Table Of Contents

1. Texas Holdem Hand Rankings
2. Texas Holdem Poker Hands Chart
3. Texas Holdem Highest Hands
4. Best Online Texas Holdem Poker
5. Highest Poker Hands Texas Holdem

Do you want to know what beats what in poker? Use the official poker hands rankings chart and seem them from best to worst!

Whether you play live at your local casino or card room, you have your home game going, or you prefer the online action at websites like PokerStars, 888Poker, or partypoker, you need to learn the order of poker hands from best to worse.

Understanding Winning Poker Hands. Players new to the game of Texas hold'em often struggle, at least at first, with what the best poker hands are. In that case, spades is the highest suit. It's easy to learn the different types of hands. Once you learn the lingo, it'll be easy to feel like a high roller when you sit down to play. Standard five-card Poker hands are ranked here in order of strength, from the strongest Poker hand to the weakest. Common Texas Hold’em Hand Rankings. In Texas Hold’em, the best poker hand is a royal flush, followed by a straight flush and then on down. In other variants the best hand differs. When you play Razz, for example, A-2-3-4-5 is the best hand, while in three-card brag 3-3-3 beats even A-A-A. For example, the hand rankings for No-Limit Texas Holdem hands are the same as Limit Texas Holdem hands and Pot-Limit Texas Holdem hands. The player with the highest-ranking hand wins that particular deal in most poker games. If you ever play Texas Holdem poker, you need to know which hand wins over another. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win. In low games, like razz, the lowest-ranking hands win. In high-low split games, both the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking hands win, though different rules are used to rank the hi. Probability of 0.000154% and odds of 649,739: 1 So anyhow its somewhere around one hand out of over 650 000 thousand plus or minus a few thousand hands you will see a Royal Flush Holdem Poker Hand. Good Luck I hope you get one when it counts!

Use the list of poker hands below to know beats what in poker.

Commit this poker hands ranking list to memory today and print it if you need it (there's a button for it at the bottom). Knowing the correct poker hands rank is key to start making winning poker hands.

Poker Hands From Best To Worst

Poker Hands From Best To Worst

Not Sure What Beats What in Poker?

Many consider poker less of a gambling game than other casino games. For that to be true, players need to improve their understanding of game play and the strategy required to be a winning player.

The first step toward learning how to play poker is to learn the poker hand rankings.

Most poker players have these rankings memorized, which allows them to think about other things at the table when deciding the best way to play their hands.

The good news is these hand rankings tend to be the same among a wide variety of poker variants, whether it is Texas Hold'em, Omaha, seven-card stud, or other games.

All of those games use the same traditional poker hand rankings that were first developed way back in the 19th century when five-card draw first started to be played.

On this page, you find a complete list of poker hand rankings going from the highest possible hand (the Royal Flush), down to the lowest hand in which there is no pair among the five cards.

Hand rankings in poker correspond to the likelihood of making such hands.

A royal flush, consisting of the cards ranked ace through ten all being the same suit, is extremely rare — in fact, some players go their entire lives without making a royal flush.

A regular straight flush with any five consecutive cards of the same suit is a little less rare, four of a kind occurs slightly more frequently, and so on.

Notice that a full house is ranked higher than a flush.

That's because a full house comes just a little less frequently than a flush, thereby making it the higher-ranked hand of the two.

Additional readings for beginners:

• Poker Tips: A collection of tips 'to bring your game from 'meh' to amazing' created to help beginners become better players.
• Texas Hold'em Strategy: a complete manual to read as soon as you start to remember what beats what in poker.
• Poker starting hands chart: the only article you need to read to learn how to use your cards to the fullest.

Understanding Winning Poker Hands

Players new to the game of Texas hold'em often struggle, at least at first, with what the best poker hands are.

Once they have read this easy-to-digest guide that will no longer be the case.

The aim of Texas hold'em is to make the best five-card poker hand at showdown.

