Pillar guide
Texas Hold’em rules, from blinds to showdown.
Each player receives two private cards. Five community cards can be used by everyone. Your final hand is the best five-card combination available from the seven cards you can see.
The round in six stages
- Blinds: forced bets create a pot before cards are dealt.
- Preflop: each player receives two hole cards and the first betting round occurs.
- Flop: three community cards are dealt.
- Turn: a fourth community card is dealt.
- River: a fifth community card is dealt.
- Showdown: remaining players reveal as needed and the best five-card hand wins.
You do not have to use both hole cards
Hold’em differs from Omaha here. You may use both hole cards, one, or neither. If the board itself is the best five-card hand, every remaining player may be “playing the board.”
The basic actions
Check / Call
Continue without increasing the current price, either because no bet exists or by matching it.
Bet / Raise
Increase the amount opponents must match to continue.
Fold
Give up your claim to the current pot.
Rules are easy. Context is the real game.
The same two cards can be a raise, call or fold depending on position, stack depth, prior action, tournament incentives and opponent tendencies. That is why Baccaret separates rules from strategy.