Learn Texas Hold'em, one card at a time.
Hand rankings with real odds, 81 poker terms in plain English, and the rules, theory and history of the game. Deal yourself a hand to start.
Which hand wins
Start at the top with the most common hands and work down to the rarest. Every hand beats all the hands above it. The bar shows how often you finish a Texas Hold'em hand with it.
- High Card The weakest hand17.4% about 1 in 5.7
- One Pair Beats high card and below43.8% about 1 in 2.3
- Two Pair Beats one pair and below23.5% about 1 in 4.3
- Three of a Kind Beats two pair and below4.83% about 1 in 21
- Straight Beats three of a kind and below4.62% about 1 in 22
- Flush Beats straight and below3.03% about 1 in 33
- Full House Beats flush and below2.60% about 1 in 39
- Four of a Kind Beats full house and below0.168% about 1 in 595
- Straight Flush Beats four of a kind and below0.0279% about 1 in 3,590
- Royal Flush Beats straight flush and below0.0032% about 1 in 30,940
New to the game? Read in this order
- How to playBlinds, the four betting rounds and the showdown, walked through with one example hand.
- Hand rankingsThe ten hands, what beats what, and how ties are broken.
- GlossaryThe words you will hear at the table, from ante to value bet.
- TheoryPosition, pot odds, outs and ranges: the ideas that separate winners from tourists.
- HistoryFrom a Texas back room to a televised world championship.
Eight words you will hear tonight
- Flop
- The first three community cards, dealt face up together after the preflop betting round.
- Turn
- The fourth community card, dealt after the flop betting round. Also called fourth street.
- River
- The fifth and final community card, followed by the last betting round. Also called fifth street.
- Blinds
- Forced bets posted by the two players to the left of the dealer button before any cards are dealt.
- Outs
- The unseen cards that will improve your hand to the likely winner.
- Kicker
- A side card that is not part of the main combination but breaks ties between equal hands.
- Nuts
- The best possible hand given the community cards at that moment.
- Continuation Bet (C-Bet)
- A bet on the flop by the player who made the last raise before the flop.
"Hold'em is to stud what chess is to checkers."
The game took shape in Robstown, Texas, in the early 1900s. Road gamblers carried it to Las Vegas in 1967. In 2003 an amateur accountant won the World Series of Poker after qualifying online, and the game went global almost overnight.