You can win without having to show your cards if you force someone to fold before the river. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this article, we'll pretend that we've gone to showdown and need to know what beats what in poker.

Winning Poker Hands: What Are The Best Hands In Poker?

First up is the weakest possible holding you can make in poker, a hand that can still win you the pot, although the likelihood of that happening decreases in a pot involving multiple players.

We are of course talking about high card.

As the name suggests, you don't even hold a pair here and instead are using the highest card among the five you are playing.

Example:

You have and the board has come .

Your best five-card hand would be where you would hold queen-high.

Next up is one pair, one of the more common Texas hold'em hands and one that will win you plenty of pots.

Example:

You have and the board comes .

Your five-card hand is — you have a pair of aces. Nice poker hand!

One place higher up on the poker hands chart is two pair.

Example:

You have and the five community cards are .

Your best five-card hand at showdown is or two pair, tens and nines.

One note of warning on this specific poker hand: if you are verbally declaring your hand, try to announce the higher pair first as to help avoid confusion.

Good Poker Hands

Now we're getting into the realm of the best poker hands because once you make three-of-a-kind (sometimes called a set or trips), you are much more likely to win the pot than with any of the previously mentioned hands.

Example:

Your five-card poker hand is — you have three-of-a-kind kings, often a very powerful hand in hold'em.

To beat three-of-a-kind you're going to need at least a straight.

A straight is five consecutive cards where at least one of them is a different suit from the others.

Example:
Should your hand read you would hold a six-high straight.

If someone held a seven-high straight, then that player would win the hand.

There are two straights that have nicknames that are worth remembering.

A wheel is a straight that runs from ace-to-five, and a Broadway straight — the strongest straight — runs from ten-to-ace.

A flush is one of the most powerful Texas hold'em hands because it is only beaten by a handful of others.

Any hand that that has five cards of the same suit is a flush.

Aces are always high when it comes to flushes, which means a hand such as beats .

There are few hands that can beat a flush — one that does is a full house. Also called a 'boat,' a full house is when your five-card hand is made up of three of a kind plus a pair.

Example:

With you have kings full of deuces, while is fives full of queens.

When it comes to full houses, the higher three of a kind determines which hand wins, so in this case 'kings full' would beat 'fives full.'

The Stronger Hands in Poker

The next three holdings are so rare that if you hold them, you can almost guarantee that they are winning poker hands.

Four of a kind is the minimum holding you'll need to beat someone with a full house.

Again, as the name suggests, four of a kind means having four cards of the same rank.

Example:

is four-of-a-kind tens and an extremely powerful holding.

Your only way to beat four of a kind, or 'quads' as they are often called, is to hold either a straight flush or a Royal Flush.

The former is five consecutive cards all of the same suit, so would be an eight-high straight flush and practically unbeatable.

If you manage to make (or the same holding in any of the other three suits), you have a Royal Flush and the only way to lose the hand would be to fold by accident!

Poker Hands Probability

If you are into numbers (most poker players are), you might be wondering about the probability of poker hands.

We said that she platers might go entire lives without ever getting the highest hand in poker but, looking at the numbers, what are the odds of a Royal Flush?

In this section of our complete analysis of the poker hand ranking and what beats what in poker, you get a clear overview of the probability of poker hands.

How to calculate the probability of poker hands?

When you know that there are 52 cards in play and 2,598,960 possible combinations, the calculation is easy.

You just need to divide the number of possibilities to build a specific poker hand by the number of total poker hands.

Let's run a few examples:

What are the odds of a Royal Flush? 0.000,001,539
(4/2,598,960)

What are the odds of a Straight Flush? 0.000,015,39
(40/2,598,960)

Use the table below to calculate the probabilities of all poker hands.

Absolute Value vs. Relative Value of Poker Hands

It should be noted also that while poker hand rankings never change, sometimes circumstances can make a good hand less valuable and a poor hand more valuable.

In other words, when it comes to poker hands there's a difference between absolute value (reflected in the list of poker hands above) and relative value.

