Learn poker
Short guides for the searches people actually type — then a full Kindergarten-to-Grade-12 course if you want the ladder. Every guide is free.
Hold'em
How to play Texas Hold'em
Texas Hold'em is the default poker game in almost every room. Two private cards, five shared cards, and a betting round on each street. This page is the map; the NLH Cash course is the ladder.
Omaha
How to play Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO)
PLO looks like Hold'em with two extra cards. It is not. You must use exactly two of your four hole cards, bets are capped at the pot, and the drawing hands are large enough that flopped nuts get stacked by the river as a matter of routine.
Omaha hi-lo
How to play Omaha 8 or Better (PLO8)
Omaha 8 or Better (PLO8 when pot-limit, Limit Omaha 8 when fixed-limit) splits the pot between the best high hand and the best qualifying low. Most of the money is won by scooping both halves — and lost by getting quartered.
Fundamentals
Poker hand rankings
Almost every high-hand game uses the same ladder. Lowball games invert it, and Badugi uses a different object entirely. Learn the high ladder cold, then learn which games throw it away.
Poker math
Pot odds explained
Pot odds are not a personality trait. They are a fraction. If the pot is $100 and it costs $25 to call, you need 25 / 125 = 20% equity to break even. Everything else in poker math hangs off that sentence.
Poker math
What is equity in poker?
Equity is the percentage of the pot that belongs to you if nobody folds and the remaining cards are dealt. It is not 'how good the hand feels'. Aces have ~85% equity against a random hand preflop and ~20% against a set on a dry flop. Same cards, different equity.
Poker math
The rule of 2 and 4
Counting outs is only useful if you can turn them into a percentage before the dealer is impatient. The rule of 2 and 4 is that conversion. It is slightly wrong, and it is the right tool for live poker.
Hold'em
Position in poker
Position is not a vibe. It is whether you act before or after the other people in the hand. Acting last means you have seen their decision before you make yours. That information is worth more than a modest difference in hole cards.
Formats
Cash games vs poker tournaments
The cards are dealt the same way. The game is not the same. Cash-game chips are money you can pocket. Tournament chips are a ticket in a payout structure. Mixing the two strategies up is how winning cash players bust MTTs on the bubble.
Stud
How to play Razz
Razz looks like 7-card stud and thinks like the opposite of Hold'em. Lowest unpaired hand wins. Aces are low. Straights and flushes do not count against you. The wheel — A-2-3-4-5 — is the nuts.
Draw
How to play Badugi
Badugi is not lowball Hold'em. You are drawing to four cards of different suits and different ranks. Duplicating a suit or a rank throws a card out. The best badugi is A-2-3-4 with four suits. A three-card hand loses to any four-card badugi.
Hold'em
Texas Hold'em starting hands
You are dealt 169 non-equivalent starting hands. You should play a fraction of them, and that fraction depends on the seat, the stacks, and who is already in the pot. A chart is a starting point. A chart used from every position is a leak.
Stud
How to play 7-Card Stud
Stud is older than Hold'em and still in every mixed-game rotation. There is no flop. Each player is building their own seven-card hand, four of those cards face up. The information is on the table if you look.
Bankroll
Poker bankroll management
A strategy with a positive expectation still has a distribution. That distribution includes long losing stretches. A bankroll is how many of those stretches you can absorb without touching rent. Without one, variance is not a concept — it is an eviction.
Specialty
How to play Short Deck (6+ Hold'em)
Short Deck (6+ Hold'em) is Hold'em with a 36-card deck: all 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s removed. The remaining cards run 6 through ace. Hand frequencies invert in ways that punish people who bring a full-deck ranking to the table.
Looking up a word? The glossary covers pot odds, ICM, wraps, quarters and the rest.