Poker Hand Ranking
There are 52 cards in a pack, and the ranking of the individual cards, from high to low, starts with the ace and ends with a 2. There is no ranking between the suits which means that all cards of the same denomination have the same value no matter whether they are spades, diamonds, clubs or hearts. Queen of clubs will be equal to the Queen of hearts.
There are five cards in a poker hand. The categories of hands are from high to low and naturally any hand in a higher category beats any hand in a lower category. Between hands in the same category the rank of the individual cards decides which is better. Since poker ranks are always based on five cards, in games where a player has more than five cards and selects five to form a poker hand, the balance cards do not play any part in the ranking. Here is a good image of all poker hands to keep around once you know the definitions found in the list below.
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Royal Flush
This is the highest possible poker hand and consists of ace, king, queen, jack, ten all in the same suit. Since all suits are equal, all royal flushes are equal too.
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Straight Flush
is a sequence of five cards of the same suit. Between two straight flushes, the one containing the higher top card is higher. An ace can be counted as low if it is taken as one below two or high if it tops the king. The cards cannot "turn the corner" and thus 4/3/2/A/K is not valid.
Four of a kind
Simply put four same cards of the same rank, four queens, four tens etc. The fifth card can be anything. This combination is often known as "quads", and in some parts of Europe it is called a "poker". Between two 'fours of a kind', the one with the higher set of four cards is higher.
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Full House
This consists of three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank - for example three eights and two tens. When comparing full houses, the rank of the three cards determines which is higher. If the threes of a kind were equal, the rank of the pairs would be the deciding factor.
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Flush
Five cards of the same suit. When comparing two flushes, the highest card determines which is higher. If the highest cards are equal then the second highest card is compared; if those are equal too, then the third highest card, and so on.
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Straight
Five cards of mixed suits in sequence - any card, any color. When comparing two sequences, the one with the higher ranking top card is better. Ace can count high or low in a straight, but not both at once,
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Three of a Kind
Triplets or Trips, these are three cards of the same rank and two other cards. When comparing two threes of a kind the hand in which the three equal cards are of higher rank is better. If you have to compare two threes of a kind where the sets of three are of equal rank, then the higher of the two remaining cards in each hand are compared, and if those are equal, the lower odd card is compared.
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Two Pairs
A pair is two cards of equal rank. In a hand with two pairs, (the two pairs of different ranks) there is also an odd card to make the hand up to five cards. When comparing hands with two pairs, the hand with the highest pair wins, irrespective of the rank of the other cards. If the higher pairs are equal, the lower pairs are compared. Finally, if both pairs are the same, the odd cards are compared.
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Pair
It is a hand with two cards of equal rank and three more cards which do not match each other. When comparing two such hands, the hand with the higher pair is better. If the pairs are equal, compare the highest ranking odd cards from each hand; if these are equal compare the second highest odd card, and if these are equal too compare the lowest odd cards.
High Card consists of no combination listed above. When comparing two such hands, the one with the better highest card wins. If the highest cards are equal the second cards are compared; if they are equal too the third cards are compared, and so on.
Wild Cards
A wild card is a joker or a specific card which is used as a substitute card for any other card as per the player's wishes. If the players so wish, any card decided in advance can be deemed a wild card. The hand ranking would remain the same, only now it would be possible to have five cards of the same rank, of which one will be a joker. Five of a kind is the highest combination and beats even the Royal Flush.
In standard poker there is no ranking of suits. If two hands are identical apart from the suits of the cards then they count as equal. If there are two highest equal hands in a showdown, the pot is split between the players.
Some facts about Low Poker
Typically when playing games where the lowest hand wins, there will some modifications to the rankings. However, these are not universally accepted and must be decided by the players in advance to avoid any misgivings. The most usual rules are: straights and flushes do not count as combinations; aces count as low, below the twos and a hand is always considered to belong to the highest category into which it fits - for example 7-7-7-5-5 counts as a full house. Taking these rules, the best low hand is 5-4-3-2-A, which does not count as a straight in this case. Another factor to take into account is because aces are low, a pair of aces is the lowest, and in this context therefore the best pair, beating a pair of deuces. Other variations include recognizing straights and flushes: in this version the best hand is 6-4-3-2-A of mixed suits and playing with aces always high: in this version (with straights and flushes also counting) the best low hand is 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits.
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