For instance, in a game of Texas hold'em, if you have two pair that might seem like a good hand.

But if your opponent keeps betting into you and it's possible he could have a straight or flush, your two pair is no longer looking so good.

Meanwhile, if you have just one pair but your opponent keeps checking to give you a free play at the pot, you might well have the strongest hand and should bet your hand.

The 'absolute' value of your hand may not be great, but in that case the 'relative' value very well could be.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that in some games like razz, deuce-to-seven triple draw, Badugi, and others you might encounter when playing online poker, the hand rankings listed below do not apply.

These hand rankings are for regular or 'high-card' games, not 'lowball' games with alternate hand rankings.

Poker Hand Rankings F.A.Q.

What is the order of poker hands?

As shown in the poker hand rankings chart, the order of poker rankings (from the highest to the lowest) is: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card.

What is the best hand in poker?

The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker. To have a Royal Flush, you need an Ace, a King, a Queen, a Jack, and a 10. All the cards that compose the hand need to be of the same suit.

What beats what in poker?

As you can see in our poker hand rankings chart, the hands in poker follow a clear hierarchy.

In a game of poker, the hand rankings work as follows:

• a pair beats a high card;
• a two pair beats a one pair;
• a three-of-a-kind beats a two pair;
• a straight beats a three-of-a-kind;
• a flush beats a straight;
• a full house beats a flush;
• a four-of-a-kind beats a full house;
• a straight flush beats a four-of-a-kind;
• a Royal Flush beats a straight flush.

The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker, so no one other hands beat this one.

What is a straight in poker?

You have a straight when all the five cards that compose your poker hand are consecutive ones. E.g. 5-6-7-8-9.

If the cards are of the same suit, you have a straight flush, which is a considerably stronger hand compare d to the simple straight.

What beats a straight in poker?

Although many see the straight as a stronger hand, there are many other poker hands that beat it.

The list of hands that beat a straight includes:

• a flush;
• a full house;
• a four-of-a-kind;
• a straight flush;
• a Royal Flush.

What beats a flush in poker?

The list of hands that beat a flush includes:

• a full house;
• a four-of-a-kind;
• a straight flush;
• a Royal Flush.

What beats a full house in poker?

The list of hands that beat a full house includes:

• a four-of-a-kind;
• a straight flush;
• a Royal Flush.

What is the highest suit in poker?

All the suits in poker have the same value. In some games, different suits can be assigned different values.

When that happens, the value is as follow (from the lowest to the highest): clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. In that case, spades is the highest suit.

How many poker hands are there?

The total number of poker hands in a game of poker is 2,598,960. Since a game of poker uses a 52-card deck of French cards, there are 2,598,960 different possible combinations (aka. poker hands).

What hands to play in poker?

The type of hands to play in a poker game depends on the game you play and other factors like your position in the hand, your stack, and the action at the table.

In a famous poker strategy article, professional player Jonathan Little shared which hands to play in poker and how to play marginal hands.

Can you make three pairs?

Although it is possible to hold a pair in your hand and then have another two pair appear among the five community cards, you can only use a total of five cards to make your poker hand, so you don't win anything for three pairs.

Which is better, a set or trips?

They are both essentially the same hand because they are both three of a kind.

The terminology 'set' is used when you have a pair as your hole cards and then catch another one of those cards on the board.

'Trips' is when there is a pair on the board and you have another of those cards as one of your hole cards.

Sets are easier to disguise than trips so many consider them to be a better hand, although they both rank the same.

What is a chopped or split pot?

If you and an opponent have the same five-card poker hand, then the pot is divided equally between you.

Say you have and your opponent has , and the board comes .

You both would be playing the same five-card hands in terms of their value (A-J-T-8-3), and so would split the pot.

If there is four of a kind on the board, who wins?

Because the aim is to make a five-card poker hand, whoever has the highest fifth card in this case wins.

If the board reads and you have in your hand and your opponent has , then you win because you hand is 7-7-7-7-A and your opponent's is 7-7-7-7-K.

