The Texas Hold'em Community Cards
Texas hold'em is a poker variation that uses the player's two hole cards and five community cards to make a ranking poker hand. The community cards are placed on the poker table in this order: three cards at the "flop", one card at the "turn", and the last card at the "river". A round of betting goes down at each of these phases and at what's called the "pre-flop". The pre-flop is when the players' hole cards are dealt but before the community cards are revealed.
Community cards are so named because everybody else in the game can use them to supplement their hole cards to make the best hand combination. The sequence of showing the community cards and the interim betting in between adds anticipation to find out how a player's cards can potentially build up at showdown. The showdown is when remaining players compare hands to win the pot.
After the hole cards are dealt and the first round of betting ends, the flop has the most affect on the game. Three cards are shown facing up and more often than not, the supportive cards will come up then and not at the turn or at the river. This calls for the term, a "flopped hand", when the only improvement came from the flop.
The turn and the river, ordinarily but not always, have less impact on the game. Then again, when one has the potential of making a great hand (like a full house or a straight flush) with these last two community cards, that player's said to be "on the draw". This means that the player's just a card away from a high ranking poker hand and hopefully, it'll come up at the turn or the river.
Texas hold'em poker mechanics include dealing players two hole cards that are private to them and dealing five other community cards that everyone can see and use. The flop is when three of the five community cards are shown on the table. The turn is when the fourth card is shown and the river is when the fifth (and last) community card is revealed. When a player's hand improves at the flop and not on the last two phases, it's called a flopped hand. And when a player's a card away from a high poker hand after the first three community cards are shown, that player's on the draw. That means, the makings of that high poker hand depends on either the turn or the river.