Community Cards
✅ What is a Texas Hold'em odds calculator? A Hold'em calculator allows you to simulate any poker hand and see the winning percentages for each player. You can customize the community cards and add up. The larger of the two forced blind bets. This is the first full bet in a hand of Texas holdem. Blank: A community card that is dealt face up and doesn't provide any player with help given the state of the hand. Blinds: Forced bets that two players make before the cards are dealt in a new hand. Originating in the U.S. In the 1920s, the most popular community poker game in the world today is Texas Hold 'em. A Texas Hold 'em round unfolds in a series of phases: In the first phases, the dealer deals two private hole cards to each player, and then there is a betting round. Each player is dealt two private cards ('Hole Cards' or 'Pocket Cards').
– The cards on the board, shared by all active players in a flop game.Community cards are cards that are shared by all players. Most commonly, you will see them as the board cards in a flop game. Each player uses the community cards in conjunction with their private 'hole cards' to make their best five card poker hand. In most flop games, five community cards are delivered over the course of three betting rounds. They are delivered in the following manner.
First, to begin the hand, the hole cards are dealt. If the game is Holdem, two hole cards are dealt. If the game is Pineapple, three hole cards are dealt. If the game is Omaha four hole cards are dealt. After a round of betting, a card is burned, and the community cards begin to be delivered, starting with the 'flop.' The flop consists of three community cards placed face up on the board. Players may use these cards along with their hole cards to begin forming their hands. After the flop is delivered, there is a round of betting and another card is burned. A single community card, called the 'turn,' is now delivered face up on the board, next to the flop. This triggers another round of betting. Again, a card is burned. The final community card, called the 'river,' is delivered and placed on the board next to the turn. There is a final betting round, and then the hand is over.
In addition to being used in flop games, community cards are also occasionally used in Seven Card Stud games, if the dealer should run out of cards. This can happen because these games are traditionally spread eight handed. Each player can potentially receive seven cards, but there are only fifty-two cards in the deck. Before the last card (seventh street) is delivered, it is incumbent upon the dealer to make sure he has enough cards left in the deck to accommodate all remaining active players and still have at least one card left (because the bottom card on the deck is not in play). If the dealer is not sure how many cards remain, he must count them to check. If he does not have enough cards to accommodate all active players, he must proceed in the following manner before any seventh street (river) cards are dealt. If he is short by three cards or fewer (the number of cards in the burn on sixth street), he will shuffle in the burn, and complete the deal. However, if he is short by more than three cards, a community card must be used. If a community card is necessary, the burn will not be shuffled into the deck. Instead, the dealer will deliver one card; face up for all players to share as the river. This only happens when all eight players are active after sixth street betting.
Usage: Three Community Cards on the Flop
Previous Poker Term: Come Bet
Next Poker Term: Complete Hand
- Pineapple - Crazy Pineapple - Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo
Introduction
Texas Hold'em is a shared card poker game. Each player is dealt two private cards and there are five face up shared (or 'community') cards on the table that can be used by anyone. In the showdown the winner is the player who can make the best five-card poker hand from the seven cards available.
Since the 1990's, Texas Hold'em has become one of the most popular poker games worldwide. Its spread has been helped firstly by a number of well publicised televised tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and secondly by its success as an online game. For many people nowadays, poker has become synonymous with Texas Hold'em.
This page assumes some familiarity with the general rules and terminology of poker. See the poker rules page for an introduction to these, and the poker betting and poker hand ranking pages for further details.
Players and Cards
From two to ten players can take part. In theory more could play, but the game would become unwieldy.
A standard international 52-card pack is used.
The Deal and Betting
Texas Hold'em is usually played with no ante, but with blinds. When there are more than two players, the player to dealer's left places a small blind, and the next player to the left a big blind. The big blind is equal to the minimum bet and the small blind is typically half that amount. When there are only two players (a 'heads-up' game), the dealer places the small blind and the non-dealer the big blind.
The cards are shuffled and cut, the dealer 'burns' one card and then deals the cards one at a time face down until each player has two cards. These are known as the player's hole cards or pocket cards. Players may look at their two hole cards and must not show them to any other player.
The first betting round is begun by the player to the left of the big blind. The blinds count as bets, so the small blind need only pay the difference between the blinds to call. The big blind player acts last and is allowed to raise, even if the other active players have all called.
After the first betting round the dealer burns one card and deals three cards face up to the table. These three cards are known as the flop. There is then a second betting round begun by the first active player to the left of the dealer seat.
