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Free Casino Games Information
Online Poker
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Hand Ranking
The deck, the cards and the ranking
Most poker games are played with a standard 52-card deck that includes 4 suits of 13 cards each: hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. These suits are equal in value.
The value of the cards is the ace ranked highest, followed by king, queen, jack, ten and so on going to the lowest ranked card - two. The joker (the wild card) is added to the deck in lowball and draw poker. In lowball the joker is used as the lowest card that doesn't pair with your hand. In draw poker the joker can be used as another ace or in order to complete a straight or a flush.
Hand ranking is actually the value of the different hands. The value is determined by probability, the rarer the hand, the more valuable it is thus - ranked higher. We have listed below the ranking from the highest to the lowest. Though its important to know the ranking in order to decide on your moves, there are times when it is not clear who is holding the best hand. In those cases the dealer can read the hand at the showdown.
Hand ranking:
| Royal flush | Five cards of the same suit in sequence starting with an ace. - Ace, king, queen, jack, ten of any suit. |
| Straight flush | Five cards of the same suit in sequence. |
| Four of a kind | Also called squads. Four of the five cards are the same rank +
another unconnected card. The hand is better according to the rank of the card. I.e. a hand with 4 jacks is higher then a squads with 4 nines. |
| Full house | Three cards of one rank and a pair. The value of this hand is determined by the grouping and not by the pair. I.e. three fives and a pair of jacks will be referred to as threes full of jacks. |
| Flush | five different ranking cards of the same suit. If more than one player has a flush, the winning hand is the hand with the highest-ranking cards in order. I.e. queen, jack, eight, six four of diamonds will beat queen, jack, eight, five, four of hearts. |
| Straight | five sequenced cards of different suits. If more than one player has a straight, the highest card of the sequence determines the winning hand. I.e. a straight starting with a queen will beat a straight starting with a ten. |
| Three of a kind | also called a trip or a set. Three cards of the same rank and different suit + two unrelated cards. |
| Two pair | two cards of the same rank+ two other cards of the same rank+ another unrelated card. The higher ranked pair is superior. If two players have a two pair hand and their higher pairs are of the same rank, it is decided by the second pair. If the second pair is also of the same rank for both players, the unrelated fifth card decides it. If that card too is of identical rank, the two players split the pot. |
| One pair | two cards of the same rank+ three unrelated cards. If more than one player has a pair and they are of identical rank, the unrelated cards determine the winner. |
| No pair | five unrelated cards. If no other player has a pair the winner is the player with the highest ranked card in order. |
| Low hands | in games that you split the pot between the highest and the lowest, the best low hand is five unrelated cards ranking from eight and lower. The winner will be the player with the lowest ranking cards. |
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