Texas Hold’em Basic Rules

The basic rules of Texas Hold’em are simple. A standard hand in Texas Hold’em functions like this:

The dealer shuffles the deck.

The two players to the left of the dealer (or the player with the dealer button if there is a permanent professional dealer at the table) pay the blinds, one small and one big.

Starting at the player on his left the dealer deals every player two cards face down.

Starting on the player to the left of the big blind, the players begin the first betting round.

The first player has the option to call, raise or fold.

Once the betting round is over, the dealer deals one card face down (the burn card), and three face up (the flop).

The second betting round starts at the player to the left of the dealer.

Once the betting round completes, the dealer deals one card face down, and one card face up (the turn).

The third betting round functions the same as the second betting round.

Once the betting round completes, the dealer deals one final card face down, and the final card face up (the river)

The final betting round functions the same as the previous two betting rounds.

All players still in the hand enter the showdown, where the player holding the best hand at this point wins the pot.

The dealer passes the deck (or the dealer button) to the player on his left, and the next hand begins.

      

Texas Hold’em Basic Terms
Blinds: Short for "blind bets," these are the forced bets made before the cards are dealt. In Hold'em, blinds take the place of the classic "ante."


Burn Card: The card dealt facedown before any community card is dealt.


Button: Nickname for the player acting as the dealer in current hand, or the name for the physical dealer button used to denote the current dealer.

Check: Similar to a call, but no money is bet. If there is no bet or raise, the next player to act may check.


Fifth Street: See River.


Flop: The first three community cards dealt.


Fourth Street: See Turn.


Preflop: Anything that occurs before the flop is dealt is preflop.


River: The final (5th) community card dealt; also known as fifth street.


Showdown: When players reveal their hands to discover the pot's winner.


Turn: The fourth community card dealt; also known as fourth street.

Texas Hold’em
The birth of Texas Hold’em is officially credited to Robstown, Texas and dates back to the early 1900s.
With four betting rounds and the majority of the cards face up on the table, Hold'em was much more “player friendly” than the other poker variations popular at that time. Thanks to the community cards removing the need to "count cards," the game was also much more friendly to the beginner player.
The legendary Texas road gamblers, including Crandell Addington, Roscoe Weiser, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim introduced Hold’em to Vegas in 1967, with the first World Series of Poker being held in 1970.
The  game still remained somewhat of a “backroom” game, flying below the radar of the average person, until Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event - turning his $40 online satellite buy-in into $2.5 million on national TV.
Thanks to Moneymaker and online poker, Hold’em blew up and has now become the most widely played game in the world.

Texas Hold’em Hand Rankings

Each player must make the best five card hand they can using any combination of their own two cards, and the five face up community cards.
follows from best to worst: