What is Texas Hold'em?

The simplest possible explanation

Texas Hold'em is a card game where each player gets 2 private cards (called hole cards) and shares 5 public cards (called the board) with everyone at the table. You make the best 5-card hand using any combination of your 2 + the 5 community cards. The player with the best hand at showdown — or the last one standing after everyone else folds — wins the pot.

The four betting rounds

A hand of Texas Hold'em has exactly four betting rounds, named after the cards revealed:

• •Preflop — you have 2 cards. No community cards yet. First betting round.
• •Flop — 3 community cards revealed. Second betting round.
• •Turn — 4th community card revealed. Third betting round.
• •River — 5th and final community card. Final betting round, then showdown.

How you win

Two ways: (1) make everyone else fold by betting them out of the hand, or (2) reach showdown with the best 5-card hand. You don't need a great hand to win — sometimes the strongest hand is whichever one your opponent is willing to fold to.

The blinds keep the game moving

If every hand started with nothing in the middle, the correct strategy would be to fold forever and wait for aces. Poker solves that with blinds — two forced bets posted before any cards are dealt, by the two players sitting to the left of the dealer button. The small blind posts half a bet, the big blind posts a full one. That seeded pot is what everyone is fighting over on the first betting round, and it's why folding every hand still loses money: the blinds travel around the table and reach you roughly once per orbit whether you play or not. The button itself — the marker showing who is nominally dealing — moves one seat clockwise after every hand, so the blinds rotate with it and nobody pays them more often than anyone else.

One hand, start to finish

Here's a concrete pass through the four rounds. You're dealt A♥K♣. Preflop: the blinds are posted, action starts with the player to the left of the big blind, and when it reaches you, you raise; two players call and everyone else folds. Flop: the dealer turns over K♦8♠3♣ — you now hold a pair of kings with an ace kicker. You bet, one player calls, one folds. Turn: the 2♥ arrives and changes nothing; you bet again and get called. River: 7♦. You bet a third time, your opponent calls and shows K♠J♥. You both have a pair of kings, so the next card decides it: your ace plays, their jack doesn't, and the pot is yours. Notice how little of that hand was about luck after the flop — it was three decisions about how much to charge a worse hand.

Showdown: best five out of seven

At showdown, each player makes the best possible five-card hand from their two hole cards plus the five community cards — seven cards, choose five. You are never obliged to use both of your cards, or either of them. If the board reads A-K-Q-J-T and you hold 3-2, you 'play the board': the best hand available to you is that same straight, and so is everyone else's, so the pot splits. Split pots happen more often than beginners expect, and they always follow one rule — compare the best five cards, in order; if all five match, the money is shared. A sixth card never breaks the tie, and neither do suits.

Three things that confuse new players

Small points that cause outsized confusion at the start:

• •You don't need to use both hole cards. One, both, or neither — whatever makes the best five.
• •Burn cards mean nothing. The dealer discards a card before the flop, turn, and river; it's an anti-cheating ritual, not a strategic detail.
• •Online, the button isn't a real dealer. It's just a marker for who acts last, and it moves every hand.
• •Checking is free, calling never is. If you can check, seeing the next card costs nothing — a distinction that decides a surprising number of hands.