Do you want to get good at poker fast? The safest way to get there is by using the right poker cheat sheet, and we have exactly what you need!
Our Texas Hold’em cheat sheet contains all the info you need to get started and quickly adapt to the game, even if you are a complete novice.
Download our poker cheat sheet PDF to keep it on hand at all times, even when playing live poker. Alternatively, keep reading to learn the secrets of the game quickly and efficiently.
Poker Hands Cheat Sheet – Knowing the Basics
The most basic thing you need to learn before you can play is poker hand rankings. These tell you what beats what in poker, and our poker hands cheat sheet is designed to help you understand poker hand rankings quickly and with no confusion.
In the table below, you will find every hand you can make in Texas Hold’em Poker, with values arranged from the strongest to the weakest:
| Poker Hand | Definition | Example |
| Royal Flush | Five highest consecutive cards of the same suit | AsKsQsJsTs |
| Straight Flush | Five consecutive cards of the same suit | 9d8d7d6d5d |
| Four of a Kind (Quads) | Four cards of the same ranking | JsJhJcJdAc |
| Full House | Three of a kind + one pair | 7c7h7s3d3c |
| Flush | Five cards of the same suit | Qh9h7h5h2h |
| Straight | Five consecutive cards of different suits | 5c4d3s2cAh |
| Three of a Kind (Trips or Set) | Three cards of the same ranking | 8h8s8dJs4c |
| Two pair | Two pairs of cards of the same ranking | 5d5s3d3sQh |
| One Pair | One pair of cards of the same ranking | 7d7cJh9c4d |
| High Card | Five disconnected cards | KdQc9h6s3c |
As you can see, there are many different hands you can make in Texas Hold’em and all of them are made up of exactly five cards, with no exceptions.
A royal flush is the ultimate hand that always beats all other hands, with a straight flush being almost equally as strong. If you have any of these hands, all of your chips should go in the middle no matter what betting action happens on the table.
Hands like four of a kind and full houses are very hard to come by, and are usually good enough to win you a big pot.
A flush or a straight comes next. These hands are a lot more common, and it’s not too rare to see more than one straight or a flush dealt in the same poker hand.
The next best hand is three of a kind. If made with one hole card and two community cards, it’s called trips. If made with two hole cards and one community card, it’s called a set. Three of a kind can be a strong hand, but look out for straights and flushes.
Two pairs and one pair hands are very common in poker, and they win the majority of pots. While they may not rank high on the table, making a hand better than two pairs is quite difficult.
All “made hands” beat a high-card hand, which does not contain pairs, straights, or flushes.
If you are more of a numbers person and want to see the probabilities of different hands, here is the table listing how often you can expect to get each of these combinations.
| Poker Hand | How Often You Get It | Odds |
| Royal Flush | 1 in 649,740 | 0.00015% |
| Straight Flush | 1 in 72,139 | 0.0014% |
| Four of a Kind | 1 in 4,166 | 0.024% |
| Full House | 1 in 695 | 0.144% |
| Flush | 1 in 510 | 0.1965% |
| Straight | 1 in 256 | 0.39% |
| Three of a Kind | 1 in 47 | 2.11% |
| Two Pair | 1 in 21 | 4.75% |
| One Pair | 1 in 2.37 | 42.2% |
| High Card | 1 in 2 | 50.1% |
Texas Hold’em Cheat Sheet – Mastering the Gameflow
Now that you know the poker hand cheat sheet by heart, you can move on to slightly more advanced poker concepts.
While hand rankings are important, poker isn’t simply about being dealt the best hand. Instead, you must take a number of actions throughout a poker hand, which greatly impact the flow of that hand.
There is a finite number of poker actions you can take across the four betting streets. Here are all the actions at your disposal with a short explanation of each:
- Check: Pass the action to the next player without making any bet. Only possible if there is no active bet in front of you.
- Bet: Make the first bet on a particular betting street. Only possible if there is no active bet in front of you.
