How to play poker: The 10-step ultimate guide

Learn all you need to know for a great game of poker with family or friends

December 20, 2023

Poker

by Jack Stanton

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15 Minute Read

You’re together with friends or family and someone has suggested a game of poker.

Great idea! But how do you play?

If you’re not sure, you’ve come to the right place.

Here, we’ve put together the ultimate ‘how to play poker’ guide that’s easy for everyone to follow, so share it around, give it a read, and get that game started!

WHAT DO I NEED TO PLAY POKER?

Here’s what you’ll need for a good game of no limit Texas hold’em poker (or any poker variant, for that matter):

• A deck of cards
• A playing surface (e.g. a dining table)
• A set of poker chips (or equivalent*)
• A dealer button (or any item that indicates who has dealt the hand*)

Money is definitely not required! Poker is a game you can play purely for fun, albeit competitive fun (a bit like Monopoly!)

*If you don’t have a set of poker chips handy, don’t worry. You can use anything you have a large quantity of instead of chips. Some people use pennies, others use matches. Don’t be afraid to be creative!

*Having something on the table that highlights who is dealing the current hand allows all players to see when they have to post the blinds, and when it’s their turn to act.

HOW TO SET UP A GAME OF POKER

First, make sure you have enough chairs for everyone who wants to play!

Then, divide your chips (or whatever you’re using instead) into equal stacks. If you have different colours of poker chips, you can assign each colour a numerical value.

Let’s say you want everyone to begin with $100 in chips (again, this needn’t represent real money. The value of the chips is just for the game). You might give each player:

• 4 x $10 chips – Black
• 8 x $5 chips – Blue
• 20 x $1 chips – White

Then shuffle the deck and draw cards to see who will sit where and who will begin as the dealer.

With that, you’re ready to play.

POKER HAND RANKINGS

You can win a hand of poker two ways: either by forcing all of your opponents to fold their cards or by having the best poker hand at showdown. You therefore need to know the Poker Hand Ranking, ie, what beats what.

In Texas Hold’em, players make the best poker hands using their two hole cards and the five community cards. A poker hand must consist of five cards according to the Poker Hand Rankings, and it does not matter how many of your hole cards you use. Sometimes you will use both, sometimes only one and on some occasions none of your hole cards will be used.

If the community cards, for example, were A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ then all remaining players will have a royal flush – the pinnacle of Poker Hand Ranking. It is impossible to beat this hand with any hole cards.

All the suits in poker are of equal value in Poker Hand Rankings. It makes no difference whether someone has the ace of clubs or the ace of diamonds. The pot is split if the remaining players have the same hand at showdown, only in different suits. The value of poker hands is determined by how rare or common it is to be dealt them, with the most common hands valued lower than the rarer hands.

The complete list of poker hands is as follows, in increasing order of scarcity:

• High card
• One pair
• Two pair
• Three of a kind (sometimes called “trips” or “a set”)
• Straight flush
• Full house
• Four of a kind (sometimes called “quads”)
• Straight flush
• Royal flush

Click here to learn more about poker hand rankings.

HOW TO DEAL A POKER HAND

A dealer’s role at a poker table can be broken into three principal tasks, the chronology of which overlaps in places. In a home game, the dealer will rotate around the table, meaning the dealer is also playing the hand.

The dealer needs to:

• Shuffle the cards (this always comes first)
• Make sure the two players to their left have posted the blinds*
• Deal the cards in accordance with the rules
• Oversee the betting to ensure the right amount is in the pot, and that it goes to the right winner

*CHOOSING WHAT THE BLINDS SHOULD BE

The very first responsibility with respect to the pot comes pre-flop, where the dealer needs to ensure blinds and antes are posted. In most conventional games, the player to the left of the dealer places the small blind, then the player one seat further around places the big blind (twice the small blind). The dealer needs to ensure these blinds are in place before any cards are dealt.

You don't want the blinds to start to big that the game is over in minutes, nor too small that the game will go on forever.

So, if you're starting with $100 worth of tournament chips (4 x $10 chips, 8 x $5 chips, 20 x $1 chips) then you might set the blinds at $1/$1 to begin with, giving each player 100 big blinds.

The blinds can then increase every 10-20 minutes, depending on how long you want the game to be. A running order of blinds might look like this:

• $1/$1
• $1/$2
• $1/$3
• $2/$4
• $3/$6
• $4/$8
• $5/$10

DEALING THE CARDS

In Texas hold’em, each player gets two cards, face down. The dealer is required to provide them, one at a time, to each player in turn. The first player to get a card is the person to the immediate left of the dealer button (or the actual dealer, if they’re playing too), and then players get one each, moving clockwise around the table. The last person to get a card is the dealer themselves. The second card is then pitched in the same fashion and in the same order.

The pre-flop betting round then takes place, during which some players are likely to fold. Folded cards are dead. They cannot be retrieved by any players, nor can they be looked at, so a dealer should pull them into a pile somewhere and keep them face down for the remainder of the hand. This pile is known as the “muck”.

If two or more players are still involved at the end of this pre-flop betting round, we can move on to the flop.

REMEMBER THE BURN CARD

Before the actual flop is dealt, however, the dealer needs to remember about what’s called the “burn card”. The burn card plays no active role in a hand; it is simply there to be discarded. But it does serve a purpose. The burn card sits on top of the deck, face down like all the others, when players are betting, obscuring the back of what will become the actual flop card.

This just adds an additional layer of security. If there was a mark on any of the backs of the cards (not likely, but possible), players would not be able to see it. The burn card is discarded only when betting for the round is complete. The dealer slides it to the side, still face down, into the rest of the mucked cards, and then deals the flop.

THE FLOP/TURN/RIVER

The flop comprises three cards, face up in the middle of the table. Active players then bet.

