KEY TAKEAWAYS
The flop is the moment in Texas Hold’em when the table gets its first shared cards. After the first round of betting is finished, the dealer places three community cards face up in the middle of the table, and every player still in the hand can use them. A new round of betting starts straight away.
For a beginner, the flop is where the game starts to make sense. Until then, each player has only two private cards, called hole cards, and no way to judge how strong they really are. Once the flop is dealt, players can see how their own cards connect with the board, and the hand begins to take shape.
This guide explains what the flop is, when it is dealt, who acts first, what each player can do, and how the round ends. A full example with real cards and chips shows what a flop round looks like at the table.
What Is the Flop in Poker, and When Does It Come?
The flop is the first three community cards in Texas Hold’em, dealt face up at the same time. Community cards, also called the board, belong to nobody and can be used by every player. Omaha uses the same word for the same moment, so the term works in both games.
A Hold’em hand moves through four betting rounds, and the flop starts the second one. The order is: the blinds are posted, each player gets two hole cards, the first betting round takes place before the flop, the flop is dealt, and a second betting round follows. Poker players call the first round “preflop” and everything after the flop “postflop.”
The flop is dealt only if at least two players are still in the hand after preflop betting. If everyone folds to a single player, that player wins the pot immediately and the hand ends without any community cards. The blinds are explained in the guide to what blinds are in poker, which is a useful companion to this article.
How the Flop Round Works, Step by Step
Dealing the flop
In most cardrooms, the dealer first burns one card, which means sliding the top card of the deck face down to the side without showing it. The burn is meant to protect the game against marked or exposed cards. The dealer then deals three cards face up in the middle of the table. Some home games skip the burn card, so the house rules are worth checking before play.
Who acts first
The betting order changes after the flop. Before the flop, the player to the left of the big blind acts first. After the flop, the first active player to the left of the dealer button acts first. In most hands, that is the small blind, but if the small blind has folded, the next player still in the hand takes that spot. The player on the button acts last in every postflop round. The names and roles of each seat are covered in poker position names explained.
What each player can do
If nobody has bet yet, a player can check or bet. Checking means passing the action without putting in any chips, which is allowed only when there is no bet to match. Betting means putting chips into the pot. In no-limit Hold’em, the smallest bet is normally equal to the big blind.
Once a bet has been made, the remaining players can fold, call or raise. Folding means giving up the hand and losing any chips already in the pot. Calling means matching the bet. Raising means increasing it, and the next player must then respond to the larger amount.
When the round ends
The flop round ends when every active player has acted and all bets are equal, or when all but one player have folded. If everyone checks, the round ends after the last player has checked. If every remaining player is all-in, no more betting is possible, and the dealer simply deals the rest of the cards. If at least two players remain, the dealer burns another card and deals the turn, the fourth community card.
Example: A Flop Round With Three Players
Suppose a six-player table plays $1/$2 blinds, with Ana on the button, Ben in the small blind and Cara in the big blind. Before the flop, Dev folds, Eli calls $2, Fay folds, Ana folds, Ben calls and Cara checks. Three players see the flop and the pot is $6. Ben holds 7♣ 7♦, Cara holds 9♠ 8♠, and Eli holds K♥ Q♥.
The dealer burns a card and turns over the flop: Q♣ 7♠ 2♦. Each player now has five cards available. Ben has three of a kind, three sevens, because his pair matches the 7♠ on the board. Eli has a pair of queens with a king as the extra card, because his Q♥ matches the Q♣. Cara has no pair at all, so her best five cards are Q♣ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 2♦, which makes a queen-high hand.
Ben is the first active player to the left of the button, so he acts first. He bets $2. Cara folds, which means her cards are out of the hand, though her earlier $2 stays in the pot. Eli calls $2. The pot is now $10: $6 from before the flop, plus Ben’s $2 and Eli’s $2. Both remaining players have acted and their bets match, so the round ends and the dealer burns a card and deals the turn.
How to Read the Board at the Table
When the flop arrives, the most useful habit is to read all five cards available to you: your two hole cards and the three on the board. Look for pairs, three or more cards of the same suit, and cards close together in rank. This is how beginners learn to recognize the hand they hold, using the hand order in the list of poker hands ranked from best to worst.
The order in which the three flop cards land does not matter, because the three cards are dealt together and treated as a set. A flop of Q♣ 7♠ 2♦ is the same as 2♦ Q♣ 7♠.
Pay attention to the dealer. At a casino table, the dealer announces the flop, then indicates whose turn it is. If you are unsure whether it is your turn, ask. Acting out of turn is a rule violation in many cardrooms and can affect other players’ decisions, so a short question is always better than a guess.
Common Beginner Mistakes on the Flop
The most common mistake is thinking the flop ends the hand. It does not. After the flop come the turn and the river, each with its own round of betting, and a hand that looks weak or strong on the flop can change completely.
Beginners also often believe that betting after the flop starts with the same player as before the flop. In fact, the postflop order starts left of the button, not left of the big blind, so the small blind, who acted near the end before the flop, now acts at the start.
Another confusion is that a player must use both hole cards. In Texas Hold’em, a player may use both hole cards, one, or none. On the flop there are exactly five cards available, so the best hand uses all five. Later, on the turn and the river, a player chooses the best five out of six or seven cards.
Finally, new players sometimes treat a check as a fold. A check keeps a player in the hand at no cost when there is no bet to call. Only folding gives up the hand, and a player who folds cannot rejoin until the next deal.
The Flop in Casinos, Home Games and Online
In a casino cardroom, the dealer handles the cards and the pace. The flop is dealt only after the dealer confirms the betting round is complete, and the dealer announces the cards. Standard no-limit rules apply to the minimum bet, but table procedures can differ slightly between rooms.
In a home game, the person dealing is also a player, so the flop often moves faster and more casually. Burn cards, betting limits and how to deal with an exposed card may be set by the host. Agreeing on a few simple house rules before the first hand avoids most disputes.
Online, the software deals the flop automatically and shows whose turn it is with a timer. It also handles the burn card and the order of action, so a beginner can focus on the cards. Whatever the setting, every decision on the flop involves real chips, so it is wise to decide on a budget before the game starts and to stop when it is spent.
Where to Go Next
The flop is only one step in a full hand. The complete order of a hand is explained in the step-by-step guide to playing Texas Hold’em, from the blinds to the showdown.
Once the flop, turn and river are all dealt, the strongest five-card hand wins, and the order of those hands runs from the royal flush down to high card.
