A free, printable Texas Hold’em cheat sheet, two pages, no sign-up: download the poker cheat sheet PDF in US Letter or A4, save the phone image, or print this page and only the sheet comes out.
Poker cheat sheet 1 / 2: the basics
Texas Hold’em on one page: what beats what, the odds, and what a call costs.
Hand rankings, best to worst
- 1Royal flushA♠K♠Q♠J♠10♠0.0032%
- 2Straight flush9♥8♥7♥6♥5♥0.028%
- 3Four of a kind7♣7♦7♥7♠K♥0.17%
- 4Full houseQ♠Q♥Q♦8♣8♠2.6%
- 5FlushA♣J♣7♣6♣2♣3.0%
- 6Straight8♦7♠6♥5♣4♦4.6%
- 7Three of a kind9♥9♦9♣Q♠4♥4.8%
- 8Two pairJ♦J♣4♥4♠A♣23.5%
- 9One pair10♠10♣K♥7♦3♠43.8%
- 10High cardA♥Q♣9♦6♠3♣17.4%
How often you are dealt it
| Pocket aces (any one pair) | 1 in 221 |
| Ace-king | 1 in 83 |
| AA, KK, QQ or AK | 1 in 39 |
| Any pocket pair | 1 in 17 |
| Any suited hand | 1 in 4 |
1,326 possible two-card hands; 169 different ones once suits are ignored.
Outs: your chance to hit
| On the flop with | Outs | Turn | By river |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flush + open-ended straight draw | 15 | 32% | 54% |
| Flush draw | 9 | 19% | 35% |
| Open-ended straight draw | 8 | 17% | 31% |
| Two overcards | 6 | 13% | 24% |
| Gutshot straight draw | 4 | 9% | 16% |
| Pocket pair to a set | 2 | 4% | 8% |
Exact, from the 47 unseen cards. The quick rule, outs × 2 for one card and × 4 for two, runs high on big draws: 15 outs is 54%, not 60%.
Pot odds: equity you need to call
| They bet | You need |
|---|---|
| A quarter of the pot | 17% |
| A third | 20% |
| Half | 25% |
| Two thirds | 29% |
| The pot | 33% |
| Twice the pot | 40% |
Your call ÷ (the pot after you call). A $50 bet into $100: 50 ÷ 200 = 25%.
Seats at the table
- UTGUnder the gun
- HJHijack
- COCutoff
- BTNButton
- SBSmall blind
- BBBig blind
- UTGUnder the gun
- UTG+1
- UTG+2
- LJLojack
- HJHijack
- COCutoff
- BTNButton
- SBSmall blind
- BBBig blind
Poker cheat sheet 2 / 2: before the flop
Which hands are worth playing, and what to do with them from every seat.
Top 20 starting hands
- 1A♠A♥83%
- 2K♠K♥78%
- 3Q♠Q♥74%
- 4J♠J♥70%
- 510♠10♥67%
- 6A♠K♠64%
- 79♠9♥63%
- 8A♠K♥62%
- 9A♠Q♠62%
- 10A♠J♠60%
- 11A♠Q♥60%
- 128♠8♥60%
- 13A♠10♠58%
- 14A♠J♥58%
- 157♠7♥57%
- 16A♠10♥56%
- 17K♠Q♠56%
- 18A♠9♠55%
- 196♠6♥55%
- 20K♠J♠54%
% = wins against the hands that call a raise.
Preflop charts by seat
Solver ranges for 6-max cash games at 100 big blinds. Each cell is a hand: suited above the diagonal, offsuit below, pairs on it.
Practise these decisions free. Knowing a chart and playing it under pressure are different skills. Scan for the PlusEV preflop trainer.
plusev.poker
Live card rooms and tournaments do not allow reference material at the table. Study it before you sit down.
What is on the poker cheat sheet?
Everything worth knowing by heart before you sit down, split by when you need it.
Page one is the basics. The ten hand rankings with an example of each, the odds of hitting the common draws on the turn and by the river, the equity a call needs against each bet size, how often you are dealt the hands people ask about, and where every seat sits at a six-handed and a nine-handed table.
Page two is the preflop decision, the one that settles most pots: with solver play, between 63% and 73% of six-handed hands end before the flop. It opens with the top 20 starting hands, then seven grids from solver ranges for 6-max cash games at 100 big blinds: what to raise from each seat when everyone folds to you, how the big blind defends against a button raise, and what the button does when its raise gets 3-bet. Most cheat sheets stop at the first decision. This one covers the next two.
How do you read the hand rankings?
From the top: a royal flush beats everything, a high card beats nothing. Each hand beats every hand below it, and when two players hold the same kind of hand, the higher cards inside it win. Suits never break a tie, and only your best five cards count, so two players with the same five split the pot.
Two rules trip up new players more than any others: a flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush. That block works as a poker hand cheat sheet on its own, and our hand rankings guide explains every tie and how rare each hand is.
Which poker odds are worth memorising?
The ones on the sheet, because they come up every session: a flush draw hits 19% of the time on the turn and 35% by the river, an open-ended straight draw 17% and 31%, a gutshot 9% and 16%.
Most cheat sheets print the shortcut instead: multiply your outs by 2 for one card to come and by 4 for two. It is close for small draws and runs high for big ones. A flush draw with an open-ended straight draw has 15 outs, and the shortcut says 60%; counting the 47 cards you have not seen, it is 54%. That gap is the difference between a call and a fold when the price is close, so the sheet prints the exact numbers. The equity calculator does the same counting for any hand.
