Texas Hold’em gives each player two private cards and then deals five shared cards to the middle of the table in three stages. There are four rounds of betting, and the player who either makes the best five-card hand at the showdown or gets everyone else to fold wins the pot. Each player may use any five of their seven cards, including all five on the board.
The procedure below follows Pennsylvania’s Hold’em regulation, 58 Pa. Code § 637a.11, which licensed rooms in that state deal by, with notes from Robert’s Rules of Poker where home games tend to differ. A full hand is traced at the end, chip by chip.
What the table needs
- One 52-card deck, no jokers.
- Two to ten players. Pennsylvania caps a Hold’em game at ten.
- A dealer button, a disk that marks the nominal dealer. In a casino a house dealer does the dealing and the button just shows who acts last. At home, whoever has the button usually deals.
- Chips and a betting structure agreed before the first hand: no-limit, pot-limit or fixed-limit, plus the size of the blinds.
Step 1: Post the blinds
Before any cards are dealt, the two players to the left of the button post forced bets called blinds. The player directly left of the button posts the small blind; the next player posts the big blind. In a “$1/$2” game, those are $1 and $2.
The blinds exist so there is something to fight for on every hand. Without them, a patient player could fold everything except aces and never pay a cent. Some games add an ante or allow a straddle (an optional blind raise by the player left of the big blind); Pennsylvania allows one straddle per round where the room offers it.
Step 2: Deal the hole cards
Starting with the player to the left of the button and going clockwise, each player gets two cards face down, one at a time. The button receives the last card each round. These are the hole cards, and they stay private until the showdown.
Step 3: Preflop betting
Action starts with the player to the left of the big blind (often called “under the gun”) and moves clockwise. Each player has three options:
- Fold: give up the hand and any chips already in the pot.
- Call: match the current bet, which preflop is at least the big blind.
- Raise: increase the bet.
The blinds act last on this round, and both may raise. The round ends when every remaining player has put in the same amount, or everyone else has folded.
How big must a raise be? In no-limit, a raise has to be at least as large as the previous bet or raise in that round, unless the player is going all in. Robert’s Rules gives this as its no-limit rule 3. With a $2 big blind, the smallest legal raise is to $4. If someone raises to $6 (a $4 raise), the next raise must be to at least $10. In pot-limit the cap is the size of the pot after the call; in fixed-limit, every bet and raise is a set amount.
Step 4: The flop
The dealer burns (discards face down) the top card, then turns three community cards face up. This is the flop.
From the flop onward, the first player still in the hand to the left of the button acts first. With no bet in front of them, players may also check (pass without betting). Once someone bets, the others must fold, call or raise.
Step 5: The turn
Burn one card, then deal a fourth community card face up: the turn. Another round of betting follows, starting again with the first active player left of the button. In fixed-limit structures the bet size typically doubles from here.
Step 6: The river
Burn one more card and deal the fifth and final community card: the river. The last betting round follows.
Step 7: The showdown
If two or more players are still in after the river betting, they reveal their hands. Each player makes the best five-card hand from their two hole cards and the five board cards, in any combination: two hole cards, one, or none. If the board itself is the best hand for everyone left, the pot is split. The full order of hands, with the odds of each, is in the poker hand rankings note.
Who must show first varies by room, so the posted house rules decide it. One rule is universal, though: the cards speak. A player who announces “flush” while holding a straight has a straight.
Step 8: Move the button
The button moves one seat to the left, the blinds move with it, and the next hand begins. Over one full orbit every player pays each blind once and gets the button once. Why that rotation matters for strategy is the subject of the poker positions note.
The order of play at a glance
| Stage | Cards dealt | Who acts first | Betting round |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blinds | None | Small blind, then big blind post | Forced bets |
| Preflop | 2 hole cards each | Player left of the big blind | 1 |
| Flop | 3 community cards | First active player left of the button | 2 |
| Turn | 1 community card | First active player left of the button | 3 |
| River | 1 community card | First active player left of the button | 4 |
| Showdown | None | Per house rules | None |
A full hand, start to finish
Six-handed $1/$2 no-limit Hold’em. Every player starts with $200 (100 big blinds). The hero is on the button.
Blinds. The small blind posts $1, the big blind posts $2. Pot: $3.
Preflop. The hero looks down at A♠ Q♠. Under the gun folds. The hijack raises to $6. The cutoff folds. The hero calls $6. The small blind folds, leaving the $1 behind. The big blind calls $4 more.
- Pot: $6 (hijack) + $6 (hero) + $6 (big blind) + $1 (small blind) = $19.
Flop: Q♥ 9♣ 4♠. The hero has top pair with the best possible kicker. The big blind checks. The hijack bets $10. The hero calls $10. The big blind folds.
- Pot: $19 + $10 + $10 = $39.
Turn: 2♦. The hijack checks. The hero bets $25. The hijack calls.
- Pot: $39 + $25 + $25 = $89.
River: K♣. The hijack checks, and the hero checks behind. A king is not a happy card for a pair of queens, and checking keeps the hand cheap against the kings that just got there.
Showdown. The hijack shows J♣ J♦. The hero’s best five cards are Q♠ Q♥ A♠ K♣ 9♣, one pair of queens with an ace kicker. The hijack’s best five are J♣ J♦ K♣ Q♥ 9♣, a pair of jacks. Queens beat jacks, and the hero wins the $89 pot, less any rake the room takes.
The hero put in $6 + $10 + $25 = $41 and collected $89, a net gain of $48 before rake. The spade draw never mattered, which is how most draws go.
Three things to take from the hand:
- The button acted last after the flop on every street. That is why the hero could check the river and see the showdown for free.
- The small blind’s dollar stayed in the pot. Folded blinds are dead money for whoever wins.
- The board did a lot of the work. The hero’s best five used three board cards. Reading the board first, then the hole cards, is the habit that prevents misreads.
Rules that often differ between rooms and home games
- Betting caps in limit games. Robert’s Rules sets a bet and three raises as the traditional private-game cap. Licensed rooms post their own cap; Pennsylvania requires it to be posted at the table.
- Straddles. Robert’s Rules allows one optional live straddle in non-tournament games, posted by the player left of the big blind at twice the big blind. Rooms vary, so check before posting one.
- Dead button versus moving button. When a player leaves, some rooms keep the button on the empty seat for a hand (dead button) so nobody skips a blind. Robert’s Rules lists both methods.
- Verbal declarations. In Pennsylvania a verbal “call,” “raise” or “fold” is binding if it is the player’s turn. Home games are often looser, which is a polite way of saying someone will try to take it back.
For practice with friends before real money changes hands, the poker apps to play with friends list compares play-money and real-money options and the risks of each.
Questions new players ask
Can a player win without the best hand? Yes. If every other player folds, the last player in wins the pot without showing. That is what makes bluffing possible.
What happens if someone runs out of chips mid-hand? They are all in. Under Pennsylvania’s rules they can win only the part of the pot they contributed to; further betting between the others goes into a side pot.
Is it legal to play at home? Private-game law is set state by state. Robert’s Rules opens with a warning that no state lets a private host run a game as a business, which rules out raking the pot or charging a seat fee at home. Hosts should check their own state’s law before playing for money.
What should be learned next? The poker terms glossary covers the vocabulary, and pot odds come right after that.
Real-money Hold’em is for adults only (21+, or 18+ where state law allows). If the game stops being a game, the National Problem Gambling Helpline is free on call or text at 1-800-MY-RESET, and the responsible gambling page has other options.