Cards, Hands, and Rankings
Card notation, hand classes, made hands, kickers, suits, and the hand-ranking ladder.
Best Five Rule
In No-Limit Texas Hold'em each player has seven cards available: two private hole cards and five community cards. The Best Five rule says you use the single strongest five-card...
Big O
Big O is a five-card Omaha variant, almost always played as pot-limit hi-lo with an eight-or-better qualifier. You receive five hole cards and must use exactly two of them plus...
Boat
A Boat, slang for Full House, is five cards: three of one rank and two of another. Example: 8-8-8-5-5. You form a Boat using any combination of your two hole cards and the five...
Broadway
Definition - goal: clearly define "Broadway" and "Broadway cards" Broadway names the highest possible straight: the Ace-high sequence A-K-Q-J-10. "Broadway cards" are all ranks...
Community Cards
Learn what community cards are in poker, how the flop, turn, and river work, and how every player uses the same board to make the best five-card hand.
Counterfeit
Counterfeiting happens when the board duplicates a rank that one or both of your paired ranks have. That duplication reduces your hand's relative strength. In practice, a hand t...
Dominated
A hand is dominated when it shares a high card with an opponent but has an inferior kicker, the side card that breaks ties. That inferior kicker sharply reduces the dominated ha...
Dominated Hand
A dominated hand occurs when two players share a high card, but one has a worse kicker. The kicker is the unpaired card used to break ties when both pair the same rank.
Effective Nuts
The "nuts" is the absolute best possible hand given the community cards. The "effective nuts" is the best hand realistically possible in a given hand, considering opponent range...
Flush
A Flush is five cards of the same suit that are not in sequence. In hand rankings, a Flush beats a Straight but loses to a Full House, Four of a Kind, and any Straight Flush. A...
Four of a Kind
Four of a Kind (quads) is a five-card hand: four cards of one rank plus an unrelated kicker. The kicker is the highest other card in your five-card hand and breaks ties at showd...
Full House
A Full House is five cards: three of one rank plus two of another. In Hold'em you combine your two private hole cards (your two personal cards) with the five community cards (th...
Hand Class
Classifying starting hands shapes both pre-flop (before community cards) and post-flop (after the flop) decisions. Hand classes tell you which holdings to open, call, 3-bet (re-...
Hand Label
Shorthand names for starting hands like Pocket Aces (AA), Big Slick (AK), and Pocket Tens (TT). Labels speed table talk, hand reviews, and range discussion.
Hand Rankings
Hand rankings determine who wins each pot by identifying the best five-card hand. In No-Limit Texas Hold'em, you receive two private cards (hole cards) and five shared community...
Hand Rankings (Order)
A showdown happens when remaining players reveal cards to determine the winner. In Texas Hold'em you make the best five-card hand from your two hole cards and the five community...
High Card
High Card - Definition, When It Wins, and How to Play It in No-Limit Hold'em
Hole Cards
The two private cards each player is dealt face-down at the start of every hand. They combine with the five community cards to form your best five-card hand.
Kicker
A kicker is the highest unpaired side card that accompanies your main combination. When two players share the same made hand, the kicker breaks the tie. For example, if both pla...
Kickers
A kicker is the extra card that breaks ties between hands with the same rank. It matters when both players have the same pair, two pair, or three of a kind. A showdown is when p...
Made Hand
A made hand is a hand that already has showdown value without needing future cards to complete. Top pair, two pair, sets, straights, and flushes are all made hands; the contrast...
No Pair
A "No Pair" hand - also called "High Card" - occurs when your best five cards make no pair or higher. The hand's strength depends on the highest card among those five.
Nut Advantage
"The nuts" is the best possible hand on a given street, the absolute best flush, straight, or full house on the current board. "Nut advantage" describes which player's range is...
Offsuit
Offsuit means your two hole cards are different suits. Learn what notation like AKo means, why offsuit hands are usually weaker than suited hands, and when strong offsuit holdin...
Omaha (Omaha Hold'em)
Omaha is the four-hole-card poker variant family that uses Hold'em's community-card framework with one strict twist: every showdown hand must use exactly two of your four hole c...
Overpair
An overpair is a pocket pair higher than every card on the flop, the first three community cards. For example, Q♥Q♦ on a 7♣-6♣-2♦ flop is an overpair to the board. If the flop c...
Pair
A pair is two cards of the same rank, either in your hole cards or using a community card. Pocket pairs come from both hole cards matching; board pairs use one hole card with th...
Play the Board
When your best five-card hand is the five community cards and neither hole card improves it. If others are also playing the board, the pot splits.
Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO)
Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) is the four-card Omaha variant played with pot-limit betting. You receive four hole cards instead of two, and you must use exactly two of them plus exactly...
Premium Hand
A "premium hand" is a starting holding with substantially higher winning potential before community cards appear. "Pre-flop" refers to the stage before the flop, the first three...
Quads
Quads, or Four of a Kind, are four cards of the same rank plus a fifth unrelated card called the kicker. The kicker is the extra card that breaks ties when players share the fou...
Rank
Rank - Poker Hand Rankings in No-Limit Texas Hold'em
Royal Flush
A Royal Flush is the five-card combination Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten, all of one suit (for example A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠). A suit is one of the four categories: spades, hearts, d...
Set
A set is three-of-a-kind made by holding a pocket pair and seeing one matching rank on the board. Example: you hold 7♠7♦ and the flop is K♦7♣2♠; you have a set of sevens.
Standard Deck
52 cards across 4 suits and 13 ranks, no jokers. Suits are equal in value; outs and equity math both rest on knowing what is dealt and what remains unseen.
Straight
A Straight is five cards in sequential rank, for example 6-7-8-9-10, suits ignored. Suits don't matter, so 6♠7♦8♣9♥10♠ counts as a Straight. It beats single pairs and two pair,...
Straight Flush
A Straight Flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit. Example: 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠ T♠. It combines two hand types - a straight (sequence of ranks) and a flush (all one suit).
Suit
A suit is one of four categories in a standard 52-card deck: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. Each suit contains 13 ranks, from ace through king. In Hold'em suits have no rankin...
Suited
A suited hand is two hole cards of the same suit. That suit link increases your chance to make a flush and improves post-flop equity. Suited cards also combine with connected bo...
Three of a Kind
Three of a Kind (called "Trips" or a "Set") is a five-card hand: three cards of the same rank plus two unrelated side cards. It beats one pair and two pair in Hold'em standard h...
Top Pair
Top pair occurs when one of your hole cards matches the highest community card, forming a pair. Example: you hold A♦ K♣ and the flop is A♠ 7♦ 2♣ - you have top pair (pair of Ace...
Trips
Trips (three-of-a-kind) are any hand with three cards of the same rank. In Hold'em, trips usually occur when one hole card pairs with two matching community cards. Example: you...
Two Pair
Two Pair consists of two cards of one rank, two cards of another rank, plus a fifth unmatched card called the kicker. You can make it using any combination of your two hole card...
Wheel
The wheel is the lowest straight: A-2-3-4-5, with the Ace acting low. It ranks as any straight, but opponents often overlook low straights while chasing highs or big pairs. The...