Sometimes you will use both, sometimes only one and on some occasions none of your hole cards will be used. A poker hand must consist of five cards according to the Poker Hand Rankings, and it does not matter how many of your hole cards you use. In Texas Hold’em, players make the best poker hands using their two hole cards and the five community cards. You therefore need to know the Poker Hand Ranking, ie, what beats what. You can win a hand of poker two ways: either by forcing all of your opponents to fold their cards or by having the best poker hand at showdown. Then shuffle the deck and draw cards to see who will sit where and who will begin as the dealer. The value of the chips is just for the game). Let’s say you want everyone to begin with $100 in chips (again, this needn’t represent real money. If you have different colours of poker chips, you can assign each colour a numerical value. Then, divide your chips (or whatever you’re using instead) into equal stacks. HOW TO SET UP A GAME OF POKERįirst, make sure you have enough chairs for everyone who wants to play! *Having something on the table that highlights who is dealing the current hand allows all players to see when they have to post the blinds, and when it’s their turn to act. Some people use pennies, others use matches. You can use anything you have a large quantity of instead of chips. *If you don’t have a set of poker chips handy, don’t worry. Money is definitely not required! Poker is a game you can play purely for fun, albeit competitive fun (a bit like Monopoly!)

A dealer button (or any item that indicates who has dealt the hand*).

Here’s what you’ll need for a good game of no limit Texas hold’em poker (or any poker variant, for that matter): Here, we’ve put together the ultimate ‘how to play poker’ guide that’s easy for everyone to follow, so share it around, give it a read, and get that game started! WHAT DO I NEED TO PLAY POKER? If you’re not sure, you’ve come to the right place.

You’re together with friends or family and someone has suggested a game of poker.

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