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A cheat sheet is not a chart. A chart answers one question in depth; a cheat sheet answers the six questions that actually stop a home game, each in one line, on a surface you can reach without leaving your seat. That is what this page is: the hand order, what each action means and when it is legal, how the blinds work, how much equity a call needs, how many outs turn into what percentage, and what the chip colours are worth. Each block links to the page that goes deep on it, so you can settle the argument now and read the reasoning later.
Six blocks, one line each — nothing to scroll past mid-hand
The two numbers worth memorising: the 4-and-2 rule and pot odds
Works on a phone propped against the chip tray, or printed
The order never changes and a higher class always beats a lower one, whatever the individual cards are. This is the short form; the printable chart linked below carries the frequencies and the per-hand detail.
#
1
Hand
Royal flush
Example
A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠
#
2
Hand
Straight flush
Example
9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥
#
3
Hand
Four of a kind
Example
Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 7♠
#
4
Hand
Full house
Example
J♠ J♥ J♦ 4♠ 4♣
#
5
Hand
Flush
Example
A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 3♦
#
6
Hand
Straight
Example
9♣ 8♦ 7♠ 6♥ 5♣
#
7
Hand
Three of a kind
Example
8♠ 8♥ 8♦ K♣ 4♠
#
8
Hand
Two pair
Example
A♠ A♣ 6♥ 6♦ 9♠
#
9
Hand
One pair
Example
T♥ T♠ A♦ 7♣ 3♥
#
10
Hand
High card
Example
A♠ Q♦ 9♥ 6♣ 3♠
Most table disputes at a beginner game are not about hands, they are about whether someone was allowed to do what they just did.
Action
Check
What it does
Pass without putting chips in
Legal when
No bet has been made this round
Action
Bet
What it does
Put the first chips in this round
Legal when
No bet has been made this round
Action
Call
What it does
Match the current bet
Legal when
There is a bet to match
Action
Raise
What it does
Increase the current bet
Legal when
There is a bet, and you have at least a minimum raise
Action
Fold
What it does
Give up the hand
Legal when
Any time it is your turn
Action
All-in
What it does
Put your whole stack in
Legal when
Any time — a short stack can always call for what it has
Three seats define every hand. Everything else about position follows from where these are.
Seat
Button (BTN)
Who
Nominal dealer, acts last after the flop
Pays
Nothing
Seat
Small blind (SB)
Who
One seat left of the button
Pays
Half the big blind, usually
Seat
Big blind (BB)
Who
Two seats left of the button
Pays
The full blind — the minimum bet size
Seat
Under the gun
Who
Left of the big blind, acts first preflop
Pays
Nothing
Read the bet as a fraction of the pot before the bet. The last column is how often you need to win for calling to break even; below that, folding is the cheaper option.
They bet
1/3 pot
You call
0.33
To win
1.67
You need
20%
They bet
1/2 pot
You call
0.50
To win
2.00
You need
25%
They bet
2/3 pot
You call
0.67
To win
2.33
You need
28.6%
They bet
3/4 pot
You call
0.75
To win
2.50
You need
30%
They bet
Pot
You call
1.00
To win
3.00
You need
33.3%
They bet
2× pot
You call
2.00
To win
5.00
You need
40%
Count the cards that complete your hand. Multiply by 4 with two cards to come, by 2 with one. The exact column shows where the shortcut drifts: it is close under ten outs and optimistic above twelve.
Outs
4
Typical draw
Gutshot straight
Rule of 4 and 2
16%
Exact, flop to river
16.5%
Outs
8
Typical draw
Open-ended straight
Rule of 4 and 2
32%
Exact, flop to river
31.5%
Outs
9
Typical draw
Flush draw
Rule of 4 and 2
36%
Exact, flop to river
35.0%
Outs
12
Typical draw
Flush draw plus a gutshot
Rule of 4 and 2
48%
Exact, flop to river
45.0%
Outs
15
Typical draw
Flush plus open-ended
Rule of 4 and 2
60%
Exact, flop to river
54.1%
The casino standard, with what a home game usually does instead. What matters is that everyone agrees before the first hand, not which convention you pick.
