In any game of poker, the poker hand rankings from best to worst is always the same.

ie. From best to worst hand Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Three of a Kind, Two Pairs, One Pair

What differentiates one variation of a poker game to another is how the cards are dealt to the players and how the betting on those cards is done.

Here's a run down of playing poker the Texas Holdem way....

A POKER HAND

A poker hand consists of four rounds of betting, which happen in a clockwise fashion, and starts with the person who is to the immediate left of the Dealer button.

The rounds of betting are called: Pre-Flop, Flop, Turn, River

During any of the betting rounds (pre-flop, flop, turn, or river), a player can fold or stop playing their cards (called "mucking") if they don't want to bet anymore chips into the pot of that poker hand.

THE DEALER BUTTON

Choose where dealing the cards out will begin. This is the Dealer and where the "Dealer Button" will start. When a poker hand is finished, the "Dealer Button" moves in a clockwise fashion to the next person. Eventually, each person playing will have a turn being on the "Dealer Button."

THE BIG BLIND AND SMALL BLIND (FORCED BETS)

Before any cards are dealt, the person to the immediate left of the dealer must put in a "Small Blind" bet, half the size bet of a pre-determined starting bet amount. So if this is a $1,$2 poker game, the starting bet amount is set at $2 and half of that is $1.

If you are wanting to play a home game with friends who are all new to the game. You could start small and set the betting at $0.20 (big blind) and $0.10 (small blind)...or really any betting amount you are comfortable with...

The person to the left of the "Small Blind," puts in the "Big Blind" bet. So before the poker hand has even started, two players are forced to put bets in the game without even seeing any cards yet. Eventually, all players will have a turn being a small blind or big blind.

YOUR POCKET CARDS

The dealer deals one card face down to each player , starting with the person to the immediate left of the dealer. After dealing one card to everyone, the dealer deals a second card face down in this clockwise direction.

These two cards make up your "pocket cards." These are your private cards which no one else will see unless you need to flip them face up at the end of the betting to determine if you have a better poker hand than your opponents.

THE COMMUNITY CARDS

A poker hand consists of 5 cards. You may have noticed, how can you have a poker hand if you are only dealt 2 cards?

In Texas Holdem, after you have received your "pocket cards," the dealer will deal 5 more cards face up, in a series of rounds, on the board or centre of the table. These are the "Community Cards" which are shared between all the players.

Your poker hand (based on the rankings listed above) is the best combination of 5 cards you can make out of the 7 cards dealt (ie. your 2 pocket cards and the 5 community cards).

Making a mental note of which combination of your pocket cards and the community cards would give you your best poker hand, the other 2 cards are not used at all within your poker hand.

So for example, you might use both your pocket cards and only three of the community cards, or you might even use only one of your pocket cards and four of the community cards, or your pocket cards might be so bad that your best hand is using none of your pocket cards and using all five community cards.

While you are figuring out which 5 cards make your best poker hand, the other players are also doing the same with their pocket cards and the community cards.

Read "How to Play Texas Holdem, Part 2 - The Betting Rounds" to see how you will bet your chips.