Playing poker has a lot to do with the cards in your hand and how you play with them. Given the huge amount of skill that can be combined with luck to win in poker, it is not considered a chance game like slots, blackjack, or roulette. However, you need to know all poker hands and their hierarchy first, or else your opponents will devour you in minutes.
How do Poker Hands Work?
Although it may seem a little bit unintuitive for newbies, poker hands are not made solely of the cards in your hands. You combine the cards you have with the table or community cards, and that is how you build your poker hand. It must beat the other players’ hands.
The beauty of poker is that you may bluff with the worst set in the poker hands ranking and win if everyone gives up. Also, you do not use all cards on the table, so there is room for a few different variations. That is why it is extremely important to understand how the poker hands hierarchy works.
Therefore, let’s say you have 7 and 9 of the same suit in your hands. Among the community cards, you find A, 6, 8, 10, and Q of a different suit. Considering the ranking of poker hands, you have a Straight hand (6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, disregarding the suit). By creating a strategy to have the best possible combination, you become good at poker.
Can You Improve Your Poker Hand?
The art of poker requires even the most skilled player to know when a bad hand has been dealt. Therefore, you will learn to identify when it is smart to insist and raise bets on a hand that is good or give up when you know that the chances are not good with your hand. In all cases, bluffing is still an existing but risky alternative.
The Best Poker Hands: Ranking Table and Hierarchy
Now that you are better versed in the art of poker, it is important to recognize the best poker hands. Those are poker rules that you may simply memorize. From our own experience, it only takes playing a few times to internalize them entirely:
| Ranking | Name | Example | Probability | Possible Combinations | Composition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Flush | 10♣, J♣, Q♣, K♣, A♣ | 0.000,001,539 | 4 | The exact sequence 10, J, Q, K, and A of the same suit. |
| 2 | Straight Flush | 4♥, 5♥, 6♥, 7♥, 8♥ | 0.000,015,39 | 40 | Five cards in a perfect sequence of the same suit. |
| 3 | Four of a Kind | 5♥, 5♦, 5♣, 5♠, 6♠ | 0.000,240,1 | 624 | Four cards of the same number. |
| 4 | Full House | Q♠, Q♥, Q♣, J♠, J♥ | 0.001,440,58 | 3,744 | Three of a Kind and a Pair in the same hand. |
| 5 | Flush | 3♣, 5♣, 7♣, 9♣, 10♣ | 0.001,965,4 | 5,108 | Five cards of the same suit, regardless of the order. |
| 6 | Straight | 2♦, 3♣, 4♦, 5♥, 6♥ | 0.003,924,65 | 10,200 | Five cards in the deck order and any suit. |
| 7 | Three of a Kind | 5♥, 5♦, 5♣ | 0.021,128,45 | 54,912 | Three cards of the same number. |
| 8 | Two Pair | 2♥, 2♦, J♥, J♦ | 0,047,539,02 | 123,552 | Two different pairs in the same hand. |
| 9 | Pair | J♦, J♣ | 0,422.569.03 | 1,098,240 | Two cards of the same number. |
| 10 | High Card | K♣ | – | – | The highest card in your hand, considering the card ranking. |
Poker Hand Ranking: What Beats What?
The concept of what beats what in poker is easily figured out if you understand the poker hands hierarchy. The ranking table above has all the hands in the exact order of power, so let’s detail it with an example. Starting with the weakest useful hand that you can possibly have:
The community cards give you 2♦, 2♠, 4♦, 6♠, and 7♥. Notice that you do not have any special combination of cards, so you need to go by the highest card (High Card level): K♣.
We know that the poker cards’ ranking is as follows: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A.
If your opponents who did not quit only have the highest card of Q and no other better poker hand, you are a winner. However, with any A in their hand or a simple Pair, you are over.
Now, let’s consider a similar but better scenario in which your hands are the same but with better community cards.
With your cards K♣ and 10♦, you can build a Two Pair hand, which is a pretty nice move: 10♠ + 10♦ & K♥ + K♣. With that hand, you beat any High Card or Pair.
Of course, you are still far away from the best poker hands with that hand. Let’s move on to see a scenario with a much more optimistic turnaround.
In the case that the opponent also has a Two Pair hand, the highest cards prevail. Make sure to memorize that rule, as it always applies in poker.
High Poker Hands
After the Two Pair poker hand, we could win with a Three of a Kind, which is basically any three equal-value cards while disregarding the suit.
However, it is immediately beaten by any Straight hand, which is a high poker hand that is not as tough as the top 5 poker settings. This is how a straight hand is formed:
The community hands, with which you are familiarized already, provide J♣, Q♦, 8♣, 9♥, and 3♥. That forms the sequence of five numbers 9♥, 10♦, J♣, Q♦, and K♣!
Even 8♣ is part of that sequence, but making it from 8 to Q would mean a weaker hand. So, we need to focus on the highest cards.
That is a strong Straight poker hand, only beaten by what is called a Broadway Straight or a 10-to-Ace Straight. The weakest Straight hand would be a Wheel, which is an Ace-to-5 hand.
Remember: Ace takes the place of “1” in the poker card ranking and is useful for making up poker hands that consider the order of the card values.
All Straight hands lose to a Flush, which is made of five cards of the same suit. It is a great poker hand because it is not easily beaten, and since there is no need for a sequence, having an Ace in that flush makes it unbeatable within the same level.
To beat it, you would need a Full House or better. The Full House occurs when you form a Pair and a Three of a Kind with the five cards.
