How to learn Texas Hold’em from scratch

Texas Hold’em is the most widely played poker variant. Each player gets 2 hole cards and up to 5 community cards are dealt in the middle: first 3 (the flop), then 1 (the turn) and finally 1 (the river). The winner is whoever makes the best 5-card hand by combining their cards with the board, or whoever gets everyone else to fold.

One hand, step by step

1. Blinds: the two players to the left of the button post forced bets (small blind and big blind).
2. Preflop: the hole cards are dealt and betting starts with the player to the left of the big blind.
3. Flop, turn and river: after each deal there is a betting round, started by the first active player to the left of the button.
4. Showdown: if two or more players remain, the cards are shown and the best 5-card hand wins.

In what order to learn

It works best to learn in layers: first the rules and hand rankings; then positions and actions; then which hands to play by position; only then outs, probabilities and pot odds; and finally bet sizing and common mistakes. Each concept is easier to understand if you practice it in a concrete situation before moving on to the next.