Texas Hold’em Beginner’s Guide! Rules, Hands, and Strategies Explained

Among all poker games, the most famous is Texas Hold’em.

Texas Hold’em rules are used in tournaments, poker rooms, online poker, and many other settings — so learning them lets you play anywhere.

This article introduces the rules, hands, and basic terminology of Texas Hold’em so beginners can start playing right away. If there’s a specific section you want to see first, use the links below to skip ahead:

• General Rules and Flow of Texas Hold’em
• Actions in Texas Hold’em
• Hand Rankings in Texas Hold’em
• Strategies for Texas Hold’em
• Apps to Play Texas Hold’em for Free

We also introduce online poker where you can play Texas Hold’em for free via app or browser, so please use this as a reference.

What Kind of Game Is Texas Hold’em?

Texas Hold’em is a type of poker and the most popular ruleset in the world.

You make a hand using 5 of the 7 cards total — 2 hole cards and 5 community cards — and determine the winner by hand strength.

This alone may make it sound like a luck-based game where the person who draws good cards wins, but poker has an action called ‘fold’ where you drop out of the game — through bluffing and negotiation, you can make your opponent drop out regardless of hand strength.

For that reason, the game requires more strategy and psychological play than pure luck.

Basic Rules of Texas Hold’em

First let’s explain the basic rules of Texas Hold’em.

For those unfamiliar with poker terminology, please also refer to the following article:

General Rules of Texas Hold’em

Texas Hold’em poker performs 4 types of actions in each betting round: bet, raise, check, and call.

First, at the pre-flop stage, action begins from UTG (Under the Gun), the player to the left of BB.

If the win probability looks good with the first hand, select call or raise to join the game — once the number of participants is determined, 3 cards are revealed on the flop.

The action order after that becomes SB → BB → UTG, so caution is needed. When both players’ actions match on the river, a showdown is performed and the hand is shown from the SB side to determine the winner.

Casino Texas Hold’em Rules

Now, we’ve explained the player-vs-player Texas Hold’em poker rules, but casino game rules also exist.

There are slight differences depending on the house rules, but in Casino Texas Hold’em, you need to pay an ante before seeing your hand.

Whether you can select check/raise in each betting round introduced above varies by casino rules. Unlike player-vs-player, even if your hand is AA, since the cards up to the river are all opened, bad beats happen more easily.

Even if your win probability is very high, folding may be the correct choice — so be careful.

Prohibited Actions and Bad Manners in Texas Hold’em

In Texas Hold’em, you cannot change an action once you’ve chosen it.

Even if you accidentally make an unintended action or choose the wrong thing, you cannot take it back — so be careful not to make mistakes with bet amounts or action names.

Also, while the game is in progress, even after you’ve folded, commenting with information about your hand is prohibited.

Reading about manners before starting poker is recommended to avoid unintentional manners violations.

Texas Hold’em Actions

As mentioned at the beginning, various actions are performed between players in each betting round as the game progresses.

This section explains each action in detail.

Call

A call is an action of accepting a challenge in response to an opponent’s bet or raise.

It is generally seen as a weak action, because the reason is that you cannot make your opponent fold.

For example, calling at the pre-flop stage automatically makes BB your opponent.

This action is called a limp, and it’s basically an action beginners should not take.

The reason is that the amount is too small, which broadens the SB’s call range. When everyone calls from UTG’s limp, some kind of big hand tends to form and someone ends up busting.

Fold

Fold refers to the action of dropping out of the game. The easiest situation to judge is at the pre-flop stage — when considering your position and hand range, if the hand has poor win probability, basically fold.

Also, when community cards are revealed and the opponent’s flush seems highly likely, boldly fold.

Raise

Raise is an aggressive action.

It’s a method of offering 2x or more than the opponent’s bet, asserting to the opponent that your current hand is strong.

It’s also effective when bluffing — use it effectively.

Minimum Raise Amount

The minimum raise is specified as 2x or more the bet amount.