How do pot odds work?
Divide what you have to call by the pot after your call. That is the share of the time you need to win for the call to break even. If the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $50, you call $50 into a pot that will be $200, so you need to win 25% of the time. A third-pot bet needs 20%, a pot-sized bet 33%. Compare that number with your odds of hitting and the decision makes itself. The pot odds guide has a calculator for any bet.
Who acts first?
Before the flop, the player under the gun, to the left of the big blind, and the big blind acts last. After the flop the small blind acts first and the button last.
The button moves one seat to the left every hand, so everyone gets the best seat in turn. The full betting order is in our Texas Hold’em rules, and poker positions explains why acting last is worth so much.
What are the top 20 starting hands?
Pocket aces down to king-jack suited, ranked by how often each wins against the hands that call a raise. Why that beats a ranking against a random hand: our best starting hands guide.
What should you open from each seat?
Far fewer hands early than late. In our ranges, under the gun raises about 18% of hands when everyone folds to it, the button about 41%. The hands that change are the marginal ones: queen-jack offsuit and ace-nine offsuit are folds under the gun and raises from the cutoff on.
The small blind is the odd one out. It is the only seat where the solver limps, completing the big blind with about 30% of its hands and raising another 26%. Our limping guide explains why that seat, and no other.
Each grid on the sheet is the full 13 by 13 chart: pairs on the diagonal, suited hands above it, offsuit below. A split cell is a hand the solver plays both ways. The interactive versions, with exact frequencies on hover, are in our preflop charts.
What do you do when someone raises?
Defend the big blind wide, and fold most of your opens to a 3-bet.
The big blind already has a full bet in the pot and closes the action, so against a button raise it continues with about 35% of hands: 3-betting 14% and calling 21%. When the button opens and the big blind re-raises, the button folds about 60% of the hands it opened, 4-bets 12% and calls 28%. Our 3-bet guide and the facing a 3-bet charts cover every other seat.
Which poker terms should you know?
The dozen that come up in every hand, in one line each. The full list, with a range chart for every term that is a range, is in our poker glossary.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Button | The dealer position; it acts last after the flop |
| Blinds | The two forced bets, small and big, posted before the cards are dealt |
| Under the gun | The first seat to act before the flop |
| Limp | Calling the big blind instead of raising |
| 3-bet | The first re-raise before the flop |
| Outs | Cards that improve your hand to the likely winner |
| Pot odds | The share of the final pot your call represents |
| Equity | Your share of the pot if all the cards were dealt out now |
| Kicker | The unpaired card that breaks a tie between equal hands |
| Set | Three of a kind made with a pocket pair |
| Nuts | The best possible hand on that board |
| VPIP | The share of hands a player voluntarily puts money in before the flop |
How should you use a poker cheat sheet?
As a study tool, one block at a time. For beginners, page one comes first: read the rankings until you never have to think about them, then the odds, then one seat’s chart a day. A chart you have to look up mid-hand is a chart you do not know yet; our guide on how to memorize preflop ranges has a method for that part.
Then test yourself. Cover the sheet and answer these:
You have a flush draw on the flop. How often does it hit by the river?
35%, with nine outs and two cards to come.Your opponent bets half the pot. How often do you need to win to call?
25%. You call one half-pot into a pot of two.Everyone folds to you on the button with king-nine offsuit. Raise or fold?
Raise. The button opens K9o and better kings.You are under the gun with queen-jack offsuit. Raise or fold?
Fold. Under the gun opens KJo and better, and ATo and better aces, but not QJo.Who acts first after the flop?
The small blind, or the first player still in the hand to the left of the button.Knowing the answer with the sheet in front of you and producing it in two seconds at the table are different skills; the second one only comes from reps. That is what the PlusEV preflop trainer drills, on the same ranges as page two.
Can you use a cheat sheet at the poker table?
Not at a live table. Card rooms and tournaments do not allow players to consult reference material during a hand, and some do not allow it at the table at all. Online, sites set their own rules on what study aids you may use while playing, and they differ, so check your site’s terms before you keep a chart open. The safe habit everywhere is the same: study the sheet before you sit down, and leave it at home.
Quick answers
What is a poker cheat sheet?
A one- or two-page summary of the things worth knowing by heart: the hand rankings, the odds of common draws, pot odds, the order players act in and which hands to play before the flop.
Can you use a cheat sheet while playing poker?
Not in live card rooms or tournaments, which do not allow reference material at the table. Online sites set their own rules on study aids during play, so check your site's terms. Study the sheet before you sit down.
What are the odds of hitting a flush draw?
With nine outs on the flop, 19% on the turn and 35% by the river, counting the 47 cards you have not seen.
Is the rule of 4 accurate?
Close for small draws and too high for big ones. Fifteen outs with two cards to come is 54%, not the 60% the rule of 4 gives.
What hands should you play from early position?
Very few. In our 6-max ranges at 100 big blinds, under the gun raises about 18% of hands: pairs from 55 up, strong suited aces and kings, and offsuit hands from ace-ten and king-jack up.
Is the cheat sheet free?
Yes. The PDF in US Letter and A4 and the phone image are free to download, print and share, with no sign-up.