The page below introduces basic Texas Holdem rules with in-depth explanation of some complex aspects of the game and graphic examples of important game situations. Note that this page is aimed towards the beginners, so if you are already familiar with basic Texas Holdem rules, you can skip it and proceed to advanced and expert strategy articles available in the appropriate sections of this site.

However, if you are a beginner and want to become a winning player, then you must start with these basic rules, learn hand rankings, look through poker terms and familiarize with basic Texas Holdem strategy before playing real money games. Remember that all intellectual games, including Texas Holdem, require intelligent approach rewarding most patient and smart players with easy and stable income.

Texas Holdem Poker is the most popular community card game, where each player can use any combination of two pocket cards (also known as hole cards) and five community cards (also known as board cards) to make a poker hand, which separates Texas Holdem from some other poker games like Seven Card Stud or 5 Card Draw, where each player holds an individual hand.

Texas Holdem Objective

In the game of Texas Holdem Poker, just like in all poker variants, players compete for the pot (an amount of money contributed by all players staying in the game). Both hole and community cards are dealt randomly, outside of players’ control, so each player tries to influence the size of the pot based on the strength of his poker hand.

Each game of Texas Holdem is divided into a series of deals or hands (in this case term "hand" means a separate game). In the end of each game, or "hand" the pot is awarded to one or more players. Each game may either end at the showdown, or when there is only one player staying in the game, while others fold. If two or more players see the showdown, they compare their hands to determine the winner and the pot is awarded to a player holding the strongest poker hand. However, if there is more than one player holding equal hands, which are the strongest hands at the table, then the pot is equally split among them. In case if all, but one player have folded thus abandoning their claims to the pot, the pot is awarded to the player who hasn’t folded, regardless of the strength of his poker hand.

Note that the major objective of winning Texas Holdem players is not winning each separate hand, but rather making correct decisions about when and how much to call, raise, bet or fold based on mathematical and strategic analysis of the game. If you will learn how to make such decisions, you will be able to maximize your long-term profit. Remember that winning professionals play just up to 20% of hands.

Betting Structures

Each typical Texas Holdem game starts with blind bets – forced bets posted by two players sitting to the left of the dealer button. Antes (forced bets posted by all players at the table) may also be used, as an addition to blind bets and in late stages of poker tournaments. A dealer button (round disk usually marked with "D" or "DEALER") is used to represent the player sitting in the dealer position. The dealer button moves clockwise around the table after each game, thus changing the position of both the dealer and blind bets. The first player sitting to the left of the dialer button posts the Small Blind. The Small Blind is typically equal to 1/2 of the Big Blind. The next player sitting to the left of the Small Blind posts Big Blind, which is typically equal to the size of the minimum bet. For example in a $4/$8 Texas Holdem game, the small blind is $2 and the big blind is $4.

Note that in poker tournaments the betting structure is a bit different: the size of ante and blinds periodically increases as the tournament progresses.

Also note that in some rare cases, the size of the small blind may vary from 1/2 of the big blind to some other fraction of the minimum bet. For example, the small blind can be $10, when the big blind is $15. However, the double-blind structure is more common.

In poker tournaments, when only two players remain at the table, special "heads up" or "head-to-head" rules are typically enforced and blind bets are posted in the different way. The player sitting in the dealer position posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. Besides of this, the player sitting in the dealer position acts first preflop, while after the flop he or she acts last for the rest of betting rounds.

You may already know that the three most popular Texas Holdem variants are No-Limit Texas Holdem, Limit Texas Holdem and Pot-Limit Texas Holdem. No-Limit Holdem is the most popular Texas Holdem variant, which is commonly played in televised poker tournaments and in the World Series of Poker Main Event. In No-Limit Texas Holdem, the players are allowed to bet and raise any amount of chips over the minimum raise. They can even bet or raise all of their chips (this move is usually called an "all-in" bet). The size of the minimum raise is limited to the size of the big blind. If any player wants to re-raise, then he or she must raise at least the size of the previous raise. Take a look at the following example:

Say, the big blind is $2 and there is a $6 bet to a total of $8. In this case a raise must be at least $6 more for a total of $14. In case if a raise, or re-raise is an all-in bet that doesn’t equal the amount of the previous raise, then the initial raiser cannot make another re-raise. However, this only matters if there was a call made before the re-raise.

