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
