How to play Texas Hold’em
Texas Hold’em is the poker game most of the world plays. Each player gets two cards of their own, five more are turned face up in the middle for everyone to share, and the best five-card hand you can make from those seven wins the pot. There are four rounds of betting on the way, and you can also win by betting so that everyone else folds.
Here you play against Mabel, Otto and June. The chips are play chips. Nothing on this page is money: there is nothing to buy, nothing to win and no sign-up.
The dealer and the blinds
A disc marked D shows who is the dealer for the hand, and it moves one place to the left after every hand. Before the cards are dealt, the two players to the dealer’s left must each put in a bet without seeing anything: the small blind and then the big blind, which is twice the size. The blinds make sure there is always something to play for. When only two players are left, the dealer posts the small blind and the other player the big one.
The four rounds
| Round | What is dealt | Who acts first |
|---|---|---|
| Before the flop | Two cards to each player, face down | The player to the left of the big blind |
| The flop | Three cards face up in the middle | The first player to the dealer’s left who is still in |
| The turn | A fourth card | As on the flop |
| The river | A fifth and last card | As on the flop |
The five cards in the middle are called the board. If two or more players are still in after the betting on the river, their cards are turned up and the best hand wins. This is the showdown.
What you can do on your turn
- Fold: give up the hand, and whatever you have already put in.
- Check: stay in without betting, when nobody has bet in this round.
- Call: match the bet in front of you.
- Bet or raise: put in more, which the others must match or fold.
The game is no-limit: you may bet any amount up to everything you have, which is called going all in. The smallest bet is one big blind, and a raise must add at least as much as the last bet or raise did. If the bet is 60 and it is raised to 150, the next raise must be to 240 or more. A round of betting ends when everyone still in has put in the same amount, or has no chips left.
Bet or Raise opens a second row of buttons where you choose the amount: the minus and plus buttons move it by one big blind, and Least, Half pot, Pot and All in jump to those sizes. Back returns to Fold, Call and Raise.
The hands, best first
| Hand | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | Ace to ten, all one suit | A K Q J 10 of spades |
| Straight flush | Five cards in a row, all one suit | 9 8 7 6 5 of hearts |
| Four of a kind | Four cards of one rank | 7 7 7 7 K |
| Full house | Three of one rank and two of another | K K K 4 4 |
| Flush | Five cards of one suit | A J 9 6 2 of clubs |
| Straight | Five cards in a row, any suits | 10 9 8 7 6 |
| Three of a kind | Three cards of one rank | 9 9 9 A 5 |
| Two pair | Two cards of one rank and two of another | A A 7 7 K |
| A pair | Two cards of one rank | K K 9 7 5 |
| High card | None of these | A J 9 7 5 |
- You may use both of your cards, one of them, or neither: it is always the best five of the seven.
- An ace is high, except that ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a straight, the lowest one.
- When two players have the same kind of hand, the higher ranks win: a pair of kings beats a pair of queens. If those match as well, the side cards decide, highest first. The highest side card is called the kicker.
- Suits never decide anything. Hands that match in all five cards share the pot.
The label beside your cards names the best hand you hold so far. At the showdown the five winning cards are lit.
All in, and side pots
A player with too few chips to call may go all in for what they have. They stay in the hand to the end, but can win from each other player only as much as they put in themselves. The rest goes into a side pot that only the players with more chips can win. The table works this out for you and tells you who won which pot.
A bet that nobody could match in full comes back to the player who made it. When nobody is left who can bet, the hands are turned face up and the rest of the board is dealt.
The game here
All four players start with 1,000 chips. The blinds start at 10 and 20 and go up every five hands: 15 and 30, then 25 and 50, 40 and 80, 60 and 120, 100 and 200, and so on. Rising blinds keep a game from dragging on.
You win the game by ending up with all 4,000 chips. If your chips run out, the game is over and you are placed second, third or fourth, by how many players were still in. Scores shows everyone’s chips after each hand.
Tips for winning more often
- Fold most of your hands. Starting hands are far from equal. Against one other hand dealt at random, two aces win 85 times in 100, ace-king of one suit 67, and seven-two of different suits 35. The hands worth a raise from any seat are roughly the best fifth: any pair from fives up, an ace with a nine or better, and two high cards such as king-queen.
- Raise or fold more than you call. A raise can win the pot at once. A call can only win at the showdown.
- Play more hands when you act late. The dealer acts last in every round after the flop, and sees what everyone else does first. Hands that should be folded by the first player to act are worth a raise from the dealer’s seat.
- Compare the price with your chances. If it costs 50 to call and the pot will then hold 200, the call needs to win 25 times in 100 to pay for itself. The Hint button gives both figures.
- A draw is worth less than it looks. Four cards to a flush on the flop come in about 35 times in 100 by the river, and about 20 with one card to come.
- When you are short of chips, go all in or fold. With fewer than about ten big blinds left, a small raise commits you anyway. Pick a good hand and put everything in while a fold from the others still wins you something.
- Watch how each player bets. Mabel is careful: when she bets, she usually has it. June is bold and bluffs the most. Otto is in between.
How good are Mabel, Otto and June?
They play fair. Each of them sees their own two cards, the board, the chips and the bets, and nothing else: not your cards, not each other’s, and not the pack. They do notice how often each player raises and bets, as anyone at the table could, and they stop believing a player who goes all in again and again.
Before the flop they go by how good their two cards are, where they sit and what has been bet. After it, each of them deals out the unseen cards a few hundred times to estimate how often their hand would win, and compares that with the price of staying in. The Hint button does the same for you and never suggests a bluff. Its figure is an estimate that takes the others’ bets at face value, so it will sometimes be wrong about a bluff.
In test games played to the last chip, a game ran to about 32 hands, and your own part in it to about 25. June won most often, 29 games in 100, then Otto with 24 and Mabel with 21. A player in your seat who followed the Hint every time won 26, where an even share is 25.
Simple ways of playing did much worse in your seat. A player who calls every bet won 2 or 3 games in 100, and one who waits for a big hand and then goes all in won about 2. One who plays good cards and bets only with a pair or better won about 10, and one who goes all in on every hand about 17. A player who raises every hand and bets every round took an even share.
Other ways to play
This is a small tournament: everyone starts level, the blinds rise, and play goes on until one player has all the chips. In a cash game the blinds stay the same and players come and go as they please. In limit hold’em the size of each bet is fixed, and in pot-limit no bet may be bigger than the pot.
A few things are simpler here than at a card table. Every hand still in is shown at the showdown, where a real player may throw a losing hand away unseen. The dealer’s disc always moves to the next player still in the game. And no card is set aside (“burned”) before the flop, turn and river, which changes nothing about the odds.