Texas Hold’em Rules: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

The basic rules of Texas Hold’em are simple. Every player gets two private cards, called hole cards, and five shared community cards are dealt face up in the middle. There are four rounds of betting, and the player who makes the best five-card hand from any combination of their two cards and the five on the table wins the pot, unless everyone else has folded first.

Texas Hold’em is the most widely played poker game, in casinos, at home and online. This guide covers the rules step by step: hand rankings, blinds, the four betting rounds, betting structures, starting hands, position, straddles, rake and the mistakes beginners make most often. If you want to compare games, our guide to Omaha poker basics shows what changes when you hold four cards, and Six Plus Hold’em covers the short-deck variant.

The Essentials at a Glance

• Each player gets two private hole cards, and five community cards are dealt face up in three stages: the flop (three cards), the turn (one) and the river (one).
• There are four betting rounds: pre-flop, flop, turn and river.
• Your hand is the best five cards from your seven. You can use both, one or none of your hole cards.
• Two forced bets, the small blind and the big blind, start the betting, and the dealer button moves one seat clockwise after each hand.
• The best five-card hand wins at the showdown, but a player who bets and is not called wins the pot without showing a hand.

Texas Hold’em Hand Rankings

A poker hand is always five cards. In Texas Hold’em you choose the best five from your seven (two hole cards plus five community cards), and you can use both, one or neither of your hole cards. From strongest to weakest, the rankings are:

1. Royal flush: ten, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit, such as A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠.
2. Straight flush: five consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥.
3. Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank, such as K♣ K♦ K♥ K♠ with any fifth card.
4. Full house: three of one rank and two of another, such as 10-10-10-4-4.
5. Flush: five cards of the same suit, not in sequence, such as A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 2♦.
6. Straight: five consecutive cards of mixed suits, such as 5-6-7-8-9. The ace can be high or low, but a straight cannot wrap round, so Q-K-A-2-3 does not count.
7. Three of a kind: three cards of the same rank.
8. Two pair: two different pairs.
9. One pair: two cards of the same rank.
10. High card: none of the above, so the highest card plays.

Suits have no rank in Hold’em, so A♥K♠ is no better than A♣K♦. If two players hold identical five-card hands, the pot is split. When hands are in the same category, the higher cards win, and the unused card that breaks a tie is called the kicker.

Kickers and Split Pots

A kicker is the highest unused card that decides between two hands in the same category. Suppose the board is A♦ 7♣ 4♠ 9♥ 2♣. One player holds A♥ K♣ and another holds A♠ Q♦. Both have one pair of aces, but the first player’s king plays as the fifth card and beats the second player’s queen, so the first player wins.

If the best five cards come from the board itself, you are said to be “playing the board”. Everyone still in the hand can use those five cards, and if nobody has a better hand, the pot is split equally. Suits never break a tie, so two flushes are compared by their highest card, then the next, and so on.

The Dealer Button and Blinds

Each hand starts with the dealer button, which moves one seat clockwise after every hand so that everyone takes a turn in each position. Two players post forced bets, called blinds, before any cards are dealt. The player to the left of the button posts the small blind, and the next player to the left posts the big blind, which is typically twice the small blind. Blinds make sure there is always something in the pot to play for. In tournaments, the blinds rise at set intervals, which pushes players to keep taking part.

Many tournaments add an ante in the later stages. An ante is a small forced bet from every player, and it increases the pot before the cards are dealt. The blinds and antes both exist to stop players from waiting indefinitely for premium hands.

The positions have names that come up in poker talk. The seat directly to the left of the big blind is “under the gun”, because that player is first to act pre-flop. The seat to the right of the button is the cutoff, and the button itself is the best seat because it acts last on every round after the flop.

The Four Betting Rounds

Pre-flop

Each player receives two hole cards face down. Betting starts with the player to the left of the big blind and moves clockwise. Each player can fold (give up the hand), call (match the current bet) or raise (increase it). If a player raises, everyone after them has to call the new amount or fold to stay in the hand.

The flop

The dealer turns three community cards face up. A second round of betting follows, starting with the first active player to the left of the button. A player may check, which means passing the action without betting, if nobody has bet yet.

