How to Play Poker: A Beginner’s Guide to Texas Hold’em

Poker is intoxicating and every year tons of new players emerge. Whether it’s playing games with friends, online or at a casino, poker can be incredibly fun.

However, starting off can sometimes be daunting. It’s not easy to understand the complexities of poker, like knowing when to check in poker, which hands are the best, how much to bet on a given hand, and so on.

The easiest way to learn poker is through Texas Hold’em: each player receives two private cards, five shared cards are dealt in stages, and the aim is to win the pot with the best five-card hand or by making everyone else fold.

Poker is a card game of incomplete information. You do not need to memorise complex maths on day one, but you do need to understand the flow of a hand, the betting options and which hands beat which.

In Texas Hold’em, a table normally has two to 10 players and uses a standard 52-card deck. Before the cards are dealt, two players post compulsory bets called the small blind and big blind, which create the starting pot.

Each player then receives two face-down ‘hole’ cards. The dealer reveals up to five community cards in the middle of the table: three on the flop, one on the turn and one on the river. Players make their best five-card hand using any combination of their hole cards and the community cards.

How a hand works?

There are four betting rounds: pre-flop, flop, turn and river. When it is your turn, you can usually fold, call, raise, bet or check, depending on what has happened before you. Folding ends your involvement in the hand; calling matches the current bet; raising increases it.

If all other players fold, you win the pot without showing your cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, there is a showdown and the highest-ranked five-card hand wins.

Poker hand rankings

From strongest to weakest, the standard poker hands are: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. A hand in a higher category beats any hand below it.

As a beginner, play fewer hands rather than chasing every pot. Strong starting hands such as high pairs and high connected cards are easier to play than weak, disconnected cards. Position also matters: acting later gives you more information about what others have done.

You can learn in cash games or tournaments. In a cash game, chips represent real money and you can usually leave when you choose. In a tournament, you pay an entry fee, receive a fixed stack and play until you are knocked out or win all the chips.

If you are in Great Britain, real-money gambling is usually restricted to people aged 18 or over, and regulated gambling websites must have procedures to prevent underage gambling. Start with play-money games or low-pressure home games before risking money.

When playing poker, set a budget, stop when it stops being enjoyable, and never treat poker as a guaranteed way to make money.