Texas Hold'em is played with two cards in your hand and five community cards. The goal: win the pot, either by holding the best hand at showdown or by making everyone else fold. Ten minutes of reading and you can take a seat.
A hand is played over four betting rounds. In each round, every player acts in turn, clockwise around the table.
Here, holding A♠ K♥, the best five-card hand is two pair, aces and kings: A♠ A♣ K♥ K♦ 9♣.
| Action | When | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Fold | Any time it is your turn | You give up the hand. You lose what you have already bet, but nothing more. |
| Check | If nobody has bet in this round | You pass without betting. The hand goes on. |
| Call | If someone has bet | You put in the same amount to stay in the hand. |
| Bet / Raise | On your turn | You put in more than what is required. The others must call, raise or fold. A raise must add at least as much as the last increase in the round: after a raise to 70 over a 20 blind (an increase of 50), the minimum raise is to 120. Re-raising is also called a 3-bet, then 4-bet, 5-bet. Going all-in is always allowed. |
| All-in | On your turn | You bet all your chips. You cannot lose more than your stack, even if the others keep betting among themselves. |
A betting round ends when all remaining players have put in the same amount, or are all-in.
A hand always consists of five cards. Remember the logic: the rarer a hand, the stronger it is. The odds shown are those of ending up with that hand after all seven cards.
Ten, jack, queen, king, ace of the same suit. The unbeatable hand.
Five consecutive cards, all of the same suit. Between two straight flushes, the higher one wins.
Four cards of the same rank. The fifth card only matters to split two identical quads coming from the board.
Three of a kind plus a pair. It is named after the three of a kind: here "queens full of sevens". Between two full houses, the higher three of a kind wins.
Five cards of the same suit, in any order. Between two flushes, compare the highest card, then the next one.
Five consecutive cards of mixed suits. The ace can be high (10 J Q K A) or low (A 2 3 4 5, the lowest straight). The highest card decides.
Three cards of the same rank. The other two cards break ties between identical sets.
Two different pairs. Compare the higher pair first, then the second one, then the fifth card.
Two cards of the same rank. The most common hand at showdown. The other three cards serve as kickers.
No combination. Only the highest card counts, then the next one. "Ace high" beats "king high".
From weakest to strongest: high card, pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, royal flush. Two classic traps: a flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush.
When two players have the same hand, look at the remaining cards, called kickers. Example: the board shows K♠ K♦ 8♣ 4♥ 2♠. You hold A♣ 9♣, your opponent holds Q♥ 9♦. You both have a pair of kings. Your best kicker is the ace, theirs is the queen: you win.
If the best five cards are strictly identical, the pot is split. Suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs) never break ties: a king of spades is worth a king of hearts.
| Button | The "D" chip marking the dealer; the player who acts last after the flop. |
| Blinds | Mandatory bets before the deal. The big blind (BB) is the unit: a 100 BB stack, a 3 BB raise. |
| Draw | An incomplete hand that can be completed by the cards to come: flush draw (four cards of the same suit), straight draw. |
| Equity | Your chances of winning the hand if it goes all the way, as a percentage. |
| Pot odds | The pot, the opponent's bet included, compared with what you must put in to call. 10 in the pot, the opponent bets 5: the pot is 15, you call 5 to try to win 15, that is 3 to 1. You then need at least 5 out of 20, i.e. 25% chances of winning, for calling to be profitable. |
| Bluff | Betting with a weak hand to make a stronger hand fold. |
| Showdown | The moment when the remaining players show their cards. |
| Sit & Go | A six-player tournament that starts as soon as the table is full; the blinds go up, the last player standing wins. |