| ABCs of Poker Hand Ranking |
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ABCs of Poker Hand Ranking When learning poker, start from the beginning. You should learn about the poker hand ranking first before you plunge into the thick of poker gaming. Royal flush is the highest combination. This refers to a hand composed of the five highest cards that all belong to the same suit. Thus, if you have A, K, Q, J, and T and all of them are diamonds, you have a Royal Flush. Another combination that you must remember is the Four of a Kind. This is the combination of four cards that have the same face value. For instance, if you have four tens, you have a Four of a Kind. Of course, a 4-ten hand loses against a 4-aces hand since an Ace Four-of-a-Kind is much more valuable than a Ten Four-of-a-Kind. There is also the Full House, which is a combination of three equal cards and another pair of cards. An example would be a hand with 3 Kings and 2 Queens. Another (albeit weaker) Full House hand is one with 3 Tens and 2 Jacks. After the Full House comes the Flush. This combination is comprised of five cards that all belong to the same suit but whose values are not numerically consecutive. An example is a hand with 5, 8, 7, T and J – all of them hearts. Then, there’s the Straight. This time, all cards are numerically consecutive but they don’t all belong to the same suit. An example is a 6 of spades, a 5 of diamonds, a 4 of hearts, a 3 of diamonds, and a 2 of clubs. There is the Three of a Kind. This is a poker hand with three cards having the same value, regardless of suit, and two unpaired kicker cards. It’s a just a Full House without the pair, really. Then, there’s the Two Pair and A Pair. In poker hand ranking, Two Pair means you have two sets of pairs (e.g. 2 Tens and 2 Jacks) plus an extra card. A Pair combination means you have a pair of cards (e.g. 2 Tens) and three random cards. Finally, there’s the High Card. If you don’t have any of the above combinations, this is your default. Your High Card would be the card that has the highest value in your hand. Thus, in a hand with A, 8, 9, 6 and 4 (random suits), the High Card would be your Ace and you win over a hand that has no other combination and whose highest card is a King or lower. |
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