How to Play Texas Hold'em: Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide

If you've never sat down to play Texas Hold'em and you get lost the moment someone says 'flop', here it is step by step, with nothing assumed.Texas Hold'em is the version of poker you've seen in every film and televised tournament. It's the most-played game in the world and, almost always, the one people mean when they just say "poker". If you've ever walked up to a table and got lost the moment someone called "flop" or "raise to 200", this guide is for you. We'll walk through it slowly, with nothing assumed, so by the end you can sit down to a friendly game without feeling out of place. You don't need to be good from the start. The honest thing to say about poker is that the rules take an afternoon to learn and a lifetime to play well. Here we only deal with the first part: how a hand of Texas Hold'em runs from start to finish. What you need to play Before the rules, the kit. For a casual Texas Hold'em game with two to ten players you need: A standard poker deck: 52 cards, French suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades). If you plan to play more than a few nights, get a quality deck — Bicycle, Bee, Tally-Ho are the classics — because cheap newsstand decks die after one session. If you want to know why, see our Bicycle vs Theory11 vs Tally-Ho comparison. Chips: coins work in a pinch, but chips make the game easier to manage because they come with colours and clear values. A starter set with 200-300 chips in four or five colours covers any home game. A dealer button: a small disc marking who deals each hand. If you don't have one, any small object placed in front of one player will do. A table: with felt or without; what matters is that the cards slide well and everyone can see the centre. If you want to host a proper poker night, there's more to it — how to set blinds, how many chips to give each player, what to do when someone busts — and I cover the whole thing in how to host a poker night at home. The goal of the game, in one sentence Win chips. And chips are won in two ways: Reaching the end of the hand with the best five-card combination out of the cards available. Making everyone else fold before that, out of fear of losing, even if your hand wasn't actually the best. That second way — winning by making everyone else give up — is what sets poker apart from other gambling games. The cards decide a fair bit, but not everything. That's why it's typically called a skill game with elements of chance, not the other way around. If you want to know which hands beat which, I lay it out in poker hand rankings; here we'll only use it in passing. The initial deal: hole cards Each hand begins with two face-down cards dealt to every player, clockwise, starting from the player on the left of the dealer button. These two cards are called your hole cards, or pocket cards. Only you look at them, and only you will know what you have until the end (if the hand reaches the end). Before you look at your cards, pay attention to something important: who's posting the blinds this hand. The blinds: why you bet before you look Texas Hold'em always starts with two forced bets made before any cards are dealt. They're called blinds because they're paid blind: before anyone sees a single card. They're the spark that lights every hand. Without them, everyone would pass without betting until pocket aces showed up, and no one would ever play. Small blind (SB): posted by the player immediately to the left of the dealer button. Big blind (BB): posted by the next player to the left of the small blind. Usually double the small blind. For instance, in a $1/$2 game, the small blind posts $1 and the big blind posts $2 before anyone receives a card. That money is already in the pot. The dealer button rotates one seat to the left after each hand, and the blinds rotate with it. So you pay blinds once per orbit around the table, no more, no less. Where you sit and why it matters is covered in detail in poker table positions. The four betting rounds A Texas Hold'em hand is split into four betting rounds. Between rounds, community cards come out in the centre of the table. The trick is that those cards are shared by every player, not just one: each player combines their two hole cards with the five community cards to form the best possible five-card hand. 1. Preflop: betting with no information You have your two hole cards. The blinds are posted. The first round of betting, preflop, begins. The first player to act is the one to the left of the big blind (that seat is called under the gun, because they act with no information from anyone else). Each player, in turn, has three options: Call: match the big blind. If the BB is $2, you call with $2. Raise: put in more than the minimum. The minimum raise is usually double the previous bet. Fold: muck your cards. You lose whatever you'd already put in (if you were a blind) and stop playing this hand. When action reaches the big blind, that player already has $2 in. If nobody raised, they can simply check (add nothing) and the round is over. If someone raised, they have to call the difference, re-raise, or fold. The round ends when all active players have committed the same amount to the pot (or folded). 