How to play Texas Hold'em

• 2 to 10 players, each playing for themselves, with a standard 52-card deck.
• You get two cards of your own. Five more are dealt face up in the middle, shared by everyone.
• Your hand is the best five cards from your two and the five in the middle, in any mix: both of yours, one, or none.
• You win the pot by having the best hand at the end, or by betting so that everyone else folds.

Before any cards come, the two players left of the button put in the small blind and the big blind (at a practice table, 5 and 10 chips). That gives everyone something to play for.

1. Before the flop: everyone gets two cards. Betting starts left of the big blind; the big blind acts last and may raise even if everyone just called.
2. The flop: three cards turn up in the middle, then a round of betting.
3. The turn: a fourth card, then betting.
4. The river: the fifth card, then the last round of betting.

After the flop, betting starts with the first player left of the button. With just two players, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop.

• Check when nobody has bet this round: you stay in for free.
• Call to match the bet in front of you.
• Bet or Raise to put in more. Tap it to pick an amount (Min, ½ pot, ¾ pot, Pot, All-in, or any amount with the slider), then tap again to send it.
• Fold to give up the hand. The chips you've bet stay in the pot.

A round ends when everyone still in has matched the biggest bet, or is all-in.

• No-limit: you may bet everything in front of you at any time.
• The smallest bet is the big blind.
• A raise must be at least as big as the last raise this round. If someone bets 100 and the next player raises to 300 (200 more), the next raise must be to at least 500.
• Raises are totals. “Raise to 400” means 400 in all for this round. The button also shows the extra it costs you: “Raise to 400 (+280)”.

You can never be bet out of a hand. If you can't match a bet, you can go all-in for what you have. You can then win only as much from each player as you put in.

• Anything bet beyond that goes into a side pot, which only the players who paid into it can win. Side pots are settled first, then the main pot.
• An all-in that's smaller than a full raise doesn't let players who have already acted raise again. The table tells you when that's why Raise is missing.
• When nobody can bet any more, every hand still in turns face up and the rest of the board is dealt.

• If everyone else folds, the last player wins the pot without showing their cards.
• Otherwise the hands are turned up. The best five-card hand wins; the winning cards light up and the hand is named (“Flush, ace high”).
• A hand that can't win is folded for you without being shown, so you never give away a losing hand by accident.
• Ties split the pot. Suits never break a tie. A chip that won't split evenly goes to the first winner left of the button.

Best first. Within a kind, higher cards win; then the kickers decide.

1. 1.Royal flushFive in a row, all one suit.
2. 2.Four ninesFour cards of one rank.
3. 3.Full house, queens full of foursThree of a kind and a pair.
4. 4.Flush, ace highFive of one suit, in any order.
5. 5.Straight, ten highFive in a row, mixed suits.
6. 6.Three sixesThree cards of one rank.
7. 7.Two pair, jacks and threesTwo different pairs.
8. 8.Pair of acesTwo cards of one rank.
9. 9.King highNone of the above: the highest card counts.

The ace is high, and also low in the smallest straight: 5-4-3-2-A. Straights don't wrap around: Q-K-A-2-3 isn't one.

• Practice tables are you against the Club bots: Beginner, Intermediate or Professional (choose in your settings). Everyone starts with 2,000 chips, blinds 5/10. Run out and you rebuy 2,000 at the next hand.
• Public cash tables are open to anyone in the Texas Hold'em room, with the Club bots in the empty seats. Join a game under way and you take over a Club bot at the next hand with 2,000 chips of your own. Run out and you can rebuy. The table closes when the last person leaves, and your chips are gone when you get up.
• Tournaments start everyone with 3,000 chips, and the blinds go up each time the deal has gone once round the table until one player has every chip. Host one for friends at a private table, or join a Sit & Go Poker game from the Texas Hold'em room: six seats, starting straight away with the Club bots. During the first round of the deal, others can join and take over a Club bot's seat with a fresh 3,000 chips; after that it's closed to newcomers. Finishes earn points on the monthly leaderboard: 10 for 1st, 6 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd.
• Hand review: when a game ends, review every hand with all the cards, and check that each deal was fair. Stats count games with people only.
• Play chips only, always. They're never sold, never given as prizes, and never carry over.
• At tables with other people, each turn has a clock. If it runs out, you check if that's free; otherwise your hand folds. Nobody plays your hand for you while you're away.

• Shuffled properly. Every hand starts from a fresh deck that is shuffled, cut near the middle, shuffled, cut into rough thirds (stacked back so no third goes where it was) and shuffled again, with the same strength of randomness used for online banking. The deal is never adjusted to help or hurt anyone.
• Locked in before the deal. Each hand has a fingerprint, fixed before any card is dealt. In poker the secret behind it is revealed when the game ends, not after each hand, so folded cards stay private while you play.
• The Club bots play fair too. A Club bot sees only its own two cards, exactly like you.

Hole cards

Your two private cards. Nobody else sees them unless you show them.

Board

The five shared cards in the middle: the flop, the turn and the river.

Button

The D chip: the dealer's seat. It moves one seat to the left each hand.

Blinds

The two forced bets that start each hand: small blind and big blind.

Pot

All the chips bet so far in the hand.

Check

Pass the action without betting, when nobody has bet this round.

Call

Match the current bet.

Raise

Bet more than the current bet. At the Club, raises are always totals.

Fold

Give up your hand and anything you've already bet.

All-in

Bet every chip you have in front of you.

Side pot

Chips bet beyond what an all-in player could match; only the others can win it.

Kicker

A card that breaks a tie between hands of the same kind.

Showdown

When the betting is over and the hands are turned up to see who wins.