Texas Hold'Em Rules

Alright I'm going to kick off the blog with my favourite type of poker.
Texas Hold'Em.

First thing you need to know is the rules, so here they are in the following order:

- Objective
- Cards Dealt
- Betting
- Hand Values


Objective :-

The objective in Texas Hold'Em Poker is to make a 5 card hand using your 2 hole cards and the 5 on the board. You can make a 5 card hand with your 2 hole cards and 3 community cards, 1 hole card and 4 community cards or in rare cases you can use all 5 community cards (this will usually result in a split pot).


Cards Dealt :-

In Texas Hold'Em everyone at the table is dealt 2 cards. Starting from the person left of the dealer deal 1 card and then repeating the cycle for the second card. If you have a dedicated dealer the person with the small blind is dealt first. The game then begins.

Betting ensues.

Next you burn one card and then deal 3 community cards (the flop) face up for everyone to see.

More betting.

Burn another card and deal out 1 more card (the turn) onto the table for the community cards.

Another round of betting.

Burn another card and deal the final community card (the river) to the table.

The final round of betting then commences and the winner is decided.


Betting :-

Betting for this game follows most standard betting policies for poker.

Round 1 - The first round of betting begins with the person left of the big blind and follows around the table left. Players can reraise, call or fold. You cannot bet again if it gets back around to you and everybody folds. This triggers the next card(s) to be dealt.

Round 2 - This occurs after the flop. If everyone called and nobody bet the small blind is first to bet in this round of betting. However if one or more people made a raise in the first round then the last person to make a raise will be the first to act (bet).

Round 3 - This occurs after the turn card. The small blind is first to bet if nobody has raised yet, otherwise the last person who raised will be the first to act. Same as Round 2 of the betting.

Round 4 - This occurs after the river card. This is the final round of betting after which you are expected to turn over your cards and show what you had. The rules for who bets first are the same as Rounds 2 & 3.


Hand Values :-

I will list the winning hands here in descending order. Meaning the best hand will be listed first.

Royal Flush - (A K Q J 10 of the same suit)
Straight Flush - ( 5 running cards of the same suit e.g. 4 5 6 7 8 of spades)
Quads - (4 of the same card e.g. 8 8 8 8 ... this can also be called 4 of a kind)
Full House - (Trips and a pair e.g. Q Q Q A A or 3 3 3 7 7)
Flush - (5 cards of the same suit)
Straight - (5 running cards e.g. 6 7 8 9 10)
Trips - (3 of the same card e.g. 6 6 6 or 5 5 5)
2 Pair
1 Pair

If none of these are met Ace is the highest card in the deck descending in order down to 2. The person with the highest card is the winner in these cases.

Additionally if you have the same hand as another player, the one with the higher value of that hand is the winner. Or if you have to exact same hand then the game will use what is called a kicker.

A kicker is the highest card that is not used to make your hand. For example if you had A 5 in your hand and the board was 5 5 7 10 8 and your opponent had Q 5 in their hand you would both have trip 5's. The kicker for you would be the Ace whereas your opponent would only have the Queen. You would win.

If however you had 2 5 in your hand and your opponent had 3 5 then you would split the pot. Why? Because the highest card that isn't used is a 10 which is on the board and would count for both of you.



And that concludes the rules for Texas Hold'Em Poker. If you are confused about some of the terms used here be sure to look out for my section on common terminology of poker.