2. The flop: three cards in the middle The dealer "burns" a card (discards it face-down, by tradition and to prevent cheating) and lays three cards face-up in the centre. That's the flop. Now each player can combine their two hole cards with those three from the flop. It's the first moment you find out whether your hand has a future or not. If your hole cards were pocket kings and the flop comes 7-2-5, you still have an overpair and you're sitting pretty. If your cards were K-Q and the flop is K-Q-J, you just made two pair with a straight draw — you're crushing the board. The second betting round starts. From here on action begins with the first active player to the left of the button (the order has changed from preflop: now the dealer acts last, which is a huge advantage). Since there's no live bet to match yet, the options are different: Check: pass without betting. Bet: open the round with a wager. Minimum is usually the size of the big blind. Fold: always available. Once someone bets, the rest can call, raise, or fold. If everyone checks, we move straight to the next card. 3. The turn: the fourth card The dealer burns another card and turns one more face up: the turn (also called "fourth street"). Now there are four community cards. Third betting round, same options as the flop. From here, in many fixed-limit games, the minimum bet doubles: if you were betting in $2 units before, you now bet in $4 units. In no-limit games the bet stays open (minimum the BB, maximum your whole stack). 4. The river: the fifth and last card The last community card, also called "fifth street". The dealer burns one more and turns it face up. All five community cards are now on the table. Fourth and final betting round. There's no more card to come: what you have is what you have. This is when betting gets tense, because nobody can wait to "see what comes". If you're still here, you either have a made hand or you're bluffing. The showdown: showing your cards If two or more players are still active after the last betting round, we reach the showdown: time to flip your cards face up. The last player to bet or raise in the river round shows first. If everyone checked on the river, the player closest to the left of the button shows first. From there, the others reveal in order. Each player combines their two hole cards with the five community cards to form the best possible five-card hand. They can use both hole cards, one, or none (if the five middle cards already form their best hand). Highest hand wins the pot. If there's a tie, the pot is split. The rank of hands — from high card to royal flush — is laid out in detail in poker hand rankings. Winning without showdown: the other way to take the pot There's another way to win a hand, and in fact it's the most common one: everyone else folds before showdown. In that case, the last player standing takes the pot without having to show. It doesn't matter what they had: nobody will ever know (unless they decide to show out of pride, which is rarely a good strategic move). This is what gives poker its human-reading element: you can win with terrible cards if you convince the rest you have the best hand. And you can lose with the best hand in the world if you get scared and fold. That's why the psychological side weighs so heavily. A complete hand, step by step Let's run through a hand from start to finish so it clicks. Five players, blinds $1/$2. Call them Ana, Bea, Carlos, Diego, and Eva. Ana has the button. Before the deal: Bea posts the small blind ($1). Carlos posts the big blind ($2). Pot: $3. Deal: the dealer gives two face-down cards to each, starting with Bea. Preflop: Diego acts first (left of BB). He looks at his cards, sees A-K offsuit, raises to $6. Eva looks at hers, sees 9-2 offsuit, folds. Ana calls the $6. Bea, in the SB, folds: loses the $1 she'd already put in. Carlos, in the BB, already has $2 in: he adds $4 more to match $6. Pot: $19. Flop: K♥ 8♦ 4♣. Diego just made top pair of kings. Since there's no live bet, Carlos acts first. He checks. Diego bets $10. Ana folds. Carlos calls. Pot: $39. Turn: 3♠. Carlos checks again. Diego bets $20. Carlos calls. Pot: $79. River: J♥. Carlos checks. Diego bets $30. Carlos calls. Showdown: Diego shows A-K, pair of kings, ace kicker. Carlos shows K-Q, pair of kings, queen kicker. Diego wins because his kicker (ace) is higher than Carlos's (queen). That hand we just played is a "normal" one. Nothing spectacular or weird. There was a pair, there was betting, there were decisions. Most Texas Hold'em hands look like this. The big hands — straights, flushes, full houses — show up less than the movies suggest. Three concepts to keep in mind from day one 1. Position is worth money Acting last is a massive advantage. You've seen what everyone else did before you decide. That's why playing from the button (which acts last on every postflop street) is playing with extra information. And why playing from under the gun (first to act preflop) is playing blind. You don't need to master this on day one, but keep it in your head from your first hand. I expand on it in poker table positions. 