Texas Hold'em Rules

When it comes to rules of the game. There is nothing quite like Texas Hold’em where drinking is tolerated, hats are up to you, lying is encouraged, and the only body armor required is a pair of sunglasses.

There are no fines for the wearing the wrong clothes, there are no fines for saying the wrong things, and there are no fines for being able to outsmart your opponents. But there still are rules of play that must be obeyed. And before you play free Texas Hold em poker online you better know the rules of the table.

We'll start with the basics. Texas Hold’em is played with a deck with fifty two cards. Okay perhaps that was a little too basic, but hey you never know.  Hold'em can be played head to head with as little as two players or all the way up to a group game that has as many as eleven competitors.  The regular poker hand ranks are also applicable to Texas Hold'em.

A typical Hold'em game is broken down into five categories. Betting and Blinds are covered in another article

Flop: When the dealer places three cards, face up, in the middle of the table this is called “The Flop”. These are the community cards that can be used with the player’s own cards to create the best possible poker hand. After the “flop” there is another round of betting.

Preflop:  Each person is dealt one card face down starting with the dealer. Then a second face down card is dealt to each of the players. These two cards will be the player’s hold cards. Once everyone has received their hold cards, the first round of betting begins.

River: The dealer turns over the fifth and last community card which is is called "the river" or "fifth street". Betting then occurs for the last time

Turn: The dealer sets another card face up in the middle of the table which is called the “Turn”. At this point there are four community cards face up in the middle of the table. The turn is followed by another round of betting.

Showdown: At this point a number of players have gauged the strength of their hands and their chance of winning the hand. For this reason more then a few of the player will have folded and stepped out for a well needed drink or some friendly advice. The remaining players in the hand show their cards starting with the person who made the first bet.

Each player uses his two cards, and the five community cards to create the best 5 card poker hand they can. Players can use any combination of hold cards and the community cards. This means they can even use just one of their hold cards combined with four of the community cards creates the best hand. That's a-okay in the world of poker.

Remember that at any time during the game a player can fold and get out of the hand but he or she looses all the bets they have placed up to that point.

Board Plays: If the five community cards make the best hand then everyone splits the pot. which is called "the board plays."