Learning how to play Texas Hold'em poker can seem much more difficult than it really is.

poker hand rankings

Click on the poker hand rankings above to see a table of the winning hands in poker.

The game itself is simple, requiring just a few minutes to learn. But to truly become a master of poker, as the familiar saying goes, it takes a lifetime.

This article will provide all the information you need to start playing the Texas Holde'em poker.

Before we get into describing the rules and game-play, here is a few of terms you will hear at the poker table.

• Blinds: Short for "blind bets," these are the forced bets made every hand before the cards are dealt. 
• Burn Card: The card is dealt facedown before any community card are dealt.
• Button: Nickname for the player acting dealer in current hand.
• Check: No chips are bet. If there is no raise preflop, the big blind may check.
• Preflop: Any calling, betting or folding that occurs before the flop is dealt is preflop.
• Flop: The first 3 community cards.
• Fourth Street: Turn card or the fourth community card to be dealt.
• Fifth Street: River card or the final community card to be dealt.
• Turn Turn card or the fourth community card to be dealt.
  
• River: The final fifth community card to be dealt is also known as fifth street.
• Showdown: When 2 or more players turn over their hands/cards to discover the winner.

Overview

Texas Hold'em poker is a community card poker game, also game play is focused as much on the betting as on the hole cards being played.

Although the rules and game play remain mostly the same, the goals are slightly different depending on if you are playing in a cash game or a tournament.

Texas Holdem poker is played on a single table from 2 to 10 players. The goal is simple: win!

• Setup
• Betting Rounds
• Showdown

Setup

Once you have your players at the table, the first thing you need to have is chips and cards. Before you can figure out how many chips to give each player, you need to understand how the game works a little better, so we will get back to this.

For now, assume all players have chips in front of them.

The next step is picking a player who will start with the dealer button usually by dealing face up cards for each player and the player with the highest card is picked as dealer. Hold'em is played with what's known as a rotating dealer, meaning a player will act as the dealer for one hand, the role of dealer is changed to the player on their left when the hand is completed.

If you're in a place with a professional dealer, or someone who volunteers to always deal the cards, the dealer button will still rotate around the table.

Posting the Blinds

Now that you have a dealer, you need to post the blinds.

There are two blinds in Texas Holdem - the small blind and the big blind. The player directly to the left of the dealer posts the small blind.

The size of the blinds will determine the stakes of the game you're about to play. Typically, you would want players to buy in for no less than 100 times the size of the big blind.

Back to chips: Once the blinds are set we know what kind of chips we'll need to play.

You should give players enough chips in each denomination to allow the game to run smoothly.

Typically most players will need only 10% of their total chips in the smallest denomination, as they are mostly used to pay the small blind. Most of betting will be done with chips larger than that of the small blind.

Once you have posted the blinds, you're now ready to deal the first hand.

Game-Play and Betting Rounds

The person dealing the cards deals to the left of the player with the dealer button first, rotating around the table in a clockwise manner, giving every player one card at a time until all players have two cards. These are known as hole cards.

A hand of Texas Hold'em consists of a minimum of one and a maximum of four betting rounds. Each hand will end when all players but one have folded, or the final betting round completes with multiple players still in the hand - whichever comes first.

Preflop

When all players receive their 2 hole cards, you are now in a preflop betting round.

Each player must look at their cards and decide what action they would like to take. In Hold'em, only one player act's at a time.

The preflop betting round always starts with the player to the left of the big blind. The player has three options:

• Fold: They pay nothing to the pot and fold their cards, waiting for the next deal to play again.
• Call: They match the exact amount of the big blind.
• Raise: They raise the bet by doubling the amount of the big blind minimum. A player may raise more.

Once the player has made their action, the player to the left of them gets their turn to act. Each player is given the same options: fold, call the bet of the player to their right (if the previous player raised, that is the amount all remaining players must call) or raise.

A raise is always the amount of one bet in addition to the amount of the previous bet, for example: if the big blind is 25, and the first player to act would like to raise, they must put in a total of 50 (the big blind + one additional bet) or more.

If the next player would like to re-raise, they would have to put in a total of 75 (the previous bet + one additional bet).