Limit Texas Holdem was historically the most popular Texas Holdem variant across the United States before the terrific increase in popularity of No-Limit Texas Holdem. In Limit Texas Holdem forced bets and raises are limited. During preflop and flop (the first two betting rounds) both bets and raises must be equal to the size of the big blind (which is also known as the "small bet"). During turn and river (the third and the fourth betting rounds), both bets and raises are limited to the double size of the big blind (which is frequently referred to as the "big bet").

The major distinctive feature of Pot-Limit Texas Holdem is that the maximum raise is limited to the current size of the pot, including the amount needed to call.

Note that many casinos offering Texas Holdem allow the player sitting to the left of the big blind to post an optional bet called live straddle, which is typically double the size of the big blind. This bet the acts as the big blind. No-Limit Texas Holdem as well as other no-limit poker variants may allow multiple re-straddles of any size that would be considered as legal raises.

Play of The Hand

Just like in most poker variants, the card deck is a standard 52-card deck without Jokers. Play of the game begins with each player being dealt two hole cards (also known as pocket cards) facedown starting with the player on the small blind and ending with the player on the dealer button. These hole or pocket cards are the only individual cards received by a player, which can be only revealed at the showdown, which makes Texas Holdem a "closed" game.

Each hand begins with a preflop (first betting round), which starts with the player sitting to the left of the Big Blind and continues in the clockwise order. In case if no blind bets are used, the player sitting to the left of the dealer button acts first. The first betting round continues each player will either match the amount put in by his opponents, go all-in (in No-Limit Texas Holdem), or fold. Remember that blind bets are treated as live bets during the preflop, which means that they represent the amount of money, which blind players must contribute to the pot, so if all players call around the table to the player sitting in the big blind position, then he can just check or raise without contributing any money to the pot.

In case if more than one player remains after the preflop, the flop begins with 3 community cards dealt face-up on the board, which is then followed by the second betting round. The flop and all subsequent betting rounds start with a player sitting to the left of the dealer button and continue in the clockwise order. Besides of this, only one community card is dealt between all subsequent betting rounds, so when the flop ends, one community card (which is usually called "the turn" or "fourth street") is dealt face-up on the board, which is then followed by the third betting round. The final community card (which is usually called "the river" or "fifth street") is dealt face-up on the board, which is the followed by the last betting round. If there is more than one player remaining in the game after the last betting round, then the showdown occurs.

Note that in casino and home games, the dealer usually burns one card before the flop, turn and river to prevent players from using marks on the back of playing cards.

The Showdown

If the game ends before the showdown with all, but one players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot regardless of the strength of his poker hand. If there are two or more players staying in the game after the end of the last betting round, the showdown occurs. At the showdown, all players compare their five-card poker hands made from the total of seven cards (5 community and 2 hole cards). Unlike some other poker variants, where players must use certain quantity of hole and community cards to make a poker hand, in Texas Holdem players can use any of hole and community cards to make a hand. This means that a player may use both of his hole cards, one hole cards, or no hole cards at all (just community cards) to form the strongest poker hand he can make. If a player chooses to use all five community cards, then it is usually said "he plays the board". If the board appears the strongest hand at the table and all remaining players choose to play the board, then the pot is equally split among them.

This also happens if two or more players hold individual, but equally strong hands – the pot is then equally split among them. For example there are $120 in the pot and two players hold equally strong hands (say, a pair of Kings each), then each of these players is awarded $60. Note that any extra chips will typically go to the first player sitting to the left of the dealer button.