- Raise: Increase the size of the bet on a given betting street. Only possible if there is an active bet in front of you.
- Fold: Throw your cards away and end your participation in the hand. Technically possible at any time, although not recommended if there are no active bets.
- Call: Match the size of the active bet to stay in the hand without increasing the size of the bet.
- All-in: Bet all your chips on the table. Once you are all-in, your hand can no longer be folded, and must be revealed at showdown if anyone calls you.
Now that we have covered the basic actions, let’s talk about the four betting streets and how you can use these actions across them.
Preflop Betting Round
Before the dealing, the two players to the left of the dealer button must post the “small blind” and “big blind.” The first betting round starts after the dealer deals two hole cards to each player.
Action starts on the player to the left of the big blind (under the gun or UTG). This player has the option to call the big blind, fold their cards, or raise the bet size.
The action moves clockwise around the table until it reaches the big blind. If any raises are made, the action continues until all players have matched the existing bet or folded their cards.
Flop Betting Round
Once all preflop betting is concluded, the dealer shows the flop, which consists of three community cards. These cards are face-up and exposed in the middle of the table, making them available for anyone to use.
Once the flop is dealt, the flop betting round starts. This time, the player in the small blind takes the first action, while the player with the dealer button takes the last action.
Only players who did not fold their cards before the flop can act on the flop. The action skips over any players who don’t have any hole cards.
This time around, players can check their option, passing the action to the next player without making a bet. Once a bet is made, the check option is no longer available.
Turn Betting Round
The dealer puts out the next community card, called the turn. There are now four community cards on the table, and the turn betting round begins.
Once again, action starts with the small blind. Players can take all the same betting actions as they could on the flop.
Like before, only players who still have hole cards can participate in the hand, while everyone else must wait for the next hand.
River Betting Round
The final betting round starts after the dealer deals out the fifth and final community card, known as the river.
There are now five community cards on the table, and there are no more to come. This means every player’s final poker hand is now made.
The final betting round starts with the small blind, and the action goes around the table to the dealer button.
Once all river betting is concluded, the hand goes to a showdown if more than one player still has their hole cards.
Showdown
After all river betting is concluded, the dealer announces a showdown. At this point, the remaining players in the hand reveal their cards.
If there was no betting on the river, players must turn over their cards in the same order they would have bet on the river. This means that the small blind goes first, and the dealer button goes last.
However, if there was betting on the river, the player who made the last aggressive action is expected to turn their cards first.
It is customary to show your cards first if you have the best possible hand (the nuts), or a hand that is extremely likely to be the best hand, regardless of your position. However, it is not against the rules to wait for your turn at showdown.
Poker Cheat Sheets – Understanding Positions
The importance of position in poker cannot be overstated. While many players choose to ignore position, it is an essential element of any winning poker strategy.
When we talk about position, we are referring to your position relative to other players at the table and the dealer button.
Your position determines the order in which you act on every betting street, which is essential in getting the most value from your hands.
This is why professional poker players always play more hands “in position” than “out of position,” or rather expand their range the closer they get to the dealer button. Check out the optimal preflop charts for choosing which hands to play in different situations.
Here is a quick look at how you should play in different positions and what they are:
Under the Gun (UTG)
Under the gun is the first position to act before the flop, but not the worst of all poker positions, as small blind and big blind are forced to go first on all later betting streets.
Still, UTG is generally considered a very unfavorable position, especially in full ring games where eight other players get to play after you.
Playing from UTG, you will look to open with a very tight range made up of just 10 or 15% of the best hands in Texas Hold’em.
Play mainly your strong hands, introduce a few bluffs for good measure, and beware of all 3-bets, as they will be coming from players who are re-raising even after you opened from UTG.
Under the Gun + 1 (UTG1)
There are very few differences between playing from UTG and UTG1. Both positions have to play early preflop and from out of position against most other players postflop.
