The Rules of Online Poker
At our site you’ll find all the world’s most popular poker
games, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha 🫦 and many more.
How Do You Win?
Typically, the
winner of each hand of poker is the player that holds the highest 🫦 ranked hand when all
cards are shown at the end of the hand –known as the ‘showdown’ – or the 🫦 player that
makes the last uncalled bet, thus winning without needing to reach a showdown. Not sure
whether a flush 🫦 beats a straight? Can’t remember how to make a full house? You can find
all the information you need to 🫦 know about hand rankings in the table below (click here
for more). The strongest hands are in the top row, 🫦 running from left to right, with the
weakest possible hand being simply a high card.
Royal Flush
Straight Flush
Four of a
Kind
Full 🫦 House
Flush
Straight
Three of a Kind
Two Pair
One Pair
High Card
Getting
Started
Poker games typically feature a forced bet, such as the Big Blind and 🫦 Small
Blind in Hold’em and Omaha. These forced bets comprise the starting pot in any given
hand of poker, which 🫦 is the first incentive players have to win the hand. Action
arising from the subsequent rounds of betting further increases 🫦 the size of the
pot.
Dealing Cards and Betting Rounds
After any initial cards are dealt, players are
usually called upon to 🫦 act in turn, moving clockwise around the table. Each player can
usually take one of the following actions when it 🫦 is their turn to act:
Check – To
check is to decline the opportunity to open the betting. Players can only 🫦 check when
there is no bet during the current round, and the act of checking passes the action
clockwise to 🫦 the next person in the hand. If all active players check, those players
remain in the hand and the round 🫦 is considered complete.
– To check is to decline the
opportunity to open the betting. Players can only check when there 🫦 is no bet during the
current round, and the act of checking passes the action clockwise to the next person
🫦 in the hand. If all active players check, those players remain in the hand and the
round is considered complete. 🫦 Bet – Players may bet if no other players have bet during
the current round. Once a bet has been 🫦 made, other players must ‘call’ by matching the
amount bet, in order to remain in the hand.
– Players may bet 🫦 if no other players have
bet during the current round. Once a bet has been made, other players must ‘call’ 🫦 by
matching the amount bet, in order to remain in the hand. Fold – Players who fold
forfeit their cards 🫦 and cannot win or act again during the current hand.
– Players who
fold forfeit their cards and cannot win or 🫦 act again during the current hand. Call –
Players can call if other players have bet during the current round; 🫦 this requires the
calling player to match the highest bet made.
– Players can call if other players have
bet during 🫦 the current round; this requires the calling player to match the highest bet
made. Raise – Players may raise if 🫦 other players have bet during the current round;
this requires the raising player to match the highest bet made, and 🫦 then make a greater
one. All subsequent players are required to call the raise or raise again (‘re-raise’)
to stay 🫦 in the hand.
Different variants of poker have different betting rounds. Texas
Hold’em and Omaha are the two most popular poker 🫦 games in the world and have identical
betting structures, with four rounds of betting known as pre-flop, the flop, the 🫦 turn
and the river. The pre-flop betting round begins as soon as all players have received
their hole cards, before 🫦 any community cards have been dealt; betting on the flop
occurs after the first three community cards are dealt; on 🫦 the turn after the fourth
community card; and on the river after the fifth and final community card. On each
🫦 betting round, betting continues until every player has either matched the bets made or
folded (if no bets are made, 🫦 the round is complete when every player has checked). When
the betting round is completed, the next dealing/betting round begins, 🫦 or the hand is
complete. Here’s an example of a Texas Hold’em hand after all the cards have been
dealt. 🫦 As you can see, players may use any of their two hole cards with any of the five
community cards 🫦 to make the best five-card hand they can make - in this case, you can
use both your hole cards 🫦 and three of the shared community cards to make a
straight.
Your opponents’ hole cards Community Cards Your hole cards
Showdown
Once the
🫦 last bet or raise has been called during the final round of betting, a showdown occurs;
the remaining active players 🫦 must show or ‘declare’ their hands, and the player(s) with
the best ranking hand(s) win the pot. Players often show 🫦 their hands in order, rather
than all at the same time. Multiple players can share a single pot, with the 🫦 pot
divided in different ways depending on the game rules and how each player’s hand ranks
against their opponents.
Betting Limits
Betting 🫦 limits refer to the amount players may
open and raise. Typically, poker games are of the following types; no limit, 🫦 pot limit
or fixed limit.
No Limit – in poker games with a no limit betting structure, each
player can bet 🫦 or raise by any amount up to and including their full stack (the total
number of chips they possess at 🫦 any given time) in any betting round, whenever it is
their turn to act.
Pot Limit – in poker games with 🫦 a pot limit betting structure, each
player can bet or raise by any amount up to and including the size 🫦 of the total pot at
that time.
Fixed Limit – in poker games with a fixed limit betting structure, each
player 🫦 can choose to call, bet or raise, but only by a fixed amount. The fixed amount
for any given betting 🫦 round is set in advance.
For No Limit and Pot Limit games, the
‘Stakes’ column in the PokerStars lobby indicates the 🫦 Small Blind and Big Blind in that
game, while for Mixed Games, the Stakes listed in the lobby are the 🫦 betting amounts for
Limit games; in Pot Limit and No Limit rounds, the blinds are usually half of the
blinds 🫦 in limit games.
Table Stakes and All-in