The turn

The fourth community card, known as the turn or fourth street, is dealt, followed by another round of betting.

The river and showdown

The fifth and final community card, the river, is dealt, followed by the last betting round. If more than one player is left after the betting, there is a showdown: the last player to bet or raise shows first, or if nobody bet, the first active player to the left of the button shows first. The best five-card hand takes the pot. Everyone still in the hand can use any mix of their hole cards and the community cards.

Betting Actions and Terms

• Check: pass the action without betting, available only when nobody has bet in the round.
• Bet: put the first chips into a round.
• Call: match the current bet.
• Raise: increase the current bet. In most games, a raise has to be at least as large as the previous bet or raise in that round, so a bet of £6 followed by a raise to £12 is a legal minimum raise.
• Fold: give up your hand and lose any chips you have already put in.
• All-in: bet all your remaining chips.

A raise before anyone else has raised pre-flop is called an open-raise. A re-raise on top of that is a 3-bet (the big blind counts as the first bet). Just calling the big blind pre-flop instead of raising is known as limping. Beginners are usually better off raising with the hands they choose to play, or folding, than limping with everything.

All-In Bets and Side Pots

A player who is all-in can only win as much from each opponent as they put in. Suppose Player A goes all-in for £20, and Players B and C each bet £50. The main pot is £20 from each of the three players, which is £60, and only A, B and C can win it. The extra £30 from B and from C forms a side pot of £60, and only B and C can win that. If A has the best hand, A wins the £60 main pot, and B and C contest the £60 side pot. Together that is £120, the same as the £20, £50 and £50 that went in.

A Hand From Start to Finish

Here is an invented hand at a six-handed table, with blinds of £1 and £2. It shows how the rounds fit together and ignores rake. The players are Ann (on the button), Ben (small blind), Cara (big blind), Dev, Eli and Fay.

1. Blinds: Ben posts £1 and Cara posts £2.
2. Pre-flop: Dev, the first to act, folds. Eli raises to £6. Fay folds. Ann calls £6. Ben folds, losing his £1. Cara calls by adding £4 to her blind. The pot is £6 + £6 + £6 + £1 = £19.
3. Flop: Q♥ 8♠ 3♣. Cara acts first, because she is the first active player left of the button, and checks. Eli bets £10. Ann folds. Cara calls £10. The pot is £19 + £10 + £10 = £39.
4. Turn: 7♦. Cara checks and Eli checks, so no chips go in.
5. River: K♣. Cara bets £15 and Eli calls £15. The pot is £39 + £30 = £69.
6. Showdown: Cara, the last to bet, shows Q♦ J♦: a pair of queens with a king and a jack. Eli shows K♠ 9♠: a pair of kings with a queen and a nine. Eli’s pair of kings beats Cara’s pair of queens, so Eli wins the £69 pot.

Eli put in £6 + £10 + £15 = £31 and collected £69. Cara put in £6 + £10 + £15 = £31 and lost it. Cara’s pair of queens was only the second-best hand, which shows why it matters to think about what your opponent could hold.

Betting Structures: No-Limit, Pot-Limit and Limit

The same cards can be played under different betting rules:

• No-limit: a player can bet any amount up to their whole stack, subject to a minimum raise. It is the most popular format.
• Pot-limit: a bet or raise can be no larger than the current size of the pot.
• Limit: bets and raises come in fixed amounts. Typically, bets in the first two rounds equal the big blind, and in the last two rounds they are twice that size.

The structure changes the strategy. In no-limit games a single decision can put a whole stack at risk, while limit poker gives less scope for large bluffs.

Starting Hands: Three Tiers

Your two hole cards are the foundation of every hand, and there are 1,326 possible combinations. Instead of memorising a chart, it helps to sort hands into three groups. Position matters (see below), so treat this as a guide, not a rule.

Even the best starting hand, ace-ace, does not win every time. It wins most often against a few opponents and loses value when the board does not help. Playing only premium hands can also make you predictable, so most players add a few medium hands in late position.

How Many Starting Hands Are There?

