Texas Hold'em

What you are trying to do

You are trying to win the pot, which is every chip bet during the hand. There are exactly two ways to do it. The first is to still be in the hand at the showdown with the best five-card combination of your two cards and the five shared cards. The second is to bet enough that everyone else folds, in which case the strength of your cards never matters and never has to be revealed.

Both routes are legitimate and both are common. A player who only ever wins by showing the best hand is playing half the game; a player who never shows down a strong hand will be called constantly.

Order of play

One hand of Texas Hold’em runs in this order. The dealer button moves one seat clockwise after every hand, so the forced bets and the order of action rotate around the table.

1. Post the blindsThe player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind, the next player posts the big blind. These are forced bets that start the pot before anyone has seen a card.
2. Deal two hole cards to each playerCards are dealt one at a time, clockwise, starting from the small blind. Every player ends up with two private cards that only they may look at.
3. First betting round, before the flopAction begins with the player left of the big blind and moves clockwise. Each player folds, calls the big blind, or raises. The round ends when every player still in the hand has put in the same amount.
4. Deal the flop: three shared cardsThe dealer burns one card and turns three face up in the middle. These belong to everyone. A second betting round follows, now starting with the first active player left of the button.
5. Deal the turn: a fourth shared cardOne more card is burned and a fourth is turned face up, followed by a third betting round. In limit games the bet size doubles here.
6. Deal the river: the fifth shared cardThe fifth and last community card is turned, and the final betting round takes place.
7. ShowdownIf two or more players remain, cards are turned face up. Each player makes the best five-card hand from any combination of their two hole cards and the five shared cards. Best hand takes the pot.

The blinds and the button

There is no ante in most Hold’em games. Instead two players put money in before the cards are dealt so that there is something worth playing for. The small blind is usually half the big blind, and the big blind is the minimum bet for the first round.

Before the flop the big blind acts last, because they have already put in a full bet. After the flop that reverses and the button acts last for the rest of the hand. This is the single biggest reason position matters: the button sees what everyone else does before deciding anything.

Betting: no-limit, pot-limit and limit

The same game is dealt in three betting formats, and the format changes how it plays far more than any rule of the deal.

• No-limit — a player may bet any amount up to their whole stack at any turn. This is the standard format and the one used in televised tournaments.
• Pot-limit — the largest legal bet is the current size of the pot, counted after the caller has called. Common in Omaha, rare in Hold’em.
• Fixed-limit — bets come in set sizes, one unit before and on the flop, two units on the turn and river, with a cap of four bets per round.

In every format a raise must be at least as large as the previous raise, and a player who does not have enough chips to cover a bet may still call for everything they have left. The rest is set aside in a side pot that they cannot win. The mechanics of that are covered in Betting Rounds and Bet Types.

Reading the board at showdown

At the showdown, work out the hand in a fixed order rather than guessing: look at the five shared cards first and name the best hand they make on their own, then check whether your two cards improve on it.

The full list, including how kickers and split pots are resolved, is on the Poker Hand Rankings page. Two points cause most of the arguments at a home game. First, suits never break a tie in poker — two identical flushes split the pot. Second, the lowest straight is 5-4-3-2-A, where the ace counts as one; there is no straight that runs Q-K-A-2-3.

Rules that catch people out

• Acting out of turn. Your action is binding if it is your turn, and may be held against you even when it was not. Wait for the player to your right.
• String betting. Chips must go in with one motion, or you must announce the amount first. Reaching back for more chips after the first handful caps your bet at what you already pushed forward.
• An unprotected hand. If your cards are not covered by a chip or your hand and the dealer sweeps them into the muck, they are dead. The dealer is not required to give them back.
• Showing one card. In most card rooms, showing a card to one player means every player may ask to see it.
• Mucking a winner. At showdown, turn your cards face up before releasing them. A hand pushed into the muck face down cannot win the pot, even if it was the best hand at the table.

Terminology

Hole cards

The two private cards dealt to each player.

Community cards

The five shared cards in the middle: the flop, the turn and the river.

The flop

The first three community cards, turned together.

The turn

The fourth community card, sometimes called fourth street.

The river

The fifth and final community card.

Button

The marker showing which seat is nominally the dealer. It decides the order of action.

Burn card

A card discarded face down before each new community card, a safeguard against marked decks.

Check-raise

Checking when first to act, then raising after another player bets.

The nuts

The best hand possible given the board.

Muck

The pile of folded and discarded cards, and the act of discarding into it.

More terms, including those from other games, are collected in the Card Game Glossary.