Poker Hands: Values, Hierarchy, and Rankings
Online poker is one of the most popular games in online casinos and its worldwide popularity is unbeatable. However, when played for real money, poker is more difficult than online pokies or keno as there are several rules to memorise. Other aspects that many beginners find scary are the different poker variations that exist and the types of poker hands since they have slightly different orders and values for some games.
The key point of any poker game is to learn the hands and understand the beating hierarchy. Top variations such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or Seven Card Stud, use the Traditional High Poker rankings. However, some other variations such as Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, and Stud Hi/Lo use the so-called Ace to Five low hand rankings for low hands. The third category, including less-popular variations such as 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw, uses the Deuce to Seven (Kansas City) lowball rankings for low hands.
TRADITIONAL HIGH POKER HANDS
Straight Flush
A combination of any five cards in numerical order, all of the identical suit.
If there is a tie, then the highest rank at the top of the sequence wins. The straight flush not necessary should be made of numerical cards.
The best possible straight flush is known as a Royal Flush made of an ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of the same suit. A royal flush is considered the most powerful hand.
Four of a Kind
Four cards of the same rank and one additional card is known as a Kicker.
Full House
Three cards of the same rank and two cards of different but matching ranks.
Flush
Five cards of the same suit.
Straight
Five cards in ranking order, but not of the same suit.
Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank and two unrelated side cards.
Two Pair
Two cards of a matching rank, two cards of a different matching rank, and one side card.
One Pair
Two cards of a matching rank and three random side cards.
High Card
Any hand that does not qualify under the category listed above.
DEUCE TO SEVEN
Deuces Wild is a popular variation of draw poker. The most significant differences to traditional poker are the following: all kinds of twos are called the ‘wild’ cards; sometimes Jokers are also included as a wild card; the wild cards aren’t lowering the total value of a hand.
The Deuce to Seven Lowball hand rankings are the exact opposite of the traditional ‘high’ hand rankings. Therefore, the worst possible hand in traditional high poker (seven-five high, with different suits), becomes the best possible hand in deuce to seven lowball (a ‘perfect seven’ low or ‘wheel’). Also, aces always play as a high card.
However, there are no qualifier cards or hands for low in Deuce to Seven poker variations. Here’s an example, if a player somehow gets lower cards, then such a hand is considered a winning one.
Seven Low
If there is a tie,
the second lowest card is considered as winner. Thus, 7-5-4-3-2 beats 7-6-5-3-2 (a ‘Seven-Five low’ is better than a ‘Seven-Six low’).
Eight Low
If there is a tie,
the second lowest card wins the pot. When players have the same second lowest cards, then the value of other cards is considered to break the tie.
Nine Low
If there is a tie,
the second lowest card wins the pot. When players have the same second lowest cards, then the value of other cards is considered to break the tie.
Ten Low
If there is a tie,
the second lowest card wins the pot. When players have the same second lowest cards, then the value of other cards is considered to break the tie.
GUIDELINES FOR PLAYING TRADITIONAL HANDS: WHAT BEATS WHAT IN POKER
Poker is considered more as a game of skills than a game of luck, as a result, a key point of winning is to learn rules and memorise hands.
Honestly, it’s not enough to just remember the hands because the scheme of what combination can beat other combinations is quite tricky. Whether you will play real or online poker, the first step towards learning how to play this card game is to learn the poker hand rankings. The most common poker variations are based on the traditional poker hands, so once you’ll learn the hierarchy, you are off to play in different online casinos and try different poker games.
Hand rankings in poker correspond to the likelihood of making such hands.
- A royal flush is a rare hand and it’s difficult to form, so there is no doubt that it beats the hands made of more common combinations.
- A regular straight flush with any five consecutive cards of the same suit is a little less rare, four of a kind occurs slightly more frequently, and so on.
- A full house hand is always ranked higher than a flush. That’s because this hand comes just a little less frequently than a flush.
However, poker is also a game of luck. That means you can win even if you have a bad hand. The way to stay in a game for a longer time is bluffing while making your opponent fold before the river. Bluffing strategies are extremely important for the variations with community cards.
ODDS OF POKER HANDS
Poker Hands | No. of Ways | Probability |
| Royal Flush | 4 | 0.000154% |
| Straight Flush | 36 | 0.00139% |
| 4-of-a-Kind | 624 | 0.0240% |
| Full House | 3,744 | 0.1441% |
| Flush | 5,108 | 0.1965% |
| Straight | 10,200 | 0.3925% |
| 3-of-a-Kind | 54,912 | 2.1128% |
| Two Pair | 123,552 | 4.7539% |
| One Pair | 1,098,240 | 42.2569% |
| High Card | 1,302, 540 | 50.1177% |
RELATIVE VALUE AND ABSOLUTE VALUE
Although the hierarchy of traditional poker hands is fixed and can’t be changed, the actual value of a hand varies according to the game flow. The correlation between game and dealt can be perceived in two ways: absolute value (traditional value of poker hands) or a relative value (the value of the hand in particular moment of the game). Under some circumstances, the absolute value of your hand may not be great but its relative value may be.
For example, you have two pairs that are considered a good and valuable hand itself. However, if your opponent has a flush, the value of your two pairs decreases.