In Texas Hold'em Poker like in most poker games there are 52 cards involved. The special feature is that players have five cards dealt face up in the center of the table. They are called community cards, shared cards, window cards or the board cards. There is no dealer in casinos and poker rooms. When playing at home, dealer has to be one of the players and after each hand it has to be changed clockwise. The Dealer's button this way goes from one player to another also clockwise. It shows who the dealer is at the moment. The Dealer Button used to be called the Buck. This name is coming from the name of a hunting knife's haft made of antler - buck knife as well as from the impression "The buck stops here".

The play begins when to each of the players two cards face down are dealt. These cards are known as pocket or hole cards. They stay on the table all the time but the player has the right to look at them whenever he wants. The purpose of the game is to make the best combination possible with the hole cards and the board cards. That means that this combination shall include your two cards and three of the five cards on the table, one of your cards and four of the five cards on the table and sometimes even of all the cards on the table. Player who makes the best combination wins the pot i.e. the amount of money all players bet.

Betting begins when the two players who are sitting to the left of the dealer make their blind bets. Usually the one who is sitting right next to the dealer posts the so called small blind. The big blind is posted by the player who is sitting next to the small blinder. In some games the player who is sitting next to the left of the big blinder can also post a big blind. That is known as straddle. The advantage of this player is that he can post his bet last.

The player who is sitting to the left of the big blinder or the straddler should call (post a bet equal to the big blind or to the straddle), raise (post a bigger bet than the previous player) or fold (the player leaves the cards face down in the middle of the table and does not attend the play till the end of this hand). The next players can also call, raise, fold but they can also re-raise. When a player raises, in limit hold'em the amount is fixed or could be fixed; in pot limit hold'em the amount cannot exceed the one on the pot; in no-limit hold'em the amount can be any amount players post up to all the chips that player has at the table or also known as all-in bet.