2021. 2. 6. 11:32ㆍ카테고리 없음
A Guide to Hand Rankings and How to Know When You are Beaten
There are many poker formats with different rules. One thing they have in common is the poker hand rankings. This is a standardized list of what beats what when it comes to the end of a hand. Note that certain ‘low hand’ or split pot games have different rankings for the strong low hands.
A royal straight flush is when you have 10-J-Q-K-A in your hand, all of the same suit. This is the best there is, no bluffing about it. Although if you are a good bluffer, you might smile as brightly as the sun when you look at your hand and realize you don't have this, then immediately go.well, poker-faced. Poker Hand Rankings Chart. Print out this free poker hand rankings chart – and always know the best winning poker hands. Poker hands are ranked in order from best to worst.
This page explains how the hand rankings work. It then goes further, adding an element of poker strategy. In poker hand strength can change throughout the hand. For example, you might have a pair of red aces and be ahead on the flop. If you face a big bet after the community cards have 4 clubs – those aces are unlikely to be the best hand.
Here is how the information on what beats what is laid out:
- Detailed Poker Rankings: What hand beats what, and how to decide the winner for tied-hands.
- When Your Good Hand is Beaten: Basics of situations where you should play strong hands cautiously.
- Special Notes for Hi-Lo Poker Games: Not all poker games award the pot to the highest hand.
Detailed Poker Hand Rankings: What Beats What at Showdown
All standard poker games use 5 cards to determine the winner. This applies in Texas Hold’em, where you have 7 cards in total (2 in your hand, 5 on the board). Only 5 cards are used as showdown, with the 6th and 7th card completely irrelevant.
Here are the standard rankings, with notes on deciding the winner where more than one player has the same hand:
Royal Flush / Straight flush
Consecutive cards which are all the same suit make a ‘straight flush’. This is a super-powerful hand, and only comes up occasionally. A Royal Flush (ace, king, queen, jack and ten of the same suit) is simply the highest possible straight flush. This hand is unbeatable.
Where two players have a straight flush, the highest ranked card comes into play.
For example, if one player holds the 6 of hearts and another player the jack of hearts – and the board comes out including the 7, 8, 9 and 10 of hearts – both players have made a straight flush. In this case, the pot gets awarded to the player holding the jack.
4 of a Kind
Also known as Quads, this hand can be of any rank, with 4 aces being the best hand. There are situations in Hold’em where 4 identical cards will hit the community card board. When this happens, the highest 5th card comes into play.
Where the 5th community card is a king, the pot would be split. If that community card is a low one, then the pot is awarded to the player with the highest unique card. For example, one player holds a pair of 7’s, and the other holds jack-queen.
Here the highest hand is A-A-A-A-Q.
Full House
This hand is 3 of one rank, along with two of another. An example is 4-4-4-K-K. There are some situations in which more than one player can have a full house.
If there are 3 of a kind on the community card boards (assuming nobody made quads), then the highest pair to go with it will determine the winner.
For example, if the board comes Q-Q-Q-3-J, a player holding A-A will have the biggest full house. Pairs can also be made with single hole-cards. If a player holds a single jack, and another holds a pair of tens, then the highest full house becomes Q-Q-Q-J-J.
There are also situations where pocket pairs create full houses of different strength.
If one player holds aces and another one queens, and the board comes A-Q-2-2-7, two full houses have been created. In this case the best one is A-A-A-2-2. It is the highest 3-card combination that will win the pot.
Flushes
Five cards of the same suit make a powerful poker hand – it will beat trips, straights and all hands 2-pair and under. Many players will ‘chase’ flushes, calling big bets to try and hit that 5th suited card. You will also find a lot of novice players who play any two suited cards pre-flop – hunting for a flush.
Where two players have a flush, the pot goes to the player with the highest ranked unique card. There are situations where the 5 cards on the board are the same suit. If nobody has a higher card then these 5 in their hand, the pot would be shared. For example, 9-10-Q-K-A of the same suit on the board would be split if one player held and 8 and the other a 7 of that suit. Note that in this spot, a player with a jack of this suit would have an unbeatable Royal Flush!
If the board comes out with 4 hearts, in this case 3-9-Q-K (with one unsuited card), then players holding a single heart will both make a flush. Here the rank of the hole cards come into play. A player with the 7 of hearts has a higher flush than the one holding the 4.
Straights
Five cards of consecutive rank are is called a straight in poker. One common misunderstanding from new players is that straights wrap around from high to low. For example, K-Q-J-A-2 is not a straight!
Where two players have straights, the highest unique card again comes into play. The best straight. 10-J-Q-K-A is known as a ‘Broadway’ straight. Aces can count as low or high. In addition to making the best possible straight, A-2-3-4-5 is also a straight.
3 of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank can appear in three ways. All 3 cards can be on the community card board, a player can hold a pocket pair and hit their 3rd card, or there might be a pair on the board, with a player holding one matching card. Where a player holds a pair, the hand is known as a ‘set’. Where the player holds a single card, this is known as ‘trips’.
