Texas Hold 'Em is a very popular and dearly loved type of club poker around the world.
It is normally played with a standard 52-card pack. The game is split into five stages, and the winner at the table is the player who manages to complete the highest-ranking combination of five cards by the end of the game. Please, see the complete set of rules for the Texas Hold 'Em below.


Stage 1: the preflop
The game starts from the dealer. You can always recognize the player who currently holds this position at the table by a D-marked chip; according to traditional poker rules, the dealer chip moves clockwise around the table after each hand has been played. It is called the Dealer Button. The two players to the left of the dealer make compulsory bets before any cards are dealt: they are the small and the big blinds.

Each player then receives 2 cards that are not disclosed to other players (they are called the "hole cards"). Each player assess their hole cards and decides whether it is worth betting on them. The players who decided not to fold take turns in betting clockwise. The first player to bet is the one to the left of the big blind, and their bet cannot constitute less than that of the big blind's. And if any of the players decide to raise – to increase the bet – then this new higher value becomes the minimal bet for further trading. Now, the players can either respond to the bet – make a call – or raise it further up once more (i.e., re-raise), as well as fold (decline further participation in the game). It is worth noting that you can have 1, 2 or even 3 betting rounds at the preflop stage: it depends on whether any raises were made in between the big blind's betting decisions. If there was no raising the bet, the big blind chooses between a check (skipping the turn), a raise, and a fold, and the game goes on to the next stage.

Stage 2: the flop 
The first three community cards, which can be equally used by all the players to form a hand, are dealt face-up on the table. The players make bets again, just as they did at the preflop stage, clockwise, starting from the player to the left of the dealer. 


Stage 3: the turn
The fourth community card is dealt face-up on the table. The players engage in betting again, in the same manner as during the flop.


Stage 4: the river
The final fifth community card is dealt face-up on the table. The players enter their final betting round in the same manner as before.

There is one particular rule in poker, amongst the others. The player can only put forward as much money for the game (expressed in chips) as they had originally set for the table (this amount is called the stack). Topping up one's stack is possible only in between games. Withdrawing from the stack is only possible by leaving the table altogether. If the player has run out of funds during the game, they continue to take part without betting any further money – a side pot is formed at the table that is only contested by the remaining players that continue betting money.


Stage 5: the showdown 
Those players who have made it to the final round show their cards and determine the winner: it will be the player who collected the highest-ranking combination of cards at the table.


Poker Hands (Combinations)
When learning to play poker, the rules come naturally very soon: just make sure you remember the hierarchy of card combinations, and don't forget that the highest-ranking hand is always the winner.

Possible card combinations in descending order are shown below:
  1. Royal flush ("highest of the same suit strictly ordered"): the 5 highest-ranking cards (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten) of the same suit, for example: A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥.
  2. Straight flush ("same suit strictly ordered"): any 5 cards of the same suit ordered one by one in rank, for example: 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠.
  3. Four of a find, or quads ("four of the same kind"): 4 cards of the same rank, for example: 3♥ 3♦ 3♣ 3♠ 10♥.
  4. Full house, or full boat ("full house" says it all, really): 3 cards of the same rank + one pair, for example: 10♥ 10♦ 10♠ 8♣ 8♥.
  5. Flush ("one flush", "one breed"): 5 cards of the same suit, for example: K♠ J♠ 8♠ 4♠ 3♠.
  6. Straight ("straight order"): 5 cards of any suit ordered one by one in rank, for example: 5♦ 4♥ 3♠ 2♦ A♦. The Ace may either open or close the combination. In this particular example the Ace (A♦) opens an order of 5 cards, therefore its rank is likened to 1, and 5♦ is considered the highest card.
  7. Three of a kind, or set ("set of three"): 3 cards of the same rank, for example: 7♣ 7♥ 7♠ K♦ 2♠.
  8. Two pair ("two pairs of cards"): 2 pairs of same-ranking cards, for example: 8♣ 8♠ 4♥ 4♣ 2♠..
  9. One pair ("one pair of cards"): 2 cards of the same rank, for example: 9♥ 9♠ A♣ J♠ 4♥.
  10. High card, or kicker: none of the combinations described above, for example (in this case the combination is called "High Ace"): A♦ 10♦ 9♠ 5♣ 4♣.
In the case of two essentially matching combinations, the highest is deemed to be the one involving cards of a higher rank; for example, 8♣ 8♠ 4♥ 4♣ 2♠ is higher than 7♣ 7♠ 5♥ 5♣ K♠ (two 8s are better than two 7s). The 6♠ 5♦ 4♥ 3♠ 2♦ combination is higher than 5♦ 4♥ 3♠ 2♦ A♦ (here the rank of the Ace is likened to 1).

When both the hands and the kicker cards are identical (with the kicker being among the 5 open cards), the pot is split between those players with matching hands. Only one card can serve as a kicker.

Good luck with your game!