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How to Play Poker: Rules, Betting Rounds and Hand Values

Texas Hold'em rules from blinds to showdown, with betting limits, hand values, pot-odds maths and the legal position in the UK, US and India.

By the Gambling Hero editorial team · October 25, 2026 Industry

To play poker, you make the strongest five-card hand or get every opponent to fold. In Texas Hold’em, each player receives two private cards, five shared cards follow in three stages, and four betting rounds decide who wins the pot.

In short

Poker is a card game in which players bet against each other into a shared pot. Texas Hold’em is the most common form: two hole cards per player, then a three-card flop, a one-card turn and a one-card river. A betting round follows the deal and each new stage. A hand ends when only one player is left or at showdown, where the highest five-card hand wins. Hand values follow ten ranks, from royal flush to high card. Real-money online poker is licensed in some markets and banned in others, including India since 1 May 2026.

What is the goal of a poker hand?

The goal of a poker hand is to win the pot, the chips all players have bet during that hand. A player wins the pot in one of two ways: every other player folds, or the player shows the highest-ranking five-card hand at showdown.

This double route separates poker from house-banked casino games. In blackjack or roulette, the player bets against the casino. In poker, players bet against each other, and the card room earns a fee rather than a house edge. You can compare both models on our poker games page.

Two consequences follow from the double route:

A weak hand can win if all opponents give up before showdown.
A strong hand wins nothing extra if nobody puts more chips in.

At showdown, the rule is that “the cards speak for themselves” (Pagat.com). A player must show the hole cards to claim the pot, and the dealer reads the hand as it is, not as the player announces it.

How does a Texas Hold’em hand work from start to finish?

A Texas Hold’em hand runs through four betting rounds. Two forced bets, the blinds, start the pot. Each player gets two hole cards. The flop adds three board cards, the turn adds a fourth and the river adds a fifth, with betting after each.

The sequence below follows Robert’s Rules of Poker (sections 4 and 5) and the house rules of The Venetian Resort Las Vegas:

Button. A disc called the button marks the nominal dealer. It moves one seat clockwise after every hand, so the last-to-act advantage rotates.
Blinds. The player to the left of the button posts the small blind. The player two seats clockwise from the button posts the big blind.
Deal. Each player receives two cards face down, the hole cards.
Pre-flop betting. The player to the immediate left of the big blind acts first. The blinds act last in this round and are “live”, so a blind may still raise.
Flop. The dealer burns one card and turns three board cards face up. A second betting round follows.
Turn. One more board card, then a third betting round.
River. The fifth board card, then the final betting round.
Showdown. Remaining players show their hands. The highest five-card hand wins.

Stage	Cards added	Cards each player can use	Betting round
Pre-flop	2 hole cards	2	1st
Flop	3 board cards	5	2nd
Turn	1 board card	6	3rd
River	1 board card	7	4th

A Texas Hold’em player builds the final hand from any five of the seven available cards. The Venetian lists three legal ways: two hole cards plus three board cards, one hole card plus four board cards, or all five board cards. The last option is called “playing the board”. From seven cards, a player can form 21 different five-card combinations (7 choose 5).

What can a poker player do when it is their turn to act?

A poker player whose turn it is has five possible actions: check (pass when no bet is open), bet, call (match the current bet), raise (increase it) or fold (give up the hand). The betting structure decides how large each bet or raise may be.

Structure	Bet size rule	Raise rule
Fixed limit	Set amounts: the small limit on the first two rounds, the big limit on the last two	A bet and three raises per round in games with three or more betting rounds
Pot-limit	Up to the size of the pot	Up to the pot size after the call is counted
No-limit	Any amount up to the player’s stack	At least the size of the previous bet or raise in that round; unlimited number of raises

Sources: Robert’s Rules of Poker (sections 3 and 14) and The Venetian. Two worked examples show how the limits work in practice.

