Gambling terms, explained straight

Poker

Poker hold em rules

Poker hold em rules govern Texas hold'em, where each player receives two private cards and five community cards are placed face up on the board to build the strongest five-card hand.

Hole cards
2 per player
Community cards
5 total: flop (3), turn (1), river (1)
Total cards at showdown
7; best 5-card hand wins
Blinds
Small blind and big blind
Heads-up blind example
Small blind 50, big blind 1004

Key points

  • Each player is dealt two hidden hole cards, then betting occurs before the flop and after each community-card deal.1
  • Players combine any five of their seven available cards (two hole plus five board) to form the best hand.3
  • If all opponents fold, the last remaining player wins the pot without showing cards.5
  • Hold'em uses two blinds (small and big) to start the action, unlike some poker variants that use antes.

How a hand of hold'em is played

  1. Deal two hole cards face down to each player.1
  2. Pre-flop betting round begins, starting with the player left of the big blind.2
  3. Deal three community cards (the flop) face up, followed by a betting round.3
  4. Deal one community card (the turn) face up, followed by a betting round.1
  5. Deal one community card (the river) face up, followed by a final betting round.3
  6. If two or more players remain, a showdown determines the winner using the best five-card hand from the seven available cards.5

Where this term is used

Poker Texas hold em dealing rules Covers the specific dealing procedure for hold'em, including button rotation and blind posting. Poker Poker betting rules Explains the general betting actions (check, bet, call, raise, fold) used in all poker variants. Poker Pl o poker rules Describes Pot-Limit Omaha, a variant where players receive four hole cards and must use exactly two. Poker Poker rules dealer Details the dealer's responsibilities in a poker game, including shuffling and managing the pot. Poker Poker dealing rules Covers standard dealing procedures common to most poker games, such as button rotation. Poker Poker raise rules Explains the minimum and maximum raise amounts in different betting structures.

Sources

  1. Texas hold 'em - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Provides the foundational definition of Texas hold'em rules, including hole cards and community cards.
  2. Texas Hold'em Poker - Kartenspiel Regeln pagat.com Confirms the two-blind structure and the sequence of betting rounds.
  3. This version of Robert's Rules of Poker is for private games pagat.com Details the flop, turn, river dealing and the seven-card hand selection at showdown.
  4. GTO Wizard Benchmark arxiv.org Supplies the specific heads-up blind example (50/100) used in the facts.
  5. Community card poker - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Supports the rule that a player wins the pot if all others fold.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.