For example, for a 2BB raise, 4BB or more counts as a raise, and approximately 3x tends to be the standard.

Re-raise

Re-raise is an aggressive action of raising again against a raise.

Since a raise offers at least 2x the bet amount, a re-raise is at least 4x the bet amount or more.

Basically in tournaments where chip amounts are fixed, pushing to a re-raise creates pot commitment and makes it impossible to back out.

It is almost equivalent to an all-in, and unless you’re confident it’s a bluff, there’s a very high probability a three-of-a-kind or better will appear from the opponent.

Bet

Bet takes place from post-flop onwards, and the first action of putting chips in during that betting round is considered a bet.

At pre-flop, since BB has already made a forced bet, it often becomes a raise.

Like raising, betting is also seen as an aggressive action, but a recent trend is that the player who opened with a raise mindlessly fires a continuation bet (CB).

This is colloquially called ‘chimp bet’ and may be seen through, so be careful with frequency and mix in checks.

The minimum bet amount after pre-flop is set at 1BB or more.

Check

Check means passing your turn to the next player.

It’s a fairly weak action, but there is a custom of checking around to the original raiser.

Also, there are situations where slow play — checking to pass the turn to the opponent then responding with a call — is recommended, so don’t let your guard down with opponents who check frequently.

All-In

And the most aggressive of all bets and raises is all-in.

All-in is a declaration that you won’t fold no matter what cards come, and in an all-in showdown the result won’t be known until the river.

For example, there are cases where going all-in with K8 when facing a completed 89 full house with less than 1% win probability has realized equity.

Basically, less than 1% chance of turning it around is virtually impossible, but at around 10%, being turned around happens all the time.

Texas Hold’em Hand Rankings | Probabilities and Strength

Hand	Probability on Flop	Probability on River
Royal Straight Flush	0.00015%	0.0032%
Straight Flush	0.0014%	0.027%
Four of a Kind	0.0024%	0.16%
Full House	0.14%	2.6%
Flush	0.2%	3.25%
Straight	0.39%	4.62%
Three of a Kind	2.1%	4.83%
Two Pair	4.75%	23.5%
One Pair	32%	43.8%
High Card	50%	17.4%

In addition to the above, basic rules apply: when hands are the same, the one with the higher number wins; suit strength has no bearing on the outcome.

We explain poker hands in more detail below, so those who aren’t confident yet should check the following without forcing themselves!

When Hand Strength Is Equal

Chop refers to a draw. Since this draw judgment in Texas Hold’em can be difficult for the untrained eye, beginners should not muck and instead let the dealer determine the result.

Texas Hold’em Positions

Let’s quickly get the positions like SB and BB down with the table below:

Order	General Position	Abbreviation	Position Name
	Blind Position	SB	Small Blind
		BB	Big Blind
1	Early Position	UTG	Under the Gun
2		EP2	Early Position 2
3		EP3	Early Position 3
4	Middle Position	MP1	Middle Position 1
5		MP2	Middle Position 2
6		MP3	Middle Position 3
8	Late Position	HJ	Hijack
9		CD	Cutoff
10		BTN	Dealer Button

The above is the basic order of positions.

In practice, players sit in a clockwise circle in the above order, with SB (Small Blind) sitting to the left of the Dealer Button.

In poker explanations, positions are often abbreviated such as SB and UTG — note this.

When the number of players decreases from the above, positions are removed in this order: EP3, MP3, CO, EP2, MP2.

Texas Hold’em Game Flow / How to Proceed

This section explains the basic flow of Texas Hold’em.

Determine the Dealer Button Position

The dealer button position is determined by lottery.

Since the button position acts last, it’s said to be the best position — so whether you get a good start is decided here.

You either draw lottery cards, or each player draws one card from the deck and whoever draws the highest card becomes the button.

Deal 2 Cards to Each Player

Repeating ourselves, the deck is then shuffled and cards are dealt one by one starting from SB.

