How to play Texas Hold'em: the rules in plain words

Each player gets two cards face down, and five cards are dealt face up in the middle for everyone to share. You make the best five-card hand you can from any combination of your two cards and the five on the board. The pot goes to the best hand at the end, or to the last player left when everyone else has folded, which is how most pots are won.

A disc called the button marks the dealer position and moves one seat to the left after every hand. The player to the left of the button posts the small blind and the next player posts the big blind, two forced bets that give everyone something to play for. The stakes are named by the blinds: at a $0.05/$0.10 table the small blind is five cents and the big blind ten. In tournaments every player also posts an ante once the early levels are over.

Online tables seat six or nine players, and some seat two. The position chart names every seat. A hand is counted in big blinds as often as in dollars: a $10 stack at $0.05/$0.10 is 100 big blinds.

1. Before the flop. Everyone has two cards. The player to the left of the big blind acts first, and the action goes round to the big blind, who acts last and may check if nobody has raised.
2. The flop. Three cards are dealt face up. From here on, the first player still in the hand to the left of the button acts first and the button acts last.
3. The turn. A fourth card is dealt face up, and there is another round of betting.
4. The river. The fifth and last card is dealt, and the final round of betting follows. If two or more players are still in, there is a showdown.

A hand can end in any round. When one player bets and everyone else folds, the hand is over and the bettor takes the pot without showing anything.

• Check: pass the action along without betting. Only possible when nobody has bet in this round.
• Bet: put chips in when nobody has bet yet. The minimum is one big blind.
• Call: match the current bet.
• Raise: increase the bet. A raise must be at least as large as the previous bet or raise, so after a bet of 3 big blinds the minimum raise is to 6.
• Fold: give up your cards and any claim on the pot.

In no-limit Hold'em, the game at most tables, you can bet any amount up to your whole stack at any time. In pot-limit the most you can bet is the size of the pot; in fixed-limit the bet sizes are set in advance. The formats guide covers the game types; this page is about the hand itself.

You can only bet the chips you have on the table, which is called table stakes, and nobody can be bet out of a hand for more than their stack. When you put your last chip in you are all-in: you cannot act again, but you cannot be forced out either, and the hand runs to the end for you.

If other players keep betting after someone is all-in, their extra bets go into a side pot that the all-in player cannot win. Suppose three players are in. A has 20 chips and goes all-in, B and C both have 100 and both call, then B bets 50 more on the turn and C calls. The main pot is 60, the 20 from each player, and anyone can win it. The side pot is 100, from B and C alone. If A has the best hand at the showdown, A wins the 60 and the best of B and C wins the 100.

If the river is checked round, the first player to the left of the button shows first. If there was a bet on the river, the player who made the last bet or raise shows first, and the others show in turn or fold their hand face down. Online, the software does this for you and shows the winning hand.

The best five cards win, using any mix of your two and the board's five. If the best hand is the five cards on the board, everyone still in splits the pot. When two players have the same hand, the highest card not part of it, the kicker, decides; when the hands are identical in all five cards, the pot is split. Suits never decide a pot.

A flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush, which new players mix up in both directions. The poker fundamentals page explains why the order is what it is and what each hand is worth.

Six players at $0.05/$0.10, everyone with $10. The button is seat 6. Seat 1 posts $0.05, seat 2 posts $0.10. Seat 3 folds, seat 4 raises to $0.30, seats 5 and 6 fold, seat 1 folds, and seat 2 calls $0.20 more. The pot is $0.65.

The flop comes king, eight, three with two hearts. Seat 2 checks, seat 4 bets $0.40, seat 2 calls. The pot is $1.45. The turn is a two. Seat 2 checks, seat 4 checks. The river is the nine of hearts. Seat 2 bets $1.00, seat 4 calls, and the pot is $3.45. Seat 2 shows the ace and queen of hearts for a flush; seat 4 shows a pair of kings. The flush wins $3.45, less the room's rake, and the button moves to seat 1 for the next hand.

Notice what happened on the turn: seat 4 checked with the best hand and gave seat 2 a free card, and the free card made the flush. That is the kind of decision the beginner strategy page is about.

• You have a clock for each decision, with a time bank for the hard ones. If it runs out, you fold, or you check when a check is possible.
• The buttons let you act before your turn: fold, check or call in advance. Do not use them until you know the game, because a pre-selected call can meet a raise.
• The bet slider sets your bet; typing a figure is safer than dragging on a phone.
• You can sit out and come back, and leave a cash game with your chips at any time. In a tournament you play until you bust or win.
• The lobby shows the stakes, the players at each table and the average pot. For your first sessions choose the lowest stake and a table with empty seats.

Basepoker and WePlay both run in the browser, so there is nothing to install. Our Start here guide is the order to do things in before your first hand, and the glossary has the words you will hear at the table.