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
Broadway is the Ace-high straight A-K-Q-J-10, the highest straight in poker. "Broadway cards" are the five top ranks T, J, Q, K, A that make most strong preflop hands.
Community Cards
The five shared face-up cards in Texas Hold'em: the flop, turn, and river. Every player at the table builds their best five-card hand from those community cards plus their two h...
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 best hand realistically possible in a spot, given the betting line. The theoretical nut may not be the effective nut once preflop and postflop action rules out the combos th...
Five-card draw
The classic draw variant. Each player gets five private cards, swaps any unwanted ones in one draw, then bets and shows down. No flop, turn, or river.
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
The lowest-ranking poker hand. Five unmatched cards with no pair, straight, or flush. The highest card wins; kickers break ties down the line.
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...
Low Hand
A low hand is a five-card hand of unpaired cards all ranked eight or below — the qualifier for the low half of the pot in hi-lo split games like Omaha 8-or-better.
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...
Mixed Games
Mixed games are poker formats that rotate among several variants on a fixed schedule, like HORSE or 8-game. The same table plays a few hands of one game, then switches.
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, written like AKo. The hand can't make a flush together, so most offsuit holdings play a step weaker than their suited cous...
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
The strongest starting hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK. They beat most random holdings preflop, so you raise, build the pot, and try to thin the field.
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
Razz
Seven-card stud played for the lowest hand. The best low is A-2-3-4-5; straights and flushes do not count, and the ace plays low.
Royal Flush
The five-card combination A-K-Q-J-10, all of one suit. The highest-ranking hand in standard poker. It cannot be beaten at showdown; identical royal flushes in different suits chop.
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).
Stud (Seven-Card Stud)
Seven-card stud is the no-community-cards poker variant. Each player gets three down cards plus four exposed cards across five betting rounds, with antes and a bring-in.
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 cards of one rank, two of another, plus a kicker. Beats one pair, loses to trips. Higher pair ranks win first, the kicker breaks the tie when ranks match.
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...