Poker

Poker Basic Rules and Gameplay

August 20, 2023
Updated October 8, 2026

Table of Contents

Poker is a card game in which players bet on who holds the best five-card hand. You win a pot in one of two ways: by having the best hand at the showdown, or by betting so that every other player folds before it. Every hand follows the same pattern: forced bets start the pot, cards are dealt, there are one or more betting rounds, and the remaining players compare hands at the end. This guide explains those rules, using Texas Hold’em as the example.

Players	Usually 2 to 10 per table in Texas Hold’em ^[2]
Deck	Standard 52 cards, no jokers
Goal	Win the pot with the best five-card hand, or make everyone else fold
Forced bets	Blinds, antes or both
Betting rounds in Hold’em	4: preflop, flop, turn, river ^[2]
Your options	Check, bet, call, raise or fold

How a hand of poker is played

A disc called the dealer button moves one seat to the left after every hand, so every player takes a turn in each position. In Texas Hold’em a hand goes like this: ^[2]

Blinds. The player to the left of the button posts the small blind and the next player posts the big blind. Heads-up, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop.
Hole cards. Every player receives two private cards, face down.
Preflop betting. The player to the left of the big blind acts first, and the action moves clockwise.
The flop. Three community cards are dealt face up. A second betting round starts with the first active player to the left of the button.
The turn. A fourth community card, followed by a third betting round.
The river. A fifth and last community card, followed by the final betting round.
Showdown. If two or more players remain, they show their cards. Each player makes the best five-card hand from their two hole cards and the five community cards, and the best hand wins the pot.

If everyone else folds to a bet, the player who made it wins the pot immediately and does not have to show their cards. The full rules, with an example hand and the most common mistakes, are in our guide on how to play Texas Hold’em.

Poker hand rankings

Almost every form of poker uses the same order of hands. From highest to lowest:

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

Suits never rank, and only five cards count. The poker hand rankings guide explains each hand, how kickers break ties and the odds of making each one, and has a cheat sheet to download.

Blinds and antes

Forced bets give every hand something to play for. Without them, players could wait for perfect cards and nobody would ever need to bet.

Blinds are posted by the two players to the left of the button before the cards are dealt. In a $1/$2 no-limit cash game, the small blind is $1 and the big blind is $2, and the big blind is also the minimum bet.
Antes are small forced bets that add to the pot before the deal. Depending on the game, every player pays one, or a single player in the big blind pays the ante for the whole table, known as a big blind ante. ^[1]
In tournaments the blinds and antes rise at fixed intervals, which forces the action as the event goes on.

What you can do when it is your turn

Action	What it means	When you can do it
Check	Pass without putting chips in	Only if nobody has bet in this round (before the flop, the big blind counts as the first bet)
Bet	Put the first chips of the round into the pot	Only if nobody has bet yet
Call	Match the current bet	When someone has bet
Raise	Increase the current bet	When someone has bet
Fold	Give up the hand and any chips already in the pot	Any time it is your turn

These Poker TDA rules, widely used in tournaments, answer the most common betting questions: ^[1]

Act in turn. Any action you take in turn is binding. In a pot with three or more players, an action out of turn is backed up to the correct player and can be penalized.
Minimum raise. A raise must be at least the size of the largest previous full bet or raise in the same round. If the big blind is 200 and a player raises to 600, that raise was 400, so the next raise must make it at least 1,000.
Say “raise” first. Putting out a single chip larger than the bet counts as a call unless you announce a raise. Putting chips in with several movements, a string bet, is not allowed.

You can never bet more than the chips you have on the table. If you do not have enough to call, you can go all-in with what you have. You then play only for the part of the pot you matched, and any extra betting between the other players goes into a side pot that you cannot win.

Betting structures: no limit, pot limit and fixed limit

Structure	Largest bet allowed	Commonly played in
No limit	All your chips	Texas Hold’em
Pot limit	The size of the pot (a raise: the call plus the pot)	Omaha
Fixed limit	A set amount for each round	Seven Card Stud and mixed games

Our guide to betting structures in poker explains how each one works.

The showdown: who shows first and who wins

Order. The last player who bet or raised on the final round shows first. If there was no bet on the river, the first active player to the left of the button shows first. ^[1]
Cards speak. The cards on the table decide the winner, not what the players say. ^[1]
Ties. If the best five cards are equal in rank, the pot is split. Suits are never used to break a tie.
Playing the board. If the five community cards are your best hand, you still have to show both hole cards to win a share of the pot. ^[1]
All-in. When a player is all-in and the betting is over, every hand is turned face up before the remaining cards are dealt. ^[1]

The main types of poker

The basic betting actions and the order of high hands stay the same in most games. What changes is how the cards are dealt. There are three families:

Family	How it works	Games
Community card games	Private cards plus shared cards on the board	Texas Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Short Deck
Stud games	Each player gets a mix of face-down and face-up cards, no shared board	Seven Card Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, Razz
Draw games	All cards are private, and players can swap cards to improve	2-7 Single Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi

Some games are played for the lowest hand (Razz, 2-7) or split the pot between the best high and the best low hand (Omaha Hi-Lo, Stud Hi-Lo). Each guide covers its own rankings.

Cash games and tournaments

In a cash game the chips represent real value, the blinds never change and you can leave whenever you want. In a tournament everyone starts with the same number of chips, the blinds increase over time and you play until you lose all your chips or win them all.

Basic etiquette at the table

Wait for your turn, and make your decision clear with a word or a single motion.
Protect your cards, for example with a chip on top. If your hand touches the discards and cannot be identified, it is dead. ^[1]
Keep your chips in tidy stacks where everyone can see them.
Do not talk about a hand you have folded while others are still playing it.
Keep your cards on the table and in view at all times.

Frequently asked questions

How many players do you need to play poker?

At least two. Texas Hold’em is usually played with 2 to 10 players at a table. ^[2]

How many cards does each player get?

It depends on the game: two in Texas Hold’em, four in Pot Limit Omaha, seven over the course of the hand in Seven Card Stud and five in 2-7 Single Draw. In almost every game your hand is the best five cards you can make; Badugi, which uses four, is the exception.

What happens if two players have the same hand?

The kickers, the cards outside the main combination, decide. If the five cards that count are equal in rank, the pot is split equally.

Is poker a game of skill or luck?

Luck decides many single hands, but over many hands the quality of a player’s decisions has a growing effect on results. That is the basis for treating poker as a mind sport. Read more in why poker is a mind sport.

What is the easiest poker game to learn?

Texas Hold’em. You only need to follow two of your own cards, the five shared cards are visible to everyone, and almost every other game builds on the same ideas.

Keep learning

Sources

Poker Tournament Directors Association, 2026 Poker TDA Rules, Version 1.0, September 7, 2026 (Rules 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 45, 46, 52, 55, 58 and 67, and Recommended Procedure 11 on ante formats).
Wikipedia, Texas hold ’em, accessed October 5, 2026.

Written by the WPF Editorial Team with the help of AI tools, then checked and edited by our team. Last verified: October 5, 2026. Poker should be played for fun and within your means; you must be of legal age in your country to play for money.