As such, your UTG1 range should also be very tight. This position allows you to expand your opening range slightly, adding a few suited aces and decent pocket pairs in there.
Yet, you should still fold your suited connectors and almost all your offsuit hands simply because of the inherent positional disadvantage.
Under the Gun + 2 (UTG2)
The last of the three “early positions” at a full-ring poker table, UTG2 is still a position that must be approached with extreme care.
When playing from UTG2, make sure to stay very tight and play mostly your good hands, with the additions of a few extra meaningful bluffs.
If you happen to face a raise from players in the two earlier positions, only play a 3-bet or fold strategy, and do so with a very strong range made up of your strongest hands and a couple of small suited aces for good measure.
Lojack (LJ)
Lojack is a position where you can finally start to feel more comfortable.
This does mean you can expand your opening range even more, with about 25% of hands usually recommended in this position.
Still, steer clear from opening suited gap-connectors, various offsuit hands, or low offsuit aces that simply don’t play well out of position.
Hijack (HJ)
Hijack is the first position at the table in which stealing the blinds becomes an appealing idea. With only four players left to go, your chances of winning the pot are going up.
Whenever you are seated in the Hijack position, you can open about 30% of all hands, looking to either win the blinds right away or force the Cutoff and the Dealer out of the pot.
Opening from HJ will often get you into heads up battles with the big blind, which is a favorable situation to be in, as you get to play in position.
Cutoff (CO)
Nearly the best position at the poker table, Cutoff is a great place to be in. With only one opponent between you and the blinds, you get to open almost 40% of the hands profitably in a vacuum.
Raising a lot of hands from the CO gives you a chance to isolate the blinds and push out the dealer, especially if they are not an extremely aggressive player.
Your actual opening range should depend significantly on how often the player to your immediate left likes to get involved in pots.
If faced with a 3-bet from the button, remember that they might be bluffing more often than they would if you were to raise from earlier positions.
Dealer Button (BTN)
The dealer button is by far the best position at the poker table. Playing in this position, you get to open wide, 3-bet your opponents a lot, and take control of a ton of pots.
Experienced players will raise anywhere between 50 and 70% of their starting hands from the Button, depending on how strong the two players in the blinds are.
If you face an open from one of the earlier positions, the Button allows you to call with hands like T9s or 88 and 3-bet a lot with value and bluffs.
As you are guaranteed to be in position, you can play very aggressively and put your opponents to the test with a lot of aggressive actions.
In deeper stacked games, many great players always 3-bet or fold their Button, forcing their opponents to play bigger pots from out of positions and make bigger and more expensive mistakes postflop.
Small Blind (SB)
Small blind is technically the worst position at the poker table. In the SB, you have to play every postflop betting street first, which is a massive disadvantage.
The one redeeming factor, however, is the fact you have already paid one half of the big blind, which makes it cheaper for you to join the action.
If the pot has not been opened, you need to get through only one opponent, which means you can raise with a lot of hands, and limp along with some, depending on stack depth.
However, whenever you face a raise from any earlier position, you need to play very tight and usually either 3-bet or fold your hand.
The exact strategy will depend on whether you are playing a tournament or a cash game, presence of ante bets, and other factors.
Big Blind (BB)
The big blind is the only position at the poker table where players can play some hands without having to put any additional money into the pot.
As the big blind, you will be forced to pay one BB before the cards are dealt, but will get to play last preflop.
This is a slight advantage, as you get to see all the action before you and act accordingly. Still, this is not enough to overcome your positional disadvantage or the fact you have to pay to get your cards.
Depending on the situation, you will still want to play many hands from the big blind, especially in tournament poker, where you will face many very small raises.
Facing bigger raises, however, you should play a relatively tight range of hands, which is usually the case at cash game tables where people typically open to 3x the big blind or more.
Poker Cheat Sheet – Picking the Right Hands
Choosing the right hands to play from each position is critical to playing a solid poker strategy.
