1. Poker Instructions Texas Franchise
2. Poker Instructions Texas Toast
3. Texas Holdem Poker Instructions
4. Poker Instructions For Beginners

1. Texas Holdem is played on a single table with two to 10 players. Each player is dealt two private cards (known as 'hole cards') that belong to them alone. Five community cards are dealt face-up, to form the 'board'. A player may use these shared the cards of the board in conjunction with their own hole cards to make their highest possible poker.
2. T exas Holdem poker has become one of the most played forms of poker after growing substantially in popularity during the explosion of online poker in the 2000s. As a result, learning how to play.

Learn how to play Texas Holdem Poker, the most popular game of them all and start playing online today! Read about buyins, misdeals, dead hands, Irregularities, Betting and raising, the showdown, ties, button and blinds, rules for using blinds plus poker videos.

Poker is a great game, but it can be difficult to jump right in and play if you’ve never played before. This is especially true when it comes to playing different forms of poker, each of which has its own rules and structure to follow.

Luckily, we’ve put together a guide that will help you get started in a number of different poker games. These poker instructions won’t make you a poker pro, but they will allow you to step into a game with confidence and understand what’s going on at the table.

General Poker Instructions

Most poker games are played with a standard, 52-card deck of cards. The goal is usually to make the best five-card poker hand, though you may have more than five cards to choose from in order to make that hand. The following rankings should help you understand which hands are best:

• Straight Flush: This hand is the strongest in poker. It is made up of five cards of consecutive ranks, all of which are the same suit. If you make this hand with the highest possible cards (ten through ace), you’ve made a Royal Flush – the very best hand possible!
• Four of a Kind: This hand contains four cards of the same rank.
• Full House: This hand contains three cards of one rank, and two cards of a separate rank.
• Flush: This hand contains five cards of the same suit.
• Straight: This hand contains five cards of consecutive ranks. Aces can play either low (A2345) or high (TJQKA).
• Three of a Kind: This hand contains three cards of the same rank.
• Two Pair: This hand contains two cards of one rank, and two cards of another rank.
• One Pair: This hand contains two cards of the same rank.
• High Card: This group contains all hands that don’t fit into the above groups; hands are ranked instead by the rank of their highest card.

The object of the game is to make the strongest hand possible, as the player with the best hand will win the pot and the end of each hand. Alternately, you may also win a pot by enticing all other players to fold their hands, and being the only player remaining.

Generally speaking, players will play in turn starting to the left of the dealer, with play continuing clockwise around the table. Players will have the option to call the current bet, raise the bet, or fold their hand. If no bets have been made in a given betting round, players can choose to make the first bet or check (pass).

Texas Hold’em Poker Instructions

Poker Instructions Texas Franchise

In Texas Hold’em, each player receives two cards at the beginning of the hand, face down. Players may also make use of five community cards in the middle of the table in making their five-card hand. In this version of poker, play begins with two players to the left of the dealer button making forced bets known as “blinds.” Play then proceeds clockwise. After the first round of betting ends, the dealer places the first three community cards on the table. After the next round, a fourth community card is dealt; after the third round, the fifth is dealt. Finally, after the final betting round, all remaining players show their cards, with the best hand winning the pot. Players may use any combination of their two hole cards and the five community cards in order to make their hand.

Omaha Poker Instructions

Omaha is played almost identically to Texas Hold’em, with a couple of notable exceptions. First of all, players are given four cards face down at the beginning of each hand, rather than two. However, players are required to use exactly two of their hole cards and three of the community cards to make their final five card hand; other combinations are not permissible. Often, Omaha is played in a “hi/lo” format, where half of the pot is won by the player with the lowest qualifying hand (typically, all cards in a hand must be unpaired and eight or lower to win the low half of the pot).