You would also win even if your opponent holding was in this example.

Texas Holdem Hand Rankings

Are the suits ranked in Texas hold'em?

No, they are not. Some poker variants have different ranks for suits, but hold'em is not one of them.

Why did my 4-4-4-T-T lose to my opponent's 7-7-7-8-8?

As mentioned earlier, it is the three-of-a-kind element of a full house that dictates the winner.

If you're new to the game and want a reference of all of Texas hold'em hands, you can keep this page open or you could always download and print our poker hands ranking chart and keep it next to you while you're playing poker.

Useful Poker Tools

• Poker Odds Calculator: Add your cards to the calculator to discover your chances to win the hand.
• How to use PokerStars Tools to Your Advantage: As a beginner, this article can save your life! Let us show you how you can use all the tools available on the PokerStars client to become an outstanding poker player!

Texas holdem is by far the most popular form of poker played
in the world today. You can see it played on television, online,
in poker rooms, and in most casinos. You can even find home
games in almost any city if you know who to ask or where to
look.

But how do you get started playing if you’ve never played
before?

We’ve designed this Texas holdem basics page just like a
Texas holdem 101 guide. By reading the sections on this page we
walk you step by step through the options and rules for holdem
and give you some simple tips so you can get started playing
right away.

Read all the way through the page from top to bottom and then
come back and go over the sections where you need more help.
Once you master everything here you can start learning more in
our strategy section.

But don’t get ahead of yourself and try to take in too much
at one time. Learn the basics first and then start trying to
improve your game slowly.

The Deck

Texas holdem uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The
deck has four suits of 13 cards each. The four suits are spades,
hearts, clubs, and diamonds.

The cards in each of the four suits are ace, king, queen,
jack, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and two.
Aces can be used as a high card above the king or a low card
below a two. Otherwise, the rank of cards from high to low is as
they’re listed above from ace down to two. None of the four
suits have a higher rank than the others.

Rank of Hands

The rank of hands used in Texas holdem is the same as many
traditional card games. The highest possible hand is a royal
flush and the lowest possible hand is two, three, four, five,
seven of at least two different suits.

Here’s a list of the different possible Texas holdem hands
from highest to lowest. To see who has the best hand, start from
the top of the list and work down towards the bottom. The first
hand you see on the list is the better hand.

• Royal Flush

  Ace, king, queen, jack, 10 all of the same suit.

• Straight Flush

  Five cards in sequential order all of the same suit but
  not ace high.

• Four of a Kind

  Four cards of the same rank, like four sevens or four
  jacks.

• Full House

  Three cards of the same rank and two cards of a different
  rank. For example, three queens and two nines is a full house of
  queens over nines.

• Flush

  A flush is any five cards, all of the same suit. When two or more
  players have a flush the one with the highest card wins. If they
  have the same highest card the next highest card wins. This is
  continued until one player has a higher card than the others. If
  all five cards are of the same rank the pot is split.

• Straight

  Five cards in sequential order of at least two different suits.
  The ace can be used to form a high straight or a low one. Ace,
  king, queen, jack, 10 is a straight as well as five, four,
  three, two, ace.

• Three of a Kind

  Three of a kind is three cards of the same rank, such as
  three twos or three aces.

• Two Pair

  Two cards of the same rank and two other cards of the same rank.

• One Pair

  A pair is two cards of the same rank like two fives or two
  kings.

• High Card

  If your five card hand doesn’t make any of the hands listed
  above you have a high card hand, designate by the highest card
  in your hand. If the highest card in your hand is a queen and
  you don’t have a higher ranked hand as listed above, you have a
  queen high hand.

If two or more hands tie the pot is split between the winning
hands. But a tie must be five identical cards. When two players
have the same two, three, or four card best hand they use the
remaining cards to determine who wins. This is called a kicker.

