Below are general poker rules followed by most games.  These poker rules are standard and some games include additional poker rules that are not listed.  The poker rules listed will help you understand the basic concept and play of a normal poker game at a online or brick and mortar poker room.

Texas Hold ‘Em

Basic Play:

Preflop
Each player is dealt 2 cards face down (hole cards).

Flop
The dealer puts one card face down (the burn card) then turns 3 community cards face up in the middle of the players.

Turn
The dealer then burns another card and deals 1 community card in the face up (the turn) next to the other three cards in the middle.

River
The dealer burns another card then deals 1 final community card face up (the river) next to the other 4 cards in the middle.

Showdown
The player that has the best 5 card hand, using any combination of their 2 hole cards and the 5 community cards, wins the hand.

Blinds:
Before any cards are dealt, the two players to the left of the dealer button are required to put in forced bets.  The player to the left of the dealer is called the small button and the player to the left of this person is called the big blind.  Blinds are used to help create action.

In most poker games, the big blind is equal to the minimum bet and the small blind is equal to half that of the big blind.

Betting:
Texas Hold ‘Em consists of 4 rounds of betting. Betting begins with the player to the left of the big blind and continues in a clockwise direction.  When it is their chance to act, each player has the option to check, call, raise, or fold.

Check – To pass the action the next player if no bets have been made.
Call – To match the amount of a raise.
Raise – To increase the amount in the pot, forcing other players to call, raise, or fold.
Fold – To surrender your cards and stake in the pot.

Each raise must be at least equal to the minimum bet and any subsequent reraise must be at least equal to the previous raise. Example: Player 1 raises $10, if Player 2 wants to reraise, he must raise by at least $10. This rule will only not apply if a player does not have enough to cover a full reraise in which case if he decides to reraise, he will have to put himself “all in”.