The invention provides an image encryption method for decryption area limitation using a directed area and poker mapping. The method is characterized in that firstly, a stable point of the minimum epiboly is obtained through the minimum epiboly of a decryption position, a random triangle is generated through the stable point, an MD5 value and an SHA-1 value of an image to be encrypted, and a userkey, and intermediate encryption parameters are generated through the direction area of the triangle; an initial value and parameter values of chaotic mapping are generated through the intermediate encryption parameters, and the chaotic mapping is driven to generate a random image with the same size as the image to be encrypted; and poker mapping scrambling and overall xor encryption are carried out on randomly selected lines and rows of the image to be encrypted through the chaotic mapping and the random image, so that an encrypted image is generated. Compared with the conventional method, the method provided by the invention has the advantages that the decryption area is limited, so that the encrypted image can only be decrypted within a specific range; and plain text attributes and therandom image are introduced, so that encryption steps for the different encrypted images are different, and the safety is further improved.