One player has a pair of kings, a pair of eights, and an ace
and the other player has a pair of kings, a pair of eights, and
a seven. Both players have the same two pair, but their fifth
card is different. The player with the ace as the fifth card
wins the hand because the ace is higher than the seven.

If two or more players each have a pair, the highest pair
wins. The higher cards win if the hands are otherwise the same.
In a full house, the higher three of a kind rank wins.

Limit – No Limit – Pot Limit

Texas holdem is offered in limit, no limit, and pot limit
varieties or limits. This deals with the amount players may bet
on each round of play. Otherwise, the games are played the same
way using the same set of rules and regulations.

Limit

Limit Texas holdem has a strict betting amount that is used
on each round. Before and on the flop players have to make bets
and raises of a set amount and on the turn and river they must
use another set amount. The second amount is almost always twice
the early amount.

The betting limits are expressed as two numbers divide by a
slash. 3 / 6 means the early betting limit is $3 and the last
two rounds use $6 increments.

No Limit

No limit uses a minimum betting limit on each round, but the
maximum amount a player may bet is only limited to the amount
they have in front of them. A player may bet any amount up to
and including their entire stack on any betting round of no
limit Texas holdem.

Pot Limit

Pot limit is the least popular form of Texas holdem and is
rarely played in land based play. In pot limit play you can bet
any amount up to and including the amount in the pot. This is
usually pretty straightforward, but in the case where a player
bets and you want to raise, you add the amount it takes to call
to the pot before determining the amount you can raise.

This doesn’t mean you take action in two steps. You only make
one bet, but you add the amount required to call mentally to
determine the total amount of the bet you can make.

If the pot has $60 in it and an opponent bets $20. The new
amount in the pot is $80. If you want to raise the maximum
amount you add $20 to the amount in the pot in your head to get
a total pot of $100. So you can raise up to $100. If you want to
raise the maximum amount you place $120 in the pot. This is $20
for the call and a raise of $100.

Don’t worry if this seems a bit confusing. You probably won’t
ever have to play pot limit Texas holdem and if you do, the
dealer can help you until you get the hang of it. If you play
online the software takes care of everything so you don’t have
to worry about it.

Other poker games, like Omaha and 7 Card Stud are more likely
to be played in pot limit than holdem.

Tournaments or Ring Games

Texas holdem is played in ring or cash game format and
tournament formats. A ring game doesn’t have a set procedure for
ending and players come and go. You can join a ring game at any
time as long as there’s an open seat and you have the money. You
can also leave at any time by picking up your chips and leaving
the table.

Tournaments have a set starting point and play down until
only one player remains. You can find numerous tournament
variations and they can all be played in any of the limit
formats listed in the last section. But most Texas holdem
tournaments boil down to either single table or multi table
events.

• Single Table Tournaments

  A single table tournament, usually called a sit and go, has
  10, nine, or six players most of the time with the top three or
  two players finishing in the money.

• Multi Table Tournaments

  A multi table tournament can have up to thousands of entrants
  and the pay outs are based on the tournament structure.

Before the Deal

The process of events before a hand is dealt depends somewhat
on what has just happened. If a new game or a new tournament is
being started the dealer does one set of things and if a hand
just ended the dealer follows a different set of procedures.

The dealer is the person dealing the cards. In a casino or
poker room an employee of the house deals the cards and does not
play in the game. In a home game many times the players deal the
cards. When you play online the computer software the poker room
uses takes care of dealing the cards.

In a normal Texas holdem game one of the players is also
called the dealer. The dealer position is also called the
button, based on a white disc with the word dealer on it that
gets passed around the table after each hand.

The player who has the dealer button in front of them gets to
act last on each betting round in a Texas holdem game except the
first one.

In the case of a new game or tournament starting the dealer
shuffles the cards and then deals a card face up to each of the
players at the table. The player who receives the highest card
is awarded the dealer button for the first hand. The first
player to the left of the dealer button then must place a forced
bet called the small blind and the next player to the left is
forced to place a big blind bet.

