Your cards and the board

Two cards belong to you.

You receive two private cards. Poker players call these hole cards.

At the table, your cards are at the bottom. Other players cannot use your private cards.

The middle cards belong to everyone.

Up to five cards appear face up in the middle. This is the board, also called the community cards. Everyone still in the hand can use those same cards.

Choose your best five, not all seven.

At the end, choose the strongest five-card combination from your two cards and the five on the board. You may use both private cards, just one or neither. In this example, your ace joins the two aces on the board to make three of a kind.