Each player begins by placing his ante in the pot. The dealer then deals one card face down to each player and then one more card face up to each player.
Now the action begins. Starting with the player who has the lowest (or in some cases highest) card showing, players check, bet, fold, call and raise in turn. After each round of betting is complete, the dealer then deals every remaining active player another face up card. There is another round of betting. This continues until each player has a total of five cards – one face down and four face up.
After the action is complete on the last round of betting, all of the players who want to claim the pot reveal their hole cards to determine who has the best poker hand. The highest hand gets the pot. The player to the left of the dealer is the new dealer (the deal rotates clockwise) and a new game begins.