If two or more players are still active at the end of this betting round, the dealer “burns” another card (i.e., pushes the top card to one side, into the muck) and lays the turn card face up beside the flop.

Note: the turn card will usually be placed to the right, from the dealer’s perspective, of the flop. This is not mandatory, and many home game dealers toss the community cards in all kinds of messy arrangements on the table. But if we’re keeping things neat, place the turn to the right of the flop.

After the turn betting round, it’s time to repeat the process one more time and see the river. So: burn another card face down, and then turn the river over, face up, to the right of the turn.

No further cards will be used after this stage, so the dealer can place the deck down on the table, alongside all the mucked cards.

The final betting round takes place and, possibly, the hand will go to showdown, where the winner will be decided. When the pot has been awarded, the dealer hauls in all the cards again, making sure nobody gets to see any of the mucked cards, and it’s time to go back to the shuffling stage (in a home game where you're rotating the dealer, the cards will be passed to the player to the dealer's left -- i.e. the player who was just in the small blind).

Click here to learn more about how to deal a poker hand.

10 POKER PREFLOP MISTAKES TO AVOID

Preflop strategy is often a kind of logical starting point for those learning how to win at no-limit Texas hold’em.

It makes sense that new players want to focus on the very first action they take in a hand. It starts with the decision whether or not even to play the hand, which on the surface might seem like a simple, easy-to-understand place to begin.

But more experienced players know that decision is hardly simple. There are many factors that need to be considered before getting involved and putting any of your chips at risk in an effort to win more.

In this article, we break down 10 common preflop mistakes that many poker players make, especially new ones. All are avoidable, but you need to realize you’re making them before you can eliminate them from your game.

The mistakes are:

• Playing too passively
• Playing too aggressively
• Playing too many hands (too loose)
• Playing too few hands (too tight)
• Not recognising the importance of position
• Not recognising the importance of stack sizes
• Calling too many open raises from the blinds
• Calling too few open raises from the blinds
• Raising too often (or not enough) from the button
• Finding excuses to play hands that you shouldn't

Click here to read a full breakdown of these preflop mistakes.

WHO SHOWS THEIR CARDS FIRST?

we’ve all been there. The river card is dealt, all action has completed, and now it is time for the showdown.

But nothing is happening. No showing is going down.

For online poker players, this is a non-issue. When you play at PokerStars and it’s time for the showdown, the cards are automatically revealed. But in live poker, even experienced players might not know who is supposed to show their cards first.

Sometimes the hesitation before players turn their cards over has something to do with gamesmanship. Or maybe a player has bluffed and gotten called and is embarrassed to show, and now is hoping not to have to reveal his cards. Often, though, the pre-showdown delay is simply due to confusion — players just don’t know who is supposed to show first.

What’s the rule here? When it is time for the showdown, who shows their cards first? Also, is there any etiquette we should be aware of as well, when it comes to showing your cards at the end of a hand?

This article explains who shows their hole cards first at showdown.

POKER ETIQUETTE: DOS AND DON’TS

Poker etiquette is the glue that holds the game together

From the moment you sit down at the tables, whether playing poker online or live, you will be subject to the vague but crucial laws of poker etiquette.

Poker etiquette has nothing to do with strategy or how best to play your cards. It has everything to do with how you conduct yourself at the tables. These loose “rules” apply to live poker, and often online poker too. Let’s take a look.

The most important 'dos' are:

• Be attentive to the game
• Post your blinds and antes
• Keep your cards on the table
• Make your bets clear

And here are the most important 'don'ts':

• Trash talk (unless you can all take it!)
• Slowroll, i.e. take a long time to turn over the winning hand (again, unless you're all in on the joke)
• Get mad when you lose a hand
• Discuss the hand while it's in play

Click here for a full breakdown of the do's and don'ts of poker etiquette.

HOW TO READ POKER HANDS LIKE A PRO

Hand reading is the logical process of deducing what hands other players are likely to be holding. It’s arguably the most essential skill in poker.

If you watch the action at the tables carefully, then you’ll start to think about the possible cards that other players could have. As the hand progresses, you can eliminate possibilities that don’t fit with the action.

Using as much information as you have available – from bet sizes to player tendencies – you continue to narrow down the range so you’re left with fewer and fewer likely combinations.

The idea of reading poker hands down to the exact two cards is a little arcane. Even the top pros can’t know this with total accuracy. So poker hand reading is about narrowing other players’ cards down to possible combinations, known as hand ranges.

By putting other players on a range of cards, you can make more informed and potentially profitable decisions.

Check out this article to learn how to read poker hands like a pro.

‘THE HOUSE’ IN POKER – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

They say “The house always wins”. But what exactly is ‘the house’ in poker?

Does it even have anything to do with the poker you can play online or in casinos?

Let us explain.

You’re only playing against the house when you play a game in which it’s the casino (the house) that pays you if you win, not another player. Conversely, if you lose, your money goes directly to the casino.

Games in which you play directly against the house include table poker, roulette, blackjack, craps, slots, and baccarat (the house is more likely to win in all of these games).

You don’t play against the house in a regular poker game, like a home game with friends and family. You play against the other people sitting around the table, pitting your skills and strategies against one another.

Sure, when you play a tournament or cash game in a casino you’ll have a professional dealer who shuffles and deals the cards while monitoring the action. But you’re not playing against them in any way.

Here's an article explaining what the house is in poker.

8 POKER VARIANTS TO TRY AT YOUR NEXT HOME GAME

In this article, we've shown you how to play no limit Texas hold'em -- the most popular poker variant.

But there are dozens if not hundreds, of different poker variants you could play in your home games.

So, why limit your poker home games to hold’em when there are so many fun types of poker games to play?

Check out these eight unique variants you can learn for your next game.