Quick answers to the questions players actually ask, grouped by topic. Each one links somewhere deeper if you want the full story.
Yes, if no one has bet yet on the current street. Checking passes the action without putting chips in and keeps your hand. Once someone bets, you can no longer check; you must call, raise, or fold.
How to play →In a cash game you buy in for real value, often 100 big blinds. In a home tournament, 1,500 to 3,000 tournament chips per player is common. What matters is your stack depth in big blinds, not the raw chip count.
A cash game runs as long as players want, and you can leave any time. A tournament ends when one player has every chip, which takes an hour for a small sit-and-go up to many hours for a large field.
From strongest down: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. So a flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush.
Hand rankings →No. A flush, five cards of one suit, beats a straight, five in a row of mixed suits. The order from weakest to strongest runs straight, then flush, then full house.
Hand rankings →The royal flush: ten, jack, queen, king, and ace all of one suit. It is the highest straight flush and cannot be beaten. Below it comes any other straight flush, then four of a kind.
The price the pot offers you to call. Compare the bet you must pay to the pot you can win. If you need 25% equity to call and your draw hits more than 25% of the time, calling makes money.
Pot odds calculator →A shortcut for drawing odds. Multiply your outs by 2 for the next card, by 4 for both cards to come. Nine outs is about 18% by the turn and about 35% by the river.
Outs calculator →Nine. Thirteen cards share your suit and you can see four of them, so nine remain. That is about a 35% chance to complete the flush by the river.
Outs calculator →An optional blind raise, usually double the big blind, posted before the deal. It buys the straddler last action preflop and inflates the stakes. Most rooms allow it from under the gun.
Straddle →Yes. Slow-rolling means pausing before you show a hand you know is winning, letting your opponent think they took it. It fools no one and annoys everyone. Turn winners over promptly at showdown.
Slow play →To fold or discard your hand face down, giving up the pot. At showdown you can muck instead of showing a loser. Once cards touch the muck they are dead and cannot be taken back.
Muck →