Poker

Overview

These are the rules for Texas Hold'em, the most widely played poker variant and the game used for the World Series of Poker Main Event. Each player receives two private cards and shares five community cards, making the best five-card hand from any combination of the seven.

Poker is a betting game. The cards decide who wins a showdown, but most hands never reach one.

How far this page is checked. No governing body publishes the rules of Hold'em or the hand rankings; those are universal but unowned. What does exist is the Poker Tournament Directors Association's 2026 TDA Rules (Version 1.0, 7 September 2026), used by card rooms worldwide for tournament procedure. The betting, showdown and etiquette rules on this page are checked against it. The hand rankings and game structure are not.

1. Hand rankings

From strongest to weakest. Suits are never used to break ties.

Rank	Hand	Example
1	Royal flush	A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠
2	Straight flush	9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥
3	Four of a kind	7♣ 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ K♦
4	Full house	J♣ J♦ J♠ 4♥ 4♠
5	Flush	A♦ J♦ 8♦ 6♦ 3♦
6	Straight	8♣ 7♦ 6♠ 5♥ 4♦
7	Three of a kind	Q♣ Q♦ Q♠ 9♥ 2♦
8	Two pair	K♠ K♦ 6♣ 6♥ T♠
9	One pair	A♣ A♥ 9♦ 7♠ 3♣
10	High card	A♠ Q♦ T♥ 6♣ 4♠

The wheel. The ace plays low in A-2-3-4-5, the lowest possible straight. It cannot wrap around — Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight.

Kickers. When two players hold the same pair, the highest side card decides it. A-A-K-7-3 beats A-A-Q-J-9. All five cards count, and no more than five.

2. The table

One player holds the dealer button, which moves one seat clockwise each hand. Position is decided relative to it.

• Small blind — immediately left of the button.
• Big blind — left of the small blind, normally twice the small blind.
• Under the gun — left of the big blind, first to act before the flop.

Both blinds are posted before any cards are dealt, which is what creates something worth contesting.

Heads-up (two players), the TDA rules reverse this: the small blind is on the button, acts first before the flop and last on every later round.

Position matters enormously: acting last gives you information nobody else has, so the button is the most valuable seat at the table.

3. Betting rounds

Each hand has four betting rounds.

Pre-flop

Two private cards — hole cards — are dealt face down to each player. Betting starts with the player left of the big blind and continues clockwise. The big blind acts last and may raise their own blind.

The flop

Three community cards are dealt face up. Betting resumes with the first active player left of the button.

The turn

A fourth community card. Betting resumes.

The river

A fifth and final community card. Final betting round.

Before each community card, the dealer burns the top card of the deck face down, to guard against marked cards.

4. Betting actions

Action	Meaning
Check	Pass the action along without betting. Only when no bet is live
Bet	Put chips in when nobody has yet
Call	Match the current bet
Raise	Increase the current bet
Fold	Surrender your hand and any chips already committed

Minimum raise. A raise must be at least the size of the largest previous full bet or raise in the round. If someone bets 100, the minimum raise is to 200.

The TDA rules add a detail most players don't know (Rule 45). If you put out at least half of a minimum raise, you must complete a full minimum raise. If you put out less than half, it's just a call, unless you said "raise" first. Against a 1,000 bet, silently pushing out 1,400 is a call.

All-in. A player may always bet every chip they have, even if it is less than a call. They remain in the hand and can only win the portion of the pot they matched.

Side pots. When a player is all-in for less than others are betting, the extra chips form a side pot that only the remaining players can win. A short stack can win the main pot while losing the side pot.

String betting is not allowed. Under the TDA rules a raise is made by pushing the full amount out in one motion, or by declaring the full amount before pushing chips. If you both speak and push chips, whichever comes first defines the bet.

5. Showdown

If two or more players remain after the river betting, hands are revealed.

The last player to bet or raise shows first. If everyone checked the river, the first active player left of the button shows first.

You may use both, one, or neither of your hole cards. Using none is called playing the board, and if the five community cards are the best hand available to everyone, the pot is split.

Identical hands split the pot. Odd chips go to the first player clockwise from the button.

6. Cash games and tournaments

	Cash game	Tournament
Chips	Represent real money	Have no cash value
Blinds	Fixed	Increase on a timer
Leaving	Any time, cash out	When you lose all chips
Rebuying	Any time	Only during a rebuy period, if offered
Prize	Your stack	A share of the pool by finishing position

Tournaments also use antes at later levels — a forced contribution from every player, or a single big blind ante posted by one player, which inflates the pot and forces action.

7. Other variants worth knowing

Omaha. Four hole cards, and you must use exactly two of them plus exactly three from the board. The forced two-card rule catches out Hold'em players constantly.

Pot-limit Omaha. As above, with the maximum bet capped at the current pot size.

Seven-card stud. No community cards. Each player receives their own seven cards, some face up. The dominant game before Hold'em.

Short deck. Twos through fives removed. A flush beats a full house, because flushes become rarer.

8. Procedure and etiquette

• Act in turn. Acting out of turn gives information to players yet to act.
• Keep your cards visible and on the table, protected by a chip.
• One player to a hand. No advice, no discussing a live hand.
• Do not slow-roll — revealing a winning hand slowly after hesitating is the rudest thing you can do at a table.
• Verbal declarations are binding during betting. Saying "raise" commits you, and official betting words used casually ("did he raise?") can be held against you.
• The cards speak at showdown. The best tabled hand wins, and at showdown declarations like "you win" or "fold" are not binding, though deliberately miscalling a hand can be penalised.

Raising limits, leaving, and cheating

Can you keep raising? In no-limit and pot-limit, yes: the TDA rules set no cap on the number of raises. In limit games the house sets a cap, and under the TDA rules it still applies heads-up, until a tournament is down to its last two players.

Can you leave whenever? In a cash game, yes — pick up your chips between hands and go. Leaving mid-hand forfeits it. In a tournament you cannot cash out; chips have no monetary value and walking away simply blinds you out.

Cheating — marking cards, colluding, chip dumping, or acting on information from outside the hand — is not a rules matter but a removal-and-ban matter, and in a casino a criminal one.

Commonly argued

• A flush beats a straight, always. Flushes are rarer.
• Suits never break ties in Hold'em. Identical hands split the pot. Suit order is used only for awarding a button or a bring-in.
• A-2-3-4-5 is a straight, the lowest one. Q-K-A-2-3 is not.
• You can win with the board. If the five community cards beat both players' hole cards, the pot splits.
• Only five cards count. A sixth or seventh card never improves a hand.
• You may raise your own big blind pre-flop if nobody raised before you.
• Heads-up, the small blind is the button and acts first before the flop.
• Less than half a raise is a call unless you said "raise".
• "You win" at showdown doesn't bind you. The cards speak.