Everything a beginner needs at a Texas Hold’em table fits on one page: what beats what, the odds worth knowing, where you sit, and what a call costs. Here is that page. Print it, save it to your phone, or read the four blocks below, where each one is explained. No email, no download form, no course attached.
Get the cheat sheet
The PDF prints on a single sheet in color or black and white, which is the copy to fold into your chip case. The PNG is the one to keep on your phone for the walk to the cardroom. Both carry the same four blocks as the tables below, so nothing on paper disagrees with the page.
On this page
- Block 1: hand rankings at a glance
- Block 2: the odds worth memorizing
- Block 3: position order and what it means
- Block 4: pot odds in one line
- How to use the sheet without slowing the game
Block 1: hand rankings at a glance
| # | Hand | Example | Tie-break in one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ | Cannot be beaten; only a board royal can tie |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | Highest top card wins |
| 3 | Four of a kind | 7♣ 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ K♥ | Higher quads, then the fifth card |
| 4 | Full house | Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 8♣ 8♠ | Higher trips, then the higher pair |
| 5 | Flush | A♣ J♣ 7♣ 6♣ 2♣ | Top card down; suit never breaks it |
| 6 | Straight | 8♦ 7♠ 6♥ 5♣ 4♦ | Highest top card wins |
| 7 | Three of a kind | 9♥ 9♦ 9♣ Q♠ 4♥ | Higher trips, then two kickers |
| 8 | Two pair | J♦ J♣ 4♥ 4♠ A♣ | High pair, low pair, then the kicker |
| 9 | One pair | 10♠ 10♣ K♥ 7♦ 3♠ | Pair rank, then three kickers |
| 10 | High card | A♥ Q♣ 9♦ 6♠ 3♣ | Top card down to the fifth |
The order is absolute. Anything higher beats anything lower, no exceptions. A pair of aces, the best one-pair hand there is, loses to the weakest two pair. A flush always beats a straight, even when the flush is two-three-four-six-eight of clubs and the straight is jack high.
Two rules sit underneath the whole column. Suits never break a tie, so a king-high flush in spades and a king-high flush in clubs with the same five ranks split the pot. And only five cards count, which is why the kicker decides so many hands: your sixth and seventh cards are furniture. When two players land in the same row and you want the tie-breaks shown card by card, the poker hands chart is the long version of this block, and the poker hand rankings hub teaches the order rather than handing it to you.
Block 2: the odds worth memorizing
Count the cards that improve your hand. Those are your outs, and the five counts below cover most of the draws you will ever hold.
| After the flop | Outs | Next card | By the river |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flush draw | 9 | 19% | 35% |
| Open-ended straight draw | 8 | 17% | 32% |
| Two overcards | 6 | 13% | 24% |
| Gutshot straight draw | 4 | 9% | 17% |
| Pocket pair to a set | 2 | 4% | 8% |
You do not have to memorize it, because the arithmetic behind it is small enough to run at the table. Multiply your outs by 2 for the chance you improve on the next card, and by 4 for the chance you improve with two cards still to come. Nine outs times four is 36, and the true number is 35. That is the rule of 2 and 4, and it stays honest up to about ten outs before it starts to flatter big draws. If you want the reasoning behind the percentages rather than the shortcut, poker odds explained has it.
Block 3: position order and what it means
Your seat decides whether you act before your opponents or after them, and that one fact shapes every hand you play. Seats are named by their distance from the dealer button and counted backwards from it, so the same chair changes names as the button moves.
| Seat | Name | Acts after the flop |
|---|---|---|
| BTN | Button | Last |
| CO | Cutoff | 5th |
| HJ | Hijack | 4th |
| LJ | Lojack | 3rd |
| SB | Small blind | 1st |
| BB | Big blind | 2nd |
Those six seats are the whole table in a six-handed game, and the lojack is whoever acts first before the flop. Add players and the under-the-gun seats appear in front of the lojack. The blinds are the exception worth staring at: because they post before the deal, they act last before the flop and first on every street after it, which is the worst trade at the table. Acting last is why the same hand is a raise from the cutoff and a fold from the front, and poker positions walks through what each seat is worth.
Block 4: pot odds in one line
Take what the call costs you and divide it by the size of the pot once your chips are in. That number is your pot odds: how often you have to win the hand for calling to be worth doing. Hold it up against the chance your hand improves from block 2 and the decision answers itself.
| They bet | You need |
|---|---|
| Half the pot | 25% |
| Two-thirds of the pot | 29% |
| The whole pot | 33% |
Example: there is $100 in the pot, your opponent bets $50, and it costs you $50 to call. The pot you are playing for is $100 plus $50 plus $50, so $200. Your $50 into $200 is 25%, which means you need to win this hand one time in four for the call to pay for itself. Hold the open-ended straight draw from block 2 and the next card comes 17% of the time, so the price is asking for more than the draw delivers on its own. Nothing else belongs in the price, and how to calculate pot odds runs it through more spots, including the ones where implied odds change the answer.
How to use the sheet without slowing the game
At a home game, the sheet on the table is normal and nobody minds. In a tournament it is not: the rules bar charts and strategy tools at the table, hand or no hand, and a folded page in your pocket counts the same as a phone. Cash games in a licensed cardroom sit between the two, because house rules vary there, so expect to be asked to put it away. What electronics are actually allowed at a poker table has the exact clause and how rooms enforce it.
So the sheet is a study tool rather than a table tool. What keeps the game moving once you sit down is watching the action while it comes to you instead of starting to think when it arrives: know your best five cards before it is your turn and the row you need is already in your head. If the rest of the customs are new to you, poker etiquette covers what regulars assume everyone knows.
Go deeper than the sheet
Each block is a lookup, and each one has a page underneath it that teaches the thing instead of listing it.
- Hand rankings. The poker hands chart adds the probability of each hand and three showdowns decided card by card. For a single matchup, what beats what in poker answers pair by pair.
- Odds. The rule of 2 and 4 is the mental arithmetic; poker odds explained is where the percentages come from.
- Position. Poker positions explains what each seat is worth and why the button prints.
- Pot odds. How to calculate pot odds covers the prices you meet most and the spots where the price lies.
A sheet answers lookups. It cannot make you faster at the decisions themselves, which is the part that costs beginners real hands. Poker Skill turns these same four topics into short guided drills, so the order, the outs, the seat and the price stop being things you look up and start being things you know.
Cheat sheet FAQ
Is it OK to use a cheat sheet at a poker table?
At a kitchen-table game, yes. In a tournament, no: the rules bar charts and strategy tools at the table, hand or no hand, and paper counts the same as a phone. In cash games house rules vary, so expect to be asked to put it away. Either way the sheet does its work between sessions: study it before you sit down, keep it in your bag while you play, and read it again afterwards, which is when it actually teaches you anything.
What should a poker cheat sheet include?
Four things, which is exactly what fits on one page: the hand rankings so you know what beats what, the common draws with the chance they get there, the seat order so you know when you act, and the pot-odds shortcut so you can price a call. Anything past that is a course wearing a cheat sheet’s title. Preflop charts, bet sizing and stack depth all matter, but they are their own study sessions, not something you scan mid-hand.
Is there a cheat sheet for poker odds?
Yes, and it is block 2 above. It lists the five draws you will actually hold, their outs, and the chance each one gets there on the next card and by the river. The same block is on the printable sheet, along with the rule of 2 and 4 so you can work out any out count the table does not cover.