Big Poker Hands
Hand reading is the #1 skill in poker, and it’s well worth the time it takes to perfect your use of it both on and off the felt.
Eliminating identical hands that ignore relative suit values leaves 6,009,159 distinct 7-card hands. The number of distinct 5-card poker hands that are possible from 7 cards is 4,824. Perhaps surprisingly, this is fewer than the number of 5-card poker hands from 5 cards because some 5-card hands are impossible with 7 cards (e.g.
Hand Reading (aka Hand Ranging) is assigning a player a logical range of hands based on their actions, then making the most +EV decision that exploits their range.
- Big Slick – One of the best known nicknames in poker, it’s a slippery hand. It can bring big wins – or big losses. Anna Kournikova – Named using the initials of the popular tennis star. Kalashnikov – Another gun term, this time in reference to the famous machine gun, the AK-47. Most players will certainly get fired up being dealt this.
- Obviously, big blind should be checking all of his holdings, including the best poker hands one more time and BTN should be betting like this. At first look, BTN strategy could look quite strange because we are not only betting our best poker hands, such as two pair or better but also firing few one pair hands like AK and A7 alongside our.
- The hands rank in almost the same order as in standard poker, with straights and flushes counting and the lowest hand wins. The difference from normal poker is that Aces are always high, so that A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, but ranks between K-Q-J-10-8 and A-6-4-3-2.
Listen to episode #250: How to do Poker Hand Reading
It’s critical that we put our opponent on a range of hands, not just one single hand.
The reason we use ranges is because players can make the same play with many different hands.
For example, if they open-raise preflop, they can do it with AA, JT, 97s and 33 (and everything in between).
And then, if the flop comes AJT and they make a continuation bet, there are many hands that we can raise them with:
- 2 pair: AJ, AT, JT
- Sets (3 of a kind): TT, JJ
- Straight: KQ
You see why you can’t put somebody on just one hand. Depending on their preflop range and the board, there are lots of hands they would play in the exact same manner.
Hand Reading In Action
Hand reading is the most important poker skill because it forces you to consider all the variables in every hand you play.
Weak players just think about their hand and the cards on the board.
But a skilled hand reader will think about so much more on every street in every hand:
- Type of player they’re up against
- HUD stats
- Tendencies
- The specific actions the player has taken so far
- Stack sizes
- Size of the pot
- Possible future board cards
- Position
- Images
- Table or tournament conditions
Because a skilled hand reader considers so many more factors, they make better decisions. This leads to more hands won, more bad situations avoided, more opponents exploited, more money saved and ultimately more profits at the table.
Hand reading is how you’re going to become the poker player you want to be.
You open-raised from the CO, a LAG player on the BTN 3bets.
What range of hands does a LAG BTN 3bet you with?
Answer this right now!
The Logistics of Hand Reading
In its most simplified form, hand reading follows this path:
- You assign a preflop range of hands based on the player’s actions. So, a caller has a different range than a 3bettor which is different from an open-raiser’s range.
- As the hand progresses through the flop, turn and river, you’ll narrow their range based on further actions. Narrowing a range means you’re removing hands that don’t fit into the actions they take. So, if the player called your cbet on the flop from OOP, you might remove all non-pair hands and every draw weaker than a gut-shot straight draw.
- Exploit your knowledge of their range. If you narrowed their range to mostly weak pairs and draws, you might use this information to make an effective bluff bet to get them to fold.
Hand reading, like any poker strategy, requires loads of practice before you turn it into a skill you can successfully use on the felt. Couple this with the fact that you’re making assumptions about a player’s range and how they play their hands, you’ll find yourself making lots of hand reading mistakes early on.
Action is the greatest teacher.
Getting used to hand reading is going to be tough at first, but don’t get discouraged. It takes time and dedication to using it off and on-the-felt and the more time you put into it, the better you’ll become.
If you need motivation to get your butt in gear with hand reading exercises, do it for the promise of greater poker skills. Do it for the idea that you will start exploiting your opponents more. Do it with the expectation that hand reading skills will turn you into the player that you want to be.
I did a full 66 Days of Hand Reading in a row and I put all those videos up on YouTube. You’ll see me make tons of mistakes preflop and through the streets, but this 66 days was the best thing I ever did for my poker game and I improved every aspect of my game through it.
The Poker Hand Reading 2-step Process
We’re keeping hand reading simple with only 2 steps: 1) assigning a preflop range and 2) narrowing that range through the streets.
