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How a hand of Texas Hold’em works
You get two cards face down. Only you see them. These are your hole cards.
Then five cards get dealt face up in the middle, shared by everyone — the board. Your final hand is the best five-card combination you can build from your two cards plus the five on the board, in any mix.
The five board cards don't come out at once. They come in three stages, and there's a round of betting before each stage and after the last one:
| When | Board shows | This round is called |
|---|---|---|
| Before any board cards | nothing | preflop |
| First three cards flip | 3 cards | the flop |
| Fourth card flips | 4 cards | the turn |
| Fifth card flips | 5 cards | the river |
At each round you can check (bet nothing, stay in — only allowed if nobody's bet yet), call (match someone's bet), raise (bet more), or fold (quit the hand, losing only what you've already put in).
If two or more players survive all four betting rounds, everyone flips their cards over — the showdown — and the best hand takes the pot, which is all the money bet so far, sitting in the middle.
But here's the thing that makes poker poker: if everyone else folds, you win without showing anything. Your cards could be garbage. Nobody will ever know. That single rule is why bluffing exists, and it's why the HEART section exists.
Two players each hand are forced to bet before seeing any cards — the small blind and big blind. This duty rotates around the table so everyone pays their share. The blinds are why you can't just fold forever and break even: sitting still slowly costs money, so eventually you have to play.