How to Play Texas Hold’em

The game in one minute

Texas Hold’em is a community-card game. You receive two private cards and share a board of up to five cards. At showdown, use the best five cards available to you. You can also win a pot when everyone else eligible for it folds; if hands tie, they share it.

This guide teaches standard high-hand Hold’em with a 52-card deck, mainly using no-limit examples. The basic rules reference explains legal actions, raises and side pots in more detail. A legal action is not necessarily a good strategic choice. The fictional dollar amounts below make the arithmetic concrete; they are not a recommendation to play for money or at particular stakes.

Seats, blinds and stacks

The dealer button marks a position, even when a dealer or software handles the cards. With three or more players, the small blind is the next seat clockwise and the big blind the next after that. The small blind is often, but not always, half the big blind. A $1/$2 example therefore starts with $1 and $2 posted. Some games also require antes; check the posted structure.

Preflop action begins with the first player left of the big blind and moves clockwise. After the flop, it begins with the first remaining player left of the button who can act. Heads-up is different: the button posts the small blind, acts first preflop and last after the flop. See the seat and action-order reference.

Table stakes mean a player uses the chips already in play for that hand, not extra money added mid-hand. Running out of chips does not force a fold: the player is all-in, remains eligible for the pots their contributions cover and makes no more betting decisions. Read the main- and side-pot examples before treating the largest stack’s wager as an amount everybody must match.

From the deal to the river

The board grows; cards already dealt stay in place. This reference follows one fixed example through the four streets.

1. Preflop: receive two hole cards. When facing an amount to call, fold, call or make a legal raise. The big blind can check if nobody has raised, because that player has already matched the current amount; the big blind still gets an option to raise.
2. Flop: three community cards appear. With no wager outstanding, check or bet. Facing a wager, fold, call or legally raise. A check passes action—it does not necessarily end the round.
3. Turn: add one community card. A new betting round follows the same action order as the flop.
4. River: add the final community card, then hold the last betting round. If more than one eligible hand remains, compare hands at showdown.

A round is complete when every player who still needs to respond has done so and no further action is due—not simply when two contributions happen to match. All-in describes using the rest of a stack in a bet, call or raise; it is not an extra action available out of turn. A hand may end early through folds. When no more betting is possible, the remaining board runs out without pretend betting rounds.

Find your best five cards

Hold’em does not require you to use both hole cards. Compare the best five-card hand, whether it uses two, one or none. These examples are separate from the worked hand later in this guide.

Two hole cards: a pair with three kickers

On the reference board A♦ 7♣ 2♠ K♥ 9♦, your best five are the two aces, king, queen and nine. Both hole cards play: the queen is a kicker.

One hole card: the other can be irrelevant

With K♠ 3♥ on that same board, your best five are K♠ K♥ A♦ 9♦ 7♣. Only your king plays; the three is not part of the hand. Against the pair of aces above, this pair of kings loses.

No hole cards: playing the board

On A♠ K♦ Q♣ J♥ 10♠, players holding 2♣ 3♦ and 4♦ 5♣ both use the board’s ace-high straight. They tie. Neither a private sixth card nor its suit breaks the tie. Do not carry this zero-hole-card rule into Omaha: Omaha requires exactly two hole cards and three board cards. Use the hand rankings reference to compare categories and kickers.

A complete worked hand, with every contribution

Six players start this $1/$2 no-limit example. You are on the button. You and the opponent under the gun each begin with $200. There are no antes or fees in the arithmetic. The actions illustrate the rules; they are not a recommendation to play this line.

Preflop: account for the folded blinds

Under the gun raises to $6. The hijack and cutoff fold. You call $6; the small and big blinds fold. The pot is $15: two $6 contributions plus the folded players’ $1 and $2 blinds.

Flop: a draw, not a made straight

Your A♥ K♦ needs a ten to complete an ace-high straight. Your opponent bets $8 into $15; you call $8. That makes $31. An ace or king would instead pair a hole card, which might win or lose against the opponent’s hand. The next section explains why four straight outs alone do not establish whether this call is good.

Turn: a raise-to amount is not the next call amount

The 10♠ completes Broadway, A-K-Q-J-10. It is the best possible hand on this turn board: no flush or full house is available. Another A-K would tie it. Your opponent bets $18. You raise to $50, a $32 raise above that bet. This exceeds the $18 minimum raise increment. Your opponent then calls the additional $32, making both turn contributions $50. The pot is now $31 + $50 + $50 = $131.

