Free Texas Hold'em Poker
Play no-limit Texas Hold'em free, right in your browser, against five computer players. Real poker rules, blinds of $5 and $10, and a $1,500 play-money wallet shared with our other games. No download, no sign-up.
How to play Texas Hold'em
Everyone gets two cards of their own, face down. Five shared cards go face up in the middle. Make the best five-card poker hand from any of your two and the five on the board, or win by making everyone else fold.
- Blinds. The two players left of the dealer button put in the blinds: $5 and $10. The button moves one seat left every hand, so everyone takes a turn.
- Your two cards. Then a round of betting, starting left of the big blind.
- The flop. Three cards face up in the middle, and another round of betting.
- The turn. A fourth card, and betting.
- The river. The fifth card, and the last round of betting.
- Showdown. Everyone still in turns their cards up. The best hand wins the pot. Equal hands split it.
Betting
- Check
- Pass without betting, when nobody has bet yet this round.
- Bet
- Put chips in first. The smallest bet is the big blind, $10.
- Call
- Match the bet in front of you.
- Raise
- Make it more. A raise must be at least as big as the last bet or raise this round.
- Fold
- Give up your cards and anything you've put in.
- All-in
- Everything you have in front of you. No limit means you can do this any time. If you're all-in for less than someone else bets, you can only win as much from each player as you put in, and the rest goes to a side pot.
What beats what
The ten poker hands, best first. Suits never rank, and only five cards count. The hand rankings page has every hand with examples and how often each one comes up.
- Royal flush: A K Q J 10, all one suit
- Straight flush: five in a row, all one suit
- Four of a kind
- Full house: three of a kind and a pair
- Flush: five of one suit
- Straight: five in a row (the Ace plays high or low)
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- One pair
- High card
At the table, the Hands button shows the same list, with the hand you're holding lit up.
The computer players
Each computer player has a style, shown under its name. They decide from their own two cards and what they can see on the table, the way you do. They never see your cards or the deck.
- Rock
- Plays very few hands. When a Rock bets, believe it.
- Solid
- Tight and aggressive: good hands, played hard.
- Pro
- Loose and aggressive, and good at it. Hard to read.
- Caller
- Calls far too much and rarely raises. Bet your good hands.
- Loose
- Plays too many hands and chases every draw.
- Wild
- Raises and bluffs constantly. Big pots, big swings.
Pick a level from the button at the top. Relaxed seats loose callers, Regular a lively mix and Sharp mostly solid, aggressive players. We tested each one with a careful computer player in your seat over 40,000 hands: it won about 1.3 big blinds a hand at Relaxed, 0.8 at Regular and 0.2 at Sharp.
Learn mode
With Learn on, the line under the table shows what you have, your chance to win against the players still in, and on the flop and turn your outs: the cards that would make you a straight, a flush or better. It's the numbers, not advice: what you do with them is up to you.
A quick way to use them: compare your chance to win with the price of calling. Facing a $20 bet into an $80 pot, you put in $20 to win $100, so you need to win more than 20% of the time for a call to pay. With 9 outs to a flush on the flop you hit by the river about 35% of the time, about 20% on the river alone.
Playing with gestures
On a touchscreen you can play right on the felt, like at a real card room, where you knock the table to check and push chips out to call. The gestures page has the list.
| Move | On your phone here |
|---|---|
| Check | Double-tap the felt |
| Call | Swipe up |
| Bet or raise | Hold a finger down. Keep holding to go from the smallest raise to half the pot, the pot and all-in, and lift on the one you want. |
| Fold | A long swipe down. It won't fold when checking is free. |
| Next hand | Swipe up |
House rules at this table
| Game | No-limit Texas Hold'em, six seats: you and five computer players |
|---|---|
| Blinds | $5 and $10. Heads-up, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop. |
| Buy-in | $200 to $1,000 from your wallet. Top up to $1,000 or cash out between hands. |
| Deck | One 52-card deck, shuffled fresh every hand, with a card burned before each street |
| Raises | At least the last full raise. An all-in for less doesn't reopen the betting for players who have already acted. |
| Showdown | Every hand still in is turned up. Split pots share equally, odd cents to the first winner left of the button. |
| Rake | None. The house takes nothing from any pot. |
Is it rigged?
No. Every hand is a fresh shuffle of one deck, using your browser's built-in secure random numbers, and there is no house edge because there is no house cut. The computer players see only their own cards. We checked the hand ranking against all 133,784,560 possible seven-card hands and the betting rules over a million test hands. How we check the odds.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. It's play money only, with no real wagering, no sign-up and no download.
Can I play against real people?
Not yet. The table is you and five computer players, so there is never a wait for a game.
What happens to my chips when I leave?
Your stack stays at the table, saved in this browser, until you cash out from the menu. The wallet at the top shows what's not at the table.
What if I run out of chips?
Buy in again from your wallet. If the wallet is empty too, you can start over with a fresh $1,500.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It's built for a phone held upright first, and it plays on a computer too (keys: F folds, C checks or calls, R raises).
More free games
- Blackjack: Vegas rules from a six-deck shoe, pays 3 to 2.
- War Blackjack: blackjack plus a War bet on your first card.
- Bubble Craps: the dice-in-a-bubble craps machine, regular or crapless.
- Texas Hold'em starting hands: all 169 hands, with each one's chance to win.
- All Mini Velvet games
Back to the table ↑ Play money only. No real wagering. About Mini Velvet