# The Deck

Texas Hold'em is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. There are no jokers and there are no wildcards.

The standard poker hand ranking is used to determine the strength of hands. We will go over the poker hands in more detail later, but generally there are three concepts which can make up poker hands.

1. Rank of the cards. The value of each card in a suit is called its rank. Two cards of the same rank would be more commonly called a pair. The cards are ordered from 2 to Ace, so that a pair of 9s is better than a pair of 6s for example, and a pair of Aces is the best pair there is.
2. Cards in sequence. Cards which are in sequence, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 for example, can be used to make straights. When making sequences an Ace is special in that it can be used either for high or for low. So Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a straight, as is 10, J, Q, K, Ace. At the end of play, a sequence only "counts" if five cards are in sequence. Having 3 or 4 cards in sequence does not help your hand. However, these partial sequences--also called connecting cards--are useful early on as they have the potential to improving to a five card sequence.
3. Suits. In general the suits are not ranked--one suit is as good as another. So a pair of Aces ties another pair of Aces no matter what suits each are in. If five cards share the same suit it is called a flush. As with cards in sequence you need all five cards to be the same suit to count. Fewer cards of the same suit--also called suited cards--again are useful early as they have the potential to improve to a flush.