How Many Cards Are Dealt in Poker?

The short answer: two, five, or more depending on the game

If you sit down at a poker table for the first time, the number of cards in front of you is the quickest way to tell what game you are playing. Depending on the variation, players typically receive either two or five cards, and the rest of the deck either stays in the dealer's hand or lands in the middle of the table as shared cards¹.

Some variations make changes to the standard deck¹:

• Some add jokers.
• Some treat aces as high or low.
• Some introduce wild cards.

But the standard deck is the baseline you can assume unless a game tells you otherwise¹.

Here is the count at a glance:

The rest of this page walks through each one, so you know exactly what to expect before the first card comes out.

Texas Hold'em and Omaha: hole cards per player

These two are the games you will meet most often, in card rooms and online, and they differ mainly in how many private cards you start with.

In Texas Hold'em, the dealer distributes two cards to each player, face down. These are your hole cards, and they are the only cards nobody else can see². In Texas Hold'em, each player is dealt two hole cards, whereas in Omaha they are dealt four pocket cards¹¹. The rest of the action happens on the board: five community cards dealt face up in the middle, used by everyone. So while seven cards end up on the table in total, only two of them belong to you alone¹².

Omaha works the same way with one change: Omaha players receive four hole cards instead of the two they are dealt in Texas Hold'em¹³. The dealer distributes four personal hole cards to each player, face down, and then the same five community cards follow³. With four cards per hand, there are 16,432 possible starting hands you may be dealt, which is why Omaha feels like a bigger, busier game than Hold'em³.

One rule catches out new Omaha players: you must use exactly two of your four hole cards and exactly three from the board to make your final five-card hand. You cannot play the board alone, and you cannot use one, three or four of your own cards. In Hold'em you can use zero, one or two of your hole cards, so the two games reward different habits.

If you want the full betting structure for either, see Texas Hold'em rules and Omaha poker rules. For a side-by-side of the two, Texas Hold'em vs Omaha covers the differences.

Five-card games: draw, Caribbean Stud and video poker

A whole family of poker games deals five cards to each player. They look similar at the deal and then diverge completely.

5-card draw. There can be between two and six players at the table, and 5-card draw poker is played with a standard 52-card deck⁴. Each player receives five face-down hole cards. There is a betting round before the remaining active players can discard and replace cards, and the five-card draw has four rounds of betting in total¹³. Most of the time, the draw is limited to three cards, though some tables allow exchanging all five of them⁴. You can also stand pat, meaning you keep all five cards as dealt¹³.

Caribbean Stud. Once bets have been made, the player and the dealer receive five cards each. All cards are distributed face down with one dealer card exposed⁵. It is based on the rules of 5-Card Stud and pits you against the house, with a possible 100 to 1 top payout on the side bet⁵. In Caribbean Stud Poker, five cards are dealt to each dealer and player, and the one with the higher rank hand wins¹⁴. You make an Ante bet, then either fold and surrender the ante or make a double bet to continue¹⁴.

NUSTAR Stud Poker. A regional variant you will see in the Philippines: you will be dealt five cards face down, and the game plays out against the dealer rather than other players¹⁵.

Video poker. The machine deals you five cards from a virtual deck. You can hold anywhere from 0 to 5 cards before the draw, and the cards you do not hold are replaced once⁶. Your final five-card hand is then paid against the paytable. There is no dealer and no other player, so the only decision is which cards to keep.

5 Card Poker (dealer game). You and the dealer get five cards each, with one dealer card facing up¹⁶. The game can be played by 2 to 6 players, and there is an added option of exchanging a maximum of 2 cards each for the price of an Ante bet, forfeiting the jackpot bonus¹⁶.

Three Card Poker: three cards, one 52-card deck

Three Card Poker strips the game down to its shortest form. The dealer gives three cards to each player and themselves, and all cards are dealt face down⁷. Three Card Poker is played with one standard 52-card deck, and jokers are excluded⁸. It is a version of poker using a single deck of 52 cards that gives you three different ways to play¹⁷.

