The showdown
Normally, a Texas Holdem game ends with showdown, unless all but one player fold during one of the previous betting rounds. In this case the only remaining player is awarded the pot without revealing his pocket cards. Otherwise, after the last betting round all players open their cards to compare hands and decide the winner. At the showdown, each player presents the best hand of five cards he can form from the seven available cards (2 pocket cards and 5 community cards). In order to form a winning hand, a player can use his 2 pocket cards and any 3 community cards, or his 1 pocket card and 4 community cards, or even none of his cards, but all five community cards. If someone is using just the community cards to form a winning hand, then this player is said to be “playing the board”, but though the community cards are shared by all players at the table, those, who “play the board” can only hope for a share of the pot.
In case if several players hold the strongest, but equal hands, then the pot is equally split among them. Note that if all equal hands are formed by less than five cards, then the winner is decided by the comparison of “kickers” – the cards, which weren’t involved in winning combination. For example, if John has AAKKQ and Mary has AAKKJ, then John wins, because his kicker (Queen) is higher than Mary’s Jack. Also note that in Texas Holdem suit values are irrelevant.