Back to Basic: Poker Hand Rankings
We’ve discussed several poker tips before – some of them are more advanced than the rest – but this time we are going to take a simpler approach and discuss about the most basic thing in poker: hand rankings. Yes, different hands have different relative strength compared to others; understanding them, knowing how to spot them quickly in plays, and of course understanding the relative strength of each hand are essentially important if you want to be a successful poker player.
At the bottom of the food chain – I mean, the poker hand rankings – we have High Card. If you have nothing constructed with your hand, it is categorized as High Card based on the highest card you have. Next, we have Pair; of course, it is constructed by a pair of certain cards. Two Pair is even stronger than Pair because now you have two pairs in your hand.
If you are holding Two Pairs, don’t get overconfident just yet because your hand can easy be topped with a Three of a Kind, followed by a Straight; Straight is achieved when you have different suited cards in order, such as 5-6-7-8-9. To beat a Straight, you will need at least a Flush – same-suited 5-card combination – or a Four of a Kind.
The second strongest hands in poker are of course Straight Flush – same-suited cards in order – and the best of them all is a Royal Flush – same-suited 10-J-Q-K-A. If you have a Royal Flush, lure your opponents into betting more of their money and take down the pot with your unbeatable hand.