Where two players hold the same 3 of a kind, most commonly with a paired board, the side-cards (or kickers) come into play. Here the player with the highest unique side-card would win the pot. For example, if one player holds Ace-Jack and the other Ace-King, and two aces appear on the flop – the player holding the King has a higher kicker.
2 Pairs
Two individual pairs are a more common poker hand. Again, this can be hit in several ways. A paired board + a pocket pair, two pairs on the board, or two matches between a player’s hole-cards and the community cards are all possible.
Where two players hit two pair, the rank of the highest pair determines the winner. If players the same 2 pairs at the same time (a pair on the board, plus a match with one hole-card), then the side-card rank does come into play. Here the highest separate card might already be on the board. In this case the pot would be split.
1 Pair
While a pair can win a pot, it is rarely a hand to get all-in with – since everything covered above has a pair soundly beaten. Pairs can appear on the community card board, involve one card from a player’s hand – or both cards can be in the player’s hand.
It is more common to get identical pairs when an ace hits the flop (since many players will play any hand including an ace). In this case the highest unique side-card wins. For example, on a board of A-4-5-9-10 a player holding Ace-King beats a player holding Ace-Jack. Both side-cards might come into play where the pair is on the board.
High Card
Sometimes in a poker game, the player’s cards and community cards will miss all the poker hands explained above. In this case the highest unique card which can make a 5-card poker hand wins the pot. An example here is that A-6 would beat K-J on a board of 2-3-8-9-10.
Knowing When Your Good Hand is Beaten – Tips for New Players
Poker is a game of relative hand strength. Even the strongest hands can be beaten when certain community card runouts appear. Knowing when you are beaten holding a strong hand takes experience – though there are several ways you can see trouble coming.
The first thing to watch for is the ‘texture’ of the flop. If you hold a pair of aces, you’ll want to bet big. If the flop comes 9-10-J, all spades, and you hold 2 red aces – there is some danger. You might already be beaten by a flush or straight. The most likely scenario is that one or more opponents has a drawing hand. This means any 7, 8, Q or King (or a 4th heart) could have you beaten.
Compare this to a ‘dry’ flop, for example 2-7-Q with 3 suits. Here there are no draws available, and unless you get unlucky and run into a small 3 or a kind, things are much safer for those aces.
Unfortunate board runouts are a good reason to play your good starting hands strongly. If you limp or bet small, you will encourage players with random holdings to see the flop. In this case, you might not know you are beaten (possibly by some random 2-pair) until the pot is very big. Raising to thin the field will also allow you to bluff at pots where everybody misses the flop.
Knowing when you are beaten is also opponent dependant. Some tight players will only wake up betting when they have 3 of a kind or better. Conversely, you’ll find some loose / aggressive types who will fire bets with as little as king-high. Take notes on your opponents, and watch how they bet with strong hands, draws and missed hands. Those patterns will allow you to work out whether you are ahead or behind on hands later down the line.
What Beats What in High-Low Poker Games
A quick note on split pot games. These include Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo. In these games, half of the pot goes to the highest ranked poker hand, and the other half to the ‘low’.
A low hand is 5 unique cards 8 and under. This makes the ‘best’ poker hand in a hi-lo game A-2-3-4-5. This hand is known as the ‘wheel’, it can win the high part of the pot as a straight – and will certainly win the low part too.
Where two players both have lows, it is the higher end of the low cards which determines the winner. For example, 2-3-4-6-7 would beat A-2-3-4-8 (the 8 is higher, meaning the 7-low wins).
Note that some games like 2-7 triple draw, which also use ‘low’ rankings, count straights and flushes as high hands!
Introduction
Lowball or Low Poker is poker in which the lowest ranking hand wins. Most poker variants can be reversed in this way, but the name 'Lowball' is most often used to refer to a low version of Five Card Draw Poker. On this page several versions of this game are described. They differ in the hand ranking, the drawing procedure and whether a wild card is used, and these are described on this page.
The different possible rankings for low poker are explained on the hand ranking page. The differences depend on whether Aces are counted as high or low, and whether straights and flushes count. Paired cards always count, so in the absence of straights and flushes a hand of five different ranks always beats a hand containing any duplicate ranks.
When drawing to a five-card hand to make a low hand, it is seldom worth drawing more than one card. If you draw two cards you will make a pair about half the time, and however low the three cards are that you keep, your chance of getting a 9-high or better is never more than 25%. For this reason, there are versions of lowball in which players have more than one opportunity to draw. In such a game you can afford to draw more than one card the first time, but if you stay for the last draw you will either stand pat or draw just one card, hoping for a low card that does not pair with any of your other four.
Although Draw Poker is perhaps the most usual form of Lowball game, the Lowball version of Five Card Stud also works well, and Seven Card Stud Low is also played under the name Razz. The name Lowball is also occasionally used to refer to the game called Jacks Back on this site, which begins as Five Card Draw Jacks or Better and is played for low if no one has a good enough hand to open.
