Texas Hold'Em is the most popular of all the poker variations. This game is played against other players and not the house.

Objective: To hold the best possible five card poker hand using any combination of hole cards and community cards. (See Hand rankings to determine best hand).

Since this game is not played against the house, the dealer position must move clockwise to the next active player after each hand is dealt. The dealer-button is a disk that indicates the dealer position of each hand. The dealing of the cards starts directly to the left of the dealer-button. Each player is dealt 2 cards face down by the dealer ("hole cards") which is followed by a betting round. There are four rounds of betting. The first round of betting occurs before the first community cards are dealt (called the "flop"). The "flop" is three cards dealt face up in the middle of the table. A second round of betting now occurs providing there are still players in the pot. After this round of betting the "turn" card is dealt next to the "flop" cards. The third round of betting takes place and if there are still players in the pot then the final card is dealt ("river" card). The final and last round of betting now occurs before the cards are turned over to determine the winner of the pot (the "showdown").

In Ring game the blinds must be paid by the two players immediately seated to the dealers left. The first player to the left of the dealer must post the "small blind" which is half of the small stake. In the example of a €5/€10 game, the small blind is €2.50. The player to his left must post the "big blind" which is the full amount of the lower limit of the stake, in this case it would be €5. However, the Heads-up blind structure is a little different. Usually the player who owns the dealer-button pays the big blind and his opponent pays the small blind.

You can either play Limit, No limit or Pot limit.

1. Limit - In limit Hold'em the first two rounds of betting are set at the lower limit of the stake structure. For example say you are playing in a €5/€10 limit game then all the bets are €5 for the first two betting rounds and all bets are €10 for the last two betting rounds. The player to the left of the "big blind" starts the first betting round. All subsequent betting rounds are started by the "small blind" player. The maximum number of bets per player per round is limited to 4 bets. For example say there was a bet (1) in first position after the big blind ("under the gun") and then the next player raises (2), then the next player raises (3) and then the next player raises (4) at this point the pot is capped and no more bets can be made. All subsequent players must either call or fold. After the "flop" is dealt the second stage of betting starts. At this point if you like to bet you would need to put the upper limit of the stake into the pot. For our example above you would then need to put €10 into the pot to make a bet.
2. No limit - Its name implies exactly what is says. You can bet as many chips as you have in front of you.