Pot-limit example. The pot holds $100 and an opponent bets $50. Robert’s Rules says the next player may call $50 and raise $200. The reason: after the call, the pot holds $100 + $50 + $50 = $200, and that $200 is the maximum raise. The total put in is $250.

No-limit example. Blinds are $1 and $2. A player raises to $6, which is a raise of $4. The next player who wants to re-raise must make it at least $10, because the raise must be at least as large as the previous raise ($6 + $4). An all-in for less is the exception.

Which poker hand wins at showdown?

At a poker showdown, the highest-ranking five-card hand wins the pot. Poker hand values run from royal flush down to high card, and a rarer hand always beats a more common one. Suits never break a tie, so identical five-card hands split the pot.

The table shows all ten hands with the chance of ending up with each one when seven cards are available, as in Texas Hold’em. The figures come from the seven-card frequency table published by Wizard of Odds (133,784,560 possible seven-card sets).

Rank	Hand	Example	Chance with 7 cards
1	Royal flush	A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠	0.0032%
2	Straight flush	9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥	0.028%
3	Four of a kind	Q Q Q Q 4	0.17%
4	Full house	J J J 6 6	2.60%
5	Flush	K♦ 10♦ 8♦ 4♦ 2♦	3.03%
6	Straight	8 7 6 5 4	4.62%
7	Three of a kind	7 7 7 K 2	4.83%
8	Two pair	A A 9 9 3	23.50%
9	One pair	10 10 A 8 5	43.82%
10	High card	A J 9 6 3	17.41%

When two players hold the same type of hand, the higher cards decide. Two pair is compared by the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the fifth card (the kicker). The full ranking rules, including every tie-break, are in our guide Poker Hand Rankings: Every Hand from Royal Flush to High Card.

How do probabilities guide a beginner’s decisions?

Probabilities guide poker decisions by comparing the chance of winning a hand with the price of calling a bet. A Texas Hold’em player counts outs, converts them into a percentage and calls only when the pot pays more than the risk.

A few starting numbers, calculated by our editorial team from a 52-card deck:

There are 1,326 possible two-card starting hands (52 choose 2).
78 of them are pocket pairs, so a player is dealt a pair 5.9% of the time, about 1 hand in 17.
Pocket aces come in 6 combinations: 1 hand in 221.
A pocket pair flops three of a kind (a set) 11.8% of the time: 1 − (48 choose 3) ÷ (50 choose 3).
A flush draw on the flop has 9 outs. It completes by the river 35.0% of the time and on the next card alone 19.1% of the time (9 ÷ 47).

The 4-step pot-odds check turns these numbers into a decision:

Count the outs: the unseen cards that complete your hand.
Convert outs into equity: outs ÷ unseen cards for one card to come.
Work out the price: call amount ÷ (pot after the bet + call amount).
Call if equity is higher than the price; fold if it is lower.

Worked example. On the turn, the pot is $60. An opponent bets $20, so the pot is now $80. Calling costs $20 to win $80. The price is 20 ÷ (80 + 20) = 20%. A flush draw with one card to come completes 9 ÷ 46 = 19.6% of the time. 19.6% is below 20%, so the call loses a small amount on average, before counting any future bets. The concept behind this is expected value.

Editor’s insight

The same nine-out flush draw can be a clear call or a fold. Against an all-in bet on the flop, two cards are still to come and the draw completes 35.0% of the time, so a price of 20% to 30% is easily covered. Against a one-third-pot bet on the turn, the draw has 19.6% equity and the price is 20%, which is a marginal fold on pot odds alone. The hand name never changes; the number of cards to come and the bet size do. Beginners who learn the 4-step check before memorising starting-hand charts make fewer expensive calls.

How does Omaha differ from Texas Hold’em?

Omaha uses the same board, blinds and hand rankings as Texas Hold’em, but each Omaha player receives four hole cards and must use exactly two of them with exactly three board cards. Omaha is usually played pot-limit, while Hold’em is often no-limit.

