Hand (poker)
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sv:Pokerhand A hand in poker can mean any of the following:
- A unit of play consisting of a deal, one or more rounds of betting, and possibly a showdown.
- A set of five cards with a certain value. For example, the hand A♥ 10♥ 9♥ 5♥ 3♥ is a "flush", a hand that is valuable because each card is of the same suit.
- A player's set of non-communal cards.
The second and third definitions are often used interchangeably. For example, in Texas hold 'em, a player holding A♣ K♠, with a board of A♥ K♣ K♦ 7♠ 3♦, might say, "my hand is ace-king". On the other hand, his best 5-card hand is the K/A full house.
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Ranking of hands
Most commonly, the ranking of hands is according to the hierarchy shown below, in order of descending value. Hands are classified in the highest-value category for which they qualify. A poker hand consists of precisely 5 cards, so "three pair" or "6-straight" are not valid poker hands. There are 2,598,960 distinct 5 card hands (including suit). There is no ranking of suits in poker hands: a flush consisting of AK753 of spades is identical in rank with AK753 of clubs, and the two hands would split the pot.
- Straight flush: Five cards in sequence and of the same suit. Example: Q♦ J♦ 10♦ 9♦ 8♦
- An ace-high straight flush is referred to as a Royal flush, but is not generally considered to be a distinct hand. Example: A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠
- Four of a kind: A hand with four cards of the same rank. Example: 4♣ 4♦ 4♥ 4♠ 9♥
- Full house: A hand with three cards of one rank and two of another. Example: 8♣ 8♦ 8♠ K♥ K♠
- Flush: Five cards of the same suit. Example: K♠ J♠ 8♠ 4♠ 3♠
- Straight: Five cards in sequence. (The ace can be considered higher than the king, or lower than the two.) Example: 5♦ 4♥ 3♠ 2♦ A♦
- Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank. Example: 7♣ 7♥ 7♠ K♦ 2♠
- Two pair: Two cards of one rank, two of another. Example: A♣ A♦ 8♥ 8♠ Q♠
- One pair: Two cards of the same rank. Example: 9♥ 9♠ A♣ J♠ 4♥
- No pair: Also known as a high card hand. The following example is considered "Ace high." Example: A♦ 10♦ 9♠ 5♣ 4♣
The hands are ranked in this order because of their relative probabilities, with rarer hands ranking above more common hands. See also Poker probability.
An additional hand type, five of a kind, exists when wild cards are used. Five of a kind outranks the straight flush (and therefore the royal flush too) making it the most valuable hand.
General rules
The following general rules apply to evaluating poker hands, whatever set of hand values are used.
- Individual cards are ranked A (high), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (low).
- Individual card ranks are often used to evaluate hands that contain no pairs or other special combinations, or to rank the kickers of otherwise equal hands. The Ace is ranked low in ace-to-five and ace-to-six lowball games.
- Suits have no value.
- The suits of the cards are mainly used in determining whether a hand fits a certain category (specifically the Flush and Straight flush hands). In most variants, if two players have hands that are identical except for suit, then they are tied and split the pot. Sometimes a ranking called high card by suit is used for randomly selecting a player to deal.
- A hand always consists of five cards.
- In games where more than five cards are available to each player, hands are ranked by choosing some five-card subset according to the rules of the game, and comparing that five-card hand against the five-card hands of the other players. Whatever cards remain after choosing the five to be played are of no consequence in determining the winner. (For example, when comparing identical full houses, there are no "kickers".)
- Hands are ranked first by category, then by individual card ranks.
- That is, even the minimum qualifying hand in a certain category defeats all hands in all lower categories. The smallest Two pair hand, for example, defeats all hands with just One pair or No pair. Only between two hands in the same category are card ranks used to break ties.
- Full houses are ranked first by three of a kind, then by the pair.
- That is, the full house 77766 is ranked higher than 555QQ, even though the highest rank appearing in the latter (Q) is higher than 6 or 7.
- The order in which cards are dealt is unimportant.
- For ease of explanation, hands are shown here neatly arranged, but a poker hand has the same value no matter what order the cards are received in.
Interestingly, the royal flush is the only rank that has no effect on relative hand values. That is, if there were no such thing as a "royal flush", then every royal flush would still qualify as a straight flush, and would still outrank every other hand in poker (including the other straight flushes)
Some people also believe (at least the most educated poker scholars), that 2 (OVER)-pairs should beat 3 of a kind in Texas Hold em. When, and only when, 2 of the 3-of-a-kind cards are found on the community. In other words...player A holds 37, player B holds KQ. Community is 33KQ8. Player B would win, due to the fact that they have 2 OVER-pairs. On the other hand, if player A holds 33 and B holds KQ, and the community is 3KQ82, then player A would win. Player B still has two OVER-pairs, but player A only used one of their 3-of-a-kind cards from the community. This is an attempt at good players not having fish suck out on them as much. This rule would be most beneficial in a limit-structured game, due to the fact that players cannot protect their quality starting hands as well as they can in pot limit or no limit.
Variations
Some games called lowball or low poker are played where players strive not for the highest ranking of the above combinations but for the lowest ranking hand. There are three methods of ranking low hands, called Ace-to-five low, Deuce-to-seven low, and Ace-to-six low. The ace-to-five method is most common. A sub-variant within this category is high-low poker, in which the highest and lowest hands split the pot (with the highest hand taking any odd chips if the pot does not divide equally). Sometimes straights and/or flushes count in determining which hand is highest but not in determining which hand is lowest (being reckoned as a no-pair hand in the latter instance), so that a player with such a holding can win both ways and thus take the entire pot.
Certain variants use hands of only three cards, either high or low. Three-card low hands can be ranked by any of the three methods above, although with three cards they become ace-to-three (rather than ace-to-five), deuce-to-five, and ace-to-four. The ace-to-three method is the most common, just as the ace-to-five method is most common method for five cards. Three-card high hands are ranked in one of two ways: either with or without straights and flushes. Without them (which is the most common, and used such games as Chinese poker), the hands are simply no pair, one pair, and three of a kind. If you add straights and flushes, the order of hands should be changed to reflect the correct probabilities: no pair, one pair, flush, straight, three of a kind, straight flush. This order is used, for example, in Mambo stud.
Some poker games are played with a deck that has been stripped of certain cards, usually low-ranking ones. For example, the Australian game of Manila uses a 32-card deck in which all cards below the rank of 7 are removed, and Mexican stud removes the 8s, 9s, and 10s. In both of these games, a flush ranks above a full house, because having fewer cards of each suit available makes flushes rarer.
Some games add one or more unconventional hands, or have special exceptions to the rules above. For example, in the game of Pai gow poker as played in Nevada, a Wheel (5-4-3-2-A) ranks above a king-high straight, but below an ace-high straight. This is not the case in California, where the nearly identical game is played under the name Double-hand poker using traditional hand values.
External Links
- Wild Card paradox - curiouser.co.uk (http://www.curiouser.co.uk/paradoxes/wildcard.htm) Discussion of a paradox that arises in the ranking of hands when wild cards are introduced.
- Poker Hand Nicknames (http://www.justonlinepoker.com/poker/poker-hand-nicknames.php)zh:牌面 (撲克)