A hand of hold’em

What you will learn

Identify the known cards and select a legal five-card hand from the seven available at showdown.

Prerequisites: Reading the deck

Two private cards, five shared cards

In Texas hold’em, each player receives two private hole cards. A shared board can contain five community cards. The flop reveals three board cards, the turn adds one, and the river adds the fifth. Betting can end a hand earlier if every opponent folds.

At a showdown, a remaining player makes the best five-card poker hand from their two hole cards and the five board cards. They may use zero, one or two hole cards. This differs from Omaha, which has different card-use requirements.

Known to you is different from known to the table

On the flop you usually know your two hole cards and three board cards: five distinct cards. A standard 52-card deck therefore has 47 cards unseen by you. On the turn you know six, leaving 46 unseen.

The unseen cards include opponents’ cards and any unrevealed or discarded cards. Treating every unseen card as equally likely to arrive is a model that requires no additional information about how those cards were selected. An opponent’s actions can give information about their holdings.

Common mistakes

• Assuming you must use both hole cards in hold’em.
• Counting only board cards as known when calculating your unseen-card total.
• Treating a good five-card board as proof you alone win the pot.

Keep these ideas

• The flop, turn and river reveal 3, 1 and 1 shared cards.
• Choose the best five from seven at showdown; zero hole cards is legal.
• With two hole cards and a flop known, 47 cards are unseen by you.