How to play poker: An illustrated guide for beginner's on Texas Hold'em rules

Is your group chat blowing up with chatter about “Texas Hold‘em”? There’s only a 50% chance they’re talking about the catchy Beyoncé song. If not, you might just have been invited to your very first poker game. 

Don’t stress about your rookie status – if you want to learn the basics, including lingo and strategies to win, you’re in the right place. Here’s an illustrated beginner’s guide that’ll teach you how to play Texas Hold ‘Em, one of the most common poker games.

How to play poker

The goal in poker is to get the best combination of five cards – better than the other players at the table. But before you learn how to make those hands, learn the lingo.

Betting and playing:

• Ante: Starting contribution in the pot from each player
• Check: Choosing not to bet or raise (can only be played if no one has bet that round)
• Bet: Chips a player enters
• Call: Putting the same number of chips in
• Raise: Putting more chips in than the call
• Fold: Forfeit the game by refusing to bet and putting down your cards

If you choose, you can also play with a "blind," a mandatory bet at the beginning of each round. This stirs up th competition by making each player risk more.

The player to the dealer's left plays the "small blind" and the player two seats to the left of the dealer (next to the small blind) plays the "big blind." These players have to make the opening bets, despite players not having seen their cards. The bet made by the "big blind" decides the minimum bet amount – players must "ante up" by contributing that many chips or more if they want to stay in the round. The "small blind" makes the next bet, contributing half the amount of the big blind.

Players then look at their cards and continue placing their bets per the ante, or minimum bet. On the "small blind's" turn, they can add that other half of the ante to stay in the game.

How to win: Poker hands ranked

There are 10 different types of wins you can make in poker, and higher, harder-to-make hands will win over the others.  If two of the same type of win are played, the hand with the highest card wins. Here are the wins from highest to lowest:

For example, a four of a kind would win over a straight. Three of a kind would win over two pairs. 

How to play Texas Hold 'em 

There are a few additional terms you need to know to play Texas Hold 'em – five cards will be turned over in the middle called "community cards," or the ones players form their hands with. Here are the names of the five community cards:

Your goal is to make a winning hand higher than your opponents. At the end of the game, there will be seven cards – five community cards and two in your hand. You only have to use five cards, including at least one of your own, to make a hand. 

To start, deal each player two cards.

Starting with the player to the dealer's left, check, call or fold. If you check, you don't place a bet and the turn moves to the next player.

If players bet after you've checked, the turn will loop back around to you and you'll be forced to match the bet or fold. You cannot call check after players have bet. 

If you call, add a bet to the pot. If you fold, put your cards down and forfeit the game.

The next player goes. If the player before them chooses to check, they can also check. If the previous player chooses to call, they can call and match that bet, raise it for the following players or fold. 

Repeat the betting cycle, then draw the "river" or the fifth card. This is the last card of the game you'll draw.

After the last round of betting, the players (excluding those who have folded) reveal their cards. The player with the highest hand wins and takes the chips from the pot.