Our poker hand cheat sheet has specific instructions for which hands you should play from each position when you are the first player to raise, and we have pre-made ranges for other scenarios as well.
The best way to memorize poker ranges is by remembering which percentage of hands you should play from each position. From there, you can move on to learning which hands fall into which range, which should result in fairly accurate execution at the tables.
In the table below, you will find all the basic opening ranges for different stack sizes. Download our PDF cheat sheet to have the ranges at your disposal at all times, even when playing live poker.
| UTG | UTG1 | UTG2 | LJ | HJ | CO | BTN | SB | |
| 200 BB 6-Max Cash | N/A | N/A | N/A | 17.9% | 22.5% | 30% | 46.6% | 39.7% +6.6% (Limp) |
| 100 BB 6-Max Cash | N/A | N/A | N/A | 17.1% | 21% | 27.2% | 41% | 35.1% + 14.2% (Limp) |
| 80 BB Tournaments | N/A | 16.7% | 19.5% | 22.8% | 27.9% | 36.1% | 51.7% | 5.7% + 83.9% (Limp) |
| 30 BB Tournaments | 17.9% | 20.7% | 24% | 27.7% | 34.9% | 45.8% | 28.4% + 57% (Limp) | |
| 200 BB Live Cash Games | 9.9% | 11.2% | 13.2% | 15.9% | 20.2% | 27.3% | 43.7% | 44% |
| 100 BB Live Cash Games | 10% | 11.5% | 13.2% | 15.9% | 19.8% | 25.6% | 40.5% | 46.4% |
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Poker Hands Cheat Sheet
While you may want to play different hand ranges from different positions, some poker hands are always worth playing.
Here is a list of the top ten poker hands with a short explanation on what makes each of them such a powerhouse:
- Pocket Aces: The best hand in poker, AA is a huge favorite to win against any other two cards. This is the only poker hand you should never consider folding before the flop, and the one hand that will bring you the most profit in the game.
- Pocket Kings: A pair of Kings is the next best thing in poker, but its value is significantly lower than AA. The fact your opponents can have an overcard and make a top pair higher than your KK diminishes its value a bit. Yet, KK is almost always the best starting hand and one you should play with plenty of confidence.
- Pocket Queens: Another high pocket pair, QQ is a powerhouse, but far more susceptible to losing than KK or AA. You should almost never fold QQ preflop, but be careful when facing a lot of aggression from your opponents.
- Ace King Suited: An Ace and a King of the same suit can be just as powerful, if not more, than QQ. In fact, this hand is in a virtual coinflip with QQ if the money goes in. Ace King suited is a hand worth playing aggressively, as getting your opponents to fold pocket pairs is a great win.
- Pocket Jacks: A hand that many players have problems playing, a pair of Jacks is the first pocket pair that you have to get quite careful with. JJ will be the best hand a vast majority of hands, but you may end up being up against a bigger pair if too many chips go into the pot before the flop.
- Ace King Offsuit: Much like AKs, AK is a virtual coinflip with all pocket pairs and a very powerful hand to play from any position. Preflop aggression is even more valuable with the offsuit version, as winning the pot uncontested is always a win when you hold AK.
- Pocket Tens: A hand very similar to pocket Jacks, TT is another pair with a lot of value, especially in shorter stack situations in poker tournaments. Like with JJ, you should be careful of not running your hand into a bigger pair and being crushed.
- Ace-Queen Suited: AQs may look a lot like AKs, but their value is significantly lower. Yet, they are another of the top ten hands in poker and are often worth playing for a lot of chips. Just keep in mind that you can always be up against AKs and in some trouble if you overplay your AQs.
- Pocket Nines: As we go down the list, we start encountering some pocket pairs with lower values. While pocket Nines are not a hand you want to go broke with for a lot of chips, they can be very valuable in short-stack situations in tournament poker.
