A GUIDE TO POKER HANDS AND RANKINGS

One of the fundamental - and arguably most difficult to remember – concepts with regards to poker is the ‘hand hierarchy’, that is, the ‘worth’ of any combination of cards, and chiefly which hand beats which other hand. Basically, players must construct a hand of 5 five cards (depending on the variant of poker which is being played), and the player that has the hand of most value, as determined by this set of rankings, wins the round. Some common factors which alter the strength of a hand include having multiple cards of the same rank, all the cards being from the same suit, or having all the cards with consecutive values e.g. 3, 4,5,6,7. Of course, the likelihood of winning is all based on the probability arising from the dealing of the cards from the deck

The following are the commonly accepted pokers hands, in order of descending value;

• Straight Flush – The rarest and therefore most valuable of all the hands, the straight flush is a hand that contains five cards in sequence, all of the same suit, for example 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, all of hearts.

• Four of a Kind - Four of a kind is a poker hand that contains four cards of one rank, and an unmatched card of any other rank, such as 4, 4, 4, 4, J. In the event of two people acquiring four of a kind, the highest ranking wins.

• Full House - A full house is a hand that contains three matching cards of one rank, and two matching cards of another rank, such as 3, 3, 3, 8, 8 of any suit. If two players have a full house, the one with a set of three that ranks higher wins.

• Flush - A flush is a poker hand such that contains five cards of the same suit, not in rank sequence, and between two flushes, the highest ranking card of each is compared to determine the winner.

• Straight - A straight is a poker hand that contains five cards of sequential rank, but in more than one suit, such as 8, 9, 19, J, Q of any suit.

After these hands it descends into three of a kind, two pair and one pair, which are self-explanatory.