for some; whereas others will pick at the limited number of promotions and the costs associated with getting your money on and off the site.

Playing Texas Holdem At Casino

Two factors swing our conclusion that players should at least give this site a try – the anonymous tables and the volume of traffic. These factors create a level playing field around the clock so that players playing ABC poker should turn in more profitable sessions than losing ones. If you are making money at the tables on a regular basis, the difficulty in clearing the full Ignition Poker bonus within the allotted time and the limited number of promotions should not matter to you – especially if you fund your account with Bitcoin.