Poker standard 52-card deck is made up of four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Each suit has thirteen ranks. Ace is the highest-ranking card, then go the king, queen, jack, and ten through deuce, in descending order. But an ace can be used as the lowest-ranking card for a low straight or a low hand.
Hand rankings depend upon the order of probability to appear in the hands of the players. That is why the rarer the hand, the more valuable it is.
These are the rankings in descending order:
style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Royal flush
Simply an ace-high straight flush (more details below) and is best possible hand in poker. There are only four of them – A-K-Q-J-T of the same suit.
Straight flush
Five sequenced cards, all of the same suit, such as 8-7-6-5-4 or Q-J-T-9-8.
Four-of-a-kind
Four-of-a-kind, is made up by a five-card hand with four cards of any rank, plus one unrelated card, such as 7-7-7-7-3. Of course, the higher the rank of these four-of-a-kind, the better the hand.
Full house
Three cards of any given rank and a pair of another. The rank of a full house is determined by the three-card grouping. For example, J-J-J-4-4 is better than T-T-T-5-5
Flush
Any five cards of the same suit make a flush, these cards should not have to be sequenced. If there are two or more flushes at showdown, the winning hand is determined by the rank order.
Straight
Five sequenced cards, not of the same suit. A 9-high straight beats a 6-high straight.
Three-of-a-kind
Three cards of the same rank plus two unrelated cards, also called trips or a set.
Two pair
Two cards of one rank, two cards of another, and one unrelated.
If two players each have two pair, the highest ranking pair held shows the winner. If the same high pair, the rank of the second pair is used to determine the winner. If both hold the same two pair, the rank of the unrelated sidecard determines the winner. If all elements are the same players split the pot.
One pair
One pair is two cards of one rank and three unrelated cards.
No pair
No pair is five unrelated cards. The rank order shows the winner. For example, A-K-8-7-3 and Stan has A-J-8-7-3 then A-K beats A-J.
A very useful thing for most of the players (with the exception of poker gurus) is poker hand calculator. This like having in your hands a tool that tells you ‘Well, this very poker hand that you have at the moment has XYZ chances to win against this hand, and this hand, and this hand.’
Of course, this poker hand calculator has nothing to do with what happens in every particular case. Even if the winning odds are 60% or 70% (which is very nice), that does not guarantee that you are going to win right now.
So, if poker hand calculator is just about stats, then what’s the point of using it?
Because smart poker playes do not make money from one game. A good player is the one who will pass through the bad hands with minimum losses, and through the great hands with maximum gains.
And when we are talking about a big number of game in a row, this is already the field of statistics and statistics is the mother of all chances and odds calculators.
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