NL Hold'em rules

No-Limit Texas Hold'em is the most played poker game in the world, and Patch-Patch deals it at 6-max tables, from two to six players, and at a heads-up table beside each one, with the same play chips as every other game here. If you play Patch-Patch, Hold'em is its simplest relative: one board instead of three, two cards instead of twelve, and any bet size you like.

The game at a glance

Blinds and positions

The button moves one seat clockwise after every hand. The player to its left posts the small blind and the next one the big blind. At a full 6-max table the seats are, in the order they act after the flop: the small blind, the big blind, under the gun (UTG), the middle position (MP), the cutoff (CO) and the button (BTN). Before the flop the action starts with the player to the left of the big blind, and the big blind acts last. After the flop, the first player still in the hand to the left of the button acts first, and the button acts last.

Heads-up, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop, then last on every later round.

A hand of Hold'em

1. The deal. Each player gets two cards face down.
2. Before the flop. A round of betting, starting left of the big blind: fold, call the big blind, or raise.
3. The flop. Three community cards face up, then a round of betting.
4. The turn. A fourth community card, then a round of betting.
5. The river. A fifth community card, then the last round of betting.
6. The showdown. The players still in show their cards, and the best five-card hand wins the pot.

Making a hand

Your hand is the best five cards out of seven: your two and the five on the board. You can use both of your cards, one of them, or none. When the board itself is your best hand, you "play the board", and everyone still in who can't beat it splits the pot.

No-limit betting

In no-limit, a bet or a raise can be any amount up to all the chips in front of you.

• The smallest bet is the big blind.
• The smallest raise adds at least as much as the last bet or raise in the same round. At 5-10, if someone bets 30, a raise must make it at least 60 (30 more on top of the 30).
• All-in. You can always bet or call with all your chips, even when it's less than the minimum. An all-in that's less than a full raise doesn't reopen the betting for players who already acted: they can call or fold, not raise again.
• Side pots. When a player is all-in, the chips he can't match go into a side pot that only the others can win.

The bet panel at a Hold'em table has quick sizes (by default, in big blinds before the flop and as shares of the pot after it), a slider and an all-in. Settings > Gameplay > Bet buttons lets you choose those quick sizes yourself.

Showdown and ties

The best five-card hand wins; the hand rankings page says how equal hands are compared. Suits never break a tie: two equal hands split the pot, and an odd chip goes to the first of them clockwise from the button.

Stakes, clock and rake

Public Hold'em tables run at every stakes from 5-10 to 500-1000, each at three speeds (slow, mid and fast) that set the clock for every decision: 37.5, 25 and 12 seconds. When the clock runs out you check if you can, otherwise you fold, and you sit out from the next hand. From 10-20 up, a public table keeps 3% of each pot that saw a flop, at most three big blinds; 5-10 and private tables take nothing. All of it is play chips: no real money, nothing to buy, no prizes.

Where to go next

• Patch-Patch rules: the same poker on three boards at once.
• PL Omaha rules: four cards and the "exactly two" rule.
• The hand rankings, with the odds of each hand in Hold'em.