How to Deal Poker: The Dealing Procedure

To deal poker, shuffle and cut the deck, then deal one card at a time, clockwise, starting with the player to the left of the button. In Texas Hold’em each player gets two hole cards and a betting round follows; then you burn one card and deal the flop (three cards), the turn (one), and the river (one), burning again before each. The button moves one seat left after every hand. That’s the entire procedure — the rest of this page is the why behind each step, because most dealing mistakes come from not knowing what a step protects against.

Set the button first

The dealer button is a disc marking the nominal dealer’s seat, which is what determines who posts the blinds and who acts when. In a home game the person holding the button usually shuffles and deals; in a casino a professional dealer runs every hand while the button still rotates purely to track position. After each hand it slides one seat clockwise, so over a session everyone shares the good and bad seats equally.

Shuffle and cut

1. Shuffle thoroughly. Riffle several times so no one can follow cards. Casinos use a fixed sequence — riffle, riffle, box, riffle, cut.
2. Cut the deck. The player to the dealer’s right splits it and reassembles, which stops the dealer from controlling the top card.
3. Protect the bottom card with a cut card so nobody can glimpse the underside of the deck.

Deal the hole cards

Begin with the small blind — the seat immediately left of the button — and deal one card at a time, clockwise, going around twice so every player finishes with two face-down cards. Dealing singly rather than two at a time is deliberate: it’s a long-standing anti-cheating standard. Players can look at their cards but keep them on the table and protected, usually with a chip on top. The button acts last, which is precisely why that seat carries such an edge.

Burn before every board card

Before each community-card stage, the dealer discards the top card face down into the muck. That’s the burn card, and its job is security. If the top card were marked, nicked, or accidentally flashed, burning it wipes out any advantage that knowledge might create. You burn once before the flop, once before the turn, and once before the river — no exceptions.

The three flop cards are turned as a group, not one at a time. By the river, five community cards sit on the table and each player builds their best five-card hand from the seven cards available to them.

The full sequence, hand by hand

Strung together, one complete deal looks like this:

1. Button set; blinds posted.
2. Shuffle, cut.
3. Deal two hole cards each, one at a time, clockwise from the small blind.
4. Preflop betting round.
5. Burn, deal flop; betting.
6. Burn, deal turn; betting.
7. Burn, deal river; final betting.
8. Showdown, award pot, muck cards.
9. Move the button one seat left; repeat.

Keeping a home deal clean

A few habits separate a smooth home game from a chaotic one:

• Deal low and flat so cards slide instead of flipping — an exposed card can force a reshuffle or a penalty at some tables.
• Announce the action (“flop coming,” “burn and turn”) to keep the table in rhythm.
• Keep the muck separate from live cards; the moment a card touches the muck it’s dead and can’t come back.
• Count the deck whenever something feels off — 52 cards, no jokers in standard poker.
• Handle an exposed card by your house rule immediately, rather than dealing on and hoping nobody saw.
• Rotate the deal if nobody wants to house-deal all night, so no single person controls every shuffle.

Dealing is the mechanical spine under every other rule. Get the deal clean and the betting rules and the button’s movement carry the rest of the hand. Run the sequence a few times and you’ll deal a smooth Texas Hold’em game on autopilot; the how-to-play hub has everything that happens beyond the deal.