• About The Blinds

  The small blind is usually half the big blind and the big
  blind is usually the same as the smaller amount in a limit game.
  So a 50 / 100 limit game has a small blind of 25 and a big blind
  of 50. In a no limit or pot limit game the blind levels are set
  by the house. In a tournament the blinds are determined by a
  schedule that has the blinds increase at set times.

In the next hand of a continuing game or tournament the
dealer makes sure the dealer button is passed one place to the
left and that the new blinds have placed their forced bets. The
dealer can also make change or help a new player buy into the
game.

The dealer shuffles the cards or places the deck in an
automatic shuffling machine while getting a freshly shuffle deck
from the machine. Once the blind bets are placed and the dealer
has a shuffled deck of cards the deal is ready to start.

The Deal

The dealer deals one card at a time face down to each player
around the table from left to right starting with the player in
the small blind. This continues until each player has received
two face down cards. These are called the player’s hole cards.

Once each player has their hole cards the player to the
immediate left of the big blind acts first and must fold by
passing their cards to the dealer face down, call the big blind
by placing a bet equal to the big blind into the pot, or raise.
The possible amounts of a raise are based on the limits that we
discussed in an earlier section.

Once the first player to the left of the big blind acts, the
next player to the left acts by folding, calling the previous
bet, or making a raise. Play continues to the left with each
player making the same decisions until play reaches the small
blind.

The small blind may fold, complete the amount of their bet to
equal the current bet, or raise. In a pot that hasn’t been
raised the small blind can put enough into the pot to equal the
big blind, or another half bet. Once the small blind has acted
the big blind can check in a pot that hasn’t been raised, call a
bet in a raised pot, fold in a raised pot, or raise.

Play continues to the left until each player has folded or
called the most recent bet. If everyone folds except one player
that player is awarded the pot. This is true at any time during
a hand.

Remember in a limit Texas holdem game the bets before the
flop and on the flop are at the lower betting limit. All raises
are restricted to the amount of the lower betting limit.

The Flop

Once all of the beginning of the hand betting has been
completed the dealer takes the top card of the deck of un-dealt
cards and places it face down in the discard pile without anyone
seeing the value. This is called burning a card and the purpose
is to help prevent cheating.

If the cards were to be marked in some way a player still
wouldn’t be able to see the value of the next card to be dealt
because of the burn card not being discarded until the next card
was being played.

Texas Holdem Poker Hands Chart

The next three cards are turned face up in the center of the
table. These cards are called the flop and they’re the first of
five total community cards that will be in the middle of the
table face up at the end of the hand. Players combine their two
hole cards with the five community cards to make the best
possible five card poker hand.

Once the flop cards are displayed the first remaining player
to the left of the button position is the first to act. This
player may bet or check. Play then moves to the left. Each
player may check if a bet hasn’t been made, call if a bet has
been made, or raise. This process continues to the left until
each player has checked, folded, or called the last bet.

The Turn or Fourth Street

In limit Texas holdem all bets on the turn and river are the
upper betting amount. In a 10 / 20 game all bets and raises on
the turn and river are at the 20 level.

At the beginning of the turn the dealer burns the top card
again and places one additional card face up in the center of
the table with the other community cards.

The play then starts with the first player left in the hand
to the left of the dealer button. This player may check or bet.
Play continues to the left just like on the flop and continues
until each player has checked, folded, or has called the most
recent wager.

The River or Fifth Street

On the river the dealer burns a final card and places the
fifth and final community card face up in the center of the
table.

The river betting round is carried out the same as the turn
betting round.

Showdown

Once all of the betting has been completed on the river the
remaining players reveal their hole cards to determine which
player has the best five card hand. Players can use both of
their hole cards and three community cards, one of their hole
cards and four community cards, or just the five community cards
to form their best five card hand.

If no one placed a bet on the river the first player to the
left of the dealer button is the first player to reveal their
cards. Then the next player to the left can reveal their cards
or discard them if they don’t have a better hand. In some poker
rooms you may see the cards if they’re discarded and in others
you can’t.

