Texas Hold’em Rules

In Texas Hold’em, play starts with each player (between two and ten at a table) being dealt two “hole cards” face-down. There follows a series of four betting rounds during which up to five “community” cards are placed on the table face-up. The aim is to construct the best five card poker hand from any combination of the two personal hole-cards and five community cards – or to win by betting other players out of the hand.

All bets are placed into a central pot – until finally two or more players show their hands down, and the best hand wins or just one player is left standing to collect the pot.

Pre-flop Action

The initial “pre-flop” action starts with two forced bets, known as the small blind and the big blind.  The player to the left of the dealer( or “the button”)  posts the “small blind” whilst the player two to the button’s left posts the “big blind”.

The player to the left of the big blind (known as “under-the-gun”) is the first to act and he can choose to call the big blind amount, make a raise (*) or fold his hand. The action now passes to the player on his left and similarly, he must call, raise or fold, based on the latest action(**).

This continues round the table in a clock-wise fashion until the last player to make a bet/ raise sees his bet called. If it is not called, the player collects whatever money is currently in the pot and play moves to the next hand.

Flop and Beyond

If two or more players are left in, the action proceeds to “the flop.” Three cards are dealt face-up on the table and  betting proceeds with the first active player from the left of the button. Once the betting is finished, if there are still two or more players, the action moves forward to the “turn.”

A further community card is dealt – again action proceeds clockwise from the left of the button and if any players are still left following completion of the betting, the “river” card is dealt.

This is the final community card. There is one more round of betting and finally the last player standing, or the player with the best hand collects the pot.

The hand ranking used to determine the best hand is in the following order(highest to lowest): –

Royal Flush, Straight Flush, 4-of-a-kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, 3-of-a-kind, Two Pair, One Pair and High Card.

The button now moves one position clock-wise and the next hand is dealt.

*  The amount players can raise will depend on the version of the game being played. In Limit, ignoring the blinds, there are two fixed betting amounts – the small bet and the big bet. The small bet equals the big blind and is used preflop and on the flop, whilst on the turn and river the big bet, which is double the big blind, is the amount used.

In Pot Limit, players can raise the full amount of the pot. The amount they can raise is calculated as the total bets in the pot, including their call of any current bets. For instance if the betting was 150/300 and there was one limper, the player could raise (150+300+300+300) or 1050 on top of the 300 when play reaches him, i.e. to 1350.

In No Limit, a player can raise all of his remaining chips at any time.

** If at any point a player moves all-in, and is called, any players left with chips remaining continue the action with all future bets being placed into a side-pot which just those players contest. The all-in player can only contest the main pot.