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Free Hold'em vs the Dealer

The casino table game in which you play Texas hold'em against the dealer with Ante and Blind bets and one raise, for chips that are worth nothing, with every decision checked.

Play chips

1,000

No real money, no prizes, nothing to buy.

One deck · shuffled every hand

Dealer

Community cards
You

20 on the Ante and 20 on the Blind. One raise, up to 80 more.

BlindEquals the Ante20
PlayOne raise, 1 to 1
Blind pays on a winning hand:
Royal flush 500 to 1 · Straight flush 50 to 1 · Four of a kind 10 to 1 · Full house 3 to 1 · Flush 3 to 2 · Straight 1 to 1

Session coach

Last round

Nothing played yet. After each of your hands the coach says what the round cost and what decided it.

Decide the cost before you start

Gambling is entertainment with a price, like a concert ticket. The useful question is not how much you might win but how much the evening is allowed to cost. Pick that number first, and treat reaching it as the end of the session. You can set one below and the coach will hold you to it.

Next bet

40 chips at a 1.09% house edge: an expected cost of 0.4 chips.

This table is for practice and entertainment only. How to keep gambling safe

Strategy coach

Each of the three decisions is checked as you make it. Before the flop and on the flop the coach reads a rule set: basic strategy, close to optimal. The last decision is graded exactly, by counting every hand the dealer can hold. The cards decide whether a hand wins. The decisions are the part you control.

Compare this game's cost with other table games

This session

Hands played
0
Decisions on strategy
None yet
Net chips
0
Expected
0
0 in Antes at 2.19%

Expected is the house edge under optimal play, 2.19% of every Ante. It is the least the game costs: decisions off the strategy cost more. A short session swings well away from it in either direction.

Built by Alexander Korsager · last updated October 3, 2026 · corrections

House edge under optimal play, as a share of the Ante
2.19%
Of starting hands basic strategy raises before the flop
37.7%
Dealer hands counted at the last decision
990
The Ante: the full raise, on offer only before the flop
4x

01 / 03

Three decisions, each one checked

This is a casino table game, not poker against other players.

You play one hand of Texas hold'em against the dealer: two cards each and five community cards between you. Nobody bluffs, nobody else's hand matters, and the house banks every bet. You put down an Ante and an equal Blind, and then you get exactly one raise, which shrinks the longer you wait: 4x or 3x the Ante before the flop, 2x on the flop, or 1x once all five community cards are out, where the only other choice is to fold.

The one raise, by when you make it
  • Before the flop, on your 2 cards alone4x or 3x

    Or check

  • On the flop, with 3 community cards out2x

    Or check

  • With all 5 community cards out1x

    Or fold

Sizes are multiples of the Ante. You raise once a hand, and the chance to raise big is gone once you check.

That makes three decisions a hand, and the coach checks each one as you make it.

Played optimally the game costs about 2.19% of the Ante on average, which is the lowest it goes: strategy does not turn the game in your favor, it only keeps the cost down. The session panel shows that cost on the Antes you have put down, next to how many of your decisions matched the strategy.

One hand, three checked decisions
  1. Your two cardsCheckBasic strategy, close to optimal
  2. The flopCheckBasic strategy, close to optimal
  3. The last two cardsRaise 1xGraded exactly

10-8 offsuit, played the way the coach grades it. The last answer is counted over all 990 hands the dealer can hold.

02 / 03

Rules at this table

The raise on offer
DecisionRaiseOr
Before the flop, on your 2 cards alone4x or 3xCheck
On the flop, with 3 community cards out2xCheck
With all 5 community cards out1xFold

Each line applies only if you have not raised yet. Folding at the last decision gives up the Ante and the Blind.

What the Blind pays
Winning handBlind pays
Royal flush500 to 1
Straight flush50 to 1
Four of a kind10 to 1
Full house3 to 1
Flush3 to 2
Straight1 to 1

Paid only when you win the hand with a straight or better. A lesser winning hand gets the Blind back, and a losing hand loses it.

