Ultimate Texas Hold'em trainer
Dealer needs a pair · else Ante pushes
Deal a hand to see your chances against the dealer, and on the river, the exact cost of betting versus folding.
Paytables
Blind win with straight+
Trips bonus your hand only
House edge on this Trips table: 3.50%.
Jackpot $5 · 2 cards + flop
Know the play before you sit down
Ultimate Texas Hold'em gives you one raise per hand, and the earlier you raise, the bigger it can be. Learn these three decisions and you'll make the right call almost every time.
The strategy in three decisions
Our own strategy, checked against exact math. The preflop chart comes from solving thousands of flops exactly for every starting hand. The flop and river rules are shortcuts you can use at a real table: against the exact answer, they make the right call on 98% of flops and 96% of rivers, and the misses cost almost nothing.
- Any pair except 2s
- Any ace
- Any suited king, or K5 and up offsuit
- Q6 and up suited, Q8 and up offsuit
- J8 and up suited, J10 offsuit
- Two pair or better, using your cards
- A hidden pair (your card pairs the board, or a pocket pair), except pocket 2s
- Four to a flush, if you hold a 10 or better in that suit
- A hidden pair or better
- Any hand where the dealer has fewer than 21 outs to beat you
Preflop chart
Suited hands sit above the diagonal, offsuit below, pairs on it. T means 10. Your current hand gets a white outline while you play.
How we built it. For each of the 169 starting hands we solved 100 to 2,400 random flops exactly, every turn, river and dealer hand, and compared raising 4x with checking. 500 of the 1,326 possible hands raise. Twelve are close calls, within our margin of error, so either play costs very little: K2s, K3s, K5o, Q6s, Q8o and J8s raise; K4o, Q4s, Q5s, Q7o, J9o and T9s check.
Decision drill
Flash spots from all three streets, weighted toward the close calls. Get ten in a row and you are ready for the felt.
Counting dealer outs
On the river, when you have nothing hidden, count the single cards that would beat you if the dealer held one of them. Cards that pair the board count, and so do higher cards that beat your kicker. Fewer than 21 outs: bet 1x. 21 or more: fold.
Why it works: folding always costs 2 Antes. Betting risks a third, but you often win, and against a dealer who does not open your Ante pushes. When the dealer's outs drop below 21, betting loses less on average than folding.
How good is the shortcut? We checked it against the exact answer, every possible dealer hand, on 20,000 river spots. It made the right call 96% of the time, and no other cutoff did better. When it's wrong, the hand was a near coin flip anyway.
You have king high and no pair. Any card that pairs the board beats you: three each of 2, 5, 8, J and Q is 15. An ace also beats king high: 4 more. Total 19, under 21, so bet 1x.
You play the board with a 7 kicker. Pairing the board is 15 outs. Any queen, jack, ten or eight beats your 7: 16 more. Total 31, so fold.
How a hand plays
- Bet the Ante and the BlindThey must be equal. Trips is an optional side bet on your own hand, and many tables add a $5 jackpot bet.
- Look at your two cardsCheck, or raise 3x or 4x your Ante into the Play circle.
- The flop comesIf you have not raised yet: check, or bet 2x.
- The turn and river come togetherIf you still have not raised: bet exactly 1x, or fold your Ante and Blind.
- ShowdownYour best five cards from seven against the dealer's best five.
| Bet | When you win | When you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Play | Pays 1 to 1 | Loses |
| Ante | Pays 1 to 1 if the dealer opens. Pushes if not. | Loses if the dealer opens. Pushes if not. |
| Blind | Pays the Blind table with a straight or better. Pushes with less. | Loses |
| Trips | Pays on your final hand alone, three of a kind or better, even if you fold or lose. | |
| Jackpot ($5) | Pays on your two cards and the flop only, whether you win, lose or fold. | |
Ties push every bet except Trips. Some casinos settle Trips differently on a fold, so ask the dealer.