You should be careful in determining the winner if several players hold closely-valued hands, because if these hands involve less than five cards (hands such as three of a kind, or two pair), then kickers (other cards not included in winning combination) are used to settle ties. For example, Bob has AA23J and Mary has AA23Q – Mary wins, because her Q is higher than Bob’s J.

Also note that in Texas Holdem suit values are irrelevant – numerical rank of cards is of sole importance.

Hand Rankings

In Texas Holdem, as well as in other poker variants, players build five-card hands according to predetermined rules of the particular poker variant they play. This five-card combination is usually called "poker hand". Player’s hands are compared at the showdown, which occurs if two or more players remain in the game after the last betting round. Poker hands are compared according to standard ranking system; the player with the strongest poker hand wins the hand (deal).

Generally, the strength of a poker hand is increased by holding several cards of the same rank, having all five cards with consecutive values, or holding all five cards of the same suit. The ranking system is developed based on the probability of random deal of such hand from the deck – the lesser is the probability of deal, the stronger is the hand.

Take a look at this list of poker hands arranged in the descending order:

Straight Flush
Four of a kind
Full House
Flush
Straight
Tree of a Kind
Two Pair
One Pair
High Cards

General Hand Ranking Rules

You can use these general rules to evaluate poker hands, regardless of the set of hand values used in the game.

•  Separate (individual) cards are ranked from Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A. Ace can only act as low, as a part of a Ace-2-3-4-5 (straight), or suited A-2-3-4-5 (straight flush). Values of individual cards are used to rank poker hands that contain none of winning combinations, or as the kickers to compare equally strong hands. Note that Ace acts high just in 2-to-7 lowball games and acts low just in Ace-to-5 and Ace-to-6 lowball games. (Lowball poker games are games played with the same, but reversed hand rankings, which means that players try to build the lowest possible hand, because the lowest possible hand will either win the entire pot, or at least a share of the pot, like in 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo.

•  Card suits are of no value. In Texas Holdem, as well as in other poker variants, card suits are generally used to determine whether a hand belongs to a certain category – the flush and straight flush. In most poker games including Texas Holdem poker, if two or more players hold identical hands, except for suit, then the pot is equally split among them. For example if Mary holds 10♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠ and Bob holds 10♦ J♦ Q♦ K♦ A♦ - they split the pot. In some cases, a "high card by suit" ranking is used to randomly select a player to deal. Besides of this, a "low card by suit" ranking is used to determine the bringin bettor in some stud poker games.

•  A poker hand always consists of 5 cards. In Texas Holdem poker and some other poker variants, where more than 5 cards are available to each player (2 hole and 5 community cards in Texas Holdem), then the best possible 5-card combination is used to determine the winner.

•  Poker hands are always ranked first by category and then according to individual card ranks. This means that even the lowest qualifying hand that belongs to a certain category will defeat all other hands belonging to lower categories – the lowest two pair hand will defeat all one pair hands and high cards. For example if Bob holds 2♦ 2♠ 3♦ 3♣ 5♠ and Mary holds J♦ J♠ 10♦ 6♣ A♠ or A♦ 4♠ K♦ J♣ Q♠ – Bob wins. However, card ranks are used to break ties between two equally strong hands of the same category. For example if Bob holds A♦ A♠ 3♦ 5♣ Q♠ and Mary holds A♣ A♥ 3♠ 5♦ K♣ - Mary wins, because her King is higher than Bob’s Queen.

You need to learn these basic Texas Holdem rules and see poker glossary before proceeding to more advanced strategy references. Understanding of these basics is necessary for all levels of competitive play.

Read our Step by Step Texas Holdem Guide

Also recommended:

1. About Texas Holdem
2. River Betting in Texas Holdem
3. Texas Holdem Jargon
4. Playing the Game of Omaha High
5. Pineapple Poker (High)