Texas Hold'em rules and terminology

The short version

Texas Hold'em is the most widely played form of poker in the world. Every player gets two private cards (their hole cards), and five community cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table. You make the best possible five-card hand out of those seven cards, and the strongest hand at the end takes the pot.

How a hand plays out

One hand — from the deal to the moment the pot is pushed — runs like this:

  1. Blinds: the player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind (SB), and the player to their left posts the big blind (BB). These are forced bets, so there is always something worth playing for.
  2. Pre-flop: everyone is dealt two hole cards. The first betting round starts with the player to the left of the big blind.
  3. Flop: three community cards are turned face up, followed by a second betting round.
  4. Turn: a fourth community card is turned up, followed by a third betting round.
  5. River: the fifth and final community card is turned up, followed by the last betting round.
  6. Showdown: the players still in the hand show their cards, and the best five-card hand wins the pot.

If everyone else folds at any point, the last player standing wins the pot immediately and never has to show their cards.

What you can do on your turn

  • Check — pass the action without putting money in. Only possible if nobody has bet in the current round.
  • Bet — be the first to put chips in during a round.
  • Call — match the current bet to stay in the hand.
  • Raise — put in more than the current bet, forcing everyone else to call the new amount or fold.
  • Fold — give up the hand. Anything you have already put in stays in the pot.
  • All in — push your entire stack in. You can always do this, even if it is less than the current bet; the extra chips from the other players go into a side pot that you are not eligible to win.

In short: if there is a bet in front of you and you are not willing to match it, your only options are to fold or move all in.

Key terms

Dealer button

A marker showing who is nominally dealing. It fixes where the blinds are and who acts last, and it moves one seat to the left after every hand.

Small blind (SB)

The smaller of the two forced bets, posted by the player immediately left of the button.

Big blind (BB)

The forced bet posted one seat further left, normally twice the small blind. It sets the minimum price to play the hand pre-flop.

Pot

All the chips bet during the hand, waiting for a winner.

All in

Betting every chip you have left. You can never lose more than your own stack, so any amount the other players bet beyond it is set aside.

Side pot

The extra pot created when a player is all in for less than the others. Only the players who could still cover the larger bets are eligible to win it.

Hand rankings, strongest first

Royal flush

Ten through ace, all in the same suit.

e.g. ♠10 ♠J ♠Q ♠K ♠A

Straight flush

Five cards in sequence, all in the same suit.

e.g. ♥4 ♥5 ♥6 ♥7 ♥8

Four of a kind

All four cards of the same rank.

e.g. ♦7 ♣7 ♥7 ♠7 ♣K

Full house

Three of a kind plus a pair.

e.g. ♣K ♥K ♠K ♦6 ♣6

Flush

Five cards of the same suit, in any order.

e.g. ♦2 ♦4 ♦8 ♦J ♦K

Straight

Five cards in sequence, suits mixed. The ace can be high (10-J-Q-K-A) or low (A-2-3-4-5).

e.g. ♠6 ♣7 ♦8 ♥9 ♠10

Three of a kind

Three cards of the same rank.

e.g. ♠Q ♥Q ♦Q ♣9 ♦4

Two pair

Two different pairs.

e.g. ♥J ♣J ♦5 ♠5 ♣2

One pair

Two cards of the same rank.

e.g. ♠A ♥A ♦10 ♣5 ♦2

High card

Nothing else made — the highest card decides, and further cards break ties.

e.g. ♠A ♥Q ♦10 ♣5 ♦2

Once the rules are clear, the app takes over the arithmetic: it moves the blinds, tracks every stack and splits side pots for you. For a walkthrough of the app itself, see the how-to-play guide.