2. Your hole cards aren't your final hand Plenty of beginners fall in love with their two hole cards. Holding A-K makes you feel invincible preflop. But if the flop comes 9-8-7 of the same suit and you don't have a spade, your A-K is worth as much as 3-2. Your real hand is the five-card combination you can make with your two cards plus the board. You don't know what you have until the river. 3. Folding isn't losing The instinct, especially early on, is to play every hand "so you don't get bored". That's the opposite of what works. Most poker hands are lost, and experienced players muck their cards preflop a vast majority of the time. Saying "fold" isn't giving up: it's not wasting chips on a hand you probably won't win. Variants and formats: beyond Texas Hold'em Once you're comfortable with Texas Hold'em, you discover it's just one of many variants. Some have different hole cards (Omaha deals four instead of two), some have no community cards (Seven-Card Stud), some reward the lowest hand instead of the highest (Razz). All share the basics — betting rounds, comparable hands, raise-or-fold structure — but play very differently. I go through them one by one in poker variants. Limit, no-limit and pot-limit: the difference that confuses most When someone says "a no-limit hold'em game", they're talking about the betting format, not the rules. There are three main formats: Limit: bets are capped. In a $1/$2 limit game, you can't bet more than $2 preflop and on the flop, or more than $4 on the turn and river. It's the most predictable version and the one traditionally played in casinos before the 2000s boom. Pot-limit: max bet at any moment is the current pot size. Freer than limit, more controlled than no-limit. Standard for Omaha. No-limit: max bet is everything you have on the table. You can go all-in at any moment. It's the dominant format on televised tournaments and what people usually mean when they say "poker" without further detail. For a home game with friends, no-limit is the most fun but also the riskiest: one bad decision can put you out in a single hand. Limit is friendlier to beginners because there's a ceiling on disasters. Frequently asked questions How many cards are dealt in Texas Hold'em? Each player gets two face-down cards at the start. Then five community cards are revealed in the centre: three on the flop, one on the turn, and one on the river. In total, each player can use seven cards (their two plus the five board cards) to build their best five-card hand. Who deals? Do you need a professional dealer? At home, no. Each player deals in turn, following the position of the button. The button moves one seat to the left after each hand, and whoever holds it deals that hand. In casinos there's a professional croupier and players don't touch the cards beyond their own. What happens if nobody raises preflop? If all active players just call the big blind (this is called "limping"), the big blind can check to end the round without putting more chips in. This is the "BB option": since they've already paid the minimum bet, they only decide whether to raise or not. What does it mean to go all-in? It means betting every chip you have on the table at once. Only allowed in no-limit (in limit there's a ceiling). If you lose the hand, you're out of chips and, unless it's a tournament with re-entry, you're out. If you win, you take the corresponding pot. Can I use all five community cards and none of mine? Yes. If the five community cards form, say, a royal flush, all active players at showdown tie with that royal flush, because each can "play the board". It's rare, but it happens. How long does it take to get decent? The rules take an hour to learn. Playing decently takes weeks to months of thoughtful sessions. Playing well is years of work. Most strong players study away from the table (books, hand analysis, videos), not just play. But for a night with friends you don't need to be good: you need to know the rules and not bet what you can't afford to lose. To get started right If the bug has bitten and you want to put together a first home game, the most practical thing is to start with a decent deck. A Bicycle Standard or a Tally-Ho feels totally different from the cheap supermarket pack, and they're the two most widespread decks at real tables worldwide. If you'll be playing more seriously, keep a couple in rotation: one to wear out, another always fresh. The whole question of card care — how to store them, how to "break them in", what to do when they retire — is in how to care for your poker decks. And if what really tempts you is hosting the whole evening — chips, food, complete kit, house rules — the natural next step is how to host a poker night at home. Also have a look at our poker decks and the general playing cards category: that's where the selection we'd recommend to a friend who's starting out lives.

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	xxs	xs	s	m	l	xl	2xl
US Size	0-0	2-4	4-6	8-10	12-14	16-18	20-22
Bust (in)	30-32	32-34	34-36	36-38	38-40	40-42.5	42.5-45.5
Under Bust (in)	25-26	27-28	28-29	30-31.5	32-33.5	34-36	36-38
Waist (in)	23.5-24.5	25-26.5	27-28.5	29-30.5	31-33.5	34-36.5	37-40

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