A betting round ends when two conditions are met:

1. All players have had their chance to act.
2. All players who haven't folded have all bet the same amount of chips for the round.

Example Betting Round 1

There are five players at the table:

Player 1 - Button

Player 2 - Small blind (10)

Player 3 - Big blind (25)

Start of betting round,

Player 4 - Calls the big blind (25)

Player 5 - folds

Player 1 - Calls the big blind (25)

Player 2 - Calls the big blind (since they already have 10 bet, they only have to add another 15, for the total of 25)

Player 3 - Checks (since they already have posted the big blind, they do not need to add more money to call this is called checking)

End of betting round

When Player 2 calls the big blind, all players now have the same amount of chips in front of them, but Player 3 (the big blind) has not had a chance to act, so the betting round is not over.

Once Player 3 checks, both the conditions are met, and the betting round is over.

The Flop

Once the preflop betting round ends, the flop is dealt by the dealer. This is done by dealing the top card in the deck facedown on the table (it becomes the burn card), followed by 3 cards faceup. 

Once this has been dealt, the post-flop betting round will begin.

The rules of a post-flop betting round are the same as a preflop, with two exceptions: The first player to act is the player that posted the small blind, and the first player to act can check or bet; as there has been no bet made.

A bet on the flop is the amount of the big blind. In our game, a player must bet a minimum of 25.

The Turn

Once the betting round on the flop completes, the dealer has dealt one card facedown and one card faceup, also known as the "burn and turn." Once the turn has been dealt, the third betting round will start.

The third betting round is identical to the flop betting round with one single exception: The size of a bet for this round, and in the final betting round, the minimum bet is doubled, meaning that to make a bet in our game will now cost a player 50.

The River

Assuming more than one player is left, having not folded on one of the previous betting rounds, the river card is now dealt. Dealing the river card is identical as dealing the turn, with one card being dealt facedown, followed by a single card faceup.

This is the final card, and no more cards will be dealt in this hand. The betting round is simply identical to the betting round on the turn.

Showdown

Once the river card betting round has been completed, the players now enter into a showdown. At this point, the best hand wins the pot. Here are the rules you need to know about a Hold'em showdown:

• The player who bet on the river is the default first player to reveal their cards. If any other players choose to show their cards first, that is OK.
• If no betting happened on the river card (all players checked), the player closest to the left of the dealer must show their cards first, continuing clockwise around the table.
• If a player is holding a losing hand, it is their option to show their cards or simply muck dont show their hand and concede the pot.

Evaluating Hands

In Texas Hold'em you must make the best hand possible using any combination of your two cards and the 5 community cards on the table.

You can use both, one or none of your own cards in making your best hand. Here are some rules about evaluating a winning poker hand:

• The poker hand ranking order can be found here. There are not any exceptions to this ordering: a flush always beats a straight, and three of a kind always beats two pair.
• There are no other hands used in Texas Hold'em other than the hands listed in this chart. For example, having three pairs is actually only "two pair," with the highest-valued two pair making your hand.
• Poker hands must be exactly 5 cards, and only those 5 cards are used to evaluate the winning hand. For example:
  • if the board is 2♥ J♣ Q♣ K♠ A♦
  • Player 1 holds T♠ 9♣
  • Player 2 holds T♣ 2♣

Both players hold the same hand (a straight from ten to ace). This means the pot is split between the two players. The remaining cards and the fact Player 1 also has a pair means absolutely nothing - only the best 5-card hand factors into deciding the winner.

• If all the remaining players have nothing (no pair or anything stronger), the winning hand is the hand with the highest-valued single card, meaning:
  • A♣ 3♥ 4♦ 6♠ 7♠ is a better hand than K♠ Q♠ J♣ 9♣ 8♦
  • A♣ J♥ 9♠ 8♦ 6♥ is a better hand than A♥ J♣ 9♦ 8♣ 2♠
• Suits are never used to evaluate the strength of a high card hand.

Once you have determined the winning hand, the player receives the chips in the pot. The dealer passes the dealer button to his or her left and the 2 players to the left of the new dealer post their small and big blinds respectively.