Seven Card Stud Poker Instructions

Poker Instructions Texas Toast

Seven Card Stud is played differently than the above games. For starters, there are no blinds; rather, all players must pay a small ante at the start of each hand. When the hand begins, all players are dealt two cards face down, and one card face up. The player with the lowest face up card showing must make the “bring-in” bet, after which play proceeds clockwise as normal. On each betting round after the first, betting begins with the player who has the best poker hand showing (since there are never more than four cards showing, straights and flushes do not count for this purpose).

Additional betting rounds are held as more cards are dealt; a 4th card is dealt to each player face up on one round, followed by a 5th card (face up) on the next, and a 6th card (again, face up) on the next. Before the final round of betting, a 7th card is dealt face down to each player. After the final round, all remaining players showdown their hands as normal; players may use any five cards from their hand, with the best hand winning the pot. As in Omaha, hi/lo games are often played with Seven Card Stud.

The PDF rules of poker are provided below for Texas Hold'em, the most popular poker variant.

To get the PDF printable version of this post click on of the unlock buttons below:

Other popular game variants include Pot Limit Omaha and 5card draw.

Table Of Contents

• Texas Hold'em Rules
• Poker hand Ranking System

Texas Hold'em Rules

In Texas hold’em each player is dealt two cards called their ‘hole’ cards. Hole cards can only be seen and used by one person. The dealer button (denoted by a circular disc) is allocated before hands are dealt to allow for the positioning of the forced bets: small blind and big blind, and also to determine who will act first and last in the hand.

There are a total of four betting rounds: preflop, the flop, the turn and the river. The betting rounds will be detailed further on.

If you have a dedicated dealer (such as at a casino), the button will still move around the table so everybody will eventually have to pay the blinds. The button doesn't show who is dealing in a casino; the button shows who is seated the best position at the table and where the blinds are located.

If you just sat down (out of turn) you will have to pay the blinds in order get dealt a hand; otherwise, you can wait until the blinds come around to your seat. You should wait for the blinds as paying twice is unprofitable.

The size of the blinds depends on the limit; for example, a 1/2 No Limit Hold'em game would have a big blind of $2 and a small blind of 1$. The small blind and big blind are located to the left of the button.

This is shown in the case of a 6 handed game below:

The blinds are an important part of the rules of poker. These forced bets which give players an incentive to play; in other words ‘spice up' the game. Without the blinds, there would be no penalty for waiting and only playing strong hands. The only hand worth playing would be two aces!

Antes are another form of forced bets which are often used the increase the action in some game types such as tournaments and deep stacked cash games.

Pre-flop – The First Betting Round of Hold'em

The first round of betting takes places starting at the position to the left of the big blind (early position or EP). Each player has the following options:

Raise: you can raise the current bet to increase the stakes of the game. If someone has raised before you, you can still raise again – this is call a reraise. The minimum size you can raise is typically chosen to be twice that of the last bet or raise.

Call: When you do not want to raise the stakes but want to continue with your hand you can match the current bet.

Fold: If you feel your hand is not worth playing any further you can fold your hand and not commit any more bets.

Check: If there is no bet placed you can check in order to see the next card. This isn't applicable to preflop. The blinds are the first bet preflop which must be matched with a call or raised, if a player wishes to continue.

Players must act in sequence until all bets are settled. The button must always act last in the first sequence. This first round of betting called ‘pre-flop’ occurs before the flop is dealt.

The Flop – The Second Betting Round

The second round of betting takes places after the three community (shared) cards called the flop are dealt. The action will be to the first player to the left of the dealer. This is opposed to the action starting to the left of the big blind during the preflop betting round.

The first player to act has the option to check bet or fold; although you should not fold when you can check for free. The betting rounds after the flop is dealt is collectively known as ‘post-flop’.

The Turn – The Third Betting Round

The third round of betting occurs after the second community card has been dealt. This card is called the turn. Again, the action starts with the active player to the left of the dealer.

The River and Showdown – The Fourth Betting Round

The fourth and final round of betting occurs when the dealer turns over the river card. The hand ends with the showdown of hands or if there is only one live hand remaining (the other player(s) have folded).

At showdown, the player with the best five card combination from their hole cards and the community cards wins the final pot. Split pots occur when both players have the same best five cards.

