Hold'em poker is played with a standard 52 card deck. Each player receives two face-down cards each, and these can be combined with the five community cards - cards dealt face up on the table and shared by all players. The winner is the player that after several betting rounds can use his pocket cards together with the five community cards and make the best ranked five card poker hand.
Below is the ranking of hands. The player making the highest ranked five card hand wins the pot. A hand always consists of five cards, and it can be any of the seven cards - even all the five community cards. When more then one player holds the best ranking the high card (kicker) will decide the winner or else the pot will be shared.
Royal Flush
This is the best poker hand you can have.
Ex: Th, Jh, Qh, Kh, Ah
Straight Flush
Five connected cards of the same suit.
Ex: 5c, 6c, 7c, 8c, 9c
Four-Of-A-Kind
Four cards of equal rank.
Ex: Kc, Kh, Kd, Ks
Full House
Three of a kind and a pair.
Ex: Th, Tc, Td - Qs, Qd
Straight
Five in sequence.
Ex: 7c, 8h, 9s, Td, Jh
Three-Of-A-Kind
Any three cards of equal rank.
Ex: 5c, 5h, 5s
Two Pair
Simply two pairs.
Ex: 9d, 9s, 2h, 2s
One Pair
Two cards of equal rank.
Ts, Th
In a round of poker the Button decides the order of play. This is a visible marker that rotates clockwise between players before each new hand is delt. The Blinds are forced bets (one small, one bigger) to ensure that every pot has a value. The two players left of the button are the ones who places these Blinds. The value of the blinds depends on how big a game you are playing. The player seated left of the Big Blind always acts first. The last player to act has a huge advantage since that player can await the actions of all other players before deciding on his own actions.
Everytime it is a player turn to act, he or she has five options call, bet, raise, fold, check. A call is matching a previously made bet, a bet or a raise is adding money to the pot, fold is to discard your cards and check is when you do nothing and no one before you has made a bet. A betting round ends when all players have either matched the highest amount bet, or folded.
First players bet on their pocket cards, then the Flop comes - three community cards. The players bet again and then the sixth card comes, the Turn. New bets may be made and then the seventh last card, the River. Finally the ultimate betting round which decides the winner!
All poker tables have a Limit that determines the Blinds. In a $1/$2 game the Blinds are $1 dollar for the Big Blind and $0.5 for the Small Blind. If you have $100 you could try out one of these games, but it would be unwise to go for a $10/$20 game. For that you needs more money. The most popular variant of Hold'em is No Limit, which means that players can bet or raise an amount limited only by the amount of money they have in front of them. Going "all-in" is when a player bets all the chips he has in one bet. If you are not playing No Limit your bets are always restricted by the Limits.
If you are new to poker you might also want to check out all the usual expressions in online poker!
