Poker Basics - Best Five Card Hand

Q. What does 'the best five card hand' mean?

A. In almost every form of poker, you're trying to make the best five card hand.

For example, in Hold 'em, you have pocket fives.
The board is King-King-Queen-Queen-Two

What is your hand?
You have Kings and Queens with a Five kicker (your pair of fives no longer matters, just one of the fives as your 'kicker' as it is better than the two on the board).

Seven card stud:
Say you have Ace-King-Queen-Ten-Nine-Eight-Five, all of clubs.
Your opponent has Ace-King-Queen-Ten-Nine of hearts and a Three and a Four of another suit.

Who wins?
It's a chop, as each of your best five card hands are the same: Ace-King-Queen-Ten-Nine. The fact that you have more cards to your flush than your opponent and that your 6th and 7th cards are bigger than his 6th and 7th doesn't matter.

Best five card hand.