Further reading: For a more detailed explanation check out the poker hands ranking overview. Now you know the rules of Texas Hold'em. You know that in a game there are four rounds of betting, one before the flop, one on the flop, one on the turn, and the last one after the river card is dealt. Jul 03, 2016 Texas Holdem Rules – Best 5-Card Hand In Hold’em you must make the best 5-card hand possible using any combination of your two hole cards and the five community cards on the table. You can use both, one or none of your own hole cards to make your best hand. The first three cards in Texas Hold'em are called the flop. These cards are “community cards” meaning everyone can (and will need to) use at least three of them in combination with their own hole cards to make the best hand. 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. A player can use one, both or none of his hole cards to make this best hand. The game has following variants depending on the betting rules. No Limit Texas Hold’em – There is no limit on betting. A player can bet as much as he wants to bet while playing. Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em – There is a proper limit on the amount that a player can bet. Sometimes the best texas hold em hand is made by the five shared cards on their own. If they were 10-10-10-10-A and you had 9-9 your hole cards would not play as there is a four-of-a-kind of higher value already showing.
If you’re a beginning poker player and want to learn not only
which hands beat which hands, but how to read the board and possible hands while playing Texas holdem, you’ve found the best page available to help.
While it’s important to understand how each hand ranks in
comparison to others hands it’s equally important to understand how to read the board of community cards, how to read possible draws, and how to read what hands your opponents may be holding. Each of these subjects is covered below. Texas Holdem Rules Printable
New players should make sure to read each section in order
below. But if you already know how to play poker and are familiar with the rank of poker hands you can skip to the sections following the hand rankings section. But it’s never a bad idea to refresh your knowledge and it only takes a couple minutes to read the extra sections. Texas Holdem Hand Rankings
The following list is ranked from highest five card hand to
lowest five card hand. Start reading from the top down and the first hand you find that a player holds is the winning hand. See how to break ties below the hand rankings.
Remember that you always make your best five card hand out of
the two hole cards and five community cards. You can use both of your hole cards and three community cards, one hole card and four community cards, or just the five community cards, but you always use exactly five cards to make a hand.
How to Break Ties
When two or more hands are tied for the highest hand one of
two things must happen. The first thing is you must decide if one hand is actually higher than the other / s based on a few simple rules that we cover next.
Moving from the top of the hand rankings above down, in a
Texas holdem game it’s impossible for more than one player to have a royal flush unless the royal flush has all five cards on the board. If all five cards on the board are used in this way by every player remaining in the hand, all of the players tie.
It’s possible for two players to have straight flushes. In
the case of two or more straight flushes, straights, or flushes, the player with the highest card in her straight or flush has the highest hand. If one player has a queen high straight and another has a nine high straight, the player with the queen high straight wins.
In the event of two or more players holding a full house, the
player with the highest three of a kind has the better hand. If two or more players hold two pair hands, the player with the highest pair wins. If each player has the same high pair the player with the highest second pair wins.
When two or more players have the same high hand of a pair, Example
or three of a kind, or something similar, the rest of each player’s hand is considered.
Two players each have a pair of aces for their high hand.
Player A has A A K J 5 and player B has A A J 7 4. Player A wins the hand because her next highest card after the tied pair of aces is a king and player B only has a jack. In the event the third card is the same you then compare the fourth card.
If two or more hands have the exact same five card hand then
the pot is split between the winning hands. The suits all have the same rank as far as value is concerned. Hearts is not worth more or less than spades, etc. How to Read the Board
When you start playing Texas holdem it’s important to learn Example
how to read the board not only to determine what you hold but also what your opponent could possibly have. This is important because you don’t want to be caught by surprise when you think you have the best hand and commit a large amount of money to the pot when another player actually has a better hand.
You start the hand with the ace of clubs and the jack of
clubs and the flop has the queen of clubs, nine of clubs, and ace of diamonds. This looks like a good flop for you because you have a pair of aces and a chance to hit an ace high flush. The turn is the two of clubs, completing the best possible flush. The river is the queen of hearts.
While you still have the best possible flush, when the board
paired on the river it means you no longer have the best possible hand. Whenever the board pairs it means there’s a possibility that one of your opponents may have a full house.
In the example we just used a player starting the hand with
an ace and queen would have hit the full house on the river. The same is true for a player starting with pocket nines.
Most of the time in Texas holdem you’ll still have the best
hand with a flush in these situations, but you always need to know what the best possible hand is before deciding how much to risk in the pot.
Other hands to watch out for include possible straights and
boards that have a high likelihood of having two pair.
Good starting hands often have two high cards, so any flop
that holds two or three high cards has a chance to create pairs or straight possibilities for your opponents who hold high card starting hands.
Even flops with middle and smaller cards may offer straight
possibilities, especially in unraised pots. In an unraised pot the blinds get to see the flop for free or a half bet, so even on a flop with lower cards they may have hit two pair or a straight draw.
One of the best ways to practice reading the board is by
dealing out hands at home and figuring out every possible hand. Then start dealing pocket cards for multiple players and play each one independently in your mind. This way you see many different pocket cards in combination with the board cards.
If you’re still struggling to see all of the possibilities
and hands ask a more experienced player to work with you as you practice to point out things you may be missing. How to Read Draws
Reading draws kind of goes hand in hand with the last section Example
about reading the board, but you also need to learn how to factor in the chances of hitting your draws.