But just because it’s simple, that doesn’t make it an easy skill to master. The sooner you get to work on it, and the more practice you put in, the sooner you’ll use hand reading to exploit your opponents and earn an obscene amount of their chips.
Step 1: Assign a Preflop Range of Poker Hands
When I assign a poker range, I consider it being made up of 5 different hand categories:
- Pocket pairs
- Broadway hands
- Aces
- Suited hands
- Off-suit hands
To help me build their preflop range, here’s my favorite question to ask myself over and over again:
What is the worst hand they play this way?
Whatever the worst hand is, I would include that and better hands in their range.
EXAMPLE: Creating a player’s Big Blind calling range
We open-raised from the cut off. The BTN and the SB both folded and the TAG BB player called.
- What is the worst pocket pair they call with?
- Let’s say they would call with 22 but they would 3bet with QQ or better.
- What are the worst Broadway hands they call with?
- They worst would be JTs, QTs, KTs and ATs, so I would include those and the better hands. And off-suit, maybe just the AT, KJ and QJ hands.
- What are the worst Aces they call with?
- I think they would call with every suited Ace and only ATo and better.
- What are the worst suited hands they call with?
- Maybe 76s is the worst along with 86s and Q9s. So, we can include of those and everything better.
- What are the worst off-suit hands they call with?
- Maybe just those Broadway hands already mentioned.
More Preflop Questions for Ranging a Player
Listen to episode #251: Poker Hand Reading Questions to Ask
What type of player are they?
I will range my opponents differently based on the type of player they are. Nitty players will get very small ranges in general, TAG players slightly wider, LAGs wider still and those LP fish get the widest ranges.
What notes do I have on them?
Your history with an opponent is incredibly important. The more you know about them from paying attention to prior hands and showdowns, the better player notes you can take. Good notes will help you range them and play against them in the future.
What does their action say about their range?
Generally, the more aggressive the action, the stronger the range. The more weak or passive the action, the weaker the range.
What are their action-related stats?
HUD stats are a numerical representation of the history you’ve accumulated with the player. They 3bet 5% or they call 2bets 15% or they fold to steals 74%. All of these numbers help to assign them a pre-flop range, so know which ones can help you in different situations. Plus, try to observe these by position in a HUD popup.
Assigning a 3bet caller’s range:
What does their bet sizing say about the strength of their range?
Either online or LIVE, bet sizing can be a big tell. In general, the larger the bet, the stronger the hand.
Why didn’t they CALL/RAISE/FOLD?
Your opponent’s action is important, but when they chose to call, they also chose to NOT fold or raise. What does this say about their range? Often, we can eliminate some of the strongest hands when they play passively (like removing AA and KK when they over-call) or we can remove the weakest hands when they 4bet. If you can put yourself in their shoes and figure out why they chose to NOT make a play, this will lead to more accurate pre-flop ranges.
Flopzilla: #1 in a Hand Reader’s Tool Box
Besides PokerTracker 4, Flopzilla is the software I use most frequently when studying poker.
It’s a range analysis software that’s designed to quickly figure out how well a range of hands or a specific hand hits the board. It’s also perfect for hand reading because it makes it easy to assign preflop ranges then narrow them through the streets based on the strength of the different parts of Villain’s range. Learn more about the benefits and uses of Flopzilla here.
You can see how easy Flopzilla makes hand reading practice in this video:
More Hand Reading Action!
Step 2: Narrow Their Poker Range on the Flop, Turn and River
Narrowing a range means to remove hands from it based on their actions and what you know about the player. The smaller and more accurately we range them, the more +EV our decisions become.
To help me figure out what hands to remove, I ask myself The Ultimate Question on every street:
What are they doing this with?
If they call on a monotone board with 3 spades, there’s a good chance they have a flush or a flush draw already. But, if they call your bet on that board, you can easily remove underpairs without a spade and most non-spade hands. You might even be able to remove any 2s, 3s, 4s or 5s hands if you think they would never stay in with such a weak draw.
Here’s where putting yourself in your opponent’s shoes and trying to figure out their logic is super important. Some players love to stay in with any draw, especially flush draws. Other players fold any non-pair and non-nut drawing hand. Others stay in with any pair because they fear getting bluffed.
Some players will only raise on the flop with trips+, and other players bluff-raise on the flop all the time.
More Post-flop Questions for Narrowing a Range
How well does their range connect with this board?
Knowing your opponent’s pre-flop range is one thing, understanding how it interacts with the board at hand is another. The goal is to visualize and understand which parts of their pre-flop range hit specific hands or draws.
Which parts of their range are BETTING/CALLING/RAISING/FOLDING on this board?
