Texas Hold'em Rules

 

Texas Hold em is a poker game where each player plays with two individual cards and five community cards, and makes the best 5-card poker hand with those seven cards. A player may use any five of those cards, and does not necessarily need to use one of both of his/her individual cards. The game is typically played with upwards of eight or nine players. In general, more players make for a better game as a lot of players typically muck their cards early in each hand.

 

To begin the hand, each player is dealt two cards face down. These are the only individual cards that each player will receive for the entire hand. The rest of the cards are community cards that are shared by every player. After the first betting round, the dealer burns one card off the top of the deck (puts it in the discard pile and out of play) and then turns up three community cards simultaneously in the middle of the table. The turn-up of these three cards is called “The flop.” A second betting round occurs followed by the turn-up of one additional community card in the middle of the table. A third betting round then occurs followed by the turn-up of the fifth and final community card. To complete the hand, a fourth and final betting round occurs. Thereafter, the best hand available among all remaining players wins the pot. The cards speak for themselves, so you don’t necessarily have to call your hand correctly – just turn them over. If a player doesn’t want to show his/her cards at the end of a hand (for whatever reason), they can muck them and disqualify themselves.

 

After each hand, the deal rotates one player to the left. In casinos, where a designated dealer deals each hand, a white marker called “The button,” rotates around the table to indicate who occupies the dealer position. The player in this spot is said to be “On the button.”

 

Texas hold'em poker is a card game. It is played with a typical 52 card deck. You can find it in countries all around the world in casinos to cardrooms, online and in home games. Hold'em can be played with as little as two players (going "heads up"), up to a max of eleven players. Regular poker hand ranks apply to this game. For example a flush beats a straight. A straight beats three of a kind and so on. You can review the hand rankings for poker here. In some home poker games you'll find a joker in the deck (a "bug"), but in casinos and cardrooms you'll rarely find that.

 

 

The Basics

 

The typical hold'em game goes as follows and is broken down into five categories. I have intentionally simplified betting and the blinds so not to over complicate the article. Betting structure can be read more about here:

 

Preflop:

 

Starting with the dealer button, each person is dealt one card. Then a second card. Both cards are face down. After everyone receives their pocket/hole cards (the two cards face down just dealt), then betting occurs.

 

Note: the dealer button is a actually a button that says "dealer" on it or "d" that is passed around the table after each hand. It signifies where the dealing is done from.

 

 

Flop: The dealer turns over three cards in the middle of the table (called "the flop"). These are community cards that each player can use to create the best hand possible out of. Once again betting occurs.

 

Turn:

 

The dealer turns over another card making four community cards. This fourth card is called "the turn" or sometimes "fourth street". Betting occurs again.

River:

 

The dealer turns over the fifth and last community card. This is called "the river" or "fifth street". Betting occurs for the last time.

 

Showdown:

 

The remaining players in the hand show their cards in order from the person who bet first. Each player uses his two cards, and the five community cards to create the best hand (5 cards total). A player can use any combination so even if one card from his pocket cards and four of the community cards creates the best hand, it is fine. When all five of the cards in the community make the best hand then everyone splits the pot. This is called "the board plays". Also note that in any time during the game a player can fold and get out of the hand. All bets will be lost at that point.