There are 1,326 ways to be dealt two cards from 52. Many of these are equivalent, because suits have no rank. Pairs can be dealt in 6 ways each (13 ranks × 6 = 78 combinations). Two different ranks of the same suit can be dealt in 4 ways (78 suited hands × 4 = 312 combinations), and different suits in 12 ways (78 offsuit hands × 12 = 936 combinations). Altogether, 78 + 312 + 936 = 1,326. Ignoring suit differences, that leaves 169 distinct starting hands, which is why charts are laid out as a 13 by 13 grid.

Counting combinations explains why a specific hand is rare. A pair of aces can be dealt 6 ways, which is about 0.45% of the time, while ace-king in any suits can be dealt 16 ways, about 1.2% of the time. Being suited makes a hand a little better because it can make a flush, but it does not turn a poor hand into a good one.

Playing Premium Hands Pre-Flop

With a premium hand, the usual advice is to raise. By raising you build the pot while you are likely to be ahead and make weaker hands pay to see the flop. Limping in, which means just calling the big blind, gives the big blind a cheap look at the flop, and slow-playing a strong hand from early position without a reason can let a worse hand catch up. Some experienced players mix in the occasional trap, but as a beginner it is simpler to bet your strong hands.

Position and the Small Blind

Position is where you sit relative to the button, and it decides when you act. Acting later is an advantage because you see what others do before you decide. Our guide to poker seat position explains the names and the effect in more detail.

The small blind is an awkward seat. You have put chips in before you look at your cards, and after the flop you act first. How to play it depends on stack depth and opponents, but three ideas help:

• Steal when it is folded to you. Pre-flop, the small blind acts after everyone except the big blind, so a raise can win the pot against one opponent. Be careful if the big blind defends often.
• Do not call just because you posted chips. Money already in the pot is gone, and a weak hand out of position against several players is a poor spot.
• Raise instead of calling with strong hands. A re-raise (a 3-bet) thins the field, so you play fewer players out of position.

Straddles

A straddle is a voluntary extra blind, usually posted by the player under the gun (the first to act pre-flop) before the cards are dealt. It is normally at least twice the big blind, and in return that player acts last pre-flop. A variation called the Mississippi straddle is made from the button.

Players straddle to get more money into the pot, to loosen up a tight table or to put pressure on the blinds. For most players it costs more than it earns, because the straddler is out of position after the flop and has paid extra to be there. Straddles are common in live cash games and home games. Check whether your online room offers them before you assume it does.

Rake: What the Room Takes

Poker rooms make money from rake. In cash games, the room usually takes a percentage of each pot, often with a cap, or it charges a time fee. In tournaments, the rake is the fee added to the buy-in. As a made-up example, an entry written as £20+£2 would mean £20 goes into the prize pool and £2 goes to the room, a fee of 10% on top of the prize-pool share. As an illustration, a room that takes 5% of the pot up to a cap would remove £2 from a £40 pot. These are teaching figures only. They are not a bet365 rate or any other room’s actual rake.

Rake matters because it comes out of every pot, win or lose, so it adds up over many hands. Check the rake structure of any room before you play.

A Worked Example

Suppose you hold A♥ K♥ and the flop comes Q♥ 7♥ 2♣. You have no pair yet, but you have four hearts, so any heart on the turn or river gives you a flush. There are 47 cards you cannot see and nine of them are hearts, so you hit on the turn about 19% of the time (9 in 47), and by the river about 35% of the time. Those numbers are why a draw can be worth continuing with when the price is right, and why it can be wrong to call a large bet. Our guide to pot odds in poker shows how to compare the chance of hitting with the price of calling.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Playing too many hands, especially weak ones from early position.
• Calling bets without thinking about what the opponent might hold.
• Forgetting that a strong starting hand can be beaten on the flop, turn or river.
• Chasing losses by raising stakes or playing longer than planned.
• Playing on autopilot after a bad beat. Take a break before the next hand.

For a wider list of poker terms, see our A-Z of poker.

Bluffing Mistakes Beginners Make

A bluff is a bet or raise made to get a better hand to fold. A failed bluff does not mean your opponent read your mind, and a successful bluff does not prove the decision was sound. Three mistakes come up often:

• Assuming a fold you cannot see. Whether a bluff pays off depends on how often your opponent folds, which you can only estimate. The same bet can be good or bad depending on that guess.
• Ignoring position. Acting last lets you see what others have done, but it does not make bluffing safe, and a check does not prove weakness.
• Bluffing when you are angry. Bluffing on tilt, to win back a loss, usually costs more.