This goes along with the previous question. If your opponent raised, and you know that their raise means they’ve got 2p or better on this board, you’ll use that to your advantage and react to their raise and narrow their range properly.
Why didn’t they CHECK/BET/RAISE/FOLD?
Just like with that pre-flop question, your opponent took one option and chose not to take the other 3. If you can figure out why, you’ll use that information to narrow their range even more accurately.
What does a sane person do here?
This question helps us to get to the logic our opponent is using. I first heard it asked by Jonathan Little in a training video once, and I fell in love with it. Some people think they can’t win against fish because there’s no putting them on a hand. Or, they can’t win against a LAG Donk because they just bomb every street and it’s tough to call down without the nuts. Well, both of these player types use some sort of logic in their decision making. Your job it to get in their heads and figure out the logic they’re using. It may be different from yours, but don’t let that stop you from trying to figure them out.
What are my notes on this player?
When in-game, we often forget to look at any players notes we’ve taken in the past. Practicing this off-the-felt, basically looking at the notes as you try to narrow their range, is going to turn “note checking” into a habit.
The 5 Best Things We Learn From Showdowns
Showdowns teach us so much about our opponents. Sure, HUD stats help us gauge their tendencies, but showdowns show us the unvarnished truth of how they played their hand.
Listen to episode #252: The 5 Best Lessons from Poker Showdowns
We see the exact hand they called with pre-flop, the hand they checked on the flop, the hand they check-raised with on the turn and the hand they shoved with on the river.
We get a brief but powerful glimpse into the logic they use and we use this to gain a better understanding of the way they play their hands.
By paying attention to the street-by-street action of every hand, whether we’re involved or not, the poker showdown is our opportunity to confirm our reads on the players and their actions.
1. Showdowns Clue Us in to a Player’s Logic
When we see a showdown, we can replay the action of the hand to determine why they played it the way they did. This insight into their decisions made while knowing their hand strength at the time allows us to understand the logic they use as they play a hand.
This is extremely valuable for future pots played with the opponent because careful dissection now can help us make great decisions later.
The other day I did a hand reading exercise with a student from The Poker Forge. In this hand, he faced off against a player who check-called the flop and turn with a nut flush draw (of course, we knew he had the nfd by paying attention to showdown). My student bet 2/3 pot on the flop then ¾ pot on the turn. When the flush hit the river, Villain donk bet for 3/4 pot and my student called. He lost with 2p, but by paying attention to showdown, we saw that this Villain plays the nfd passively from OOP, but is willing to call really large bets.
We took a player note from this hand that read, “OOP calls w/nfd vs big bets (VALUE BET BIG ON WET AND INCOMPLETE BOARDS, BEWARE OF THE DONK BET WHEN DRAW COMPLETES)”
Now, my student has a new way to exploit this player or possibly to save money. He only got this exploit because we did a hand reading exercise off-the-felt where he lost a huge pot on the river with 2p vs the nut flush.
Challenge
In your next 3 play sessions, for every showdown you see, run back through the action of the hand in an effort to understand the logic of the players. Did they get super aggressive with a ten high flush draw? Did they play the flopped nuts passively until the river? Try to learn something and take at least one player note for every showdown you see. Now, I challenge you to take action!
2. Showdowns Help Us Spot Bet Sizing Patterns
They give us some insight into a player’s choice of bet sizing. This is important because, whether they know it or not, the size they choose is often a subconscious reaction to the situation they’re in and they don’t realize they have patterns to their sizing.
Some players naturally bet bigger for value and smaller for bluffs. Other players min bet with every draw as a blocking bet so they don’t have to pay too much. Some players 3bet to 9bb’s with AA but only to 7bb’s with JJ.
Here’s a bet sizing example from a prior session:
- 1st Hand: Villain made a ½ pot bluff cbet on the flop with AK.
- 2nd Hand: Villain made a ½ pot bluff bet on the turn with a gs draw.
- 3rd Hand: Villain made a ¾ pot value bet on the flop with a set
- 4th Hand: Villain made a ¾ pot value bet when the 3rd spade hit the turn and he made a flush.
I took a player note that read: “1/2 pot = bluff, 3/4pot = value”.
The goal with taking a player note like this is so that in the future, I can get away from marginal hands when they’re betting bigger, and I can try pulling off some bluffs when they bet ½ pot.
3. Showdowns Help Us Learn the Tendencies of Different Player Types
You might face 8 opponents at a FR table, but those 8 opponents might be split among only 4 player types. There could be 2 LAG’s, 1 TAG, 4 Fish and 1 unknown. The unknown player is named Sam123.