- Ace Jack Suited: Ace Jack suited is not a hand poker dreams are made of, but it will get the job done. It is especially valuable when played in position and in single raised pots, where it rates to be the best hand more often than not.
Ultimate Poker Cheat Sheet – Top 7 Tips to Live By
Now that you know all the basics, let’s get into some actionable strategy tips that you can take to the tables.
Our poker cheat sheet is the best tool to get you started in poker, and these seven tips are your road to further success.
Master the Fundamentals with Our Cheat Sheet
Our poker cheat sheet covers all the fundamentals of the game of poker. From poker hand rankings to positions and hand ranges, this document has everything you need to get started.
Before you start playing the game for any real stakes, mastering these fundamentals is essential. Make sure you know every part of this cheat sheet by heart, and you will be on the road to success.
Adopting advanced strategies won’t be possible if you don’t have a full grasp on basic concepts, so spend as much time as you need to fortify your knowledge of the basics.
Always Keep a Sufficient Bankroll
Bankroll management is one of the essential poker skills that aren’t talked about enough. Regardless of how well you play cards, you can’t win if you don’t have the funds to play.
Good bankroll management practices ensure that you always stay in action and have enough money to sustain even the biggest of downswings.
As you will learn, poker is a swingy game, and even the big winners have losing stretches that can last quite a while.
By maintaining a proper bankroll for the games you play, you will never run out of funds and will be able to ride out the variance to a happy conclusion.
Play in the Best Games
Whether you play online or live, there are many different poker games you can jump into. Choosing the right ones is essential.
The real key to winning big at poker is finding games populated by players who are significantly less skilled at the game than you.
If you can find the right games at reasonable stakes, you could be winning big even without being a poker master. On the other hand, if you play against great players, you may not win even if your skillset is quite advanced.
For optimal results, we always recommend practicing table selection and finding the easiest poker games to play.
Be Aggressive and Apply Pressure
Aggression always wins out over passiveness in poker, and all the best players play very aggressively.
By making the bets and the raises more often than calling, you get to win pots when your opponents fold, even if they have the best hand.
Well-timed aggression can win you many pots that would have otherwise gone the other way, but it is important to balance your aggression and time it properly.
If you play too aggressively, you may turn into a poker maniac. Instead, you want to apply aggression and pressure at the right times to get the results you want.
Understand the Difference Between GTO and Exploitative Poker
One of the biggest debates in poker today is on the merits of GTO vs. exploitative poker strategies. The truth is that both have their advantages, and you should master them both.
The GTO poker approach teaches you how to play a balanced game that’s impossible to exploit. The exploitative poker approach teaches you how to exploit others and make adjustments to your strategies.
Without a decent understanding of the GTO principles, it will be impossible to make the correct deviations to exploit your opponents.
Study both approaches to the game and make sure you know when to apply each for best possible results.
Adjust to Different Player Types
Once you start playing poker, you will encounter many different player types. Some will be tight and aggressive professionals, while others will be splashy amateurs looking to give their chips away.
If you want to be truly successful at poker, recognizing the different player types early will be very important.
Once you are able to recognize a player’s game plan within a few minutes, you will also be able to make strategic adjustments that will allow you to profit the most against each player type.
Never Stop Studying
One thing that every professional poker player will tell you is that the moment you stop studying the game, you allow others to get better than you.
In order to always maintain your edge, it is essential to keep on studying the game and becoming a better player yourself with every passing month.
There are many different ways you can study poker today, so find the ones that work best for you and keep the grind going in the lab.
Poker Cheat Sheet Summary
Our poker cheat sheet covers all the most important fundamentals of poker and provides some strategy tips to help you get started.
Now that you have the cheat sheet in hand, all that’s left is to study it, master it, and take your newly found knowledge to the tables.
There is no way to become a poker master in a single day, but if you use our cheat sheet right and keep on studying, you will soon become a force to be reckoned with at any poker table.