Start the First Action from UTG

Action starts from UTG, the player to the left of BB.

Flop Is Revealed with 2 or More Participants

When 2 or more players participate in the pre-flop, the flop community cards are revealed and action proceeds from the SB side.

Note that in Texas Hold’em, the action order starts from UTG at the pre-flop stage, but from post-flop onwards it starts from SB.

Reveal Cards One by One and Advance Betting Rounds

From then on, the betting rounds proceed with the action order unchanged.

When It Reaches Showdown, Reveal Hands and Determine the Winner

When the final betting round ends, a showdown takes place and the final winner/loser is determined.

Of course, if the opponent folds during a betting round in between, you win.

Recommended Apps to Play Texas Hold’em for Free

For those who want to play Texas Hold’em for free, in addition to going to a poker room, playing ‘online poker’ is also recommended.

You can play 24 hours anytime you like, and registering from our site lets you receive a no-deposit free bonus. Here we introduce recommended apps you can play for free.

KKPoker Is Recommended for Free Apps Since It Has Many Beginners!

Those who want to ‘play for free’ or ‘want an app even beginners can enjoy’ should choose KKPoker.

KKPoker has high name recognition in Japan and is rich in low-rate games, so beginners can enjoy it too.

Also, it has a unique club system with different benefits for each club. The club operated by our site prepares the following benefits that even beginners can enjoy:

• No-deposit bonus worth up to $45
• Rakeback setting higher than the official rate
• Free lottery that even beginners can enter
• Weekly freerolls
• Fee discount for deposit/withdrawal agency
• Support via official LINE, etc.

New registration & club joining gives you a no-deposit bonus worth up to $45, making it also recommended for those who want to start online poker for free.

Try registering from the button below first.

＼Limited Bonuses!／

GGPoker Is Recommended for Those Who Want to Play Texas Hold’em on PC/Browser!

For those who want to play poker on PC or browser, GGPoker is recommended.

GGPoker is also well known as the online venue for famous world poker titles, and you can participate in satellites from within GGPoker.Of course, many low-rate games are available so beginners can enjoy it too.

Freerolls (free-entry tournaments) are provided, and registering from our site gets you a $20 no-deposit bonus.

＼Limited Bonuses!／

Basic Strategies for Texas Hold’em

Now let’s briefly explain, based on the characteristics of each action, how to exploit opponents.

① Set a Trap with Weak-Looking Actions

Responding to bets with calls is more effective the looser the opponent.

By making the opponent think you’re a cautious player, get them to keep spitting out chips.

However, since loose players often have unreadable hands, be careful not to get beaten by a two pair or similar.

② Check-Raise Is an Aggressive Action

Next, as a raise method effective when bluffing, check-raise is useful.

It’s an attack method of checking to pass the turn to the opponent, inviting a bet, then launching a raise. It’s especially effective when suggesting a flush is certain.

It’s not an action that appears very often, but if used effectively, you can make the opponent fold with a bluff.

③ Realize Equity with All-In

Finally, there is the strategy of going all-in to decide your fate.

For example, if you have pocket fives and the opponent has AK, both have a 50% win probability at the pre-flop stage.

However, once the flop is revealed, if AK doesn’t hit anything, the win probability drops sharply and the fold rate increases going forward.

As an extreme argument, if it’s a 50% battle, it’s better to make the opponent put out more chips before the pre-flop.

Start Texas Hold’em with Online Poker!

In this article, we’ve covered Texas Hold’em comprehensively — rules, flow, actions, and terminology.

Texas Hold’em strategies involve detailed probability calculations and many things to learn, so first memorize the basic rules, actions, and hands.

Also, for those who want to play Texas Hold’em a lot, online poker is recommended. Especially with KK Poker (KKPoker) which has many beginners and is easy to play — register from our site to get a no-deposit bonus worth up to $45!

You can play Texas Hold’em for free! Those who want to practice poker or try it for the first time, register for free now.