How to Play Texas Hold’em Poker for Beginners

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Professional poker player Alec Torelli explains the ins and outs of Texas Hold’em and how to win big

Co-authored by Alec Torelli and Dan Hickey

Last Updated: July 9, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Poker Basics Review
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• First Bet & Dealing
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• Playing a Round
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• Winning
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• Betting Strategies & More
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• Poker Variations
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• Video

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If you’re looking to get started with poker, Texas Hold’em is a super fun and accessible game to help you hone your skills and master your poker face. We chatted with professional poker players and game experts to bring you everything you need to know, from the basics of poker to how to play a round of Hold’em to the best betting strategies to use. Keep scrolling to learn more!

Texas Hold’em Basic Gameplay

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Professional poker player Alec Torelli explains that Texas Hold’em is a communal game where the object is to use the 5 face-up cards on the table and your hand of 2 hidden cards to form the best hand possible. The general flow of the game goes like this:

1. Each player gets dealt 2 hole cards; all players make their initial bets.
2. Three communal cards are dealt (called the “flop”); all players make a second bet.
3. One more communal card is dealt (called the “turn”); all players make a third bet.
4. A final communal card is dealt (called the “river”); all players make their final bet.
5. All remaining players reveal their best 5-card hand, using all 7 available cards.
6. The highest-ranking poker hand wins the pot.

Steps

Section 1 of 6:

Poker Basics: Deck, Hands, & Betting Terminology

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1. 
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   Play with a standard 52-card deck and use poker chips to place bets. For a regular game of Texas Hold’em (and most other poker games), use a standard 52-card deck with the Jokers removed. To make your game feel like a real tournament, use poker chips to place your bets (if you don’t have any, though, you can use anything you like—coins, game pieces, or any little knick-knacks you can find work!).

   • In a pro game at a poker club or casino, it’s common to use 2 decks with different colored backs. When one deck is being dealt, the other is being shuffled (by another dealer or a shuffling machine) for the next turn to speed up the game.

   Meet the wikiHow Experts

   Alec Torelli is a professional poker player with over 20 years of experience and the founder of the poker training platform, Conscious Poker. He has earned over $2.7 million in tournaments.

   Triple S Games is a gaming platform that has been teaching and developing games since 2004, including board games, card games, parlor games, puzzles, video games, and more.
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   Get familiar with the poker hand rankings from best to worst. Game experts from Triple S Games emphasize that “you have to understand poker ranks” in order to play a good game. “You have to understand what a pair is, what a high card, a Royal Flush, a straight, a full house, all that stuff.” Here’s a quick review of all the hands, ranked from strongest to weakest:

   • Royal flush: The strongest possible 5-card hand; a 10-to-Ace straight with all 5 cards of the same suit.
   • Straight flush: The second-strongest 5-card hand; any 5 consecutive ranking cards of the same suit.
   • 4 of a kind: Also known as “quads”; four of the same card (like all 9s or all Jacks).
   • Full house: Three of the same ranking card with two of another rank (for example, 3 Aces and 2 Kings).
   • Flush: Any 5 cards of the same suit (the sequence doesn’t matter); the highest card determines the strength of the flush.
   • Straight: 5 cards in sequence; a 10-to-Ace straight (“Broadway straight”) is the strongest straight, while an Ace-to-5 straight (“Wheel straight”) is the lowest. An Ace can only be the top or bottom of a straight.
   • 3 of a kind: A hand with 3 of the same ranking card (like three 7s).
   • 2 pair: A hand with 2 pairs (like two 4s or two Queens), plus an unconnected fifth card. This is the average winning hand in Texas Hold ‘Em.
   • Pair: A hand with 2 of the same ranking card.
   • High card: A 5-card hand that doesn’t meet the criteria of any other ranking hand. The highest card determines the strength of the hand.
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   Review the basic betting rules and terminology. In a full hand of Texas Hold ‘Em, there are four betting rounds. Each player has to match the biggest bet of the round or give up their chance of winning (“fold”). All players have the chance to increase the bet (“raise”) and any raises must be matched (“called”) by all other players if they want to stay in the hand. If all players choose to bet nothing (“check”), they all stay in the hand.

   • If only one player remains at any point, they win the pot immediately (the “pot” is the total amount of chips players are fighting to win).
   • The “ante” refers to a small bet everyone puts in before the hand starts.
   • Alternatively, some games use “blinds” (forced bets by two players, called the small blind and big blind), before the cards are dealt. This is more common in Texas Hold’em than other poker games.
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Section 2 of 6:

Betting & Dealing for Texas Hold’em

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1. 
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   Choose your dealer. “The dealer starts with the ‘button’, which is a marker indicating the player who is the nominal dealer for the hand,” explains Torelli. “This player acts last in all betting rounds and their primary function is to determine the order of play, as the betting and dealing actions always start with the player to the dealer's left and proceed clockwise.”

