The rules of Texas Hold'em, explained from the very first hand. What beats what, how the betting works, and how a pot is actually won or split.
Poker is a card game where players bet on who holds the strongest five-card hand. This guide covers Texas Hold'em, by far the most popular version and the one you will see on TV and in almost every casino and home game. The rules are simple enough to learn in ten minutes: everyone shares five community cards, combines them with two private cards, and bets across four rounds until someone wins the pot. What follows is everything a complete beginner needs, with real example hands showing exactly how a showdown, and a split pot, is decided.
You win a hand of poker one of two ways. Either everyone else folds and gives up, or the hand reaches a showdown and you hold the best five-card hand. That is the entire objective. You do not need the best cards to win, you need to be the last player standing or the best hand at the end, and good players win plenty of pots with weak cards by getting everyone else to fold.
The pile of chips everyone is betting for is called the pot. Every bet, call and raise goes into the pot, and whoever wins the hand takes it.
Every showdown is settled with the same ladder of hands, strongest to weakest. This is the one thing worth memorising before you sit down.
| # | Hand | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Flush | A-K-Q-J-10, all one suit. Unbeatable. |
| 2 | Straight Flush | Five in a row, all one suit. |
| 3 | Four of a Kind | All four cards of one rank. |
| 4 | Full House | Three of one rank plus a pair. |
| 5 | Flush | Five of one suit, any order. |
| 6 | Straight | Five in a row, mixed suits. |
| 7 | Three of a Kind | Three cards of one rank. |
| 8 | Two Pair | Two cards of one rank, two of another. |
| 9 | One Pair | Two cards of the same rank. |
| 10 | High Card | Nothing connects; your highest card plays. |
Two common trip-ups: a flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush. For every hand with example cards and the real odds of making each one, see the full poker hand rankings.
A hand of Texas Hold'em runs through four betting rounds. Here is the whole sequence.
Before any cards are dealt, the two players to the left of the button post forced bets called the blinds. The player immediately left of the button posts the small blind, and the next player posts the big blind, usually double the small blind. Blinds exist so there is always something in the pot worth playing for.
Each player is dealt two private cards face down, called your hole cards. Only you can see them. This first betting round is preflop. Starting to the left of the big blind, each player chooses to fold, call the big blind, or raise. Which hands are worth playing depends heavily on your position, and a preflop chart tells you exactly which ones to play from each seat.
The dealer turns over three community cards face up in the middle of the table. These are the flop, and they are shared, every player uses them. A second betting round follows, this time starting with the first active player to the left of the button.
A fourth community card, the turn, is dealt face up. Another betting round follows. Bets are often larger now, because there is only one card left to come and hands are close to complete.
The fifth and final community card, the river, is dealt. Now every remaining player knows their final hand: the best five cards they can make from their two hole cards and the five on the board. A last betting round takes place.
If two or more players are still in after the river betting, they turn their cards face up. The best five-card hand wins the pot. If two hands are exactly equal, the pot is split. We will see exactly how that works below.
Whenever the action reaches you, you have a small, fixed set of choices. Every decision in poker is one of these five.
Betting everything you have in front of you is going all-in. You can never be forced out of a hand for lack of chips: if you cannot cover a bet, you go all-in for what you have and play for a matching share of the pot.
Rather than just describe it, here is a full hand you can step through one action at a time. It runs on the same replay engine built into the Poker Spot app. Press Next (or Play) to advance, and read the note beneath each step. Your two cards are face up; your opponents' stay hidden until the showdown, exactly as they would at a real table.
A split pot (also called a "chop") happens when two or more players make exactly the same five-card hand, so the pot is divided equally between them. It confuses new players constantly. Step through this one to see precisely how, and why, it happens.
Playing the board. The same thing can happen to everyone at once. If the five community cards make a better hand than anything your hole cards can add, you "play the board," and every player still in the hand who cannot beat it shares the pot. For example, if the board runs out 10-J-Q-K-A in mixed suits, everyone has an ace-high straight and the pot is split among all of them (unless someone has a flush or better).
Seeing a hand play out street by street makes this click faster than reading about it. Inside Poker Spot, every hand you log replays one card at a time with the action and the pot attached, showdowns and split pots included, so you can rewatch exactly how a pot was won.
The order you act in is one of the biggest edges in poker. Acting later in a betting round means you have already seen what everyone before you did, and that information is worth real money. The button, who acts last on every round after the flop, is the most profitable seat, and the blinds, who act first, are the least. This is why the same two cards can be a clear raise on the button and an easy fold under the gun. The preflop charts turn that idea into an exact list of which hands to play from each seat.
Two ways: every other player folds, or you reach showdown with the best five-card hand. You do not need the best cards the whole way, you just need to be the last player left or the strongest hand at the end.
A split pot happens when two or more players finish with exactly the same five-card hand. Since neither is better, the pot is divided equally between them. It is common in Texas Hold'em because all five community cards are shared, so players often end up using the same board cards as kickers.
Two private hole cards each, plus five community cards shared by everyone. You make your best five-card hand from those seven cards, and you can use any combination, both hole cards, one, or even none.
From strongest to weakest: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. Note that a flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush.
Preflop (after the hole cards are dealt), the flop (three community cards), the turn (a fourth card), and the river (the fifth and final card). A betting round happens on each.
Both. Luck decides individual hands, but over many hands skill dominates: choosing which hands to play, reading position, sizing bets, and folding when you are beaten. That is why the same players win consistently over time.
They are just the community cards, revealed in stages. The flop is the first three dealt together, the turn is the fourth, and the river is the fifth and last. A round of betting follows each one.
You now know enough to sit down and follow every hand. The fastest way to actually improve is to see the odds behind your decisions and drill the spots you get wrong. Start with the hand rankings until they are automatic, learn how position shapes every decision, use the preflop charts to know which hands to play, and run any two hands against each other with the odds calculator.
Poker Spot puts all of it in one place: log your real hands, replay them street by street, drill preflop and postflop spots, and track every session so you can see what is actually working.