1. Texas Holdem Flop River And River
2. Texas Holdem Poker Rules
3. Texas Holdem Hands To Play
4. Texas Holdem Terms Flop River
5. Poker Texas Holdem Flop River Turn

The PDF rules of poker are provided below for Texas Hold’em, the most popular poker variant.

To get the PDF printable version of this post click on of the unlock buttons below:

Other popular game variants include Pot Limit Omaha and 5card draw.

Table Of Contents

• Texas Hold’em Rules
• Poker hand Ranking System

In Texas Hold'em, the first common cards dealt are the three cards known as the flop. Then we proceed to deal the Turn and the River, which are single cards. Is there any specific reason why we first deal multiple cards and then single cards? How did the poker terms flop turn and river originate - trivia question /questions answer / answers. What is the probability of a pair being part of a flop in Texas Hold'em poker and what is its dependency on the number of players? 'Wild Bill' Hickok was shot and killed in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota, on August 2, 1876. Texas Holdem Post Flop Play. Many Texas holdem poker books do a good job of explaining how to play profitably before the flop, but it’s hard to find a good resource that teaches you how to play well after the flop. We believe the reason for this is because playing strong poker post flop is hard.

Texas Hold’em Rules

In Texas hold’em each player is dealt two cards called their ‘hole’ cards. Hole cards can only be seen and used by one person. The dealer button (denoted by a circular disc) is allocated before hands are dealt to allow for the positioning of the forced bets: small blind and big blind, and also to determine who will act first and last in the hand.

There are a total of four betting rounds: preflop, the flop, the turn and the river. The betting rounds will be detailed further on.

If you have a dedicated dealer (such as at a casino), the button will still move around the table so everybody will eventually have to pay the blinds. The button doesn’t show who is dealing in a casino; the button shows who is seated the best position at the table and where the blinds are located.

If you just sat down (out of turn) you will have to pay the blinds in order get dealt a hand; otherwise, you can wait until the blinds come around to your seat. You should wait for the blinds as paying twice is unprofitable.

The size of the blinds depends on the limit; for example, a 1/2 No Limit Hold’em game would have a big blind of $2 and a small blind of 1$. The small blind and big blind are located to the left of the button.

This is shown in the case of a 6 handed game below:

The blinds are an important part of the rules of poker. These forced bets which give players an incentive to play; in other words ‘spice up’ the game. Without the blinds, there would be no penalty for waiting and only playing strong hands. The only hand worth playing would be two aces!

Antes are another form of forced bets which are often used the increase the action in some game types such as tournaments and deep stacked cash games.

Pre-flop – The First Betting Round of Hold’em

The first round of betting takes places starting at the position to the left of the big blind (early position or EP). Each player has the following options:

Texas Holdem Flop River And River

Raise: you can raise the current bet to increase the stakes of the game. If someone has raised before you, you can still raise again – this is call a reraise. The minimum size you can raise is typically chosen to be twice that of the last bet or raise.

Call: When you do not want to raise the stakes but want to continue with your hand you can match the current bet.

Fold: If you feel your hand is not worth playing any further you can fold your hand and not commit any more bets.

Check: If there is no bet placed you can check in order to see the next card. This isn’t applicable to preflop. The blinds are the first bet preflop which must be matched with a call or raised, if a player wishes to continue.

Players must act in sequence until all bets are settled. The button must always act last in the first sequence. This first round of betting called ‘pre-flop’ occurs before the flop is dealt.

The Flop – The Second Betting Round

The second round of betting takes places after the three community (shared) cards called the flop are dealt. The action will be to the first player to the left of the dealer. This is opposed to the action starting to the left of the big blind during the preflop betting round.

The first player to act has the option to check bet or fold; although you should not fold when you can check for free. The betting rounds after the flop is dealt is collectively known as ‘post-flop’.

The Turn – The Third Betting Round

The third round of betting occurs after the second community card has been dealt. This card is called the turn. Again, the action starts with the active player to the left of the dealer.

The River and Showdown – The Fourth Betting Round

The fourth and final round of betting occurs when the dealer turns over the river card. The hand ends with the showdown of hands or if there is only one live hand remaining (the other player(s) have folded).

At showdown, the player with the best five card combination from their hole cards and the community cards wins the final pot. Split pots occur when both players have the same best five cards.

After each hand, the button moves to the left of the dealer. This means everyone will have to play the blinds at some point.

