Why you need to know about poker hands
To become experienced at playing Poker, it’s a fine balance of luck, strategy and judgement. Expert players always approach the game logically. A straightforward way to succeed in this is by seeing each of your Poker hands as an exciting journey. Essentially, every new move you make is a new step in learning to play Poker. Online Poker India is helping you with these steps
When you play Poker for the first time, you will need to know the basic rules of your chosen game. These can differ between variants, but for instance, your starting hand for Texas Hold’em will be 2 hole cards. When a standard 52-card deck is used, it means there are a huge 169 possible hands. This increases to 1,326 combinations when the different suits are considered.
Stud poker
There are several variations of Stud Poker, including 5-card and 7-card. Each player will receive a mixture of face-up and face-down cards, starting with 2, dealt in multiple rounds of betting. If one player manages remain in the game, then that player wins.
Draw poker
When learning to play Poker, Basic Draw Poker is a good option. Played with all participants each being dealt 5 face-down cards, the aim is to make the best five-card hand.
The Poker hand rankings are the same as Texas Hold’em, with Royal Flush, Straight Flush and Four-of-a-kind being the highest. Players either pay an ante before being dealt the first card or there will be a small blind and a big blind.
Each player will receive their five cards face-down, which they can then look at, followed by an initial round of betting. If, after this, more than one player has successfully remained in the game, there will then be the first round of drawing.
Four vital poker options when you play poker
After you have familiarised yourself with the basic rules, the four playing options remain the same in most variants of Poker. The rounds will usually start from the left of the dealer and before betting, each player then has four possible options:
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- Raise - If you think you have a good hand, or want players to think so, you can increase the bet required to carry on playing.
- Fold - If you think your hand's not a good one and don't want to bet an increased amount, then you can lay down your cards.
- Check - If none of the players increase the bet required to continue play, you can check, or pass on your option to bet.
- Call - If you don't want to raise or fold you can call, which means you equal the amount bet by the player who raised.
Poker hands rankings - flush
In Poker, some of the highest ranking hands to look out for are flushes. If more than one player share a flush, the one with the highest card in the flush will win.
- Royal Flush - This is the best hand possible, formed from a Straight Flush with Ace high, making it unbeatable in the game.
- Straight Flush - Rarer than 4-of- a- kind, a Straight Flush is formed with 5 consecutively numbered cards from the same suit.
- Flush - A basic Flush is formed when you have 5 cards in your hand which are all from the same suit,
pairs & other poker hand rankings
Before you start to play Poker, it’s a great idea to download or print out a Poker hands rankings chart. Keep it with you so you can always remember the rankings from best to worst.
- Two Pairs - If more than one player have two pairs each in their hands, then the one with the highest numbered pair will win.
- Full House - This is when you have both 3-of-a-kind and a matching pair in the same hand, for example 3x9's and 2x6's.
- Straight - This is a 5-card running sequence, for example 9, 10, J, Q, K. It can be regardless of suit, with the highest card winning if two players have straights.
- 2, 3 & 4 of a kind - A pair is when you have 2 matching cards in any suit. The same applies for 3-of-a-kind and 4-of-a-kind hands.