Because each hand consists of only three cards, Three Card Poker rankings are different from standard poker⁷. The order runs straight flush, three of a kind, straight, flush, pair, high card. A straight beats a flush here, which is the reverse of the five-card games, and that trips up players who have only played Hold'em.

The deal itself is quick. In the Macau version of the game, three cards are dealt to every betting position and three to the dealer¹⁸. The equipment is a single deck of 52 playing cards, a dealing shoe and a cut card, and an automatic shuffling machine¹⁸. You look at your three cards and decide whether to fold or make a Play bet. If the player has the higher poker hand, both their Ante and Play bets pay even money, so a winning bet of $1 returns $2⁷.

Three Card Poker is one of the easiest table games to try as a visitor, because the decision is a single fold or play and the hand is over in seconds. If you want the wider family of games played against the dealer rather than other players, see casino poker games against the house.

Pai Gow Poker: seven cards each, seven hands dealt

Pai Gow Poker is the seven-card game. During a round, each player and the dealer is dealt seven cards that must be arranged into two poker hands⁹. The game is played using a 53-card deck that includes one joker⁹. Those seven cards must be arranged into two poker hands: one with five cards, and one with two⁹.

The deal itself is unusual. The house dealer deals the cards into seven hands of seven cards, and six of those hands go to players while one goes to the player/dealer¹⁰. A Pai Gow Poker table has positions for six players and a dealer's area⁹. Those seven piles take up 49 cards in all, so four cards from the 53-card deck are never dealt out, and you are simply assigned one of the seven piles.

Your job is to split your seven cards into a five-card high hand and a two-card low hand, then compare both against the dealer's matching hand. You win only if both of your hands beat both of the dealer's. If you set your hands so that the two-card hand ranks higher than the five-card hand, your hand is fouled and your wager is forfeited to the extent that money covers¹⁰. That is the one mistake to avoid: the two-card hand must always be the weaker of the two.

The game is a seven-card poker game played against the dealer, and you set a low hand of 2 cards and a high hand of 5 cards to try to beat the dealer¹⁹. Because pushes are common and the pace is slow, Pai Gow is often the game people pick when they want a long session at low stakes. If you have only played Hold'em, the split-hand decision is the new skill to learn.

Chinese Poker: 13 cards split into three hands

Chinese Poker is the biggest deal in common play. Each player is dealt 13 cards, which the player arranges into three separate poker hands: one three-card hand in front and two five-card hands¹⁰. The game is played with two, three, or four players¹⁰. It uses a standard 52-card deck, with no jokers or wild cards¹⁰.

To receive a hand, you must have at least three betting units for the particular game in which you are playing¹⁰. That is a table minimum rather than a card count, but it matters because Chinese Poker is usually played for a set stake per point rather than a pot.

The three hands are set in order: the front three-card hand must be weaker than the middle five-card hand, which must be weaker than the back five-card hand. Get the order wrong and the hand is fouled. Because you are arranging thirteen cards into three hands, the game is as much about sorting and comparing as it is about betting.

There is also an open-face version. One tournament variant is played with one deck of 54 cards including 2 jokers, using the Ultimate rule, and advances by topping a field of 27 players²⁰. That is a tournament format rather than the standard cash game, but it shows how far the thirteen-card idea can be stretched. For the wider family, see poker variants explained.

How many cards are in a poker deck?

The standard answer is 52: thirteen ranks in each of four suits, with all suits equal in value¹. That is the deck behind Texas Hold'em, Omaha, 5-card draw, Caribbean Stud, Three Card Poker and Chinese Poker.

Two common exceptions are worth knowing. Pai Gow Poker uses a 53-card deck that includes one joker⁹. And some games multiply the deck: fast action hold'em poker is played with six standard 52-card decks²¹. When multiple decks are in play, the same card can appear more than once, which changes how you read the board.

Some variations also add jokers, treat aces as high or low, or introduce wild cards, but the single 52-card deck is the default for most forms of poker¹. If you are unsure what you are sitting down to, the deck size and the number of cards in front of you will tell you.