Texas hold’em rules are quite simple; however the strategies involved in winning are ever evolving.

The rules of Texas Hold’em are just the beginning so head to our poker training sites post here if you want to improve your poker game!

Other notes:

• The dealer will often take one card off the top of the deck before turning over the flop, turn and river for a total of three cards. The three removed cards are called the burn cards. The purpose of these cards is to make it difficult for cheaters.
• A player can not buy in for any more chips once he is in the hand. So if they start the hand with $100 they cannot add another $20 to their stack midway through the hand; they have to top up in between hands.

he poker hand ranking system is universal to all types of poker games. Be it 7 Card Stud, Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha a flush will always beat a straight and a full house will always beat a flush. So make sure you pay attention because the ‘poker hands order’ will be useful to you no matter what type of poker you play!

Poker hand Ranking System

To get the PDF printable version of this hand rankings click on of the unlock buttons below:

To get a printable winning poker hands ranking chart in PDF format click here.

Keep this printable PDF hand ranking sheet beside you when you play to make sure you don’t make a mistake!

The strongest to weakest hands of them poker hand hierarchy are listed below with the poker hands probability listed in brackets. After reading there will be no debating with friends ‘who has the best poker hand’!

1. Royal Flush (649,739:1)
   Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten all of the same suit – the strongest poker hand.

2. Straight flush (72,192:1)
   Five sequential cards all of the same suit. The second strongest poker hand.

3. Four of a kind (4,164:1)
   Four cards of the same value. Also known as ‘quads’.

4. Full House (693:1)
   Three cards of the same value plus two cards of the same value. Usually a winner!

5. Flush (508:1)
   Five cards all of the same suit.

6. Straight (254:1)
   Five cards in sequential order. Also referred to as a run.

7. Three of a kind (46:1)
   Three cards of the same value.

8. Two pair (20 : 1)
   Two sets of two cards with the same value. A common hand which can sometimes win at showdown!

9. One pair (1.37:1)
   Two cards of the same value.

10. High card
    The player with the highest card wins. Unlikely to be a winner so play with care.

Kickers

A kicker is much like a decider when both players have similar hand types. For example, if player A has A♠Q♣and Player B has A♣J♠ and the board is A♥K♦5♠ 7♠ 2♦ both players will have top pair with an ace but player A will win because the Q♣ is a better kicker than the J♠. The best five cards in this scenario are AAQ75 whereas the losing hand has AAJ75. A kicker is a very important concept when trying to understand the poker hand ranking system.

Split pots

Split pots occur when both players get to showdown and have the same hand rank. The pot is divided up equally between each of the players.

To take an example, if player A has K♠J♥ and player B has K♣Q♠ on a A♥K♦5♠5♣2♠ board both players will have two pair and ace kicker as their best hand (A, K, K, 5, 5). Therefore the pot will be split between the two players.

Alternatively, if the neither player can improve the hand on the board it will also be a split pot. If the board is A♥K♦5♠5♣K♠ and player A has Q♠J♣ and player B has 4♣4♠ then both players will be playing the board and thus it will be a split pot. Hence, you cannot have three pair in poker and the best two pair will play.

Beyond hand rankings

The rules of poker and poker hand rankings are just the beginning for you on your poker journey. One of the core skills in poker is being able to determine whether your hand is strong or weak on a relative scale as opposed to an absolute scale. For example, three of a kind is extremely strong on a board with no flush or straight possibilities but very weak on a board with 4 to a flush or 4 to a straight (e.g. T♥9♥8♥7♥ – any heart or J or 6 beats three of a kind).

One key point to note is that in poker all suits are of the same value. An Ace high flush of hearts is the same value as an Ace high flush of spades.

The first step to this is remembering if a flush beats a straight, or whether a straight flush beats quads; the next stage is figuring out your hand’s relative strength based on how your opponent is playing, his tendencies and most importantly the board texture as noted.

Additionally, we should take into account the following factors:

• How many players are in the pot
• The amount of chips in the pot
• The size of the bets made

If you can understand the poker hand rankings and relative hand strength you will be ahead of the game; get ready to beat all your friends and opponents at your home games and casinos! Want to accelerate your poker learning? Check out or poker training sites post for the quickest ways to improve your poker game.

If you are new to poker and are unsure of what hands you need to play, check out our starting hand charts over at the poker cheat sheet webpage.

