Poker Hands
There is often confusion as to the ranking of poker hands, even to those who have played the game before. However, memorising these is crucial to allow you to evaluate the relative strength of your hand.
The best possible hand is known as a "Royal Straight Flush", and contains Ten through to Ace suited.
Next up is the "Straight Flush". This hand consists of any five-card sequence all of the same suit, for example, Six through to Ten.
The next best possible hand is "Four Of A Kind", and as the name suggests, consists of four cards of the same value. This can be anything from four Two’s, to four Ace’s.
A more frequent poker hand is fourth in line, and is known as a "Full House". This hand consists of "Three of a Kind" combined with a "Pair", such as K, K, K, 10, 10.
Fifth up is the "Flush", which consists of any five cards of the same suit albeit not in any particular sequence.
Sixth is the "Straight", which is the same as the "Straight Flush", though this time the cards are not all of the same suit.
Seventh in the list is the "Three Of A Kind", which has already been mentioned. As the name would suggest, this hand consists of any three cards of the same index.
Next comes "Two Pair", and is again fairly self-explanatory. This hand is made up of two individual "Pairs", and is fairly common in games such as Texas Hold’em.
Ninth in the list is the solitary "Pair", an even more common hand. This consists of a single pair of the same index card.
Finally is the "High Card", which is, as the name would again suggest, the hand with the highest value card.
Although these are the basic hands, other factors do come in to play when deciding on the winning hand. For instance, most hands are ranked on card value, so a pair of Tens would beat a pair of Sixes, for instance. The same method applies for the better hands such as the Straight, whereby Six through to Ten would beat Five through to Nine.
Once you have played poker on a few occasions, these hands will become more and more familiar, and you will be able to view your hand early on and determine its strength. You will also be able to look at what you have in hand, say post-flop, and look ahead to the possible hands you could make on the turn and the river.
Here you can read more about the games: Omaha - Texas Holdem - Seven Card Stud
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