Texas Hold'em can be played with many people, but generally there are between 2 and 8 people playing at 1 table. The idea of this game is to make the best possible 5 card hand (eg. a pair, 3-of-a-kind, straight etc) with your cards and the community cards (the cards that the dealer deals out on the table. But you can only use 5 cards, so you cant get combinations like '3 pair'

Some things that you need to know before we begin:

Blinds

The blinds are the forced bets at the beginning of the game before the cards are dealt out. Generally, the 2 people left of the dealer are the blinds, the blinds are normally 25 - 50 (depending on where you play) and they are doubled every 15 minuites (again depending on where you play). The person directly on the left of the dealer is small blind, in this case bets 25, and the big blind is on the left of the small blind, in this case bets 50. As the dealer goes around, so does the blinds.

Dealer

The dealer is decided before the game begins, it doesnt exactly matter how. When the dealer deals, the cards are dealt 1 at a time to each player going clockwise around the table. The dealer always deals themself cards last in the circle, and when the dealer has dealt everyone cards, a round of betting ocurrs.

Betting

The person to the left of the big blind has first bet, for the first round of betting, if the player wants to stay in the game, they must raise the bet or equal the big blind, which in this case is 50, if you dont want to put in, than you fold and you are out of the round. When its the small blind persons turn to bet, they must also equal the big blind, or fold, but if they do fold, in this case, the 25 chip stays in the middle. When it is the big blind persons turn, they have the option to re-raise the pot, (if the pot has been previously re-raised, then the big blind person must also equal that bet or fold), or 'check', which just means that he/she doesnt want to bet. The big blind person can check at this point because he/she has already put 50 into the pot.

The cards are shuffled and each person at the table is dealt 2 cards, unless you are playing at a casino professionally, the dealer will usually be dealt cards as well. You are to keep the identity of these cards to yourself, when the big and little blinds are put into the pot a round of betting commences.

Once this round of betting is finished, the dealer will deal out 1 face down card, and 3 face up cards. The face down card is the 'burnt' card and no-one is to see it. Another round of betting commences starting with the person left of the big blind and goes around the table clock-wise. The first person to bet has the option to 'check' if they do not want to bet, and if the first person checks, the next person has the option to check and so on. But any body can break this cycle if they want to bet, and if someone bets, everybody either has to equal that bet, raise it or fold, similar to the first round, but you can only bet when it is your turn.

Once everyone has finished betting, the dealer deals another face down card and 1 face up. Then another round of betting commences same as last round.

When everyone has finished betting on that round, the dealer deals another face down card an 1 more card face up. This is the last card to be dealt and is the last round of betting. When the betting is finished, the people remaining show their cards, the highest combination of 5 cards wins the pot.