Texas Hold'em rules in 10 minutes

1. Deck and objective

Texas Hold'em is played with a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). Each player gets two private cards — the hole cards — and shares up to five community cards dealt face-up in the middle of the table. From those seven cards, you make the best possible five-card hand. The last player standing, or the strongest hand at showdown, wins the pot.

2. Dealer button and blinds

A marker called the dealer button (BTN) moves one seat clockwise every hand. The player to the button's left posts the small blind (SB); the next seat posts the big blind (BB). Those two forced bets seed the pot before any cards are dealt.

3. Seating and action order

Action always moves clockwise. Pre-flop it starts from the seat to the BB's left — UTG, "under the gun". From the flop onward, action starts from the SB instead. That small shift trips up most beginners once; after that it's automatic.

4. Four betting rounds

• Pre-flop — right after each player receives two hole cards face-down. UTG acts first.
• Flop — three community cards are dealt face-up. SB acts first.
• Turn — a fourth community card is added. Another round of betting.
• River — the fifth and final community card is added. Final round of betting.

On every round your options are fold, check (pass when no bet is live), call (match the current bet), or bet / raise. Once someone bets, checking is no longer an option — you have to fold, call, or raise.

5. Showdown

If two or more players are still in after the river and the bets are matched, it's showdown. Using any combination of your two hole cards and the five board cards, the best five-card hand wins. "Playing the board" — using all five community cards and neither hole card — is also legal.

When two players make the same category of hand, the higher ranks win; if those tie, the best kicker (the highest unused card) decides it. Perfectly equal hands split the pot.

6. When the hand ends early

If everyone but one player folds at any point, that remaining player takes the pot immediately without showing cards. In practice, most hands end this way rather than at showdown.

Read next

• Hand rankings
• Etiquette & table talk
• Practice play (in-browser)

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