Ultimate Texas Holdem Casino Game

Evolution Gaming’s Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em is an exciting version of the classic poker game, Texas Hold’em. Released in 2014, it has grown to become one of the company’s more sought after games due to its high-quality streaming, multiple camera angels and professional dealers.

Streamed live from studios located in Europe and Malta, it allows players to play against the dealer to see which will have the better hand at the conclusion of player hole cards and the five community cards. As with the traditional format of Texas Hold’em, this game commences with a staked bet whereby cards will then be dealt.

Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em Ultimate Texas Hold'em translates the popular Texas Hold'em poker game against other players to a table game where you play against the dealer. If your five cards beat the dealer’s hand, you win! Ultimate Texas Hold'em. Ultimate Texas Hold'em is a ShuffleMaster casino game based on the popular Texas Hold'em poker game. A player must place an equal Ante bet and Blind bet to play. The player may make an optional Trips bet, which is a bonus bet paying for three-of-a-kind or better, regardless of the dealer hand. The player and delaer receive two down cards. The player looks at his hand, and decides to either.

A standard format that is known to those who play Texas Hold’em, it affords a level of comfortability and understanding on how the game is played and the steps taken throughout its course. As with other games from Evolution Gaming, it also features the latest in encryption technology to ensure a secure connection and gameplay and is staffed by professionally trained dealers who are engaging and focus on providing a high-quality gaming experience.

Best U.S. Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em Casinos

Play Ultimate Texas Holdem Online

Texas Hold’em is one of the best known classic games worldwide and is well-represented in American land-based casinos as well as those that cater to players online. This is of little surprise to those familiar with the game, and even those less so due to its exposure on television and in multiple movies.

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Ultimate Texas Holdem Casino Game

Contents

• Best U.S. Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em Casinos

While only a handful of states have legalised online Texas Hold’em, U.S. players wanting access will find a large number of U.S. accepting online casinos ready to provide them with the high-quality gaming experience they crave. If you are looking for the best casinos online to play Ultimate Texas Hold’em, then consider those in the list below, each is reputable, licensed and offers generous signup bonuses.

How Live Ultimate Texas Hold'em works

While in traditional Texas Hold’em poker the game is played against other players, in Ultimate Texas Hold’em, that is altered so that you are playing against the dealer. Those newly exposed to it can take comfort that all other aspects of the game remain the same in so as the betting rounds and hand combinations.

The advantage to this is that, instead of having to calculate what other player cards are, the focus is on your cards and those of the dealer, which in this case, are the equal to yours, two hole cards. Winning hands are achieved through the hole cards and five community cards, with the only difference being is that to qualify, the dealer must have at least pair. Additional advantages allows experienced players to jump right into the action, view multiple camera angles, different viewing preferences and quickly locate where to ante, blinds, play and trip bets, bet denominations and side bets.

How to Play Live Ultimate Texas Hold'em

Playing Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em isn’t difficult for anybody who’s played Texas Hold’em in the past. The table is laid out with betting circles that identify the ante, the blinds, play and trips. The initial move is deciding on an Ante or Blind Bet and whether you wish to place a trip side bet. Once placed, will see the dealer drawing cards, two cards face up from the shoe to both the player and dealer. These are the hole cards. This action is followed by three community cards, also face up being dealt and another round of betting actions by the player. In the event the player chose to check or bet, an additional two community cards will be dealt with each stage, allowing for additional betting to take place. After all, cards are dealt and bets placed, the dealer then reveals their hole cards and will determine who has the best hand.

In order for the dealer to have a qualifying hand, they must have a pair or better. In the case they do not, the player will be returned his/her ante bet. Winning hands are based on traditional poker hand rankings and include a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush and royal flush. These pay 1:1 for a straight, 3:2 for a flush, 3:1 for a full house, 10:1 for four of a kind, 50:1 for a straight flush and 500:1 for a royal flush.

If a side bet on trips is placed, the trip payouts are somewhat less as they are more common. These are based at a payout rate of 3:1 for three of a kind, 4:1 for a straight, 7:1 for a flush, 9:1 for a full house, 30:1 for four of a kind, 40:1 for a straight flush and 50:1 for a royal flush.

Live Ultimate Texas Hold'em Tips

Finding the right momentum for this game could be difficult for players who have never played a head-to-head competition against the dealer. However, we’ve collected a few tips that should help benefit players.

• Spectate the game before playing it for the first time, which allows for players to determine how the game is played and how prizes are won effectively.
• Switch to the Overhead Camera Angle to watch the dealer.
• Place small bets at the beginning of a game, figure out your play-style and then start betting big.

Live Ultimate Texas Hold'em strategy

There are hundreds of different strategies for Texas Hold’em. However, the best are often simple and work effectively during the initial round of betting, which is the most important of the three. In Ultimate Live Texas Hold’em, it’s recommended that players increase bets at an interval of four if budgets allow for it. During the second round, players should influence the pot size by doubling up on their bet. However, this move should only be made by players that have four cards with two pairs, as this combination of cards somewhat guarantees that the upcoming round pot prize will be awarded to you. This is called a hidden combination and hits the dealer unexpectedly.

In the final rounds of betting, players are advised to take advantage of the last round of betting by raising their bets once more if the budget and cards allow for it. This is the risky part of the strategy, as at certain times the cards might be in the dealer’s favour. However, and at that point, the pot would’ve been doubled four times from the Ante Bet, and those confident in their cards should make this wager as the reward could be substantial. Remember, the dealer has to combat your betting with wagering of their own, and that could see the pot size become quite significant.

Conclusion

Evolution Gaming’s Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em has a staple with online casinos that feature Evolutions collection of live casino games. While it has taken longer to grow in popularity in the U.S., that has changed due to the legalising of it in multiple states. Streamed live to both mobile and desktop devices in high-definition resolution for internet connections at 5mbs or higher, it allows for high energy play that can be quite rewarding to player bankrolls.

Other Live Dealer Games....

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.

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.

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:

Hand	Payout
Royal flush	500 to 1
Straight flush	50 to 1
4 of a kind	10 to 1
Full house	3 to 1
Flush	3 to 2
Straight	Even money

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:

Hand	Payout
Royal flush	50 to 1
Straight flush	40 to 1
4 of a kind	30 to 1
3 of a kind	8 to 1
Full house	8 to 1
Flush	6 to 1
Straight	5 to 1

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.