Colour
White
Standard
$1
Common at home
$0.25 or $1
Colour
Red
Standard
$5
Common at home
$5
Colour
Blue
Standard
$10
Common at home
$10
Colour
Green
Standard
$25
Common at home
$20 or $25
Colour
Black
Standard
$100
Common at home
$50 or $100
Players
6-8 seats
Setup
15 minutes
After game
Share results
Keep it open on a phone screen face-up beside the chip tray, or print it. The six blocks are ordered by how often they get consulted, not by importance: hand order settles the most arguments, action legality settles the most heated ones, and the two number blocks are the ones people look at between hands rather than during them. Nothing here needs scrolling within a block, which is the whole design constraint.
A hand chart is one table done properly — every hand, its frequency, what breaks a tie, what to do with it. That is a page you read before the game or after a hand you lost. A cheat sheet is a different object: six things at once, each shallow enough to scan in two seconds, because you are reading it while four people wait. Trying to make one document do both jobs produces something too long to scan and too shallow to learn from. This site has both, and they link to each other.
Almost nobody needs the whole pot-odds table. Two numbers cover most of it: a half-pot bet needs you to win about a quarter of the time, and a pot-sized bet needs you to win about a third. Everything else is interpolation. On the other side, the 4-and-2 rule turns outs into a percentage well enough to decide with — nine outs is about 35%, and a half-pot bet needs 25%, so a flush draw calls. That single comparison is most of what pot odds does for a home player.
It is a linear approximation to something that is not linear, so it drifts upward as the outs grow. At four outs it says 16% against a true 16.5% — fine. At nine outs, 36% against 35.0% — fine. At fifteen outs it says 60% against a true 54.1%, and that six-point gap is enough to turn a fold into a call at the wrong price. Above twelve outs, multiply by 4 and then subtract about a point for every out over eight, or just remember that huge draws are worth slightly less than the shortcut claims.
Three come up constantly. A string raise — putting chips in with two motions instead of declaring the amount — is usually ruled a call at the smaller amount. A verbal declaration in turn is binding even if the chips do not follow. And a player who is all-in for less than the current bet does not reopen the betting to someone who has already acted. None of these are in the hand rankings, and all three cost somebody a pot at some point.
No suit beats another suit in Texas Hold'em. If two players make the same hand with the same five cards, the pot is split, and if it does not divide evenly the odd chip goes to the player left of the button. Kickers only matter up to five cards total — A-K against A-Q on an ace-high board is decided by the king, but if the board already plays as the best five cards, both players use it and split. Reading out all five cards aloud settles nearly every one of these before it starts.
Buy-in amount, whether rebuys are allowed and until when, the blind levels and whether they go up, chip values, and how the last hand is decided if people need to leave. Five decisions, two minutes, and they remove almost every source of end-of-night friction. The one that gets skipped most is the last one, and it is the one that ends games badly.
The one thing a cheat sheet cannot do is remember what happened. Buy-ins, rebuys and who cashed out for what are not on any chart, and reconstructing them at one in the morning is where home games actually lose friendships. PokerChip.live records each of those as it happens and produces the who-pays-whom list at the end, so the sheet handles the rules and the app handles the money.
FAQ
01
A single page holding the things you need mid-game rather than one topic in depth: the hand order, what each betting action means, how blinds work, the pot odds a call needs, how outs convert to percentages, and standard chip values.
02
Yes. Use your browser's print command and it lays out on a page. There is no email step, no account and no watermark, and the same page works kept open on a phone beside the chip tray.
03
Count the cards that complete your hand, then multiply by 4 if both the turn and river are still to come or by 2 if only one card is left. Nine outs times 4 is roughly the 35% a flush draw really has.
04
Compare the call to the pot you would win. Calling half the pot means putting in 0.5 to win 2.0, so you need to win 25% of the time. A pot-sized bet needs 33%. Those two numbers cover most decisions at a home game.
05
Yes. A flush is fifth in the order and a straight is sixth. In Texas Hold'em a flush is actually the more common of the two, because seven cards are available, but the ranking was fixed for five-card hands and never changed.
06
No suit beats another in Texas Hold'em. Two players with the same five card ranks split the pot regardless of suit, and if the amount does not divide evenly the odd chip goes to the first player left of the button.
07
Buy-in size, whether rebuys are allowed and until when, the blind levels and whether they increase, what each chip colour is worth, and how the game ends if someone has to leave early. Five decisions, and skipping the last one causes the most trouble.
08
A rankings chart covers one topic in full, with frequencies and tie-breakers for every hand. This sheet covers six topics one line deep, so it can be scanned in seconds while other players wait. Both exist here and link to each other.
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