Game rules › Poker › Texas Hold'em

Texas Hold'em (No-Limit) Rules

Overview

Texas Hold'em is the most popular form of poker in the world and the main event at major poker tournaments. Each player gets two hole cards that only they can see and combines them with five community cards on the table to make the best five-card hand; every time it is your turn across four betting rounds, you decide whether to check, call, raise or fold. In No-Limit Hold'em any bet can be as large as your whole stack (all-in), so the game is decided not only by the cards but by betting judgment.

Players: 2–9 per table; a two-player game is called heads-up.
Cards: One standard 52-card deck, no Jokers.
In a nutshell: Each player gets two hole cards that only they can see, and combines them with five community cards on the table to make the best five-card hand. Over four betting rounds, you decide whether to call, raise or fold.
Blinds: Each hand, the small blind and big blind positions post forced bets first; there are no antes in a cash game.
Cash game (your stack carries over):
- Buy-in: When you sit down, you choose how many chips to bring to the table, between the table's minimum and maximum buy-in.
- Stack carries over: Whatever you win or lose in each hand stays in front of you and carries into the next hand. Chips you have won cannot be taken off the table, and you keep playing with them even above the maximum buy-in.
- Top up: After a hand ends and before the next deal, you can top up, to at most the maximum buy-in. You cannot top up if your stack is already at or above the maximum buy-in.
- Busted: A player whose stack reaches 0 must buy in again before playing the next hand.
Hand: From dealing the hole cards until the pot has been awarded.
No rake: The whole pot goes to the winner, and the results of all seats always add up to 0.

Positions

The button (BTN, the disc marked D on the table) moves one seat to the left each hand.
To the left of the button are the small blind (SB) and then the big blind (BB). The remaining positions, from early to late, are UTG, UTG+1, UTG+2, LJ, HJ and CO (with fewer players, only some of these are used).
Heads-up: The button is the small blind. The button acts first preflop and last after the flop.

How a Hand Plays Out

Post blinds: The small blind and big blind put their blinds into the pot.
Deal hole cards: Two cards to each player, visible only to that player.
Preflop betting: Starting with the player to the left of the big blind, players act in turn clockwise.
Flop: Three community cards are turned face up on the table, followed by another betting round (starting with the first player still in the hand to the left of the button).
Turn: The fourth community card is turned up, followed by another betting round.
River: The fifth community card is turned up, followed by the final betting round.
Showdown: Players still in the hand reveal their hole cards and compare; the best hand wins the pot.

When only one player has not folded, the hand ends immediately and that player wins the pot without anyone's cards being shown.

What You Can Do on Your Turn

Action	When you can do it
Check	When no one has bet in this round (or you have already matched the highest bet).
Call	When someone has bet or raised: put in enough to match the highest bet.
Bet / Raise to	Open the betting in this round, or raise on top of someone else's bet. A raise amount means "the total you have put in this round", not "how much more you add".
Fold	Give up the hand; chips you have already put into the pot stay there.
All-in	Put in all your remaining chips.

Minimum raise: A raise must be at least as large as the last full raise in this betting round; at the start of each round, it is counted from one big blind. Preflop, the big blind itself counts as a bet. For example, with the big blind at 100 and someone raising to 300 (a raise of 200), the next player must raise to at least 500.
Maximum: No-limit; you can go all-in.

Special Situations

Short all-in: When someone goes all-in for less than a full bet (an opening bet below one big blind) or less than a full raise, it does not reopen the betting for players who have already acted; they can only call or fold. You can raise again only once "the total raised by others since your last action is at least one full raise". Players who have not yet acted are unaffected.
Short big blind: If the big blind cannot post in full, they are all-in. Everyone else must still call the full big blind, and the minimum raise is still two big blinds.
Big blind option: If no one raises preflop, the big blind may still choose to check or raise.
Uncalled bets are returned: At the end of a betting round, any part of your chips that exceeds the highest amount anyone else put in is returned to you and is not lost.
After an all-in: When fewer than two players can still act, there is no more betting and the remaining community cards are dealt out: all players still in the hand first reveal their hole cards, then the community cards are turned one street at a time.
Side pots: When someone is all-in, the pot is split into layers according to how much each player put in. Each layer is contested by the players who contributed to that layer; an all-in player can only win the layers they took part in. Chips put in by a player who folded stay in the pot, but that player cannot win them.
Split pots and odd chips: When hands are tied, the pot is split. Any odd chips that cannot be split evenly (counted separately for each pot) are given one at a time, starting with the first winner to the left of the button.

Hand Rankings (highest to lowest)

Use your two hole cards and the five community cards, and pick any five to make the best possible hand (you can use both hole cards, just one, or none at all).

