Texas Hold’em :: How To Play

Texas Hold’em is usually played with nine or ten players at a full table with a rotating blind system. The blinds are forced bets and are introduced to stimulate action and betting. There is the big blind, which is equal to the minimum bet at the table you are playing at and the small blind, which is half the amount of the big blind. For instance, if the table minimum is 10, then the big blind would be 10 and the small blind would be 5.

As the button (dealer) moves clock-wise after each hand, so do the blinds. The small blind is posted by the player directly to the left of the button and the big blind is the player to the left of the small blind. In tournaments, an additional forced bet, called an ante, is also sometimes introduced in addition to the blinds. An ante has to be posted by all players on the table.

After the blinds are placed, each player is dealt two down cards (called hole cards). The betting action starts from the player to the left of the big blind. In order for a player to stay in the hand, one has to either call (place an equal amount of chips as the big blind), raise (put in more chips than the big blind, usually the minimum is double the big blind). Otherwise the player can opt to fold the cards, thus resigning from the current round of play. If there were no raises the player in the big blind has the option to raise or check (to refuse to bet) if there are no raises as they already have a full bet in the pot. Any player who calls the big blind and has the pot raised behind them then has the option to call the raise or re-raise the pot.

After the first round of betting, three community cards (called the flop) are placed face up on the table. A second round of betting is then conducted, starting with the small blind, who is the player to the left of the button. Each player still active in the hand may then check or bet. After a bet, each player may call the bet, raise (or re-raise if there was a previous raise) or fold.

The fourth community card (called the turn or fourth street) is then placed face on the table and another round of betting ensues.

Finally, the last community card (called the river or fifth street) is placed face on the table followed by the last round of betting. After all bets have been placed, there is a showdown of cards to determine who wins the pot.

Players use any combination of their hole cards and the community cards to form the best five card hand possible. This means that players can use both of their hole cards with any three of the community cards, one of thier hole cards with any four of the community cards, or all five community cards to make a hand.