Players look at their hole cards and flop cards, start to form a strategy for potential poker hands, and then place their bets. Next comes the flopĪfter all of the preflop bets, the dealer places the first three community cards on the table. The player to the left of the big blind places their bet first, followed by each remaining player going clockwise.
Once the players look at their hole cards, the preflop betting round begins. Those first two cards are also referred to as each player’s hole cards. This is when the dealer distributes two face down cards to each player. In games like Texas Holdem, the very first round is called the preflop round. Before the game can officially begin, the small blind and big blind place their mandatory bets. The preflop round is the first betting roundĪs you may have already noticed, all poker game variants that use community cards feature several game phases and each one has its own name. The preflop in poker is the round of the game that occurs before the dealer puts down the first three community cards.