Hand	Description	Example
Straight flush	A straight all in the same suit	♠9 ♠10 ♠J ♠Q ♠K
Four of a kind	Four cards of the same rank	8 8 8 8 K
Full house	Three of a kind + a pair	5 5 5 J J
Flush	Five cards of the same suit	♥2 ♥6 ♥9 ♥J ♥A
Straight	Five consecutive ranks	6 7 8 9 10
Three of a kind	Three cards of the same rank	Q Q Q 4 9
Two pair	Two different pairs	7 7 3 3 A
One pair	One pair	10 10 A 8 2
High card	None of the above	A J 9 6 3

Ranks from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Suits have no rank.
The A can play low to make the straight A-2-3-4-5 (the lowest straight); the A cannot wrap around from the K to the 2.
For hands of the same type, compare the ranks that make up the hand in order, then the kickers (the remaining cards). If all five cards are equal, the pot is split.
If the community cards themselves are the best five-card hand, everyone still in the hand splits the pot.

Scoring

Your result for each hand = the chips you won back in that hand minus the chips you put in, converted to big blinds (divided by the big blind).
Results count only what you win or lose at the table; they have nothing to do with how much you bought in for or how many times you topped up. For example, if you buy in for 100 BB, top up 40 BB along the way and leave the table with 160 BB, your result is +20 BB.

Rules source: based on the Poker TDA rules.

The part below is how this site (PlayVsAI) does things: how the AI opponent plays and how the lobby and leaderboards count. It is not part of the game rules and may differ elsewhere.

Playing on PlayVsAI

Opponent: Currently only heads-up tables are open: you play one on one against a computer opponent called "River". Multi-way tables will open later.
Blinds: Small blind 50, big blind 100, no antes.
Buy-in: When you sit down, you choose how many chips to bring to the table: 30–100 big blinds (3,000–10,000 chips), in steps of 0.5 big blinds. You keep playing with chips you have won even above 100 BB.
Top up: After a hand ends and before the next deal, you can press "Top up to 100 BB" to bring your stack up to 100 big blinds. You cannot top up if you already have 100 BB or more.
Busted: If your stack reaches 0, the match ends (you can only settle and leave).
The computer opponent's stack: Before every hand, if "River" has less than 100 BB it tops up to 100 BB; chips it has won above 100 BB stay in play and are not taken away. If you bust it, it buys in again for 100 BB and play continues as usual.
Match: From the moment you sit down until you press "Settle & leave" or bust. A match has no fixed number of hands; you can play as many as you like, and the result of every hand is recorded.
Limits on folding and raising: On this site you cannot fold when there is nothing to call — just check: checking costs nothing. You also cannot raise when no opponent can still call (the excess would just be returned to you anyway). These two are online-platform conventions, not TDA rules.
Leaderboard: Ranked by "average result per hand" (as in "Scoring" above), shown as big blinds per 100 hands (BB/100): averaging +0.1 BB per hand shows as +10 BB/100. You get a ranking once you have played 500 hands (heads-up results swing a lot from hand to hand, so an average over too few hands is almost pure luck); records with fewer than 500 hands are still kept and listed in the Qualifying section below the leaderboard.

Leaving

After a hand ends, you can press "Next hand" to continue, "Top up to 100 BB" to top up, or "Settle & leave" to record the match in your stats. If you are busted, you can only settle and leave.
Leaving before a hand is finished: the table is kept for 24 hours from your last move — come back to continue. If you do not return within 24 hours (or start another table first), the AI finishes the hand for you and settles it by the rules, recorded as "AI decided"; hands you already finished still count. Leaving within your first 3 moves does not count. After at least one finished hand, if you leave a new hand before making any move in it, that hand does not count and is not played out by the AI; hands you already finished still count.

Table Tips

The action bar lights up when it is your turn. The numbers on the buttons are all calculated by the server (how much to call, the minimum and maximum raise), so you can never submit an action that breaks the rules.
The number on the "Bet / Raise to" button is "the total you have put in this round", not "how much more you add". When a raise reaches the maximum, the button shows ALL-IN.
The shortcut buttons in the betting bar fill in raise amounts for you. Preflop defaults are "Min, 2 BB, 2.5 BB, 3 BB, 30%, 50%, 70%, Pot, All-in"; postflop defaults are "Min, 30%, 50%, ⅔ pot, 70%, Pot, All-in". "BB" buttons are the total raise-to amount; "%" and "pot" buttons raise to the current highest bet plus that fraction of the pot after your call. Press "Customize" to change them to your own favorite sizes (up to 10 buttons per set); they are saved to your account. A button whose amount falls below the minimum raise or exceeds your stack is grayed out.
The "−" and "+" on either side of the slider adjust by 0.5 big blinds per tap; hold them down to adjust continuously.
After an all-in, the screen first reveals the hole cards of all players still in the hand, then turns the community cards one street at a time.
When opponents act, the screen shows their actions one player at a time (you can press "Skip" to go straight to the result).
The top-right corner of the table shows your cumulative result for the match (in BB), counting only chips won or lost at the table — buy-ins and top-ups are not included.
When a hand ends, the action bar shows your current stack and your total buy-in for the match.

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