Check out this poker hand ranking video for a more visual format of everything we said:

Make sure you check out the fan favorite posts:

Poker cheat sheet for beginners & Best Poker Books

This is the second part of our article series on the rules of poker, and more precisely about its most widespread variety - No-Limit Texas Hold’em. The first part can be found here - How to Play Poker: Ultimate Guide to the Rules of Poker (Texas Hold’em) - Part 1. This article explains the progress and sequence of actions at the poker tables in a detailed way and will answer the question of most newbies - 'what are the rules of poker'.

Playing the game in Texas Poker

Texas Hold'em rules are pretty simple - a lot easier than it might seem at the beginning. We have tried to describe all the pecularities in detail so that even dummies could understand the subtleties of the game without problems. This article could have been called Texas Hold'em poker rules for dummies. At the same time here you will find not only basic rules of Texas Hold'em poker, but also a detailed explanation of complex aspects.

Every player at the table in a game of Texas Hold’em is dealt two pocket cards (pocket cards are oftentimes called with one word - ‘hand’). After the cards are dealt every player has an option to place a bet or surrender. There are four betting rounds in the game - preflop, flop, turn, and river, which we will explain more closely further on. Betting rounds are also called ‘streets’. During the betting rounds 5 community cards are dealt to the table in three stages: the first three on the flop, then one more and then another one. Because this cards are considered community cards, any player can you them to form his poker hand. It turns out that every player has seven cards in his disposal (2 pocket cards and 5 community cards), he has to choose those five that will allow him to form the strongest possible poker hand (combination). Depending on the community cards strength, every player can use either 1 of his pocket cards and 4 community cards, or both pocket cards with 3 community cards, or even none of his pocket cards, using only the community cards on the table. Community cards are used only to form poker combinations. None of the player can take them, but at the same time, for example, 3 players can use the same community card to form their hands.

Example. There are 3 players in the hand with completely identical cards - . Imagine, that Player 1 has - , Player 2 - , and Player 3 - . Community cards are - . Thus, every player will use community cards to form identical combinations - two pairs, Kings and Queens (we will describe combinations in a more detailed way later in this article).

The winner will be considered the one whose 5-card combination will be the strongest, or the one who will be able to force out of the game other players with the help of betting and will remain alone on the showdown. After the end of each hand, all players muck their cards and the deck is shuffled, thus, each and every hand starts with the completely new cards dealt to players.

Briefly, the rules of Texas Hold’em look like this (details are below):

• Two players sitting on the left to the dealer post blinds: small blind and big blind;
• Every player receives 2 pocket cards;
• The first betting round starts (preflop);
• First three community cards are dealt on the board face up (flop cards);
• The second betting round occurs (flop);
• Next community card is dealt face up (turn card);
• The third betting round occurs (turn);
• The fifth and last community card is dealt on the board face up (river card). Thus, there are 5 community cards dealt on the board face up;
• The last betting round proceeds (river).
• If after the last betting round there are more than one active player, the players proceed to the showdown. Players should use any of their two pocket cards and 5 community cards to form a 5-card poker hand. The pot is won by the player with the strongest combination of cards.

Let’s get into more details...

Playing order in poker

Texas Holdem Poker Rules

Texas Hold’em has its own rules of players taking turns at the table:

• Betting at the table always happens clockwise;
• After any player at the table takes an action (you will discover possible actions at the table later on in this article), he can’t reverse his decision and the turn goes to next player sitting after him (clockwise, again), i.e., sitting to his left;
• In the first betting round (preflop) the first player to act is the one sitting to the left of big blind;
• Starting from the second round of betting (on the flop, turn, and river), the betting always starts with the player sitting to the left of the dealer (small blind);
• All bets that have been made in each betting rounds are put into the pot;
• The betting round is finished when all the players have made equal bets or folded their cards. Then the game goes to the next phase - flop, turn, river or showdown.
• If one of the opponents (let’s call him Player A) made a bet and his bet was raised by another opponent (let’s call him Player B), then Player A has one more decision to make: fold his cards, call the bet or make another raise;
• If one of the players has less money in his stack than his opponents bet, the player is considered all-in. In this case, two pots are formed - the main pot and side pot. Both pots are played apart from each other among all players who participated in the hand. Example: On the flop Player A has $10, Players B and C - $15. Pot on flop = $20. Player B bets $15 and gets a call from Player C. If player A will also call this bet, 2 pots will be formed: main pot = money, that have already been invested into the pot + players bets in the limit of the player stack with less money in it: in our case - Player A, i.e. $20 + $10 (Player A) + $10 (Player B) + $10 (Player C) = $50. The side pot is formed out of the difference between all the bets and main pot, thus, side pot = money, that have already been in pot + players bets - the main pot. In our case = $20 + $15+ $15 +$10 - $50 = $60 - $50 = $10. Player A will fight only for the main pot (because he has been investing his bets only in this pot), but players B and C - for the main pot and side pot. First the side pot between players B and C is played, then there is turn for the main pot between all the players at the table.
• If more than one player reached the showdown, players are showing their cards and players hands are compared one to another. The pot is won by the player with the strongest poker hand at the table.
• If only one player reached the showdown, he collects the full pot.
• If two or more players have similar poker hands, pot is split among both of them.

