The value of a starting hand can change dramatically after the flop. Regardless of initial strength, any hand can flop the nuts—for example, if the flop comes with three 2s, any hand holding the fourth 2 has the nuts. Conversely, the flop can undermine the perceived strength of any hand—A♣ A♥ would [...]

When evaluating a hand before the flop, it’s useful to have some idea of how likely the hand is dominated. A dominated hand is a hand that is beaten by another hand (the dominant hand) and is extremely unlikely to win against it. Often the dominated hand has only a single card [...]

When facing two opponents, for any given starting hand the number of possible combinations of hands the opponents can have is

(50/2)(48/2) = 1,381800

hands. For calculating probabilities we can ignore the distinction between the two opponents holding A♠ J♥ and 8♥ 8♣ and the opponents holding 8♥ 8♣ and A♠ J♥. [...]

For any given starting hand, there are 50 × 49 ÷ 2 = 1,225 hands that an opponent can have before the flop. (After the flop, the number of possible hands an opponent can have is reduced by the three community cards revealed on the flop to 47 × 46 ÷ 2 [...]

The probability of being dealt various starting hands can be explicitly calculated. In Texas Hold ‘em, a player is dealt two down (or hole) cards. The first card can be any one of 52 playing cards in the deck and the second card can be any one of the 51 remaining cards. [...]

In poker, the probability of many events can be determined by direct calculation. This article discusses how to compute the probabilities for many commonly occurring events in the game of Texas hold ‘em and provides some probabilities and odds[1] for specific situations. In most cases, the probabilities and odds are approximations [...]

Joe Hachem, winner of 2005 World Series of Poker main event
In 1998, the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton gave moviegoers a romantic view of poker as a way of life. Texas hold ‘em was the main game played during the movie and the no-limit variety was described, [...]

Starting hand terminology and notation
There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck. However, since suits are only relevant for flushes, many of these hands are indistinguishable from the point of view of pre-flop strategy. In fact, considering suits to be equivalent [...]

The descriptions below assume a familiarity with the general game play of poker, and with poker hands.
Objective
Like most variants of poker, the objective of Texas hold ‘em is to win pots, where a pot is the sum of the money bet by oneself and other players in a hand. A pot is [...]

Texas hold ‘em (also hold’em, holdem) is the most popular of the community card poker games. It is also the most popular poker variant played in most casinos in the United States. Its no-limit betting form is used in the main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), as seen on [...]