  • One 52-card deck, shuffled before every hand.
  • Bet the Ante to be dealt in. A Blind bet of the same size goes down with it.
  • You and the dealer get two cards each. The dealer's stay face down until the hand is over. Five community cards are shared by both hands, and each hand is the best five cards out of its seven.
  • You raise once per hand. The raise is the Play bet, and once it is made the rest of the cards are turned and the hands are compared.
  • The dealer needs a pair or better to qualify. If the dealer does not qualify, the Ante is returned whoever has the better hand.
  • The Play bet pays 1 to 1 when your hand is higher and loses when it is lower. The Ante does the same when the dealer qualifies.
  • A tie returns every bet.

  • The Ante takes 10 to 160 chips from a full stack, and the table only takes an Ante you can also cover the Blind and a full raise for. There is no Trips side bet.

    Enter
    Deal
    4
    Raise 4x
    3
    Raise 3x
    2
    Raise 2x
    1
    Raise 1x
    C
    Check
    F
    Fold

FAQ

Is this hold'em game played for real money?
No. The table uses play chips that have no value, cannot be bought, and cannot be cashed out or exchanged for anything. If you run out, you are handed another stack for free. There is no account and nothing to download.
Is this the same as playing Texas hold'em poker?
No. Poker is played against other players, who bet, bluff and fold, and the casino only takes a fee. This is a house-banked table game that borrows hold'em's cards and hand rankings: you play against the dealer alone, the dealer never makes a decision, and the payouts are fixed by the rules. Those rules give the house an edge that no amount of skill removes.
When should I raise before the flop?
Basic strategy raises the full 4x with any ace, a king with a 5 or better or any suited king, a queen with an 8 or better or suited with a 6 or better, a jack with a 10 or suited with an 8 or better, and any pair of 3s or better, and checks everything else. That is 500 of the 1,326 possible starting hands, or 37.7%. It never makes the 3x raise: a hand worth raising is worth the full amount. The coach grades the decision, not the outcome, so a correct raise can still lose the hand.
Which decisions does the coach grade exactly?
The last one. With all five community cards out, the only cards you cannot see are the dealer's two, so the coach settles your hand against every one of the 990 hands the dealer can hold from the 45 unseen cards and compares the average result of raising with the 2 Antes that folding costs. The two earlier decisions are graded by a published rule set, basic strategy, which is close to optimal but not exact. On the flop it raises 2x with two pair or better, a pair made with at least one of your own cards (except pocket 2s), or four to a flush when your own best card of that suit is a 10 or better.

How this game works

Every hand is dealt from one 52-card deck, shuffled in your browser with a Fisher-Yates shuffle so that every ordering is equally likely. All nine cards are fixed by that shuffle before your first decision, and nothing about the deal depends on your bets, your balance or your results. Hands are ranked by the same seven-card evaluator the poker hand odds tool uses, so the game and the tool cannot rank a hand differently.

The three decisions are graded two ways. The last one, raise 1x or fold, is graded exactly: the coach counts all 990 two-card hands the dealer can hold, pays each one out by this table's rules, and takes the average. Before the flop and on the flop, exact play would mean walking every way the remaining community cards and the dealer's hand can fall, so the coach applies the widely published basic strategy for this game as a fixed rule set instead. It is labeled "basic strategy, close to optimal" wherever it appears, because that is what it is.

The 2.19% house edge is the published figure for this game under optimal play, as a share of the Ante, and it is read from the same table as the house edge comparison, where its source is cited. It is not computed on this page. The expected figure in the session panel is that edge taken on the Antes you have put down, and nothing more.

Limits

  • Basic strategy is simpler than optimal play, so following it costs slightly more than the optimal figure quoted here. Decisions off it cost more again.
  • Optimal play at the last decision uses only what you can see. It is not a way of reading the dealer's cards.
  • Casinos deal this game with side bets, most often one on your own final hand, that this table leaves out. Each has its own house edge. Blind pay tables can also differ from the one used here.
  • Play chips do not feel like money. A full raise that is easy here is harder with a real stake on the table.

This is a practice game for adults. It has no real-money play and links to none. Played for money, this game has a house edge on every hand, and no amount of practice removes it.

Gambling can cause serious harm. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential and open 24/7, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), or chat at ncpgambling.org/chat.

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