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Poker Hand Rankings and Percentages
Poker Hand Rankings and Percentages
Anytime you play a poker game you need to understand that hands that will get you the wins. In poker you have 9 hands that are possible to make a win and earn you the pot. Of those nine hands they are ranked for how difficult it is to obtain them and therefore the points that you earn for having them. To explain this last statement better we need to look at the nine possible hands.
It begins with a straight flush in which you have all the same suit and cards in order. For example 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 is a straight flush as long as it is all in one suit such as clubs. Next in the ranking order is the four of a kind. This will be all four suits with one card numeral or face. In this case four aces, and a fifth card would be four of a kind.
A full house is two cards of the same value and three cards of the same value. In other words two tens and three sevens would be a full house, and the suits don’t matter. A flush is any five cards of the same suit. It could be a 2, 4, 6, 9, and 10 of diamonds.
A straight is a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of any suit as long as it is in order. In other words you can’t have 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 for a straight. Next in the ranking is a three of a kind, which is like a four of a kind only you need three cards not four. Two pair is when you have two sets with like values. Two tens and Two deuces with a fifth card would be a two pair.
A pair of course is any two cards that are alike in value and the suit doesn’t matter. The last hand is by high card. The high cards are 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2. As an example say you have an ace, queen, 7, 5, and 2. In other words the hand is junk except for the fact that you have a high card in it. If all other players have junk and you have a higher high card you win.
There are variations on the hands that you can have. We have just outlined the main nine hands. In some variations of poker you have a royal flush in which the flush is all about having the face cards such as ace, king queen, jack, and ten in your hand in the same suit. So before you can understand hand rankings fully you need to know what game you are playing and what is considered the highest hand in that game as well as the lowest. Some games will not offer anything lower than a pair of jacks as the lowest hand to win with.
The higher the hand is ranked the lower the percentage is for it to appear. To fully understand percentages you need to look at a statistical analysis of what cards appear more frequently in a deck of 52.
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