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
