Texas Hold'em Rules: How to Play, Step by Step

By Vinoth Kanna · 29 July 2026

Texas Hold'em · Rules

Texas Hold’em is a community-card game: every player gets two private cards, five community cards are dealt face-up in the middle, and you make the best possible five-card hand from any combination of those seven. Money goes in across four betting rounds — preflop, flop, turn, river — and the pot goes to the last player left in the hand, or to the best hand at showdown.

That is the whole game in two sentences. Everything below is the detail that stops beginners from making rule mistakes at a real table.

The table: button and blinds

A Hold’em table seats 2 to 10 players. One player holds the dealer button, a disc that marks who acts last after the flop. The button moves one seat clockwise after every hand, so the positional advantage rotates evenly — that rotation is the only thing keeping the game fair, because acting last is worth real money.

Two players post forced bets before any cards are dealt:

• Small blind (SB) — immediately left of the button, posts half a bet.
• Big blind (BB) — left of the SB, posts a full bet. In a $1/$2 game, the blinds are $1 and $2, and $2 is the minimum opening bet preflop.

Without blinds nobody would ever have a reason to enter a pot. They exist to create something worth fighting over on every deal.

The deal and the four betting rounds

Preflop. Each player receives two face-down hole cards. Action starts with the player to the left of the big blind — under the gun (UTG) — and moves clockwise. Because the big blind is a live bet, everyone must at minimum call that amount to continue. If nobody raises, the big blind gets the option: to check and see the flop for free, or to raise.

The flop. The dealer burns one card face down, then deals three community cards face up. Betting starts fresh at zero, and the first active player to the left of the button acts first. This is why the button matters — on every postflop street, the button acts last.

The turn. Burn one, deal one. In a limit game the bet size doubles here; in no-limit it doesn’t matter, you can bet anything from the minimum up to your stack.

The river. Burn one, deal the fifth and final community card. One last betting round, then showdown.

Three cards are burned per hand. The burn exists to defeat marked-card cheating — if the top card is marked, the burn makes that knowledge useless.

Betting actions defined

The minimum raise rule trips up new players constantly. If the bet is $10 and you want to raise, your raise must be at least another $10 — you make it $20, not $15. If someone re-raises to $35 (a $15 raise over $20), the next minimum raise is $35 + $15 = $50.

Building your five-card hand

You use any five of the seven cards available to you. There is no requirement to use both hole cards, one hole card, or any at all. Three possibilities exist:

1. Both hole cards. You hold A♠K♠, board is A♦K♦7♣2♠9♥ — you play two pair, aces and kings.
2. One hole card. You hold A♠4♣, board is K♠Q♠J♠T♠3♦ — you play the royal flush using only your A♠.
3. Neither — “playing the board.” The board is A♠A♦A♣K♠K♦ and you hold 7♣2♦. The best five cards available to you are the five on the board, aces full of kings. So is everyone else’s. The pot is split.

Hand strength follows the standard rankings — royal flush down to high card. If those aren’t automatic yet, learn them first from the poker hand rankings chart, because every other decision in the game depends on reading the board instantly.

Kickers decide ties. Two players both holding an ace on an ace-high board go to the second card, then the third, until five cards are compared. If all five cards are identical in rank, the pot is chopped — suits never break ties in Hold’em.

Showdown: who shows first, and must you show?

If two or more players remain after the river betting round, the hand goes to showdown.

• If there was betting on the river, the last player to bet or raise shows first, then play proceeds clockwise.
• If the river was checked around, the first active player clockwise from the button shows first.

You are never required to show a losing hand. If you can see you’re beaten, you may muck — discard face down and forfeit the pot. But if you want any claim on the pot, your cards must hit the table face up. “The cards speak” — the dealer reads the hands, and a misdeclared hand does not lose you a pot you actually won, as long as the cards are shown.

Rule confusions that cost beginners pots

String bets. You must declare your full action verbally, or put the chips in with one motion. Reaching back to your stack for more chips after your first motion is a string bet, and the dealer will hold you to the first amount. Say “raise” before you touch chips, or slide the whole amount out at once.

The one-chip rule. If you toss a single chip larger than the bet into the pot without saying “raise,” it is a call. Facing a $10 bet and throwing in a $100 chip silently calls $10 and returns $90 in change. Always announce raises verbally.

Acting out of turn. A binding action taken out of turn can be enforced against you if the action doesn’t change before it reaches you. Wait your turn.

All-in raises that don’t reopen betting. If a player goes all-in for less than a full raise, players who already acted can only call or fold — they can’t re-raise. This surprises people constantly.

Side pots. When a short-stacked player is all-in, they can only win the chips they matched. Suppose three players see a flop, Player A is all-in for $50, and B and C keep betting another $100 each. The main pot holds $150 (A, B and C’s $50 apiece) and A can win it. The side pot holds B and C’s extra $200 and only they can win it. If A has the best hand, A takes $150 and the better of B/C takes $200. Dealers build these automatically, but you should know what you’re playing for before you commit.

What to learn next

The rules take twenty minutes. The decisions take longer. Three things move a new player’s results fastest, in order:

1. Which hands to play from which seat. Start with starting hand selection and the preflop chart.
2. Position. Understanding why acting last wins money reframes every hand you play.
3. Pot odds. Whether a call is mathematically profitable is a calculation, not a feeling — see pot odds explained and test spots yourself with the free odds calculator.

If you want to see how differently other poker variants handle the same five-card rankings, compare five-card draw and seven-card stud — neither uses community cards, and both reward completely different skills.

Keep learning: try the free poker odds calculator, memorize the hand rankings, or browse all strategy guides.