- How many cards do you get in Texas hold'em?
- Two, dealt face down and seen only by you. Five more are turned face up in the middle in three stages — three on the flop, one on the turn and one on the river — and every player shares those.
- Do you have to use both of your own cards?
- No. Your hand is the best five cards out of the seven you can see: both of yours, one of them, or neither. When the best five are all on the table you are playing the board, and anyone still in splits the pot with you unless they can beat it.
- What beats what in Texas hold'em?
- From the top: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. A flush beats a straight and a full house beats a flush. The ranking is the same in every poker variant.
- What are the blinds?
- Two forced bets made before any cards are dealt, by the two players to the dealer's left: the small blind, and the big blind, usually twice as much. They put something in the pot to play for, and they move one seat to the left every hand so everyone pays them in turn.
- What happens when two players have the same hand?
- The pot is split. Hands of the same kind are compared card by card across all five, so a pair of kings with an ace beside it beats a pair of kings with a queen. Suits never break a tie.
- What does going all in mean?
- Betting every chip you have left. Nobody can be forced out of a hand for being short: you can win as much of the pot as you were able to match, and any betting between the others beyond that goes into a side pot you have no claim on.
- How many people can play Texas hold'em?
- Two to ten at one table. With two — heads-up — the game is the same, except that the dealer posts the small blind and acts first before the flop.