   • If you have no volunteer dealers, have everyone draw a card face-up and give the “button” to the player with the highest card value.
   • The dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand.
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   Place your starting bets (“blinds”). Torelli continues, “The player to the left of the button is the ‘small blind’ and they provide the starting mandatory bet. Then, the ‘big blind’ goes. They’re to the left of the small blind, and they place a larger forced bet, typically twice that of the small blind.”

   • The initial forced bet by the small blind is a fixed amount agreed upon before the start of the game. For learning purposes, choose a small amount like $1.
   • These starting bets are forced and are not the first round of true betting where you can match, raise, fold, etc.
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   Have the dealer shuffle and deal 2 “hole cards” per player, then make your first bets. “When dealing, give two cards face-down to each player, starting with the small blind (the player to the left of the button),” Torelli says. Players can look at their hole cards, but keep them hidden from other players.

   • After these “hole cards” are dealt, explains Torelli, “then the [betting] action commences with the player to the left of the big blind.”
   • After the blinds place their opening bet and the hole cards are dealt, all other players must either call the bet (bet the same amount as the big blind), raise the bet (bet more than the big blind), or fold (bet nothing and forfeit your chance to win the hand).
   • How do you shuffle cards like a pro dealer? According to Torelli, “First, the dealer will mix all of the cards. Then, they'll collect all the cards and they’ll bridge them together. The third thing they'll do is cut the cards before finally dealing. So, it's like a three-part strategy to shuffle.”
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Section 3 of 6:

Playing a Round of Texas Hold ‘Em

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1. 
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   The dealer deals 3 communal face-up cards called “the flop.” “After the pre-flop betting, [the dealer] burns one card face-down and deals 3 cards face-up (the flop),” Torelli explains. (“Burning” a card means removing it from the deck so it can’t be played, making it harder for players to guess which cards are left in the deck.)

   • The flop stays in the center of the table, and all players can use those communal cards to build their hand.
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   The players place their second bets, starting with the small blind. The player to the left of the dealer button is the first to make their bet. They may choose to “check” (bet nothing, but without folding). If all players check, they may all stay in the hand without betting. However, if one player bets, then everyone must at least match the bet to stay in (players may also raise the bet or fold).

   • Look at your hole cards, then look at the 3 cards in the flop. What hand are you able to make? What hand(s) are you close to being able to make? If you suspect you have a stronger hand than your opponents, you may want to bet!
3. 
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   The dealer deals an additional face-up card called the “turn.” Like before, Torelli says that the dealer will burn the top card in the deck face-down before dealing the turn card. Once the turn card is shown, it’s added to the flop and becomes the fourth communal card players can use to form a hand.
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   The players place their third bets, starting with the small blind. The same rules apply here as before—all players may check to bet nothing but stay in the game, but as soon as one person bets, all players must match, raise, or fold. Examine the cards in the flop and your hand closely and consider what hands you (or your competitors) may be able to make.

   • For example, if all 4 cards on the table are diamonds, then any player who has a diamond in their hand will have a flush. Or, say the cards on the table are 4,5,6, and 7; anyone with a 3 or 8 will have a straight.
   • If you have nothing good in your hand but the cards on the table make for an easy winning hand, then you may want to fold (it’s likely another player has a winning card).
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   The dealer deals the final face-up card called the “river.” Like before, the dealer will burn the top card from the deck, then deal a final, fifth card face-up into the flop called the “river.” Torelli explains that the flop is what makes Texas Hold’em a “communal game” because “there are 5 cards down on the table that the players incorporate into their play in addition to their two hidden cards.”
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   The players place their fourth and final bets, starting with the small blind. All players now have 7 cards—the 5 communal cards in the flop plus their 2 hole cards—to make the strongest hand possible. After you determine the strongest hand you can play, place your bet. Like every other betting round, you can check (if all other players check), or otherwise match, raise, or fold.
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Section 4 of 6:

Winning Texas Hold ‘Em

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1. 
   The player with the strongest hand in the “showdown” after the final bet wins the round. After everyone makes their final bet, it’s time to show your cards. Starting to the left of the dealer, all players will reveal their hand face-up for the table to see. Whoever has the strongest hand wins the entire pot!

   • If there’s a tie, the tied players split the pot.
   • If you folded, you don’t have to show your cards.
   • Only the 5 cards you use to form your hand are counted (the other 2 cards can be ignored).
   • If you want to play the cards in the flop only, this is called “playing the board.” However, everyone has this option, so it may not be the best strategy.
   • If you’re playing another round, the dealer button moves one spot clockwise, the deck is reshuffled, and the new round starts off with the new small and big blinds placing their bets.

Section 5 of 6:

Betting Strategies & More Poker Tips

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1. 
   1
   Consider other players’ bets when guessing whether they have a strong hand. Typically, a player will make a strong bet if they believe they have a good hand to play, or will check if they have a weak one and are holding out for better cards. Every bet someone makes can be a piece of information that informs your betting strategy going forward. (It’s advantageous to be further down the line during betting rounds since you can scope out more peoples’ bets first.)