Review your hands away from the table, once the session is over, rather than trying to work out an opponent’s cards mid-hand.

Practice and Discipline

Poker rewards patience. Free-play tables and play-money games are a low-cost way to practise the sequence of a hand, the order of action and the way a pot grows, before you play for real stakes. Opponents at play-money tables often play differently from real-money players, so treat the results as practice for the rules, not a measure of skill.

Discipline matters more than any single tip. Decide how long you will play and how much you can afford to lose before you sit down, and leave when you reach either limit. If a hand upsets you, take a break.

Cash Games and Tournaments

In a cash game, the chips on the table are real money. You can join or leave at any time, choose how much to sit down with and top up if you wish. Cash games are also called ring games. In a tournament you pay a fixed buy-in, receive tournament chips and play until you are out or have won, so you cannot take chips off the table. Cash games offer flexibility and tournaments give a fixed cost, but you cannot predict how long a tournament will take. Our guide to cash games vs tournaments compares the two in more depth.

Playing Texas Hold’em Online

Online poker follows the same rules, with the software dealing the cards and tracking the pot. At bet365 Poker, the game rules say that blind bets start the action in Texas Hold’em and Omaha, with the player to the left of the dealer posting the small blind. Read the room’s standard game rules before you play, and see our guide to bet365 poker cash games if you want to get started with real-money cash tables.

Set up to play well

Your environment affects your decisions as much as your cards. Match the game to the time you have, because a short session suits a cash table or a quick sit and go, and a long tournament does not suit a spare half hour. Play somewhere with few distractions, keep notes on hands you want to review, and stop if you are tired or irritated.

Texas Hold’em Rules: A Summary

Texas Hold’em is built on a few steps that repeat every hand: post the blinds, receive two hole cards, bet through the flop, turn and river, and show down your best five-card hand if more than one player is left. Learn the hand rankings first, then the betting actions and the order of play. After that, position and starting-hand selection are the next things to study, and they carry far more weight than any trick.

Texas Hold’em FAQs

What are the best starting hands in Texas Hold’em?

Pocket aces are the strongest, followed by pocket kings, pocket queens and ace-king. Position and the number of players still matter, so even strong hands need care.

How do blinds work?

The two players to the left of the button post forced bets before the cards are dealt. The small blind is typically half the big blind, and the big blind sets the minimum bet for the first round.

What is the difference between no-limit and limit Hold’em?

In no-limit, a player can bet any amount up to their stack. In limit, bets and raises are fixed sizes, so there is less scope for large bluffs.

What is a straddle?

A straddle is an optional blind posted before the cards are dealt, usually by the player under the gun, which allows that player to act last pre-flop. It is more common in live games than online.

Is online poker rigged?

Licensed operators are regulated and have to meet technical standards for their random number generators, and regulators can audit them. A bad run of cards is usually variance, not a sign that a game is unfair. Unlicensed sites have no such oversight, so check the licence details with the regulator before you play.

Can you make money playing online poker?

Poker involves skill, but most players lose money over time, and rake and variance make it harder. Treat it as entertainment and set a budget in advance. Learning the game helps you play better, but nothing guarantees a profit.

How can I practise Texas Hold’em without risking money?

Many poker sites run play-money tables and freeroll tournaments, which let you practise the rules and structure without staking your own cash. Availability varies by site and country.

How many players can play Texas Hold’em?

The game is played with two or more players, and a full table is usually nine or ten at a casino or live room. Online tables vary, so check the table size in the lobby.

What is a kicker in poker?

A kicker is the highest card that is not part of your made hand, and it decides between two hands that are otherwise equal. For example, two players with a pair of aces compare their next-highest cards, so a king beats a queen.

Who acts first in Texas Hold’em?

Pre-flop, the player to the left of the big blind acts first. After the flop, the turn and the river, the first active player to the left of the dealer button acts first, and the button acts last.

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