Texas Hold'em Rules, Step by Step, from the Blinds to the River

The game uses one standard 52-card deck and a fixed ranking of hands, from royal flush down to high card. If you are not sure of the order, our poker hand rankings chart is the place to start. The betting actions are the same as in every form of poker: check, bet, call, raise or fold, covered in detail on our poker rules page.

In our example there are six players. The blinds are £1 and £2, so the small blind posts £1 and the big blind £2. Those are live bets: they count towards whatever the players later call or raise. In a casino or online game a house dealer does the shuffling and dealing, but the button still moves so that everyone takes the blinds and the best seat in turn.

The seats get names from their place relative to the button. The first player to act before the flop, directly left of the big blind, is said to be under the gun. The player on the button acts last on every round after the flop, which is a real advantage, because they see what everyone else does first.

You are in the fifth seat and look at your cards: Ace and Jack of spades. The player under the gun folds. You raise to £6, three times the big blind. The next player folds, the button calls £6, the small blind folds and the big blind calls by adding £4 to the £2 already in.

The pot now holds £19: the small blind’s £1, which stays in the pot even though that player folded, plus £6 each from you, the button and the big blind. Three players see the flop.

There are 1,326 ways to be dealt two cards, which reduce to 169 different starting hands once you ignore which suit is which: 13 pairs, 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited ones.^{1 (source)} Ace-Jack suited is one of the stronger ones, but far from the strongest.

The flop comes Jack of hearts, 8 of spades and 3 of spades. With your Jack you have the top pair, Jacks with an Ace kicker, and with two spades on the board you also have four cards towards a flush.

The big blind, first to act, checks. You bet £12. The button folds and the big blind calls.

The pot is now £43. Two players are left, and from here on the big blind acts first on each round, because they sit to the left of the button.

The turn is the 2 of diamonds, which changes nothing obvious. The big blind checks and you check too, so the round ends with no bet and the pot stays at £43.

The river is the King of spades. That is the fifth spade available to you, so your best hand is now an Ace-high flush: A, K, J, 8 and 3 of spades.

The big blind bets £20. You raise to £60, and after some thought the big blind calls. The pot is now £163.

The order of action on the river matters for the showdown. Because you made the last raise, you are the player who shows first.

You turn over A♠ J♠ for the flush. The big blind shows K♦ J♣, which makes two pair, Kings and Jacks, with the 8 as a kicker. A flush beats two pair, so you take the £163 pot, less any rake the room collects.

When the pot is shared

Split pots are common in Hold'em because five cards are shared. If the board is A♥ A♣ K♦ K♠ Q♥ and one player holds J-10 while another holds 7-2, both have the same best hand, Aces and Kings with a Queen, so they split the pot. Neither player’s own cards make it into the best five; they are both playing the board.^{1 (source)}

Kickers break many apparent ties. On a board of K♠ 9♦ 6♣ 4♥ 2♠, a player with K-Q and a player with K-J both have a pair of Kings, but the Queen kicker beats the Jack. When a pot cannot be divided evenly, the odd chip goes to the first player clockwise from the button.^{1 (source)}

The minimum raise rule keeps the game moving: without it, players could make tiny raises to slow the action. There is no maximum other than the chips in front of you, which is what gives no-limit Hold'em its swings. Limit Hold'em fixes every bet instead, usually at the big blind for the first two rounds and double that for the last two.^{2 (source)}

You can only bet the chips on the table in front of you at the start of the hand. Reaching into a pocket for more money mid-hand is not allowed in card rooms, a principle known as table stakes.^{2 (source)}

On the first, the last player to bet or raise on the river shows first; if nobody bet, showing usually starts left of the button. On the second, the cards speak: the dealer reads both hands and awards the pot to the best five cards, whatever a player claims. A player who throws away a winning hand unseen, though, cannot get it back.

On the third, put your full bet forward in one movement or say the amount aloud. Chips added in a second trip to your stack may be treated as a call only. Check the house rules where you play, because details such as verbal declarations vary between rooms.