Poker has a rule, according to which player is taking part in the game only with the amount of money he has in his stack (stack - the amount of chips one has before him on the table). You can add chips to your stack only between hands. You cannot take money out of your stack - the only option is to leave the table with all your money. As was already mentioned before, in case a player has ran out of money in his stack during the betting rounds, he continues to participate in hand, but he is not participating in further betting rounds anymore and thus the side pot is formed at the table.

Players actions at the poker table

Every player, depending on the betting activity at the table, can choose one of the following actions during the game:

• Place a bet;
• Make a raise of the previous bet - bet the bigger amount than any of the opponents before;
• Make a re-raise - this is an action during the betting round when a player raises the raise of a player before him;
• Call the bet - make a bet equal to the bet of the opponent before. In other words, this means to bet the same amount of chips your opponent have put into pot before you;
• Check - this means not betting any amount of chips. You can play check only when the amount of your previous bet equals the amount of your opponents bets, i.e., if nobody has made any bets before you in the current betting round. For example, you’re on the big blind, one of the players had made a call, i.e., called your big blind bet, and all other players folded their cards. In this case you can perform a check;
• Fold - meaning not to participate in the betting rounds anymore and muck your cards. This action can be performed during one of the betting rounds, when a player deliberately refuses to continue his participation in a given hand by mucking his cards. As a rule, fold is performed in a situation when a player has weak cards with a low probability of forming a winning combination. After the hand is folded player loses all his chips that he had previously put into the pot during the betting rounds.

Betting limits

In the game of No-Limit Texas Hold’em players can make bets of any size during each betting round. However, there’s a limit on the minimum size of your bet. The size of the minimal re-raise is calculated by the following formula:

The size of the previous re-raise + amount of chips needed to call

For example, let’s imagine that you’re playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em with $1/$2 stakes. There was no raises before you. Minimum raise amount in that case will be equal $4 ($2 (that we would need to call) + $2 (as a raise to the previous bet before you, in our example - the size of a big blind).

The maximum bet size is unlimited. If the amount of the bet equals the whole player’s stack (stack - the amount of money player has on a table in front of him) - he is considered all-in.

The rules of preflop, flop, turn, and river. Determining the winner on showdown

1. The rules of preflop in No-Limit Texas Hold’em

Betting between players involved in the hand starts immediately after posting the blinds, when the cards are dealt to players. On preflop players are making bets, based only on their own pocket cards. The betting starts with the player who is sitting directly to the left of a player sitting in a big blind position. Then the right to act is passed to the next players clockwise.

Player can make the following decisions on preflop:

• Refuse to play with his pocket cards and fold the hand by clicking the “Fold” button;
• Call the big blind and take a look on the decisions of other players at the table;
• Raise the bet by clicking the “Raise” button, i.e., make a larger bet then the size of a big blind. On preflop players on blind are always making their decisions last. However, on the other streets (betting rounds, i.e., flop, turn, and river) they will be acting first.

One question most of the poker beginners always ask: “Why I can’t play check on preflop, if I don’t want to raise, call or fold?”. The answer is simple - blind in No-Limit Texas Hold’em are considered bets. According to No-Limit Texas Hold’em rules, you cannot continue betting unless you have called the bets of your opponents.

Based on the preflop betting activity, you can make conclusions about your opponent's hand strength. Thus, players with strong starting hands will have to play aggressively and make raises on preflop, to force out of the hand as much opponents with weaker hands as possible, and don’t let them see the flop community cards. An aggressive way of playing your starting hands on preflop will give you an advantage and initiative. Initiative in No-Limit Texas Hold’em always stays with a player who made the last raise on preflop.