River and showdown: finish the example

The river is 2♣. Your opponent checks and you check. At showdown, the opponent shows Q♠ J♦ for two pair, queens and jacks. Your ace-high straight wins the $131 pot. That is the gross pot, not $131 of profit: it includes your own $64 contribution ($6 + $8 + $50).

Showing order and all-in tabling requirements depend on the applicable rules; see showdown procedure. For another fully reconciled hand, follow how a poker round works.

On a narrow screen, scroll within the table. Keyboard users can focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

What four outs do—and do not—tell you

Return to the flop, before the opponent’s cards or later board are known. Your two cards plus three board cards leave 47 unseen cards. All four tens remain unseen. Under that information model, the chance of a ten on the next card is 4/47, or 8.51%. The chance of at least one ten across turn and river is 1 − (43/47 × 42/46), or 16.47%.

These are chances to hit the specified rank, not your overall equity against an opponent’s range. You could win without a ten, lose after hitting one, or tie. Known opposing cards would also change the unseen deck. A two-card probability assumes you see both cards; a flop call does not automatically buy the river.

In the $15 pot facing an $8 bet, an $8 call would need 8 / (15 + 8 + 8) = 25.81% equity if that call closed the action and bought the showdown with no further costs or fees. It does not do that in this example: both players have chips left and can bet again. Comparing 16.47% directly with 25.81% therefore does not, by itself, settle the decision. The pot-odds lesson separates one-card improvement, showdown equity and future betting.

Starting hands need context

High pairs and big connected cards have different strengths from small disconnected cards. But a list headed “play these from any position” hides the questions that matter: has anyone raised, how much must you call, how deep are the stacks, and how many players remain?

• High pairs and big cards: hands such as AA, KK and A-K often begin with substantial strength. They are not permission to call any amount or a promise to win.
• Pairs, suited connectors and suited aces: these can make sets, straights or flushes, but their potential does not make every call worthwhile. A flush can also lose to a higher flush.
• Weak disconnected cards: 7-2 offsuit has limited connected or suited potential. That still is not a rule that you must fold it when the big blind can check for no additional chips.
• Position: later position gives information from earlier actions. J♠ 10♠ is not automatically a fold in every early seat or automatically an open on every button; the game and prior action matter.

Pocket aces are a preflop equity favourite against any one non-ace-pair hand, not a guaranteed winner. Starting-hand selection is a strategy topic, separate from learning what the rules allow.

Mistakes to recognise

1. Comparing six or seven cards. Only the best five count. A spare ace does not break a tie when both players use the same five-card hand.
2. Confusing “to” with “more”. A raise to $50 after a $18 bet leaves the bettor $32 to call, not another $50.
3. Treating a draw as a guaranteed win. Count the cards that make the target hand, then consider whether those cards actually win and how many cards the price buys.
4. Judging actions by slogans. Calling is not inherently worse than raising. An aggressive action can lose money, and a call can be correct; the situation matters.
5. Chasing losses. A previous loss does not make the next hand owed to you. Stop if play is becoming difficult to control; our responsible-play resources explain limits and support.

Practise without a financial stake

Use a deck and counters with no cash value. Place a button, name the blinds, deal two cards each and move through the streets. Keep a contribution ledger and explain whose turn it is before choosing an action. You do not need a paid session to practise these mechanics.

Three checks before moving on

1. Why was the worked hand’s preflop pot $15? Two players contributed $6 each and the folded blinds left $3.
2. What did the original turn bettor add after the raise? $32, bringing that player’s turn contribution from $18 to $50.
3. Must an unraised big blind call another big blind? No. With the current amount already matched, that player can check or make a legal raise.

Keep three questions separate: is the action legal, is the arithmetic right, and is the strategy justified? Getting the first two right is a useful foundation, not a guarantee about results.

• Poker hand rankings — compare complete five-card hands.
• Table positions — study the information available from each seat.
• Pot odds — distinguish the price of a call from a draw’s hit chance.
• Bluffing — a separate strategy topic, not a required beginner move.
• Common poker mistakes — continue reviewing decision habits.
• Poker glossary — look up unfamiliar terms.

Sources and scope

Rules sources inspected on 24 September 2026: PokerStars’ Texas Hold’em rules and its Hold’em rules lesson. These support the deal, betting sequence and best-five rule. They do not replace a particular room’s posted procedures.

The cards and contributions here are explicit teaching fixtures. Probabilities are independently derived from the stated unseen-card model; the worked actions are not solver outputs, a hands-on product test or a promise of profitable play. See the basic rules source notes for the specifically inspected tournament-rule edition and its limits.