Odds and payouts
How often your final seven-card hand lands in each category, and what it pays.
| Your final hand | Chance | About 1 in | Blind | Trips (8-7-4-3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 0.003% | 30,940 | 500 to 1 | 50 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 0.028% | 3,591 | 50 to 1 | 40 to 1 |
| Four of a kind | 0.168% | 595 | 10 to 1 | 30 to 1 |
| Full house | 2.60% | 38 | 3 to 1 | 8 to 1 |
| Flush | 3.03% | 33 | 3 to 2 | 7 to 1 |
| Straight | 4.62% | 22 | 1 to 1 | 4 to 1 |
| Three of a kind | 4.83% | 21 | push | 3 to 1 |
| Two pair | 23.5% | 4.3 | push | loses |
| One pair | 43.8% | 2.3 | push | loses |
| High card | 17.4% | 5.7 | push | loses |
| Trips paytable on the felt | Full house / Flush / Straight / Trips | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| 9-7-4-3 | 9 / 7 / 4 / 3 | 0.90% |
| 8-6-5-3 | 8 / 6 / 5 / 3 | 1.90% |
| 8-7-4-3 | 8 / 7 / 4 / 3 | 3.50% |
| 7-6-5-3 (quads 20) | 7 / 6 / 5 / 3 | 6.18% |
All tables pay 50 to 1 on a royal and 40 to 1 on a straight flush. Read the felt before you bet Trips: the same bet can cost you seven times more at one casino than another.
Independently calculated odds. Hand chances are exact counts over all 133,784,560 seven-card hands. Payouts vary by table: each Trips house edge applies only to Trips on that paytable, not to the main game. How our odds are calculated
The $5 jackpot bet
Most Ultimate Texas Hold'em tables offer a progressive jackpot bet. It is always exactly $5, it only looks at your two cards and the flop, and it pays whether you win, lose or fold.
| Your 2 cards + flop | Pays on $5 | Chance | About 1 in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 100% of the jackpot | 0.00015% | 649,740 |
| Straight flush | 10% of the jackpot | 0.0014% | 72,193 |
| Four of a kind | $1,500 (300 for 1) | 0.024% | 4,165 |
| Full house | $250 (50 for 1) | 0.144% | 694 |
| Flush | $200 (40 for 1) | 0.197% | 509 |
| Straight | $150 (30 for 1) | 0.392% | 255 |
| Three of a kind | $45 (9 for 1) | 2.11% | 47 |
| Anything less | lose $5 | 97.1% |
"For 1" means the $5 is not returned. A full house pays $250 in total, a $245 profit.
Envy bonus. When another player at your table hits a royal flush or straight flush with the bet on, everyone else who made the $5 bet gets a fixed bonus too, commonly $5,000 for a royal and $1,500 for a straight flush. You can't envy your own hand or the dealer's. This trainer is a one-seat table, so it does not pay envy.
Versions differ. Some casinos link the bet across games as Mega, Major and Minor jackpots: a royal flush, straight flush and four of a kind each win their own meter, and the smaller hands pay the same 50, 40, 30 and 9 for 1. A few use a seven-card version. Read the sign above the table.
Should you play it? Only for fun. At normal jackpot sizes it gives back about 60 to 70 cents per dollar. Treat it like a lottery ticket.
The jackpot meter in this trainer is simulated play money. It climbs as if other tables were feeding it, and it resets to $100,000 after a royal.
Example $5 progressive only. Jackpot returns change with the live meter and the payout schedule. These figures use the five-card schedule shown here and leave out envy payouts, taxes and casino-specific rules. The practice jackpot is simulated and can't be won for cash.
At the table
- Bring enough for the 4x handsA single raised hand puts 6 Antes in action: Ante, Blind and a 4x Play. A comfortable session bankroll is roughly 40 to 50 Antes.
- Check by tapping the feltRaise by placing chips in the Play circle. Tell the dealer if you want to fold; they will take your cards.
- Do not touch your bets once cards are outDealers handle all payouts. Keep your cards on the table and in view.
- Ask about Trips on a foldMost tables still pay your Trips if you fold. Some ask you to tuck your cards under the Trips bet.
- Use the coach's languageThink "hidden pair" and "dealer outs." Those two ideas settle almost every flop and river decision.
- Side bets are dessertTrips, progressives and bonus bets all carry bigger house edges than the main game. Keep them small.
- The jackpot bet is always $5Drop a single $5 chip in the jackpot circle or slot before the deal. The light confirms you're in.
- Watch the signThe meter above the table shows the current jackpot. A royal flush with your two cards and the flop wins all of it.
Mistakes that cost real money
- Betting 3x before the flopIt is never the best play. Raise 4x or check.
- Checking a raise hand out of fearAny ace, any pair over 2s and the chart's kings, queens and jacks all earn more with an early 4x.
- Folding a hidden pair on the riverEven a pair of 2s using one of your cards is a 1x bet.
- Calling the river with too many outs against youCount them. At 21 or more, folding saves money.
- Chasing the jackpotAt typical jackpot sizes the $5 bet returns 60 to 70 cents per dollar. Budget it, don't chase it.
- Betting Trips without reading the feltTrips paytables range from a 0.9% to a 6.2% house edge depending on the casino.