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1. What have you hit?

In this article

• Three types of hands
• We refer to two pair and better hands as monsters
• We call incomplete/unfinished hands draws

You entered the pot with a good hand in accordance with the starting hands chart, or perhaps were in the big blind, and did not have to invest any more money to see a flop. So far, so good. Now the first three community cards, also known as the flop, are dealt. The first question to ask is: what hand have I made?

There are basically three types of hands - hands which are already good, hands which could become a good hand if certain cards come in the future, and worthless hands. We call these made hands, draws (or incomplete hands) and trash.

• Made Hands

We give this name to those hands which are already very strong and most likely the currently best hand. A three of a kind, for example, is almost certainly the best and will not need to improve to win, but also pairs fall into this category. These hands do not necessarily have much of a chance to improve.

• Unfinished Hands / Draws

Hands which have yet to improve, but are still a good hand. For instance, suppose you have two spades. You do not hit a pair or something better on the flop, but two of the flop cards include two spades. If either the turn or the river is a spade, you will have a flush. We call this hand a flush draw.

• Hands with little value / Trash

A trash hand is neither a good made hand, nor does it have much chance of improving to the best hand. You will rarely win a showdown with such hands, but you may still win with a bluff.

The following chapters will show you the various possible card combinations. These will ultimately decide how you play, so you should just memorize these.