Six players sit at a table. A white disc marked “Dealer” sits in front of the player in seat one, and before anyone sees a card, seat two puts out one chip and seat three puts out two. That small ritual, the button and the blinds, is where every hand of Texas Hold’em begins, and it is the first rule worth learning.
This guide follows one hand from start to finish. By the end you will know the order of play, the betting options and the way a winner is decided, which covers most of what happens at a real table, from a kitchen-table game to the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
Before the cards: button and blinds
The dealer button moves one seat to the left after every hand. It marks who acts last in the later betting rounds, which is the best seat at the table. In a casino the house dealer does the dealing, but the button still rotates so that each player gets a turn in that position.
The two players to the left of the button post the small blind and the big blind. These are forced bets, and they exist so that every pot has money in it from the start. If the game is called “1/2”, the small blind is one dollar or chip unit and the big blind is two. Many tournaments also use antes; most major tours now collect a single big blind ante from the player in the big blind in place of everyone paying a small ante.
Now the dealer gives each player two cards face down, one at a time, starting with the small blind. These are your hole cards, and nobody else sees them unless the hand reaches a showdown.
The four betting rounds
Preflop
The first player to act sits directly to the left of the big blind, a seat called “under the gun”. On each turn a player has three choices when there is a bet to face: fold (give up the hand), call (match the current bet) or raise (increase it). In no-limit hold’em, the most popular form, a raise must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise, and you can bet everything in front of you at any time.
In our hand, the under-the-gun player folds, seat five raises to six chips, seat six folds and the button calls. The small blind folds. The big blind, who already has two chips in, calls four more. Three players remain.
The flop
The dealer burns one card face down and turns three community cards face up: say the queen of hearts, the nine of clubs and the four of hearts. These cards belong to everyone. From now on, betting starts with the first active player to the left of the button, which here is the big blind.
When nobody has bet yet, a player may also check, which means passing the action without putting in chips. The big blind checks, seat five bets eight chips, the button calls and the big blind folds.
The turn and the river
Another burn card, then a fourth community card, the turn: the two of spades. Seat five bets again and the button calls. Then the last burn card and the fifth community card, the river: the ace of hearts. Seat five checks, the button bets, and seat five calls.
The betting rounds always run in this order: preflop, flop, turn, river. A hand can end at any point if everyone but one player folds. That player wins the pot without showing their cards.
The showdown
When the river betting is done and two or more players are left, they turn over their cards. The last player to bet or raise on the river shows first. Each player’s hand is the best five cards they can make from their two hole cards and the five on the board.
Seat five shows ace-queen of clubs and diamonds for two pair, aces and queens. The button shows king-jack of hearts, which, combined with the queen, four and ace of hearts on the board, makes a heart flush. A flush beats two pair, so the button wins. If the order of hands is still new to you, the complete poker hand rankings list all ten categories from the royal flush down.
Ties are more common than beginners expect. If both players make the same hand, the kicker (the highest unpaired side card) decides it, and if the five best cards are identical, the pot is split. Suits never rank against each other in hold’em.
Table rules that catch new players
Card rooms in the US mostly follow house rules built on the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) guidelines and older references such as Robert’s Rules of Poker. A few points come up again and again with newcomers.
Verbal declarations are binding. If you say “raise” in turn, you must raise. Saying “call” and then reaching for more chips does not turn it into a raise.
String bets are not allowed. Putting chips forward in more than one motion without announcing your action first can be ruled a call. Announce the amount, or push the whole bet in at once.
One chip is a call. If you face a bet of 25 and toss in a single 100 chip without saying anything, it counts as a call in most rooms.
Protect your hand. Keep a chip or your hand on your cards. If the dealer mucks unprotected cards by mistake, they are usually dead.
Act in turn. Folding or betting before the action reaches you gives information to other players and can lead to a penalty in tournaments.
Where to go after the first hand
Once the order of play feels natural, the next step is learning why players fold most of their starting hands and how stack size changes decisions, covered in the guide to short stack and big stack strategy. The vocabulary at a live table moves quickly, too, and the poker terms glossary explains the common ones: “chop”, “straddle”, “rabbit hunt”.
If you want to practise, play-money tables on sites like PokerStars or WSOP.com deal the same rules at a much faster pace than a live game, where a dealer typically gets through around 30 hands an hour. At that speed, the hand followed here would take about two minutes from the first blind to the button pulling in the chips.