Texas Holdem Poker Instructions

After each hand, the button moves to the left of the dealer. This means everyone will have to play the blinds at some point.

Texas hold'em rules are quite simple; however the strategies involved in winning are ever evolving.

The rules of Texas Hold'em are just the beginning so head to our home page if you want to improve your poker game!

home page if you want to improve your poker game!

home page if you want to improve your poker game!

Keep this printable PDF hand ranking sheet beside you when you play to make sure you don't make a mistake!

The strongest to weakest hands of them poker hand hierarchy are listed below with the poker hands probability listed in brackets. After reading there will be no debating with friends ‘who has the best poker hand'!

1. Royal Flush (649,739:1)
   Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten all of the same suit – the strongest poker hand.

2. Straight flush (72,192:1)
   Five sequential cards all of the same suit. The second strongest poker hand.

3. Four of a kind (4,164:1)
   Four cards of the same value. Also known as ‘quads’.

4. Full House (693:1)
   Three cards of the same value plus two cards of the same value. Usually a winner!

5. Flush (508:1)
   Five cards all of the same suit.

6. Straight (254:1)
   Five cards in sequential order. Also referred to as a run.

7. Three of a kind (46:1)
   Three cards of the same value.

8. Two pair (20 : 1)
   Two sets of two cards with the same value. A common hand which can sometimes win at showdown!

9. One pair (1.37:1)
   Two cards of the same value.

10. High card
    The player with the highest card wins. Unlikely to be a winner so play with care.

Kickers

A kicker is much like a decider when both players have similar hand types. For example, if player A has A♠Q♣and Player B has A♣J♠ and the board is A♥K♦5♠ 7♠ 2♦ both players will have top pair with an ace but player A will win because the Q♣ is a better kicker than the J♠. The best five cards in this scenario are AAQ75 whereas the losing hand has AAJ75. A kicker is a very important concept when trying to understand the poker hand ranking system.

Split pots

Split pots occur when both players get to showdown and have the same hand rank. The pot is divided up equally between each of the players.

To take an example, if player A has K♠J♥ and player B has K♣Q♠ on a A♥K♦5♠5♣2♠ board both players will have two pair and ace kicker as their best hand (A, K, K, 5, 5). Therefore the pot will be split between the two players.

Alternatively, if the neither player can improve the hand on the board it will also be a split pot. If the board is A♥K♦5♠5♣K♠ and player A has Q♠J♣ and player B has 4♣4♠ then both players will be playing the board and thus it will be a split pot. Hence, you cannot have three pair in poker and the best two pair will play.

Beyond hand rankings

The rules of poker and poker hand rankings are just the beginning for you on your poker journey. One of the core skills in poker is being able to determine whether your hand is strong or weak on a relative scale as opposed to an absolute scale. For example, three of a kind is extremely strong on a board with no flush or straight possibilities but very weak on a board with 4 to a flush or 4 to a straight (e.g. T♥9♥8♥7♥ – any heart or J or 6 beats three of a kind).

One key point to note is that in poker all suits are of the same value. An Ace high flush of hearts is the same value as an Ace high flush of spades.

The first step to this is remembering if a flush beats a straight, or whether a straight flush beats quads; the next stage is figuring out your hand's relative strength based on how your opponent is playing, his tendencies and most importantly the board texture as noted.

Additionally, we should take into account the following factors:

• How many players are in the pot
• The amount of chips in the pot
• The size of the bets made

Poker Instructions For Beginners

If you can understand the poker hand rankings and relative hand strength you will be ahead of the game; get ready to beat all your friends and opponents at your home games and casinos! Want to accelerate your poker learning? Check out or poker training sites post for the quickest ways to improve your poker game.

If you are new to poker and are unsure of what hands you need to play, check out our starting hand charts over at the poker cheat sheet webpage.

Check out this poker hand ranking video for a more visual format of everything we said:

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Poker cheat sheet for beginners & Best Poker Books