If you have four cards to a straight after the turn there’s
only a few cards left in the deck that can complete your straight. If your straight draw is open ended, meaning you can hit a card on either end to complete it, you have eight cards left in the deck that can help you.
A hand of seven, eight, nine, ten will complete with any six
or jack. You’ve seen your two hole cards and four board cards, so the deck still has 46 unseen cards. Eight of these cards complete your straight and 38 of them don’t. So the odds of you completing your straight are 38 to 8. This reduces to 4.75 to 1.
In more simple terms this means that on average if you played
the exact same situation 46 times you’d complete your straight eight times and miss it 38 times.
Of course the actual deck of remaining cards doesn’t have 46
cards because the other players have cards, but you haven’t seen them so you have to include them as unseen cards in the deck for your calculations.
You use the odds in combination with your possible draws to
determine if it’s profitable to bet, raise, check, or fold.
This can become somewhat complicated when you have multiple
ways to make a hand. Usually each possible draw has a different chance of winning if you hit it. In the example above you stand a good chance of winning the hand when you hit your straight, but if you miss your straight but pair one of your cards on the river you’ll have a pair, but the odds of it being good are slim.
Learn how to read all of your possible draws and how to
determine the odds of each draw being successful and winning if you hit it. This will help you win more often playing Texas holdem. Reading Your Opponents Possible Hands
Continuing the discussion from the last two sections, once
you learn all there is to know about your possible hands and draws and the odds you can start using the same things to determine what hands your opponents can possibly hold and their chance of completing hands that may be able to beat your hand.
You’ll need to learn what hands your opponents like to play
and which ones they don’t play if you want to get the best possible reads, but even if you don’t know anything about your opponents you can still make educated guesses based on the board, what you hold, and the betting action throughout the hand.
Remember in an earlier section we mentioned that many good
starting hands have high cards. Other popular starting hands include pocket pairs and suited hands including an ace. As the level of competition improves the starting hand possibilities tend to change. Staring hands with an ace and suited small card are more likely at the lower levels than at the higher levels of competition.
Look at the list of good starting hands included in the next
section and then compare them with the current board. Which hands fit with the way your opponent is playing the hand? Don’t forget that not every player will follow the guidelines listed below.
Some players, especially at the lower levels, play any ace or
any hand with an ace and any card the same suit as the ace.
At lower levels you’ll often see hands where a player with an
ace and a small off card hit two pair and beat a hand with a pair of aces and a large second hole card that doesn’t pair up. This may seem like playing better starting hands doesn’t pay off, but in the long run the player starting with ace queen is going to win more hands than the player starting with ace three.
It’s also important to always consider the players in the
blinds. If they get in for free or half a bet they could have any two cards. Even for a small raise many players won’t fold anything from the blinds because they’re already invested in the pot.
You need to consider a wide range of things when trying to
guess what your opponents hold, but with practice you can start narrowing down their possible hands quickly. As you gain more experience you can get to the point where you’ll often have a good idea where your opponents stand in a hand. You’ll still be surprised sometimes because players do all kinds of crazy things at the holdem table, but the more you know the better you’ll be in the long run.
Another big part of reading your opponent’s possible hands is
watching them play, even when you aren’t in the hand, and remembering everything they do. If they have a big pocket pair do they always raise before the flop? Do they ever bet into a draw or do they always check and call? Thinking about these questions and learning the answers to them and others will make your play more profitable over time. Best Starting Hands
Here’s a list of the best starting hands in Texas holdem. The
list is roughly listed from best to worst, but hand values change somewhat based on the level of competition, the makeup of the game, and your ability to play well after the flop.
Not all of these hands can be played from every position or
in every game. But if a hand isn’t listed here you should avoid playing it in any Texas holdem game.
Two card hands followed by a small “s” means suited. For
example, K Q s means a king and queen of the same suit.
As you become a long term profitable Texas Holdem player
you’ll find situations where you may be able to play a few hands profitably that aren’t on the list. You may be able to play 10 9 s or 4 4 from late position profitably in a few games, but don’t even think about trying it until you’re already a profitable player.
On the other hand you’ll find many games where hands like K J
and below on the list can’t be played profitably. As a rule of thumb, while you’re learning how to be a better player, it’s always better to be tight than loose. So only play the best hands while learning how to play.
You also need to understand how position relative to the
dealer button changes the value of starting hands and what you can and can’t play for a profit. We have an entire page dedicated to position so you should study it to make sure you completely understand how to use it. Conclusion
Even experienced Texas holdem players make mistakes when it
comes to reading the board of community cards and trying to determine what their opponents hold. Once you learn what beats what, you still have a great deal to learn if you want to be a winning player.
Start by making sure you know the ranking of all of the
possible hands, and then learn how to read the board. Use your hole cards with the board to determine not only the best hand you can form, but also the best hand your opponents could possibly have.
The next step is learning the odds of you hitting your hands
and using this information to determine the best way to play the rest of the hand. Finally, you can start using all of the things you’ve learned to start making educated guesses about what your opponents have and are drawing to.
Winning Texas holdem players use all of these things and more
on every hand to give themselves the best chance to win. But don’t panic if this seems like a lot to take in at once. You don’t have to learn it all in one sitting. Bookmark or print out this page and go over it often while you’re learning to be a better player.
Then get started playing and practicing. You can play and
practice for free or start at the low levels so you don’t risk much money while you’re learning. Comments are closed.
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