When all the players have called the bets or folded own pocket cards, the preflop betting round is considered complete. If no one has made any bets and all players have folded their cards, the pot (which will consist only of the blinds) will be taken by the player sitting on the big blind position (it can be called BB). But if one of the players will make a bet and no one will want to call it, this player will win the whole pot (consisting of blinds and his bet). If any of the players will make a bet and his opponent will decide to call it, the preflop betting round will be considered complete and all players still active in the given hand will proceed to the next betting round - flop.

2. The rules of flop in poker (No-Limit Texas Hold’em)

After the preflop betting round is complete, according to the rules of Texas Hold'em, all the players remaining in the hand, have the opportunity to see three community cards, i.e., flop cards. The betting round with the three community cards on a table is called the flop.

Second and all the following betting rounds begin with the player who sits on a position of small blind. Starting from the flop, the last action in the betting round will always be taken by a dealer, i.e., player on the ‘Button’.

Player can make the following decisions on flop:

• Skip his action and don’t make any bets (by clicking the ‘Check’ button). On postflop (on flop, turn, and river) every player has an option to check until any of his opponents will make a bet.
• Make a bet (by clicking ‘Raise’ button). In No-Limit Texas Hold’em the player chooses the size of his bet on his own, but it can’t be lower than the size of the big blind. After any player has made a bet on flop other players lose an option to skip the action (check). They would need either to call this bet, or to make a bet of larger amount, or fold their cards, refusing to continue the participation in the hand.

After all the bets on flop had been called the betting round is considered complete. All the made bets are summed with the pot and players still active in the hand are proceeding to the next betting round - turn.

3. The rules of turn in poker (No-Limit Texas Hold’em)

After the second betting round (flop) is finished, according to the Texas Hold’em rules players still active in the hand are granted an option to see one more community card - turn card. The betting round with four community cards on a table is called ‘turn’.

The fourth community card, turn card, is also available to use drawing your poker hand. Players still active in the pot are going through one more, third betting round. The turn playing rules are the same to the ones on flop.

All the bets made are once again summed up with the overall pot and players still active in the hand are proceeding to the next betting round - river.

Texas Holdem Hands To Play

4. The rules of river in poker (No-Limit Texas Hold’em)

After the third betting round (turn) is finished, according to the Texas Hold’em rules, players still active in the hand are given an opportunity to see one more (and the last) community card - river card. The betting round with the five community cards on the board is called the ‘river’.

The river playing rules are the same to the ones on flop and turn.

River is the final, fourth betting round in No-Limit Texas Hold’em. All five community cards are placed on a board and every player has to form his combination using five cards. Every player sees seven cards in total (two pocket cards and five community cards on a table).

After all players had made their bets the showdown occurs, where the winner of the hand is determined.

5. Determining the winner of the hand (Showdown)

Showdown is a moment of truth in No-Limit Texas Hold’em (or simply poker in our series of articles). On a showdown players open their cards and determine who has the strongest combination (the strongest hand).

Player can use two of his pocket cards and three community cards on a board to form his combination; besides, player can use only one of his pocket cards and four community cards, or even all five of the community cards. This doesn’t change anything. The main thing - player has to have exactly five cards in his final hand - no more, no less.

Player with the strongest poker combination wins the hand and takes the pot. If one or more players have equal poker combinations, this players split the pot equally.

In the case where during the No-Limit Texas Hold’em game none of the players have called the opponent bet and everyone folded instead, the last player to bet will win the pot automatically, because he’s the last active player in the hand. In this case player has an option to show his cards, because none of his opponents had called the bet and he has no one to compare the strength of his cards with.

It’s important to remember that in Hold’em, no suit has an advantage over another.

After the winner of a given hand is determined, the next hand starts. The dealer’s ‘button’ moves clockwise to the next player, and two players after him post blinds. Right after that all players receive their pocket cards. Thus, everything returns to the preflop stage.

Now the second part of our article series about rules of playing poker can be considered complete. If you would like to continue studying the poker rules for beginners, please read the third article of the series - Ultimate Guide To The Rules of Poker (Texas Hold’em) - Part 3: Poker Hands.

Texas Holdem Terms Flop River

Knowledge base's sections

The best about poker

Poker Texas Holdem Flop River Turn

• Five reasons why I've made money and continue doing this playing poker
  The psychology of poker
• The fundamental theorem of poker
  Poker theorems
• The probabilities of getting specific starting hands on preflop
  Poker mathematics