The Best Possible Poker Hands
From the Full House level, you need a Four of a Kind to beat all of the previous possibilities, including a Full House with three Aces, “Aces Full”.
From that point on, the better set of four cards wins, or else you need a Straight Flush or Royal Flush, in that order.
4♣, 5♣, 6♣, 7♣, and 8♣.
If someone has a 6♣, 7♣, 8♣, 9♣, and 10♣, that is a better Straight Flush hand. The last and best possible sequence is no longer a Straight Flush but the Royal Flush instead:
10♣, J♣, Q♣, K♣, and A♣.
With that last sequence, in any given suit, you have an unbeatable poker hand. If you do not fold my mistake, the worst possible scenario is someone else having that rare hand and finishing in a tie. That is highly unlikely to happen!
Now you can put that knowledge into practice by playing poker hands on 20Bet!
Poker Hands Complete Chart: What to Do?
If even simple games like blackjack in live casinos have charts that help you make your next move, poker, with all its complexity, could not be different. If you are a beginner and still clueless as to how to proceed in a game of poker, this complete chart is going to help you out!
In short, it shows each possible hand and what actions to take in each round depending on the previous actions of other players. Of course, there is no guaranteed win script in poker, but it can most certainly help you learn how to play poker hands.
| Your Hand | Previous Actions By Players | Early Position | Middle Position | Late Position | Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA, KK, QQ | All folded | Raise | |||
| Players called | Raise | ||||
| One player raised | Raise | ||||
| JJ, 1010 | All folded | Raise | |||
| Players called | Raise | ||||
| One player raised | Call20 | ||||
| All other pairs (99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22) | All folded | Fold | Call | Raise | Call |
| Players called | Fold | Call | |||
| One player raised | Call20 | ||||
| AK | All folded | Raise | |||
| Players called | Raise | ||||
| One player raised | Raise | ||||
| AQ, AJ, A10 | All folded | Fold | Raise | ||
| Players called | Fold | Raise | Call | ||
| One player raised | Fold | ||||
(suited) A9, A8, A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2 | All folded | Fold | Raise | ||
| Players called | Fold | Call | |||
| One player raised | Fold | ||||
| KQ, KJ, K10, QJ, Q10, J10 | All folded | Fold | Raise | ||
| Players called | Fold | Call | |||
| One player raised | Fold | ||||
| (offsuited) KQ, KJ, K10, QJ, Q10, J10 | All folded | Fold | Raise | ||
| Players called | Fold | Call | |||
| One player raised | Fold | ||||
(suited) 109, 98, 87, 76, 65, 54 | All folded | Fold | Raise | Fold | |
| Players called | Fold | Call | |||
| One player raised | Fold | ||||
| All other hands | All folded | Fold | |||
| Players called | Fold | ||||
| One player raised | Fold | ||||
Notice that the “Your Hand” column shows values that include both cards. Therefore, “109” means a 10 and a 9. Also, being offsuit or the same suit has an impact on some hands, so make sure to pay attention to that detail.
Your actions, such as folding, raising, or calling, are directly impacted by the decisions of other players before you. Again, remember that there is no such thing as guarantees, especially with the possibility of bluffing.
Understanding the Probability of Poker Hands
It is true that poker is considered a skill game instead of a game of chance in the Philippines and many other countries in the world. Therefore, before playing, you might be interested in knowing the real odds of receiving certain poker hands.
First, acknowledge that we play with a 52-card deck and that there are 2,598,960 combinations that may happen when you play poker.
With that information, all that you need to know is the total possible occurrences of a certain poker hand and divide it by the total of possible combinations. Our table below can be used as a shortcut.
Poker Hand Odds Table
| Poker Hand | Possibilities | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 4 | 4/2598960 = 0.00000153907 |
| Straight Flush | 40 | 40/2598960 = 0.00001539 |
| Four of a Kind | 624 | 624/2598960 = 0.0002401 |
| Full House | 3,744 | 3,744/2598960 = 0.00144058 |
| Flush | 5,108 | 5,108/2598960 = 0.0019654 |
| Straight | 10,200 | 10,200/2598960 = 0.00392465 |
| Three of a Kind | 54,912 | 54,912/2598960 = 0.02112845 |
| Two Pair | 123,552 | 123,552/2598960 = 0,04753902 |
| Pair | 1,098,240 | 1,098,240/2598960 = 0,42256903 |
Thanks to bluffing and the actions of other players, you do not need to rely entirely on poker odds to win. That is the concept of relative value better explained next.
You already know the odds, so try your chances on 22Bet.
What Is Absolute Value vs. Relative Value of Poker Hands
The absolute value of your poker hand is what you have learned so far: the highest card within a group beats the rest, and they all respect the ranking of poker hands. However, in a game where you can beat your opponents psychologically and make them fold (give up), there is what we call relative value.
The relative value tells you that your Two Pair is more than simply better than a Pair or a High Card hand. If your opponent gives a sign of less confidence in his hand, that can be a great sign that you may win. Therefore, while the absolute value of a Two Pair hand is questionable in many situations, its relative value skyrocketed in such a scenario.
On the other hand, if your opponent insists on betting, that may be a sign that he has a pretty good hand – or he is just good at bluffing and has money to spend. In that case, it is your confidence that is at play.
The Verdict
Learning how to play poker includes knowing the rules and understanding how poker hands work, including their ranking and relative value. We listed and explained everything you needed in that regard. From now on, it is all about gaining experience, either playing for free or enrolling in real games.
