Poker hands are a pretty broad concept and ranking. At the beginning of the game – pre-flop, when all opponents have two cards each, the hand implies these cards, which are also called starting hands or pocket. On the board and subsequent streets, a hand is a set of five cards from the available, which allows players to make the most powerful deal.
Poker hands: the Range of Winning Ones
Winning poker hands are formed based on five cards – two pocket and three on the table. Suits have an equal priority. Poker combinations are not always compiled using hand cards. The winning combination may lie on the table. Sometimes the prize goes to the holder of an older pocket card.
- The Royal Flush is the strongest combination in poker. It is formed from suited ace, king, queen, jack, and tens. The chance of forming a combination of cards is equal to a meager value – 0.0002%;
- A Straight Flush looks like the previous combination. It is formed from five cards of the general suit according to the sequential increase in rank. The odds of making one of the strongest poker hands are 0.0015%;
- Four of a Kind are four cards of the same value. The odds of collecting Four of a Kind are 0.024%;
- Full House includes a pair of cards of one value and three of another. The strength of the combination is revealed according to the value of three cards of the same rank. The chances of getting this combination are 0.14%;
- Flush is formed from five cards of the same suit. The ordinal combination of cards is taken into account. If the Flush is collected by several participants of the distribution, the croupier determines the winner by the strength of the highest rank card in combination. The chances of getting a combination are 0.2%;
- Straight is a combination of five different cards according to the chain of increasing rank forms a straight. Junior Straight is made up of Ace, Deuce, Three, Four, Four. The odds to get the combination is 0.39%;
- Set – a combination known in poker under the definitions of Trips, Three. The formation is made up of three cards of uniform value. The chance of losing a combination is 2.1%;
- Two Pairs is formed from a pair of cards of one rank and two of the other. When a hand was formed in two players, the strength of the older and then the youngest pair is compared. The probability of two pairs falling out is 4.75%;
- Pair is two cards of identical value. In a situation with equal strength pairs, the croupier determines the winner according to the rank of kicker (second card in hand). The chance to get it is 42.26%;
- The highest card in poker is called a kicker. There are no combinations of other cards during the deal. However, the kicker often plays a key role in identifying the winner. The dealer pays attention to the dignity of the highest card in his hand if the participants of the distribution have identical combinations.
The key ability in poker is to recognize the best poker hands instantly. It is important to know the ranking of individual combinations. The strength of the opponent’s cards should be taken into account.
The Best Methods to Memorize Winning Poker Hands
Mnemonics is a set of unique techniques that facilitate the storage of information by creating associations. It helps to memorize a large amount of information. For novice players, the main task will be to convert combinations into words or numbers to create an associative series. To learn the four lowest combinations in poker, players need to give them serial numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3:
- 0 – High Card. If in the game none of the players has collected any combinations, then the one with the highest card wins;
- 1 – One Pair. The unit will include any pair that participants collect in the game;
- 2 – Two Pairs. It is a hand in which there are two pairs of cards;
- 3 – Set or Thrips. If players have three cards of the same rank, then they have collected the strongest of the low combinations.
The middle three combinations are Straight, Flush, and Full House. Players should assign two of them a number that corresponds to the number of beech in the word.
- / – Straight. The sign / is a kind of transition from low to medium combinations;
- 4 – Flush. Everything is simple here: there are 4 letters in the word Flush, so for the Flush, four will set;
- 8 – Full House. A similar situation: Full House contains eight letters.
The list of senior poker hands:
- 16 – Four of a Kind. There are 4 letters in the word four, and four cards of the same rank participate in this combination. Therefore 4 * 4 = 16;
- 32 – Straight Flush. In the continuation of the logical chain, players can multiply 16 by 2 and get the number 32;
- ! – Royal Flush. Participants will rarely collect this combination, and the first thing that players experience when it appears is a delight. So it gets the exclamation mark (!).
Now, when all the poker hands are assigned numbers and signs, players can get the order: 0, 1, 2, 3, /, 4, 8, 16, 32,!.
