Texas Hold'em (multiplayer) — rules

Dealing and the pot

• Quick game: open a private table and 1–5 other players from around the city sit in. Nobody else can join it, everyone plays by exactly the same rules and the same clock, and you deal each new hand. Players who cannot cover the buy-in are swapped for ones who can.
• Only the host deals, once at least 2 are seated. Every seated player must still be alive, in the city, and carrying the buy-in in cash, or the deal is refused.
• Every hand is its own buy-in: each player pays it when the hand is dealt and starts with that many chips. When the hand ends every chip goes back to cash — what is in front of you is what you leave with.
• The table stays open after a hand and the host deals the next; the button moves one seat each hand. Some tables deal the next hand by themselves a few seconds after the last. There is no elimination and no rising blinds: a player without the buy-in is simply not dealt in until they have it again.
• The small blind (left of the button) and the big blind (left of that) go in before any cards. Then two cards each, one at a time, starting left of the button. Heads up, the button posts the small blind.

Betting

• Before the flop the player left of the big blind acts first and the big blind acts last; if everyone just calls, the big blind may still check or raise. Heads up, the button acts first before the flop.
• A card is burnt before the flop (three cards), the turn and the river (one each). From the flop on, the first player still in left of the button acts first.
• The smallest bet is the big blind ($20 at $1,000). A raise must add at least the size of the last bet or raise: a bet of $20 can be raised to $40, and that to $60.
• You can go all in for whatever you have, even less than a call. An all-in that is not a full raise does not reopen the betting: players who already acted may only call it or fold.
• All-in players take no more actions but stay in to the showdown. If only one player can still bet, the rest of the board is dealt without betting. If everyone else folds, the hand ends at once and no cards are shown.

Side pots and the showdown

• An all-in player can only win the main pot: their all-in amount from every player who put that much in. Chips above it form side pots that only the players who covered them can win.
• The last player to bet or raise on the river shows first; if the river was checked, the first player still in left of the button does. The rest follow in turn and show a hand that wins a pot or is at least as good as one already shown; any other hand is mucked unseen.
• The best five cards from your two and the five on the board win, using both, one or neither of yours. Tied hands split each pot, suits never break a tie, and an odd chip goes to the tied winner nearest the button’s left.

If somebody leaves mid-hand

• Leaving the table or losing your connection does not take you out of a hand already dealt: when your clock runs out you check or fold, and whatever is left of your stack is still paid back to you when the hand ends.
• A player who dies mid-hand is folded when their clock runs out.
• Nobody sees your cards unless you show them at the showdown, and only the players dealt into a hand can open it.

Betting and hand rankings in full: Texas Hold’em rules.