How to Play Poker

Poker is the great American card game: a contest of odds, nerve, and incomplete information. This guide teaches the two classics every player should know — Texas Hold'em, the most popular poker variant in the world, and Five Card Stud, the stripped-down original that made poker famous. Both use the same hand rankings and the same betting vocabulary, so learning one gives you a head start on the other.

Objective

Win chips. You do that in one of two ways: hold the best five-card hand at showdown, or bet in a way that convinces every other player to fold before showdown. Every rule below serves those two paths.

Hand Rankings

From strongest to weakest — commit these to memory before anything else:

• Royal flush — A-K-Q-J-10, all one suit
• Straight flush — five consecutive cards of one suit
• Four of a kind — four cards of the same rank
• Full house — three of a kind plus a pair
• Flush — any five cards of one suit
• Straight — five consecutive cards, mixed suits (Ace plays high or low)
• Three of a kind
• Two pair
• One pair
• High card — when nobody has any of the above

Ties between hands of the same type go to the higher ranks: a king-high flush beats a jack-high flush, and a pair of aces beats a pair of tens.

The Betting Actions

On your turn you may check (pass, if no bet faces you), bet (put chips in), call (match the current bet), raise (increase it), or fold (surrender the hand and any chips already committed). A betting round ends when everyone still in the hand has matched the largest bet or folded.

How to Play Texas Hold'em

Blinds and hole cards

The two players left of the dealer button post the small blind and big blind — forced bets that seed the pot. Each player then receives two private hole cards, and the first betting round begins with the player left of the big blind.

The flop, turn, and river

Three community cards — the flop — are dealt face up, followed by a betting round. A fourth card (the turn) and a fifth (the river) each follow with their own betting round. Community cards are shared: everyone combines them with their hole cards.

Showdown

If two or more players remain after the river betting, hands are revealed. Each player makes the best five-card hand from any combination of their two hole cards and the five community cards. Best hand takes the pot; identical hands split it.

How to Play Five Card Stud

Five Card Stud is poker at its most transparent — most of every hand is dealt face up for the whole table to see.

• Each player receives one card face down (the hole card) and one face up. A betting round follows, traditionally started by the lowest or highest exposed card depending on house rules.
• A third card is dealt face up, then a betting round; a fourth face up, then a betting round; a fifth face up, then a final betting round.
• At showdown each player has exactly five cards — four exposed, one hidden. Best hand wins.

Because four of your five cards are public, Stud is a memory-and-observation game: the exposed cards around the table tell you what your opponents can and cannot have.

Tournaments vs Cash Games

In a cash game the blinds stay fixed and chips keep their value — you can play a single hand or a hundred. In a tournament everyone starts with equal stacks and the blinds rise on a schedule, forcing action until one player holds every chip. Tournament poker rewards survival and timing; cash poker rewards steady, disciplined decisions.

Strategy & Tips

• Fold more than feels natural. Most starting hands lose money. Playing fewer, stronger hands is the single biggest improvement a beginner can make.
• Position is power. Acting after your opponents means acting with more information. Play more hands from late position, fewer from early.
• Bet with a reason. Every bet should either extract value from a worse hand or push out a better one. If neither applies, checking is fine.
• Count your outs. Multiply the cards that complete your draw by roughly 2% per card to come — then compare that chance against the price the pot is offering you.
• In Stud, read the board. If the cards you need are already exposed in other players' hands, your draw is dead — fold and wait.
• Respect the rising blinds. In tournaments, a stack that was comfortable an hour ago may be desperate now. Loosen up before you're forced to.
• Watch patterns, not faces. Even against a computer opponent, bet sizing and timing tell a story. Consistent opponents are beatable opponents.
• Practice where mistakes are free. A practice table with free re-buys is the right place to try aggressive lines you'd never risk in a tournament.

Frequently Asked Questions

What beats what in poker?

From strongest to weakest: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. Ties within a type go to the higher-ranked cards.

What's the difference between Texas Hold'em and Five Card Stud?

Hold'em gives you two private cards and five shared community cards across four betting rounds. Stud gives you five cards of your own — one hidden, four face up — with a bet after each. Hold'em is about shared possibilities; Stud is about reading what's exposed.

Does the computer see my cards?

Not in Double Eagle Apps: Poker. The AI estimates its chances the way a human would — by the odds, from public information only. No hole-card peeking, no rigged rivers, across all five difficulty levels from Beginner to Expert. The Fair Play panel in Settings spells out the whole promise.

Can I play offline, without real money?

Yes. The Double Eagle table is 100% offline with no account and no chips to buy: tournaments with rising blinds, cash games with fixed blinds, a practice table with free re-buys, and pass-and-play on one device, from heads-up to six-handed. There is also a seeded daily turbo table — the same deal for everyone on Earth.

More Game Guides

Master the rest of the classics with our other guides:

• How to Play Klondike Solitaire
• How to Play Spades
• How to Play Hearts
• How to Play Backgammon
• How to Play Chess & Checkers
• All Double Eagle games