The small blind is first to act in all betting rounds after the flop. In our example game, the dealer puts these three cards face up for the flop: The dealer then deals the first three of five community cards, known as the “flop”. With the preflop betting round closed, the dealer burns a card, taking the top card off the deck and putting it face-down on the table. This continues until everyone at the table has either folded or called the current bet. Note that if any of the players decided to re-raise more than $6, the action goes back around to the first player, who can then call the raise, or re-raise again (known as a four-bet). The big blind, who already has a $2 forced bet in play, makes the call by putting $4 more in the pot to match the $6 raise. The small blind folds, surrendering their $1 forced bet into the pot. The player in this position, known as the “button”, chooses to call the $6 bet. This brings the action to the player directly to the right of the small blind.
Suppose this player chooses to fold, and the next four players, clockwise around the table, all fold as well. The action then moves one player to the left, and this player can either call the $6 bet, or fold. So, in our $1/$2 example, the first player can either call the $2 big blind amount, raise to at least $4, or fold.
Let’s take a look at the rules of Texas Hold’em. Texas Hold’em uses standard poker hand rankings to determine the winning hand.
The object of Texas Hold’em is to make the best five-card poker hand using any combination of hole cards and community cards. The most powerful starting hand in Texas Hold'em: pocket aces.Įach player in a Texas Hold’em game gets two hole cards, and five community cards are dealt face-up on the board.