The Making of Texas Holdem Hands

As with any poker variant, Texas holdem hands consist of five cards. The ten ranking poker hands from highest to lowest are the royal flush, straight flush, quads, full house, flush, straight, trips, two pairs, one pair and the single high card. Since Texas holdem is a community poker variation where board cards are shared in making each player's best poker hand, the making of Texas holdem hands are fairly simple to understand.

Initially, players obtain two private cards called hole cards. Afterwards, a total of five community or board cards are dealt facing up with betting intervals on each exposure. The first three are revealed on what's called the flop. The fourth card is revealed on what's labeled the turn (or fourth street). And the last of the community cards are shown on the river (or fifth street). That makes a total of seven cards for players to build their Texas holdem hands.

No importance in ranking is placed on suits for Texas holdem hands. That means all suits - diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades - have equal value. What's more, there's no restriction on how a five-card poker hand is made here as long as they're composed of five cards. That's why players may even get Texas holdem hands consisting of all board cards when their hole cards don't contribute to making a better poker hand which consequently results in splitting the pot.

In case of Texas holdem hands of either a pair or two pair ties between players, the kicker is used to determine the pot winner. The kicker is the highest single card (or next high card in case their highest cards are identical) in each of the tied players' best five-card hands.

To illustrate the importance of the kicker, let's say board cards are a two, six, queen, nine, and six. You're holding a jack and queen and your opponent's holding a ten and queen at showdown. Accordingly, your best hand is two pairs - two queens, two sixes and your kicker's your jack. Your opponent's best hand is also two pairs - two queens, two sixes and their kicker's a ten. Because your kicker is higher, you'll be named the winner in this hand.

The making of Texas holdem hands consists of making the best five-card poker hand out of seven cards (two hole and five board or community cards). Since suits have no value and there's no restriction on how the poker hand is made, simply knowing the ten poker hand ranks is enough to get started. But because players share community cards in this poker variant, hand ties are resolved with whoever has the highest kicker in their best poker hand.