So, you want to play poker?

Here's how to play Texas Holdem.

Easy to learn, never to master – that's what makes Poker so fascinating, but also so easy to start with.

While it may look like a game of pure luck for the outsider, for those who understand it, it is really a game of skills and strategic abilities.

Although there are many varieties of poker, they all follow the same basic principle:


To succeed, it is of course very important to understand the cards and to know the rank of hands. We will concentrate on Hold'em Poker in this Tutorial, which is the most common type of Poker.

Texas Hold'em Poker Basics

Hold'em Poker is usually played with so called "small and big blind bets" - these are compulsory bets by two players in order to have a minimum amount to play for. The players who have to provide these blinds are the two players next to the "Dealer", and they change from hand to hand, therefore a "dealer button" is used to flag the player who is in the dealer position. The dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the dealer and blinds.

The small blind is posted by the player on the left side of the dealer and is usually equal to half of the big blind. The big blind, posted by the player to the left of the small blind, is equal to the minimum bet. In Poker Tournaments, the blinds increase periodically during the progress of the tournament.

A standard hold'em game showing the position of the blinds relative to the dealer button
As soon as only two players are left, special "heads up" rules are enforced. From then on the blinds are posted in a different way: The player with the dealer button posts the small blind, the opponent has to place the big blind. The dealer acts first before the flop. After the flop, the dealer acts last for the remainder of the hand.

Limit Hold'em, No-Limit hold'em, Pot-Limit Hold'em.

In Limit Hold'em, bets and raises during the first two betting rounds (pre-flop and flop) must be equal to the big blind; this amount is called the small bet. In the next two rounds of betting (turn and river), bets and raises must be equal to twice the big blind; this amount is called the big bet.

No-Limit Hold'em is the most popular form Poker, especially in Online-Poker-Rooms and televised Tournaments. In no-limit holdem, players can bet or raise any amount over the minimum raise, even all of the chips the player has (this is called going "all-in". If someone wishes to re-raise, they must raise at least the amount of the previous raise. For example, if the big blind is $1 and there is a bet of $3 to a total of $4, a re-raise must be at least $3 more for a total of $7. If a raise or re-raise is all-in and does not equal the size of the previous raise, the initial raiser can not re-raise again. This only matters of course if there was a call before the re-raise.

In Pot-Limit Hold'em, the maximum raise is the current size of the pot.

How to Play Poker

First the two private cards are dealt face down. These cards are the players hole or pocket cards. Usually they are only revealed at the showdown, making Texas hold'em a closed poker game.

The hand starts with a "pre-flop" (before the first community cards are dealt) betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise. A round of betting continues until every player has either folded, put in all of their chips, or matched the amount put in by all other active players. Note that the blinds are considered "live" in the pre-flop betting round, meaning that they contribute to the amount that the blind player must contribute, and that, if all players call around to the player in the big blind position, that player may either check or raise.

After the pre-flop betting round, assuming there remain at least two players taking part in the hand, the dealer deals a flop, three face-up community cards. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealers left and continue clockwise.

After the flop betting round ends, a single community card (called the turn) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final single community card (called the river) is then dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary.

In casinos, the dealer will usually "burn" a card before the flop, turn, and river. This is to make sure that players who are betting cannot see the back of the next community card to come, which could otherwise be marked.

Showdown!

If two or more players remain after the final betting round, the showdown follows. The players show their cards, and now they compare who can make the best five-card poker hand from the seven cards (5 community cards + 2 pocket cards). The player with the highest ranking hand wins. If two or more players show down hands with the same value, they have to split the pot, which means the pot is distributed between them.

A player may use both of his own two hole cards or only one, to form his final five-card hand.

If the five community cards are the best hand, then all remaining players have to split the pot, since each player can use the same five cards to construct the same hand.

If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show his hole cards (while he is allowed to do so if he wants to do that for strategic reasons)

If the best hand is shared by more than one player, then the pot is split equally among them, with any extra chips going to the first players after the button in clockwise order. It is common for players to have closely-valued, but not identically ranked hands. Nevertheless, one must be careful in determining the best hand; if the hand involves fewer than five cards, (such as two pair or three of a kind), then kickers are used to settle ties (see the second example below). Note that the cards numerical rank is of sole importance; suit values are not relevant in Hold'em.