Feature	Texas Hold’em	Omaha
Hole cards	2	4
Hole cards used in the final hand	0, 1 or 2	Exactly 2
Five-card combinations per player	21	60 (6 × 10)
Possible starting hands	1,326	270,725
Playing the board	Allowed	Not possible
Typical structure	No-limit or fixed limit	Pot-limit (Omaha Hi-Lo often fixed limit)
Players per table	2 to 10	2 to 10

Sources: Robert’s Rules of Poker (section 6) and Pagat.com; combination counts calculated by our editorial team. The four-card deal makes strong hands far more common in Omaha, so a hand that wins often in Hold’em, such as top pair, wins less often in Omaha. The details are in Omaha Poker Rules: How Pot-Limit Omaha Differs from Hold’em.

Where is real-money online poker legal?

Real-money online poker is legal only where a national or state law licenses it. Great Britain licenses operators through the UK Gambling Commission, the United States decides state by state, and India has banned all online money games, including skill games, since 1 May 2026.

India. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 was passed by Parliament in August 2025. Its rules came into force on 1 May 2026. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) explainer says the Act “imposes a complete ban on all forms of online money games”, and that the ban covers “games of chance, games of skill, and any mix of the two”. Banks and payment systems may not process these transactions. As of October 2026, real-money online poker is therefore not legally available in India. Details are on our India legal page.

Important

In India, offering or facilitating an online money game can lead to up to three years in prison, a fine of up to ₹1 crore, or both; advertising one can lead to up to two years or ₹50 lakh (PIB, as of October 2026). The PIB and Nishith Desai sources describe penalties for operators, advertisers and payment providers; neither describes a penalty for players. Gambling Hero does not encourage anyone in India to play real-money online poker. In every market, check the operator’s licence first.

United Kingdom. Online poker sites serving British players need a UK Gambling Commission licence. Our UKGC licence page explains what that licence requires.

United States. There is no single federal answer. Each state decides whether online poker is legal. See our US legal overview before you sign up anywhere.

Poker played for money carries the risk of losing it. Set a budget before you sit down, and use the tools on our responsible gambling page if play stops being fun.

Our take

Texas Hold’em is easy to learn in an evening: two cards, five board cards, four betting rounds, ten hand ranks. What takes much longer is the betting. Most of the money that changes hands moves because of decisions about calling and folding, not because of the cards dealt. That is why we would put the 4-step pot-odds check ahead of any starting-hand chart. We also think beginners should learn rules and maths with play-money games first. The legal map matters too: real-money online poker is licensed in Great Britain, regulated state by state in the US, and banned in India as of October 2026. Check where you are before you play.

Key takeaways

Texas Hold’em has 4 betting rounds: pre-flop, flop (3 cards), turn (1 card) and river (1 card).
Each player builds a five-card hand from 7 cards, which gives 21 possible combinations.
A pot-limit raise in a $100 pot facing a $50 bet can go up to $200 on top of the call.
Pocket pairs arrive 5.9% of the time; a flush draw completes 35.0% of the time by the river.
Omaha deals 4 hole cards and requires exactly 2 of them in the final hand.
India has banned all online money games, including poker, since 1 May 2026.

FAQ

How many cards does each player get in Texas Hold’em?

Each player gets two hole cards. Five community cards are added in three stages: three on the flop, one on the turn and one on the river.

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes. A flush beats a straight because it is rarer. From a 52-card deck there are 5,108 five-card flushes and 10,200 straights.

Can you use only the board cards in Hold’em?

Yes. In Texas Hold’em a player may use all five board cards. This is called playing the board, and it usually leads to a split pot. In Omaha it is not allowed.

What is the difference between the small blind and the big blind?

The small blind is posted by the player left of the button; the big blind by the player two seats left of the button. The big blind is usually twice the small blind and sets the minimum bet.

Is online poker legal in India?

No. As of October 2026, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 bans all online money games, skill games included. The rules have applied since 1 May 2026.