5 min read
Rules of Texas Hold'em
Know the rules cold so the rest of the guides don't trip you up.
TL;DR
Texas hold'em: everyone gets two private hole cards, up to five shared community cards appear on the board, and you build your best five-card hand from any combination of the two. Win the pot by having the best hand at showdown or by getting everyone else to fold first.
Texas hold'em is the poker variant Hero Poker plays. If you already know the rules, skip ahead to the next guide — this one is here so nothing later assumes knowledge you don't have yet.
The goal
Everyone at the table plays with chips instead of cash. Each hand, you try to win the pot — either by having the best five-card hand at showdown, or by getting everyone else to fold before it gets that far.
The cards
Every player gets two private cards, called hole cards. Nobody else sees them. Over the course of a hand, up to five shared cards appear face-up in the middle of the table — the community cards, or the board. You build your best five-card hand from any combination of your two hole cards and the five community cards.
The betting rounds
A hand has up to four rounds of betting, always in this order:
- Preflop — right after hole cards are dealt, before any community cards appear.
- Flop — the first three community cards appear.
- Turn — a fourth community card appears.
- River — the fifth and final community card appears.
After the river, if two or more players are still in, whoever hasn't folded shows their cards and the best hand wins. This is called showdown.
Your options on your turn
Hero Poker only ever offers you the actions that are actually legal in the moment — you'll never see a grayed-out button you could have picked.
- Fold — give up the hand. You lose whatever you've already put in the pot, but you stop risking more.
- Check — pass the action along without betting, only legal when nobody has bet on this street yet.
- Call — match the current bet to stay in the hand.
- Bet / raise — put in more chips than the current bet, putting pressure on everyone else to match you or fold.
Blinds
Before any cards are dealt, two players are forced to post small forced bets — the small blind and the big blind — so there's always something in the pot worth playing for. These rotate around the table every hand.
Hand rankings, best to worst
- Straight flush
- Four of a kind
- Full house
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- Pair
- High card
You don't need to memorize this list right now — the live table always tells you in plain language what you're holding as the hand plays out.