   • However, players may choose to bluff. For example, someone could make a big bet to trick others into thinking they have a strong hand when they really don’t, potentially causing others to fold or play more cautiously.
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   Consider your “pot odds” when you’re unsure if you should call a bet. Say you need a specific card to show up in the turn or river in order to make a good hand. For example, you might have 4 hearts and need a fifth one to turn up for a flush. Do you call, or fold? First, determine your pot odds (the money you could win vs. the money you have to bet to stay in the round). If the pot is $100 and you have to call a bet of $10, your pot odds are 10 to 1.

   • Next, determine the odds of the card you need showing up on the river. Subtract your 2 hole cards and the 4 communal cards from the deck—that leaves 46 cards.
   • Of those 46 cards, 9 are hearts and 37 are not. Your odds of making the flush are 37 to 9 (about 4 to 1).
   • If your pot odds (10 to 1) are longer than your odds of winning (4 to 1), it’s usually worth it to make the call. Over time, you’ll end up winning more than you lose (even if things don’t go your way in this specific hand).
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   Only bet what you’re willing to lose. According to Torelli, “Having financial acumen is important. Be comfortable with managing and handling money.” That means knowing how to keep track of what you’ve bet, what you’re likely to win, and how much you have left to bet before you should fold or stop playing for the night.

   • Strategy and experience will help you avoid financial mistakes. The experts from Triple S Games add, “If you don't know what you're doing, you're going to lose something. When you're playing for money, then the only sure way to win is to not play because you won't lose anything.”
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   Try to read your competitors’ “poker faces.” Torelli explains that “having a high EQ helps” when it comes to predicting what hands your opponents might have. “Learning how to read people is of great importance” since it can help you get “comfortable with risk and become adept at risk evaluation and management.”

   • For example, you might be able to detect a slight smile or look of surprise when another player has a good hand, or a look of subtle disappointment if they can’t make one.
   • Some classic tells include shallow breathing, sighing, nostrils flaring, flushing red, eyes watering, blinking, swallowing excessively, or an increasing pulse seen in the neck or temple.
   • A hand over the mouth is usually to conceal a smile, while shaking hands usually reveal nerves.
   • If a player glances at their chips when the flop comes, they probably have a strong hand.
   • If a mediocre player tries to impress you by staring you down, they are likely bluffing.
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   Be patient and selective with the hands you play. “Adopt a very tight and patient strategy,” Torelli advises. “Be very selective about the hands you play. And when you play those hands, you want to be the one that's the aggressor in the hand. If you play very, very few hands, but when you play them, you play them very aggressively, that combination is a very powerful and winning strategy.”

   • Torelli goes on to say that “Poker is not like other sports. If you make one mistake at the end of your hand, nothing positive you’ve done before matters because you can just lose it all in one move. It’s very high-stakes and intense, and you have to be prepared to handle that.”
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   Keep playing to hone your skills. “Get reps in, study games, study different scenarios so you develop the ability to understand heuristics and frameworks for how you can respond to situations,” Torelli says. “It's better to develop the strategic skills to adapt to each scenario you may meet.”

   • Torelli continues, “You can get a pretty good idea of all the different starting moves and combinations that can occur, so you can ‘memorize’ and develop instincts for lots of possibilities that can come up so you can be prepared.”
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Section 6 of 6:

Poker Variations to Try

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1. 1
   5-card draw In 5-card poker, “Each player receives five cards face down, and then you have a round of betting,” Torelli explains. “Each player has 1 opportunity to draw/discard. Then, there’s another round of betting. Finally, the player with the best hand wins.”

   • Torelli continues, “5-card draw is an accessible game that is easy for poker beginners to understand. It’s a good option for a social game for beginners.”
2. 2
   3-card draw According to Torelli, “Three-card poker is one of the simpler casino poker games. You put in an ante bet, get three cards, and decide whether to fold or play by matching your ante. A good rule of thumb is to play if you have Queen-6-4 or better, and fold the rest. It keeps the decision-making easy and ensures you’ll start each hand with solid odds.”
3. 3
   Heads-up Torelli explains that “Heads-up is fast, aggressive, and a lot of fun because you’re forced to play practically every hand. You can’t just sit back and wait for big hands—you’ll need to open almost any two, most often for a raise, and defend from the big blind way more often than in a full-ring game. You’ll have to be more aggressive post-flop as well. The real key is adjusting to your opponent quickly.”

   • Heads-up poker is a 2-player game where one player is the button/small blind and the other is the big blind. Blinds are posted every hand, so players have to use wider hand ranges to win. It’s common in tournament finales and 1-on-1 games.
4. 4
   Omaha “Omaha is like no limit except you're dealt four cards, not two,” Torelli says. “It's almost always played in a pot limit version. You must use two cards from your hand and three cards on the board. The strategy is that you want all four of your cards to be working together. Suited cards or double-suited hands also go up a lot in value.”
5. 5
   Irish poker Torelli explains that “Irish poker is a fun blend between Texas Hold’em and Omaha. You start with four hole cards like Omaha, but after the flop, you have to discard two and play the rest of the hand with only two cards, just like Hold’em. Pick starting hands that give you flexibility—broadway suited and connected cards tend to play best.”
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