TEXAS HOLDEM RULES

In recent years Texas Holdem poker has gone from being a specialist game to the most popular form of poker in the world. This article is for those who are new to Texas Holdem and wish to understand the basic structure and rules before playing for real.

Texas Holdem can in fact be played in three different forms – the order of cards and bets are the same, however the ‘betting structure’ affects some aspects of game play. These are:

 - Fixed Limit Texas Holdem: Bet sizes are fixed and determined in advance.
 - No-Limit Texas Holdem: Players can bet any amount up to what they have on the table at any point.
 - Pot-Limit Texas Holdem: The bets and raises can be any amount up to the size of the current pot.

Since the structure of the game is the same for each type of betting we will first describe the order of play and then add a note for handling these betting types at the end of each section. This article will go through a hand of Texas Holdem showing you the rules at each stage from before any cards are dealt through to the ‘showdown’ where the winner is determined at the end.

Before any cards are dealt one player is assigned as the dealer. A button is used to designate the dealer position – this moves clockwise around the table after each hand and is also used to determine the order of betting.

The player to the immediate left of the dealer button then puts a small chip into the pot and the next player left twice this amount. These are known as ‘the blinds’ and make up the initial pot, the double bet is the ‘Big Blind’ and the single one the ‘Small Blind’. The sizes of the blinds are agreed in advance and are usually around 1% of the chip stacks.

Next each player is dealt two cards face down (only visible to the individual players). These are known as ‘Hole Cards’. The player to the left of the big blind then starts the first round of betting. The minimum bet is to match the amount of the big blind and the maximum is determined by the betting structure of the game.

Each player in turn is then given the opportunity to call, fold or raise. Once a player has raised the new minimum amount to stay in the hand is the size of this raise. Each player will get an opportunity to respond to the last raise – further re-raises opening up the betting once again until everyone still in the hand has acted.

In fixed limit Holdem there are a maximum of 4 raises permitted for each betting round. No-limit and Pot-limit betting do not have this restriction.

After betting is completed the dealer discards ‘burns’ the card on top of the remaining deck and then deals the next three cards face-up in the middle of the table. This is known as ‘the flop’. Since these shared (community) cards will be used with each player’s hole cards to determine the winner at the end of the hand, players will know at this point whether their hands have improved.

The 2nd betting round then begins with the first player still in the hand to the left of the dealer button position. Once again every player must react to the last raise before the betting is closed.

A 4th community card – known as ‘the turn’ is then dealt, followed by another round of betting and a 5th card ‘the river’, a last round of betting then commences before the winner is determined.

Note for different betting structures: In fixed limit Texas Holdem games it is usual for the betting amount to doubled after the turn card is dealt – the maximum of 4 raises per round remains in place. For No-Limit and Pot-Limit games it is possible for a player to run out of chips before the end of a hand. In this case the pot to which they contributed is separated and a new pot started for any players who continue betting. The ‘All-in’ player can only win chips from the pot to which they contributed.

At showdown the winner is determined as the player who holds the best 5 card poker hand using any combination of their own hole cards and the 5 community cards. This can include 2 hole cards / 3 community cards, 1 hole card and 4 community cards or even just the 5 community cards alone (for example if the board shows a straight and no player makes a higher straight using any of their hole cards). To find out which hand beats which, use the Poker Hand Rank table.