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One of the most important parts of the poker rules, which you must learn by memory, refers to the poker hand rankings. It’s very important to have in mind the poker hand rankings all the time so you can make the right moves. Once you have your cards you can start thinking what winning combinations you can get. Once the flop, turn and river are dealt, only knowing the card rankings you can take the best out of each hand. Remember that looking at community cards and analyzing the opponent’s behavior you can sense his hand strength.
There are ten categories of winning hands in poker. These are (in descending order):
- The Royal Flush: consists in suited ten, jack, queen, king and ace. Remember that in poker all suites are equal so all four royal flushes are equal. - The Straight Flush: consists in five suited cards in sequence, for example •A, •1, •2, •3 and •4 is a straight flush. In case of two straight flushes, the one with the highest top card wins the pot. - Four of a kind (quads): consists in four cards of one rank and one card on another rank. The player with the higher rank wins the pot. - Full House: consists in three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank. Comparing the two full houses, the one with the higher three cards rank wins. The suit doesn’t matter so if you have K K K with 2 2 and your opponent has 9 9 9 and A A you won. - Flush: consists in five cards of the same suit. The highest card will determine the winner. If the highest cards are equal then the second highest are compared and in case they are the same rank the comparison continues with the third, fourth and fifth. - Straight: is formed by a sequence of five cards of different suites. The straight with the higher rank card wins. - Three of a kind (triplets or trips): is a poker hand with three cards of the same rank and two unmatched cards. The hand with the higher rank triplets wins but in case the two hands have the same rank triplets, the hand with the higher rank unmatched card wins. - Two pairs: a pair is formed from two cards of the same rank. So a two pairs hand consists in two pairs of different rank and one unmatched card. The hand with the higher pair wins and in case the high pairs are equal the comparison moves to the second pair. In case the two hands have the two pairs equal in rank the higher fifth card will decide the winner. - One pair: consists in two cards of the same rank and three other unmatched cards. The higher rank pair wins and in case the two pairs are equal in rank the highest odd cards will decide the winning hand. - High card: consists in five cards that do not form any of the combinations above. The hand with the higher card wins but in case the higher cards are equal in rank the second higher cards are compared and so on until the winner is decided. In case two hands are equal the pot will be split among the two players. |