California Lowball
Also known as Ace-to-Five Single Draw, this game is similar to Five Card Draw Poker, but in the showdown the lowest hand wins, using ace-to-five ranking. That is, aces are always low and straights and flushes do not count, so the lowest hand is A-2-3-4-5, then A-2-3-4-6, A-2-3-5-6, etc. AS always the highest cards of an unpaired hand are compared first, so for example 7-5-4-3-2 beats 7-6-3-2-A.
It is possible to play with an ante, but in formal games it is more often played with blinds. The dealer places a small blind and the next two players to the left of the dealer each place a big blind equal to the minimum bet.
Everyone is dealt five cards and there is a round of betting. If an ante is used this begins with the player to the left of the dealer. When blinds are placed, these count as bets and the first betting round begins with the player immediately to the left of the blinds; the players who placed big blinds are allowed to raise when the turn comes around to them even if no one else has done more than call.
After the first betting round, surviving players in turn, starting to the dealer's left, can discard any number of cards (in practice seldom more than one card) and are dealt replacements. There is then a second round of betting. If the game is played with blinds this is started by the first active player to dealer's left. If there are antes and no blinds, the second round is begun by the player who opened the first round of betting.
When Lowball is played as a fixed limit game, some play that the size of the bet is doubled after the draw and others play that it remains the same.
This game is often played with a joker added to the deck. The joker, sometimes known as the fitter, represents the lowest rank not present in the holder's hand. For example 8-6-4-A-joker is equivalent to 8-6-4-2-A.
Betting Sevens
Some play that a player who checks after the draw with a hand that is 7-low or better (five different ranks with nothing higher than a 7) and has the best hand at the showdown can only win the chips that were in the pot at the time of the draw. Any chips that were bet after the draw are placed in a separate pot that this player is not eligible to win.
What Is The Lowest Hand That Beats A Straight In Poker Tournament
Betting, calling a bet or raising after the draw entitles you to win the whole pot with your 7-low or better if you have the best hand at the showdown, provided that you did not check at your first turn to act after the draw. It is therefore unwise to check after the draw with such a hand, unless you intend to fold if another player bets against you.
Kansas City Lowball
Kansas City Lowball is also called Deuce to Seven Single Draw or sometimes Billy Baxter Lowball after the player who won the world championship in this game several times. In this game, Aces are always high and straights and flushes do count (and are therefore bad), but A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, because the Ace is high. The best hand possible is 7-5-4-3-2 (hence 'Deuceto Seven'), followed by 7-6-4-3-2, ... K-Q-J-10-8, A-5-4-3-2, A-6-4-3-2, ... up to the usual royal flush, which is worst. In other words, it's the exact opposite of normal high poker except for the A-2-3-4-5 rule.
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The deal, draw and betting are similar to California Lowball. So far as I know, this game is normally played without a joker, and there is no equivalent of the 'betting sevens' rule.
The Deuce to Seven page of the Play Lowball Poker site has further information on this game.
Ace-to-Six Lowball
This is Five Card Draw Poker using ace-to-six ranking, in which straights and flushes count but aces can be low. Normally A-A should be the lowest (and therefore best) pair, but A-K-Q-J-10 would count as a straight - but opinions may differ, so these details should be agreed in advance among the players.
This game is often ignored or said to be unusual in books and on poker web sites. This may be because it is not played in public card rooms on the American West Coast and rarely offered as an online game. However, I suspect it is fairly widespread in home poker games, particularly on the American East Coast and in Europe.
Triple Draw
In this game players have three opportunities to improve their hand. According to some sources the maximum number of players for this game is six. Certainly with a larger number of players the cards will frequently run out and discards will need to be recycled.
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Normally it is played with blinds: the player to dealer's left posts a small blind, and the next player to the left posts a big blind, equal to the mimimum bet for the game.
The dealer deals five cards to each player and there is a round of betting beginning to the left of the big blind. As usual in games with blinds, the big blind player is allowed to raise even if the others have all folded or called. Then in clockwise order, starting to dealer's left, players may discard any number of cards and are dealt replacements. There is a second round of betting begun by the first active player to dealer's left. This is followed by a second opportunity to discard and draw, a third round of betting, a third discard and draw, and a fourth round of betting. In a fixed limit game, the size of the bet is normally doubles after the second draw, so that the last two rounds have big bets.
It happens fairly often in this game that the dealer runs out of cards. In this case all the discarded cards (the 'muck') are shuffled and cut to form a new deck from which replacement cards are dealt to players who are still waiting to draw.
Lowest Hand That Beats A Straight In Poker
There are two versions of this game, depending on the hand ranking used in the showdown (see low poker hand ranking):
- Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, which uses deuce-to-seven ranking, is perhaps the more popular game.
- Ace to Five Triple Draw, using ace to five ranking is also sometimes played.
The Triple Draw page of the Play Lowball Poker site has further information on the history and variants of this game.
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Double Draw
What Is The Lowest Hand That Beats A Straight In Poker Room
This game is similar to Triple Draw, except that players only have two opportunities to improve their hands by drawing cards. There are therefore three betting rounds: after the deal, after the first draw and after the second draw. Either ace-to-five or deuce-to-seven (or even ace-to-six) ranking can be used, as agreed by the players.