When the second betting round is complete, the dealer burns a card and then deals one card face up to the table. This card is known as the turn or fourth street. There is then a third betting round, again begun by the first active player to the left of the dealer seat.
After the third betting round the dealer burns another card and deals one more card face up - the river or fifth street. There is fourth and final round of betting before the showdown, again begun by the first active player to the left of the dealer seat.
In a fixed-limit or spread-limit game, any betting round that has more than two active players at the start is normally limited to one bet plus three (sometimes four) raises. In the first (pre-flop) betting round the big blind counts for this purpose as the first bet. If a betting round begins with only two active players, there is no limit on the number of raises.
In limit poker, the betting limits are usually doubled before the third betting round. So for example a $10-$20 game would typically have blinds of $5 and $10, bets of $10 in the first two rounds and bets of $20 in the last two.
The Showdown
Active players show their hands in clockwise order, beginning with the player who was the last to bet or raise in the final betting round. If everyone checked in the final betting round, the first active player to the left of the dealer seat is the first to show. See the betting and showdown page for further details.
Each player makes the best possible five-card poker hand from the seven available cards: the player's two hole cards and the five face-up table cards, which are known as the board. This can be in any combination: both hole cards with three from the board, one hole card with four from the board, or just the board cards without using the hole cards at all, which is known as playing the board.
Note that:
- For a hand to be considered for winning the pot, the player must show both hole cards, even if only one or neither of them is used to make the best hand.
- The cards speak for themselves: the best hand is entitled to win the pot if shown, even if the owner does not realise that it is the best hand.
- As always, poker hands consist of just five cards. The two unused cards have no bearing on whether one hand is better than another.
Texas Hold'em Vegas World
Example. On the board is A-Q-Q-9-6. Player A has K-9; player B has 9-6; player C has 9-3. This is a three-way tie, since all three players have Q-Q-9-9-A as their best hand. The pot is split equally between A, B and C.
Strategy
Because of its great popularity as a tournament and online game, much has been written about the strategy of Texas Hold'em.
The Poker Strategy page provides a list of sites with useful Texas Hold'em Strategy articles.
The Poker Books page reviews a couple of good books about how to play Texas Hold'em.
Variations
The game described above is Texas Hold'em as played formally in public card rooms. When it is played at home, the same procedure can be used, but in some informal games the burning of cards is omitted, and the five community cards are dealt face down to the table at the start. Three of these cards are turned face up after the first betting round, one after the second and one after the third. The result is similar to the formal game, but there is an increased risk that a player might, by accident or by cheating, learn the identity of some of the table cards before they are officially exposed.
The practice of dealing the community cards to the table at the start and turning them face up later is commonly found in community card poker games with more complex layouts, such as Iron Cross and Tic-Tac-Toe. Several of these are listed on the Poker Variants page.
Texas Holdem Community Cards
Pineapple
This is played the same way as Texas Hold'em, except that each player is initially dealt three hole cards and must discard one of them before the first round of betting.
Crazy Pineapple
Texas Hold Em Community Cards For All Occasions
As in Pineapple, each player is dealt three cards, but in Crazy Pineapple they are kept until after the second betting round. Each active player must discard one card immediately before the fourth board card (the turn) is dealt.
Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo 8 or Better
Crazy Pineapple is often played in such a way that the pot is shared between the players with the highest and lowest hands. The deal and betting are exactly as in Crazy Pineapple. At the showdown, as well as making their best hand, each active player makes the lowest possible hand from their seven cards. When making a low hand, the five cards must all be of different ranks, the aces count as low, straights and flushes do not count, and no card can be higher than an 8. So the best low hand is A-2-3-4-5 and the worst is 8-7-6-5-4. Cards are compared from the top down, so 7-5-4-3-2 is better than 7-6-3-2-A because the 5 is lower than the 6. Players can use a different selection of cards for their high hand and their low hand.
Texas Hold'em Poker Free Games
The pot is split equally between the highest hand and the lowest hand. If none of the active players qualifies for low (which will automatically be the case if there are three cards higher than 8 on the board), then the player with the highest hand wins the whole pot.
Texas Holdem Community Cards
Irish
Texas Hold Em Cards
This Texas Hold'em variant is similar to Crazy Pineapple, but each player is initially dealt four hole cards. These can all be kept until the end of the second round of betting. Before the fourth board card (the turn) is dealt, each active player must discard two of their hole cards, keeping just two for the turn and river.
