Poker

Texas hold em dealing rules

Texas hold'em dealing rules are the procedures for shuffling, cutting, and distributing hole cards and community cards, including the required burn cards before each street.

Hole cards: Two face-down cards dealt one at a time to each player¹
Community cards: Five dealt face up: flop (3), turn (1), river (1)²
Burn cards: One card discarded before the flop, turn, and river³

Key points

After shuffling and cutting, the dealer gives each player two hole cards, starting with the player to the left of the big blind.¹
A burn card is discarded before the flop, turn, and river; community cards are dealt face up in stages.²
Players use any five of their seven available cards (two hole cards plus five community cards) at showdown.³

Common questions

How to deal Texas hold'em with blinds?

After the blinds are posted, the dealer shuffles and cuts the deck. The first card is dealt to the player left of the big blind, and each player receives two hole cards one at a time.¹

Where this term is used

Poker

Not the same as

Texas holdem rules — the overall game rules, not just the card-dealing procedure
Texas Hold'em hands — the ranking and strength of hands, not the dealing process

Poker Poker hold em rules Covers the full set of rules for Texas hold'em poker. Poker Texas hold em card rankings Explains the hand rankings used in Texas hold'em. Poker Poker dealing rules General dealing procedures that apply across poker variants. Poker 5 card poker rules Rules for five-card draw and stud, which differ from community-card dealing. Poker Omaha hi-lo rules Dealing rules for Omaha hi-lo, a variant with four hole cards. Poker Omaha poker rules hi-lo Another guide to Omaha hi-lo rules and dealing procedures.

Sources

Texas hold 'em en.wikipedia.org Provides the standard dealing procedure for Texas hold'em, including hole cards and burn cards.
Texas Hold'em Poker - card game rules pagat.com Details the order of dealing community cards and the use of burn cards.
Community card poker en.wikipedia.org Confirms the number of community cards and the burn card procedure.

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.