How a Texas Hold'em Hand Works, Chip by Chip

In Texas Hold'em, you receive two private hole cards, and five community cards arrive in three stages: the flop, turn and river. There are four betting streets; if the hand reaches showdown, the best five-card hand from the seven available cards wins. Here, you’ll follow a six-handed hand with blinds of 1/2 and 200-chip stacks—100 big blinds—with no ante or rake, ending in a 163-chip pot. On the flop, calling 12 chips to play for 43, with 31 already in the middle, requires 27.9% equity: your average share of the pot under the specified hands and possible boards. This is mechanics, not strategy; rooms differ on minimum raises, burn procedures and showing order.

A hand step by step

A hand runs from the mandatory blinds to showdown, unless everyone but one player folds first.

Five actions

• Check — pass the action without betting when you have no bet to match.
• Bet — put in the first bet on a street.
• Fold — give up your cards and your claim to the pot.
• Call — match the current bet.
• Raise — increase the current bet.

When you face a bet, you can fold, call or raise. All-in means committing all your remaining chips.

As Wikipedia describes it, a betting round continues until every player has folded, put in all their chips or matched the other active players’ bets. For example, the big blind can still check or raise preflop when everyone else has only called.

If everyone but one player folds, that player wins without showdown and need not show their cards. Wikipedia and Poker TDA Rule 18B describe this outcome.

Diagram of a Texas Hold'em teaching hand: six seats, blinds 1/2, pot after each betting round 19, 43, 83 and 163

Teaching diagram, not a poker-room interface: seats clockwise from the button and the pot after each betting round. The big blind wins the showdown: two pair, jacks and eights, ace kicker against king.

Seats, button and blinds

Preflop, the player to the left of the big blind acts first. On later streets, the first remaining player to the left of the button acts first, following Pagat’s order of action.

Texas Hold'em uses a 52-card deck and can seat 2 to 10 players. Our example has six, arranged clockwise as BTN → SB → BB → UTG → HJ → CO. For the seat names and their strategic context, see six-handed positions and opening ranges.

The button, or dealer button, marks the nominal dealer position. The small blind sits to its left, followed by the big blind. The big blind sets the minimum bet; the small blind is usually half that amount—2 and 1 chips respectively here.

Cards are dealt face down, one at a time, starting with the small blind until everyone has two; the button receives the last card. Wikipedia describes this dealing order. After each hand, the button moves clockwise, rotating the dealer and blind positions; tournament exceptions appear below.

Preflop: building a 19-chip pot

Preflop, CO raises to 6, BTN calls 6 and BB adds 4. Including the small blind’s abandoned chip, the pot is 19 chips.

Everyone starts with 200 chips, for a total of 6 × 200 = 1,200. The hole cards revealed at showdown will be CO’s K♣ J♣ and BB’s A♦ J♥. The other players’ cards remain unknown.

UTG acts first, to BB’s left. After UTG and HJ fold, CO raises to 6, rather than adding 6 to the existing bet. The minimum raise here would be to 4.

BTN calls 6. SB folds, leaving 1 chip in the pot. Because the posted blind already counts toward a call, SB would have needed another 5. BB adds 6 − 2 = 4.

The total is 1 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 19. CO, BTN and BB reach the flop, each with 194 chips remaining.

Flop: the call requires 27.9%

On the flop, BB must call 12 chips to play for a 43-chip pot, requiring 27.9% equity, as you can check with the Pot Odds Calculator. Bet size moves this threshold most: a bet of 6 makes it 19.4%, a bet of 19 makes it 33.3%, and a bet of 30 makes it 38.0%.

ToolsGambling Pot Odds Calculator: pot before the bet 19, bet to call 12, required equity 27.9%

Real capture of the ToolsGambling calculator (production site, 17 October 2026): values typed by hand, the $ sign in the frame is a conventional unit and means chips here; the result matches the calculation 12 / (19 + 2 × 12).

Before the flop, the dealer sets aside a face-down burn card and reveals J♠ 8♦ 3♣. SB has folded, so BB is the first active player to the left of the button.

The action runs as follows:

1. BB checks.
2. CO bets 12.
3. BTN folds, leaving the 6-chip preflop contribution in the pot.
4. BB calls 12.

The pot becomes 19 + 12 + 12 = 43. Before BB calls, it contains 19 + 12 = 31 chips. BB pays 12 for a pot of 43 after the call.

Required equity is 12 / (19 + 2 × 12) = 12 / 43 = 27.9%. Pot odds are 31:12, or 2.6:1. Percentages and ratios here are rounded to one decimal place.

