How to Play Texas Hold'em: Rules, Betting Rounds and a Sample Hand
To play Texas Hold'em, each player gets two private cards, five community cards are dealt face up in three stages (the flop, the turn and the river), and you make the best five-card hand from any combination of your two cards and the five on the board. There are four betting rounds. You win the pot by having the best hand at showdown or by betting until everyone else folds. Here are the full rules, step by step.
Texas Hold'em rules: the table and the blinds
A round disk called the dealer button marks the player in the dealer position, and it moves one seat clockwise after every hand. The two players to the left of the button post forced bets called blinds: the small blind (usually half a big blind) and the big blind. Blinds make sure every pot has money in it, so there is always something to play for.
How a hand of Texas Hold'em is played, step by step
Betting actions in Texas Hold'em
| Action | What it means | When you can do it |
|---|---|---|
| Check | Pass the action without betting | Only if nobody has bet in the current round |
| Bet | Put chips in first in a betting round | When nobody has bet yet |
| Call | Match the current bet | When someone has bet or raised |
| Raise | Increase the current bet | In no-limit, a raise must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise |
| Fold | Give up your cards and any claim to the pot | Any time it is your turn |
| All-in | Bet every chip you have in front of you | Any time; you can only win as much from each player as you put in |
Most games you will find, online and in casinos, are no-limit Hold'em: you can bet any amount up to everything in front of you. In limit Hold'em, bets and raises come in fixed amounts, a small bet on the first two rounds and a big bet (double) on the turn and river. Pot-limit caps a bet at the size of the pot.
How to make your hand: using the board
Your hand is the best five cards out of seven. You can use both hole cards, one, or none, which means the board alone can be your hand. Hands rank from royal flush down to high card; our poker hand rankings guide has the full order with exact odds.
| Your cards | Board | Best hand |
|---|---|---|
| A♥K♥ | Q♥J♥2♣10♥5♠ | Royal flush, using both hole cards |
| 9♠9♦ | 9♣K♥K♠4♦2♠ | Full house, nines full of kings |
| A♣3♦ | 8♠8♥8♦K♣K♦ | Full house on the board; the ace does not play, so it splits against anyone without an 8 or a king |
A sample hand of Texas Hold'em
Six players, blinds of $1 and $2 in a no-limit game. You are on the button with K♠Q♠. The first three players fold and the cutoff raises to $6. You call, the blinds fold, and there is $15 in the pot.
The flop comes Q♥7♣3♠. You have top pair with a king kicker. The cutoff bets $8 and you call ($31). The turn is 2♦; the cutoff checks, you bet $18 and the cutoff calls ($67). The river is J♣. Both players check. The cutoff shows A♥Q♣: a pair of queens with an ace kicker beats your pair of queens with a king, and the cutoff wins $67. Same pair, so the kicker decided it.
Position and why the button matters
After the flop, the player on the button acts last in every betting round, which means seeing what everyone else does before deciding. That information is why most players play more hands from the button and the cutoff and fewer from the early seats. Heads-up (two players) is the one exception to the normal order: the button posts the small blind, acts first before the flop and last after it.
Not sure which two cards are worth playing? Our Texas Hold'em starting hands chart ranks all 169 hands by how often they win.