Texas Holdem Rules

Only two cards are actually held by the player as pocket cards. The other five are open, dealt to the middle of the table and shared by all players.

Holdem can be played with only two players or theoretically, with as many as twenty-three players (this exhausts the number of cards in the deck). In practice however, it is rarely played with more than twelve players due to the size of the table, with eight to eleven players considered the optimum range.

In Texas Holdem games, the dealer is marked by a disk called the button. For each hand the button rotates to the left. Players are identified by their seat position. The dealer is seat one, the player to the dealer's left is seat two and so on, clockwise around the table to the player on the dealer's right which is typically seat nine.Betting position significantly affects a player's opportunities so the button's position in not simply symbolic.

Holdem comes in many low-limit/high-limit forms. Beginner games are typically $1-$2 or $2-$5, but the high end can be as much as $300-$600, $500-$1000 or more. Regardless of the limits, Hold'Em is designed to be a money game. Instead of a small ante in 7-Stud, Holdem uses two forced bets, the blinds, to get Bets on the table right from the beginning of the game.

The Open

The first player to the dealer's left -- seat two -- is the small blind and must kick in half the lower limit ($5 in a $10-$20 game). Seat three is the big blind and must kick in the full value of the lower limit ($10 in a $10-$20) game.
The deal rotates clockwise around the table beginning with the player to the big blind's left. Each player is dealt their first pocket card in turn, then their second.

Since the blinds opened with their forced bets, seat four, the player to the big blind's left, bets first. They Call by matching the big blind ($10, the lower limit) and may also Raise by kicking in the big limit, $20 in our $10-$20 example game. In this round Checking is not permitted. If the player doesn't want to Call, they may Fold.

The blinds in Holdem are live in that they can Call (Check to seat three), Raise, or Fold when the betting has returned to them.

The Flop

Once the first betting round has completed, the dealer lays out the first three community cards in the center of the table. This is called the flop.

This betting round begins with the blinds, or the first remaining seat on the dealer's left. Checking is permitted now and for the rest of the hand. Bets are placed at the lower limit ($10 in our example).

The Turn

A fourth community card it dealt onto the table.

Betting begins with the blinds, as before. Now, and for the rest of this game, Bets and Raises are at the high limit ($20). As such, the turn is the first expensive street.

The River

The fifth and final community card is dealt.

This is also an expensive street: Bets and Raises are all at the high limit ($20).

The Showdown

As in 7-Stud, the best 5 card hand wins. Players may form their final hands from any combination of the table cards and their own pocket cards, even ignoring the pocket cards and using only the table cards if they wish. Identical five-card hands split the pot; the sixth and seventh cards are not used to break ties.