To reproduce the calculation:

1. Enter 19 in "Current Pot Size"—the pot before CO bets.
2. Enter 12 in "Bet to Call"—the amount BB must add.
3. Leave the optional "Your Equity" field blank.
4. Check the results: "Required Equity" is 27.9%, "Pot Odds" is 2.6:1, and "Pot After Call" is $43.

The calculator works in any consistent unit, so enter the chip amounts even though its pot and bet fields display a currency prefix.

Under these assumptions, the call needs 27.9% equity: BTN has folded, the pot is heads-up, there is no ante or rake, and the calculation considers only the current pot—not future bets.

For the known hands, A♦ J♥ against K♣ J♣ on J♠ 8♦ 3♣ has 82.7% equity. Across 990 possible two-card runouts, BB has 813 wins, 12 ties and 165 losses. You can enter both hands and this flop in the poker equity calculator.

That is equity for known cards; BB cannot see CO’s hand during play. Equity against a stronger range may be lower, and the 82.7% figure alone does not determine an action when future betting is possible.

Bet size shifts the threshold from 19.4% to 38.0%; the other listed assumptions move it by a few percentage points. In the three-player pot, compare the 21.8% threshold with equity against two hands, not one.

For the distinction between the price of the current call and future betting, see pot odds and implied odds explained.

Turn and river: the pot reaches 163

On the turn, a bet and call of 20 grow the pot to 83. On the river, a bet and call of 40 bring it to 163 chips.

Before the turn, the dealer burns a card and reveals 5♦. BB checks, CO bets 20 and BB calls: 43 + 40 = 83.

Before the river, the dealer burns another card and reveals 8♥. BB checks, CO bets 40 and BB calls: 83 + 80 = 163.

Wikipedia and Pagat describe burning before the flop, turn and river. Pagat’s procedure also includes a burn card before dealing hole cards, while informal home games sometimes omit burning. Check the table’s procedure before playing.

Before showdown, the stacks are:

The remaining stacks plus the 163-chip pot still total 1,200 chips.

Showdown

BB wins the 163-chip pot. Both players have two pair, jacks and eights, but BB’s fifth card is an ace while CO’s is a king.

CO was the last player to bet on the river, so CO shows first:

The pairs match, so the kicker—the fifth card—decides the winner: ace beats king.

Each player has seven available cards: two hole cards and five community cards. There are 21 ways to select five, and only the best five count. You may use both hole cards, one or neither. Using neither is playing the board; you can win no more than a share of the pot. Poker TDA Rule 20 requires you to show both hole cards to claim that share.

Hand categories, highest to lowest: straight flush → four of a kind → full house → flush → straight → three of a kind → two pair → pair → high card.

Any higher category beats every lower category; for example, three of a kind beats two pair. Detailed hand comparisons are a separate topic.

Equal best five-card hands split the pot. Had everyone checked our river, Pagat’s order would have BB show first as the first active player to the left of the button. Under Poker TDA Rule 18A, the tournament director may enforce the showing order if nobody shows voluntarily.

The final results are:

The results sum to 0: without rake, chips only move between players.

What changes

The board follows the same sequence, but player count, stacks and table rules can change the action order and how pots are awarded.

Heads-up. The button also posts the small blind, receives the last card and acts first preflop, but last on later streets. Poker TDA Rule 36C specifies this order.

If the table permits a button straddle, that additional blind bet can change who acts first. Table rules determine its size and action order.

All-in and side pots. You can contest only the portion of opponents’ contributions that your own contribution covers. Suppose A has 40 chips and B and C have 100 each:

• A goes all-in for 40; B and C each call 40. The main pot is 3 × 40 = 120, contested by all three.
• B bets another 60 and C calls. The side pot is 2 × 60 = 120, contested only by B and C.
• The pots total 240 chips. Each is awarded—and split in a tie—separately under Poker TDA Rule 23.

Minimum raise. A raise must be at least as large as the largest previous full bet or raise on that street, under Poker TDA Rule 45A. With blinds of 1/2, the minimum opening raise is to 4. Raising to 6 increases the bet by 4, so the next minimum raise is to 10. The rule is not simply “always double the big blind.”

Poker TDA rules are a tournament standard; cash games may use house rules. Tournaments use a dead button under Rule 34.

Betting limits. Fixed-limit games prescribe bet and raise sizes. Pot-limit games tie the maximum to the pot size. No-limit games permit bets or raises from the applicable minimum up to all your chips.

Cash games and tournaments. Our 1/2 blinds, equal stacks and absence of antes and rake do not describe every table. Later tournament stages can include antes; check the required contributions and rules before starting.

What next

To choose starting hands, see preflop charts and ranges.

Two hole cards produce 1,326 combinations, grouped into 169 classes: 13 pairs, 78 suited and 78 offsuit.