How to play Texas Hold'em

The deal

Each player is dealt two hole cards face down. Five community cards are then dealt face up in three stages: three on the flop, one on the turn, one on the river. You make the best five-card poker hand from any combination of your two hole cards and the five on the board. You may use both, one, or none of your hole cards (playing the board).

Action goes clockwise. Before the flop the player left of the big blind acts first. After the flop, the first still-active player left of the button acts first. The button is the dealer position — last to act after the flop, which is the most valuable seat at the table.

Blinds and betting

Two forced bets start every hand: the small blind (left of the button) and the big blind (left of that). In no-limit Hold'em you may bet any amount from one big blind up to your entire stack. A round can check around, or it can contain bets, calls, raises and folds. Once only one player remains, they win the pot without showing. If two or more players are still in after the river, the best hand wins at showdown.

What actually wins

Hand ranking is the same as most high-hand poker: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. Suits do not rank against each other in Hold'em — a spade flush and a heart flush of the same ranks chop. Kickers matter constantly: ace-king and ace-five both pair the ace, and the king kicker usually takes it.

• Position is a resource — act last, see more, bluff more, value more
• The first decision is whether your two cards are worth a raise, a call, or a fold
• Most winning Hold'em is folding hands that look pretty and betting hands that are ahead
• Pot odds tell you whether a draw is priced in; they live in the Poker Math course

Cash games vs tournaments

In a cash game chips are money. You can rebuy, leave, and the blinds stay put. In a tournament chips are only chips: blinds go up, the field shrinks, and survival has a price. The mechanics of the hand are identical. The strategy is not — which is why PokerGrad splits NLH Cash and NLH Tournament into two tracks.