How to Play Texas Poker

Texas Hold'em can be played with two players (heads-up) or as many players as can sit at a physical table. However, in online games, a table may have six to nine players maximum. Whether in cash games or tournaments, Texas Hold'em hands follow the same rules:

All community card poker games begin with forced bets called blinds: small bets that must be placed by the players to the left of the dealer (small blind) and to the left of the small blind (big blind). The dealer button moves clockwise around the table, one position per hand, so each player will post blinds once as the button completes one revolution around the table.

Players receive two face-down (hole) cards, followed by five community cards dealt across four betting rounds. Players use the community cards and their hole cards to make the best five-card poker hand.

Hand Rankings

Texas Hold'em hand rankings (highest to lowest):

Royal Flush

Straight flush, 10 to Ace

Straight Flush

Five consecutive cards of the same suit

Four of a Kind

Four cards of the same value

Full House

Three cards of the same value plus a pair

Flush

Five cards of the same suit

Straight

Five consecutive cards

Three of a Kind

Three cards of the same value

Two Pair

Two separate pairs of cards of the same value

One Pair

Two cards of the same value

High Card

Five unpaired cards

For more detailed information on hand examples and poker fundamentals, please refer to the Poker Rules.

Pre-Flop

First betting round (pre-flop): After the blinds are posted and hole cards are dealt, players take turns clockwise from the big blind position (the current highest bet) to decide whether to call (match the previous bet), raise (increase the bet), or fold (discard their hand and wait for the next hand to begin).

Note that during a hand, to continue playing and move to the next betting round, players must match the highest bet of that round or go "all-in" — using all their chips regardless of whether they match the full bet. An all-in player's hand is preserved until showdown, and any subsequent decisions between players with more chips are made in a side pot.

After all players have made their decisions, the flop (three cards) is dealt face-up for all players to use:

Flop

Second betting round: In the remaining betting rounds, the first active player to the left of the button (dealer position) begins betting. Players can choose to bet or check (decline to bet, passing the decision to the next player). If there is a bet, all players must at least match that amount (call) to proceed to the next stage, the turn. If all players check, the turn card is dealt for free:

Turn

Third betting round: Remaining players again take turns deciding whether to check, bet, raise (if there has been a bet), or fold. If more than one player remains in the game after this betting round ends, the fifth community card, the river, is dealt:

River

Fourth betting round: Players have a final betting round on the river. If more than one player remains in the game after it ends, hole cards are revealed (showdown), and the player with the best hand wins the pot.

Of course, not every hand is played to showdown! If all players except one fold during a hand, that player wins the pot without needing to show their hole cards.

Showdown

Showdown example: Using the community cards above , four players reach the showdown stage. Player A's hole cards: . Their best five-card hand is two pair — a pair of Aces and a pair of fours

Player B's hole cards: . Their best five-card hand is two pair — a pair of Aces and a pair of tens

Player C's hole cards: . This makes a straight

Player D's hole cards: . Player D makes a flush — the highest hand wins.

Splitting the Pot

At showdown, more than one player may have the same five-card hand. They might have the same hole cards (identical two pairs or straights), or the community cards themselves might contain the strongest five-card hand (for example, if the community cards form a royal flush — which beats all other hands). In such cases, all identical hands win at showdown, and players split the pot equally.

Different Texas Hold'em Games

Texas Hold'em can be played with two to a full table of players (usually nine maximum), with different betting structures (see: No-Limit, Fixed-Limit, and Pot-Limit below).

The most popular Texas Hold'em variant available online everywhere is Short Deck (also called Six Plus or 6+ Hold'em), where cards below six are removed. When playing with a deck of only 36 cards, the poker hand rankings change, with a flush ranking higher than a full house. The Ace can still be high or low in straights, so the lowest straight in Short Deck is A-6-7-8-9.

Three-Card Texas Hold'em and Two-Card versions are played the same way, keeping all three hole cards and using any available cards (eight total) to make the strongest five-card hand. However, Pineapple Hold'em is a more common three-card game. In Pineapple, players receive three hole cards instead of two and must discard one before the first betting round (pre-flop). The game then proceeds the same as Texas Hold'em.

Crazy Pineapple starts like Pineapple with each player receiving three hole cards, but the discard happens after the flop instead.

Any variation of community card games can be adapted to Texas Hold'em: for example, it can be played as a "two board" game where two sets of flop, turn, and river are dealt, and the pot is split between winners of each board, or even as a high-low game (though less common).

How to Play Online Texas Hold'em

There are many options for playing Texas Hold'em online. Many players first encounter poker by watching televised No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournaments and cash games, and this simple form of the game at low stakes online or in free tournaments (freerolls) is a convenient and cost-effective way to learn how to play.

WPT Global offers cash games at various buy-in levels (starting at very low stakes), allowing new players to quickly become familiar with the game mechanics, building experience faster than they would in live games. Getting started is simple — just register for an account (in countries and territories where WPT Global operates) and play with players from around the world anytime, anywhere.

When learning to play online, you don't need to be able to count chips, shuffle cards, or calculate pot sizes — all of these are displayed when it's your turn to act, and your options are highlighted. In Texas Hold'em, as with all games, practice makes perfect, and playing online can accelerate the learning process at stakes far lower than in physical poker rooms.

Of course, online is also home to high-stakes poker. The biggest cash games (and heads-up matches) are now more likely to take place online than live. Nothing prevents new players from working their way up online to challenge the game's top players — Texas Hold'em is the most common poker game with the widest range of buy-in levels.

How to Play Texas Hold'em?

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