Texas Holdem is the most popular poker variation, both online and live. Why Texas Holdem is more popular than other poker variations, then? For a few reasons; because one of 2003 poker boom's key factors, televised poker with hole-cameras, was almost always Texas Hold'em until 2006 - and it still is for the most of it. Being the World Series of Poker main event game was, no doubt about it, a huge push for Texas Hold'em. Another reason could be Texas Hold'em being so simple, it's probably the easiest poker game to learn - you can probably learn its rules fully in 10 minutes.
Texas Holdem Rules
Texas Holdem starts up with two players posting blinds. Posting blinds means posting "automatic bets", and every player will post a blind on his/her own turn. There's a small blind and a big blind - if the game is, say $3/$6, then the small blind is $3 and big blind is $6. Player on the left side of dealer button posts small blind, and player on the left side of small blind posts big blind. The dealer button will move around the table after every hand and it goes clock-wise. When you get deep in poker tournaments, there'll be antes, too. This is an automatic bet and everyone will post it every single round until the end of the tournament before cards are dealt (in addition to the blinds).
After the blinds are posted, Texas Holdem game begins. The dealer deals every player 2 hole cards, face-down. Player on the left side of the big blind acts first, deciding whether to fold (throws his cards away), call (pays the amount of a big blind) or raise. After he comes up with a decision, it's the next player's turn (and naturally, it goes clock-wise). All players have the same options. This is now the first betting round.
After the first betting round, there'll be a flop. The dealer deals three community cards and everyone can use these cards. You mix-up your hole cards and the community cards in order to make the best possible five card combination. After the flop, there'll be a second round of betting with the same options as before, only now the player first to act doesn't 'call' anything - he either bets or checks. Player on big blind's left acts first.
Turn is being dealt - the turn is fourth community card on the table, which means everyone can use this card with the flop to make their five card hand. Another, third, betting round and we go to 'river'. The river means fifth (and last) community card being dealt, and there'll be no more cards dealt. It's time for the last betting round and showdown, where the best hand wins. You can also win by having your opponent fold during earlier stages (or river), but if the game goes to showdown, the best hand wins.
Poker Hand Rankings. Other poker game rules: Omaha Poker Rules, Seven Card Stud, Draw Poker, HORSE Poker, Razz Rules and Crazy Pineapple.
More About Texas Hold'em
 Invention of Texas Hold'em is in shadows and there isn't much information about it, but there's a legend saying Texas Holdem poker was first played in Texas, which sounds fairly logical considering the name of the game. Reports say Texas Holdem was introduced to brick & mortar casinos in the beginning of 1960 by now more famous gamblers, 10-time World Series of Poker winner Doyle Brunson included.
Poker players around US learned about Texas Holdem little by little, and in late 80's - early 90's it became fully legalized in the US. Compared to earlier Draw poker games, Texas Holdem was definitely a hit, although poker wasn't nearly as popular back then as it is now. But it already drew a lot of interest in the early 90's.
Texas Holdem was introduced to Europe by book authors Terry Rogers and Liam Flood, and the game started to spread around brick & mortar casinos in Europe. Bunch of credit goes to Doyle Brunson though - his 'Super System' poker book (which features other succesful poker players, everyone wrote on their best game) played a major part in introducing Texas Hold'em (and other poker variations) to the world. For a lot of people this was the first time when they realised poker might not be just about luck, and being skilled plays a significant part.
But what they now call "poker boom" started around year 2003 when Chris Moneymaker (seriously, that's his last name) won the 2003 World Series of Poker main event, a gold bracelet and $2,500,000 in cash. What created all the fuss though (in addition to a nice amount of money) was his way of coming there and winning - he won a $40 satellite tournament at PokerStars (read about PokerStars Marketing Code), then proceeding to win the main tournament.
It's an amazing story; someone just made $2,500,000 out of $40. And he's been making even more money after that, possibly by winning at poker, but also by having a rather good sponsorship deal with PokerStars (at least it seems like he does). The tournament (which by the way, was a No Limit Texas Holdem tournament) was a gold mine for Chris.
Who wouldn't want to make "easy" money, see what all the fuss is about and then realize how challenging, competitive and at the same time, so simple the game is. Due to heavy mainstream recognition and the nature of Texas Holdem, the game was soon popular all over the world, and it gains more popularity all the time.
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