Texas Hold'em, from scratch

Texas Hold'em has very little to memorise. You get two cards. Five more are dealt face up for everyone. You build the best five-card hand you can. That's the whole game.

The hard part comes after the rules. Learning when to fold is what takes time. This page covers only what you need in your first hour.

1. What you're actually doing

You're dealt two cards that only you can see (your hole cards). In the middle, five community cards are revealed in stages, shared by everyone.

From those seven cards you pick any five to make your hand. You don't have to use all seven, and the best five wins.

2. Hand rankings

Strongest at the top. At first, you only really need the bottom four.

Almost every pot is decided by one pair or two pair. Flushes and straights are rarer than beginners expect. Knowing this early stops you from waiting around for big hands.

The kicker

When two players make the same hand, the next highest card breaks the tie. That card is the kicker.

Say a K is on the board. You hold K♦ 4♠ and they hold K♣ A♥. You both have a pair of kings, but their ace out-kicks your four. They win.

This is where beginners lose the most money. They see "I paired my king", keep paying, and get out-kicked. Train yourself to ask not "did I pair?" but "is my kicker any good?"

3. How a hand plays out

One hand runs in four stages, with betting at each one.

Whoever is left at the end shows their cards, and the best hand takes the pot. If everyone else folds, the last player standing wins without showing anything.

You only ever have four options

• Check — pass without betting. Only when nobody has bet
• Bet / Raise — put chips in, or put in more than the current bet
• Call — match the current bet and continue
• Fold — give up the hand. What you've already put in stays in the pot

4. Position decides everything

The same two cards are worth different amounts depending on where you sit. The reason is simple: acting last means you decide after seeing what they do.

The blinds are forced bets posted before anyone sees a card. Without them, everyone would simply wait for aces and nothing would happen.

Position rotates by one seat every hand. Play fewer hands from bad positions, more from good ones. That change alone moves your results.

5. Three rules to start with

You don't need a range chart yet. These three will carry you a long way.

Pairs are strong — small ones with a condition

A big pair like A♠ A♥ can win as it is. A small pair like 3♠ 3♦ is almost entirely about hitting a third one, which happens about once in eight flops. Play it cheap, fold it when it gets expensive.

Big cards that miss are just high cards

A♠ K♦ is a strong hand — but only when it connects. If no ace or king arrives, it's nothing. Paying to the river "because I have ace-king" is a guaranteed loser.

Suited connectors are about what they become

8♠ 7♠ is supposed to be weak right now. Its entire value is in turning into a flush or a straight. Get in cheap, and let go without regret when it misses.

6. What to do next

From here, playing beats reading. The rules stick fast once you're at a table, and knowing when to fold only comes from sitting down.

In READ & RAISE, every hand ends by showing you what your opponents held and how strong they felt at each point. You find out whether that bet was real — every time — so your folding instincts develop far faster than they would otherwise.

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