Rules of Hold’em Poker

The objective of poker is to accumulate money by winning the pot, which contains the bets made by various players. This is accomplished in one of two ways:

• Bluff and convince your opponents you have the best hand. During the play of a hand, players will fold and forfeit their interest in the pot. The last remaining player wins the pot.
• Show down the best hand. If more than one player remain after the last betting round, there is a showdown. All remaining players show their cards and the highest ranking hand wins the pot.

In Hold’em, a flat disk (dealer button) is used to indicate the dealer position; the dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the players. Before any cards are dealt, the first player to the left of the dealer post the small blind and the second player to the dealer’s left puts up the big blind. Blinds are force bets to create action.
To start the hand, each player is dealt two cards face down. The player to the left of the big blind start the action on the pre-flop betting round. On every betting round a player has following options:

• Fold: Forfeit the hand and stop competing for the pot.
• Bet: Open the betting by placing the first unforced bet in the betting round.
• Raise: Increase the last bet and force other gambler to call the raise in order to stay in this game. If the poker player decides to raise the previous raise it is called the re-raise.
• Call: Match the last placed raise or bet.
• Check: If no-one has bet yet, don't place any bet and let the next player act.

A round of betting continues until every player has folded, put all of their chips in the pot, or matched the amount put in by all other active players.

After the pre-flop betting round, assuming there remain at least two players in the hand, the dealer deals a flop, three face-up community cards. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left and continue clockwise.
After the flop betting round ends, a single community card (called the turn or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final single community card (called the river or fifth street) is then dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown.
If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show his hole cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, a showdown occurs. On the showdown, each player plays the best five-card poker hand he can make from the seven cards comprising his two hole cards and the five community cards.

The three most common variations of hold 'em are limit hold 'em, no-limit hold 'em and pot-limit hold 'em. In limit hold 'em, bets and raises during the first two rounds of betting (pre-flop and flop) must be equal to the big blind (the small bet). In the next two rounds of betting (turn and river), bets and raises must be equal to twice the big blind (the big bet). In no-limit hold 'em, players may bet or raise any amount over the minimum raise up to all of the chips the player has at the table (called an all-in bet). The minimum raise is equal to the big blind. If someone wishes to re-raise, they must raise at least the amount of the previous raise. If a raise or re-raise is all-in and does not equal the size of the previous raise, the initial raiser can not re-raise again. In pot-limit hold 'em, the maximum raise is the current size of the pot (including the amount needed to call).