Texas Hold’em is a community-card poker game where every player gets two private cards, five shared cards land face-up in the middle, and the best five-card hand wins the pot. A hand plays out across four betting rounds: preflop, flop, turn, and river. The dealer button rotates clockwise after every hand so the forced bets and the action order stay fair. No-Limit Hold’em is the most common version, and the rules below work the same at home, in a card room, and in the Poker Skill app.
The setup, in one screen
Up to ten players sit around a table. A small puck called the button marks the nominal dealer; in a card room a professional dealer handles the cards, but the button still decides whose turn it is to act first. Two players post forced bets before any cards are dealt. The seat one to the left of the button posts the small blind; the next seat left posts the big blind. The big blind is usually twice the small blind, and the game is named after the two amounts. A “$1/$2 game” has a $1 small blind and a $2 big blind.
The dealer then gives every player two cards face down. Those are your hole cards, and they belong to you alone. Across the four betting rounds, five community cards come face-up in the middle of the table. Every player builds their final hand from those seven cards.
The four betting rounds
A single hand moves through four streets:
| Round | Cards dealt | First to act | What it sets up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preflop | Two hole cards each, no community cards yet | The player left of the big blind | Who pays to see a flop |
| Flop | Three community cards face-up | The first remaining player left of the button | The shape of every hand on the table |
| Turn | One more community card, four total | Same: first player left of the button | Whether draws got there |
| River | One final community card, five total | Same: first player left of the button | The last chance to bet, bluff, or pay off |
Preflop is the only round where the player left of the big blind acts first instead of the player left of the button. That exception exists because the blinds have already paid in, so the action skips them and starts with the next live seat. After the flop, the order resets and the button becomes the most powerful seat at the table because it always acts last. The whole reason “position” matters in Hold’em is right here: the seat that talks last sees what everyone else does first.
The five actions on your turn
When the action gets to you, only five moves are legal, and which ones are available depends on whether anyone has already bet on this street.
- Check. Pass the action without putting in chips. Only legal when no one has bet this round.
- Bet. Put chips in first. Also only legal when no one has bet yet.
- Fold. Give up your cards and any claim on the pot. Always legal once a bet is in front of you.
- Call. Match the current bet to stay in.
- Raise. Match the current bet and add more on top, subject to the minimum-size rules below.
If nobody has bet, you choose between check and bet. If a bet sits in front of you, you choose among fold, call, and raise. There is no sixth option, no “half-call,” no “wait until later.”
What makes Texas Hold’em “no-limit”
In no-limit Hold’em, you can put any amount of your chips into the pot at any time, up to your whole stack. A river bet can be small, half-pot, pot-sized, or every chip you have. The minimum is set by two anchors:
- Minimum bet: the size of the big blind. In a $1/$2 game, the smallest legal bet on any street is $2.
- Minimum raise: the amount you raise by must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise. If the player before you bet $10, your raise has to make the new total at least $20. If someone then re-raises to $50 (a $30 raise on top of your $20), the next raise has to add at least another $30, making the new total at least $80.
Two more pieces matter. A player can go all-in, pushing their whole stack in whenever a bet, raise, or call would otherwise be legal. And “table stakes” means you only play with the chips you started the hand with. You cannot reach into your wallet mid-hand or pull chips off the table mid-session.
Building your best five from seven cards
At showdown, your hand is the best five-card poker hand you can build from your two hole cards plus the five community cards. You may use both hole cards, just one, or neither. The best-five rule covers every shape with worked examples; the short version is: pick the five strongest cards from the seven you can see, in any combination, and that is what you show down.
Three quick patterns:
- Both hole cards play. You hold A♠ K♥ on a board of K♣ 7♦ 4♠ 9♥ 2♣. Your best five is A♠ K♥ K♣ 9♥ 7♦, top pair top kicker, with both your cards working.
- No hole card plays. You hold A♣ 5♦ on a board of K♠ Q♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠. The board itself is a king-high spade flush, so your best five is the board’s flush. You are “playing the board.”
- Both hole cards play as a flush. You hold 9♥ 4♥ on a board of K♥ J♥ 7♥ 3♣ 2♦. Three hearts on the board plus two in your hand makes a king-high heart flush, five hearts using both hole cards.
A flush is impossible unless three cards of the same suit are showing on the table. A straight is impossible unless three cards from a five-card sequence are on the board. Reading the board first is half the job of reading your hand.
Showdown: how the pot is awarded
If two or more players are still live after the river bet, the hand goes to showdown. The last player to bet or raise on the river shows their cards first; if no one bet the river, the player left of the button shows first. After that, the action moves clockwise. A player whose hand cannot beat the cards already on the table can muck, tossing their cards face-down, and a mucked hand is dead even if it would have won.
Most pots have one winner. If two players land on the exact same five-card hand, the pot splits evenly. Suits never break ties.
One more shape matters. If a player goes all-in for less than the current bet and other players have chips behind, the dealer creates a side pot. The all-in player can only win the main pot, capped at that stack amount from every player still in. Any chips bet beyond that go into the side pot, which only the deeper players compete for.
Where this trips beginners
The rules are simple in the abstract and slippery at the table. Five spots that fool first-timers:
- Acting out of order. Your turn comes when the player to your right is finished, not when you have decided. Acting early gives information to the players behind you and can be ruled binding by the dealer.
- A-2-3-4-5 is a straight. It is called the wheel, the ace plays low, and the straight is five-high. This is the only Hold’em hand where the ace ranks below the two.
- Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight. Aces do not wrap around. The ace plays high or the ace plays low, never both in the same hand.
- Show both cards to claim a pot. If you table only one card and muck the other, the dealer can rule you out, even if your two cards together would have won.
- Cards speak. You cannot beat your own hand by misreading it. Say “I have a pair” while the cards in front of you actually form a flush, and the dealer reads the flush and ships you the pot anyway.
A live-play pattern that fits in one breath
When the action reaches you, run three reads in this order: the board, your hand, then the price.
The board is the cheapest. Three to a flush, three in a row, a paired card. Those are public facts that tell you the ceiling of what anyone can have. Your hand is what you add on top. Most of the time it is a pair, two pair, or nothing; once in a while it is a set, straight, flush, or better. The price is the last read: how many chips it costs to keep playing relative to what is already in the pot. Three reads, one breath.
Where this fits in your decision
Once the rules are second nature, two questions take over: what beats what, and how often does my draw get there. The poker hand rankings chart lays out every hand from royal flush to high card with the seven-card odds. The rule of 2 and 4 gives you a mental shortcut for drawing decisions without doing real arithmetic.
Frequently asked questions
What beats what in Texas Hold’em? From highest to lowest: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and high card. A flush always beats a straight; a full house always beats a flush.
How many players can play Texas Hold’em at one table? Most tables seat between two and ten. Heads-up is two-handed, “6-max” is six players, and a “full ring” is nine or ten. The rules stay the same at every size; what changes is how often you see big hands and how aggressive the game tends to be.
What happens if everyone folds before the flop? The last player still in the hand wins the pot without showing any cards. That player keeps the small and big blinds plus any other chips already in the middle. No flop is dealt, no community cards come out, and the next hand begins with the button moving one seat left.
Can I raise after a player checks? Not on the same action. A check passes the turn without a bet, so there is nothing to raise yet. Someone else can bet, and players who already checked can fold, call, or raise when the action returns.