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Generally it’s considered poor etiquette to ask
to see the discards even in the poker rooms where it’s allowed.
You can use your own judgment in this situation.

If one or more bets have been made on the river the player
who made a bet that was called last is required to show their
cards first, with play continuing to the left.

When you play at an online poker room the software takes care
of everything at the showdown. If you aren’t first to act and
you don’t have the best hand you may have the option to fold or
show your cards.

As a general rule you never want to show your cards unless
you have to. When you show your cards in a hand that you don’t
win you give your opponents extra information about the way you
played the hand that they might be able to use against you at a
later date. You want to avoid giving your opponents any extra
information about the way you play.

Texas Holdem Highest Hands

Never let the dealer have your cards in a live Texas holdem
game until you receive the pot when you win a hand. If you’re
not sure who wins a hand never give up your cards until you know
and understand. Also never take another player’s word for the
strength of their hand. Some players may state that they have a
better hand than you to try to get you to fold. Once your cards
are in the muck or discard pile they generally can’t be brought
back out.

Basic Strategy

Texas holdem strategy has hundreds of books and thousands of
web sites dedicated to it, so we only have room for the basics
here. We do have a complete section dedicated to Texas holdem
strategy, so once you learn the basics make sure you take the
time to read our other strategy articles and pages.

The first thing you need to think about when it comes to
Texas holdem strategy and your long term chances to win is you
need to try to play against players who are worse than you. At
first this can be difficult because you might not be very good
at first. But as you get better it can be easier to find games
with players who aren’t as good as you.

It doesn’t matter how good or bad you play, if you only play
against players who aren’t as good as you the odds are that
you’ll win more than you lose in the long run.

The basic idea that fuels winning Texas holdem play is you
need to maximize the amount of money you win when you win and
minimize the amount of money you lose when you lose. This sounds
like a common sense type of approach, but most players don’t
seem to play this way.

You need to bet and raise when you have the best hand to
maximize the amount in the pot, and check and call when you’re
drawing to a better hand to minimize your risk. When you don’t
know if you have the best hand or not you can use odds and
percentages to get a good idea of the possibilities either way.

The way you end up with better hands on average than your
opponents is by playing better starting hands than they do on
average. When you’re first learning how to play holdem don’t
play many hands. Most new players play twice as many hands or
more than they should, quickly drain their bankroll.

Another important strategy concept that helps you become a
winning player faster is learning how position impacts the hands
you can play and your profitability. The general rule of thumb
is you can play more hands in late position than in early
position. So you should only play your top starting hands from
early position.

You gain a large advantage when you get to act last, so you
tend to win more money in late position than in any other
position at the table. This is because you get to see what every
other player does before you have to make a playing decision.
You also have the opportunity to take a free card for the turn
and / or river when all of your opponents check.

Once you learn how to use your position, pick your starting
hands, and how to maximize your wins and minimize your losses,
you’ll be well on your way to playing winning Texas holdem. At
that point you can start learning the finer points of advanced
strategy.

Common Slang

Like many popular gambling games Texas holdem has a unique
language that includes a number of interesting terms. Here’s a
small list of popular Texas holdem slang you might need to know
at the table.

Conclusion

Learning the basics of Texas holdem is fairly easy, but to
get a true feel for the game you need to start playing. Once
you’ve learned everything on this page sit down and play a few
hands. You can play for free at most online poker rooms.

Best Online Texas Holdem Poker

If you can’t play online, see if you can get together a group
of friends and family to play a home game. A group of eight to
10 is best, but you only need four or five for a practice game.

When you’re ready to play for real money take it slow and
start at a low limit.

Highest Poker Hands Texas Holdem

You can play micro limits online, stating at pennies, and
most land based poker rooms have limit holdem as low as 5 / 10
and no limit buy ins as low as $100. Or find a low buy in poker
tournament to try your luck at chasing a big win.