How Many Cards Are There in Texas Hold’em

Hold’em recently became the most popular variation of poker. Thanks to popular culture, almost everyone knows at least a bit about Texas Hold’em. Furthermore, the game is usually played with between two and ten players. However, in theory, you could play with many more players.

Basic Rules

The main goal of poker is to try to get the best possible combination out of available cards. There are three major rounds called the flop, the turn, and finally, the river. Finally, after the last round, there is a showdown phase where each of the active players will reveal their hidden cards to see who has the highest or the best card combination.

Furthermore, there is a round of betting after each of the rounds, and there’s even a pre-flop betting phase. During the betting stage, each player can opt to fold, follow, or raise. Furthermore, the “follow” part might mean that the player will check without investing further or match the bet placed by the previous player.

Cards per Player

As we have mentioned before, this version of poker is usually played with between two and ten players. However, the maximum possible number of players is 22! Of course, you will never see this many players since it would be difficult to find a big enough table.

Each of the players will receive only two cards facing down during the pre-flop phase. These cards are also known as hole cards. Interestingly, unlike other forms of poker, these will be the only cards the player will get. The rest are community cards.

Community Cards

During the flop stage, the dealer will place three cards that every player can use for their combination. Players want to make the best possible five-card poker hand. Finally, the last two rounds, the turn and the river, will both add one additional community card.

This way, there will be a total of five community cards. If we count the burn cards, there will be a total of 44 cards left for a max of 22 players. The burn card is the card from the top of the deck that gets discarded before each of the rounds.

Naturally, there will usually be ten or 12 players at the table, so the standard 52-card deck will be enough. Almost every variation of poker is played with a single standard deck.

Betting

The first round of betting is done by placing small and big blinds. These players are determined by sitting left of the dealer. After each round, the tokens or buttons determining the dealer and blinds will be moved clockwise.

After each player gets hole cards, they will proceed to the next round of bets. During this stage, each player will have to match the big blind amount. This amount is the lower bet increment, and it depends on the table. If none of the players raise or bet, the big blind player won’t have to pay anything (since they already paid when the game started).

All other betting rounds are played after the community cards are placed, so there will be one after the flop, one after the turn, and the final one after the river.

Cards on the Table

If you play a standard game of Hold’em with ten players, each of the players is dealt two hole cards. Furthermore, there will be three burn cards and five community cards. So for the game with ten players, there will be 25 cards on the table, plus three burn cards.

As you can see, Hold’em will use almost half of the deck for the game that has usual maximum players in the casino. Besides, you will never see more than ten players in a real casino at one table.

The Showdown

During this final stage, each of the remaining players will reveal all of their cards. The player holding the highest (or the best) five-card combination will take the pot. Of course, if it happens that two players have identical cards, they will simply split the pot.

Conclusion

Hold’em is the most popular poker games for a good reason. Furthermore, you can play it at home, online, in a casino, and almost everywhere. But even though the max theoretical number is 22, don’t let that fool you. You will need an incredibly big table to allow comfortable playing. So the best idea might be to stick to the regular two to ten players.