Sam123 is an unknown, so how do you play against him?
Well, first you treat him like the average player. Maybe the average player calls flop and turn and cks behind with TP. Or maybe they check-call the flop and turn with any draw and either fold or donk bet the river when the draw completes. Maybe the average player doesn’t 3bet JJ or worse, but they always 3bet QQ+.
You can treat an unknown player like Sam123 just like the average player, at least until you get to know him.
After 3 rounds you’ve seen him play 27 hands, and that can often be enough to see what type of player they are.
If Sam123 is a 45/4 player after 27 hands, this tells me he’s super loose and passive. So, I’m going to treat him like a LP player.
Loose-passive players at my stakes love to see flops especially with pp’s and suited hands. They just love to set and flush mine. They also find it difficult to fold most draws. So, if I’m value betting, I’ve got to go big to get maximum value from their drawing hands. They also call down with weak TP and 2nd pair hands. If they wake up with bets and raises either pre or post-flop, I have to be careful because they only get aggressive with made hands.
So, this is how I’ll play against Sam123 until I learn differently.
4. Showdowns Confirm a Player’s Use of Exploitative Plays
Sometimes you’ll look at a player’s HUD statistics and you’ll catch a tendency of theirs that looks like an exploit they like to use.
An example of this is seeing a high Turn Float statistic of 60%+. In PokerTracker 4, a Float Bet is defined as the “Percentage of the time that a player bets in position on the turn after the aggressor fails to continuation bet on the turn.” So, they called a cbet IP on the flop. Then their opponent failed to double-barrel the turn. They pounce on this with a float bet intended to steal the pot.
It’s great when you catch an exploitative play like this. Seeing a showdown after they make this play with Ace-high or a busted draw tells you they’re capable of it.
Now, you can use this against them next time by check-raising instead of double-barreling the turn. Or, if it’s multi-way, you can raise them in-position as a bluff once they make the float bet.
The more showdowns you pay attention to, the more plays like this you’ll catch. Now that you notice them, you can learn how to defend against them or use them for yourself to exploit other opponents.
5. Showdowns Help Us Spot Tells (14:40)
Whether you’re a LIVE or online player, spotting tells helps us exploit others and earn more of their chips.
For LIVE players, when you see a showdown and remember how the player reached for his chips, paused, then checked with an open palm when he turned the nut flush, that can help you in the future. When they quickly 3bet pre-flop by haphazardly moving a full stack in with TT, but later you see them calmly slide a stack in with AA, that’ll also help in the future.
For online players, maybe you remember how your opponent timed down then over-shoved the turn with the nut flush draw, but in a different hand they quickly bet 2/3 pot on the turn with the set.
If you have a hard time remembering the action that just occurred, you’ve got to start paying more attention and try to remember their actions. Tell yourself you can do it, then practice doing it.
Recite the action in your head like a play by play announcer: “The BB called pre-flop, then donk bet for ½ pot on the A92r flop. On the turn he just checked and when the flush completed and on the river he quickly bet out 2/3 pot, like he liked that river card.”
Now You Can Exploit Their Range
Hand reading is the basis for all exploits against other players.
These exploits can start preflop or at any other point in the hand.
Preflop: If you assign the player a very wide raising range, you can exploit this knowledge by 3bet bluffing a lot. If they call vs most 3bets, instead of bluffing, you can value bet really big to exploit their calling tendencies.
Post-flop: If you know they cbet the flop a lot but only double-barrel with strong hands. On a hard to hit flop like J62r, you can call and when they check the turn, take the pot away with a bet. It’s a hard to hit board and they’re turn honest, so bluffing here is an easy exploit to make.
Because there are so many important factors, it takes loads of practice to become a skilled hand reader. Let’s get you started…
I challenge you to 5 hand reading exercises, one per day for the next 5 days. Taking action and doing your own hand reading exercises is the only way you’ll learn this skill. Now, I challenge you to get to work!
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Christopher Urie, Phil Munos, Daniel McVicker, Albert Lee, Robert Fogel, Nick Court, Todd Doiron, Teddy Winstead, Sean Sluggett, Asher, Tomas Fagerstrom and Mantas Kurpius picked up the best poker software, PokerTracker 4. My favorite since 2006! In appreciation, I sent them each a copy of my Smart HUD for PT4. Along with the growing database of hands to study, the Smart HUD is a powerful tool in anyone’s poker toolbox.
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This page describes the ranking of poker hands. This applies not only in the game of poker itself, but also in certain other card games such as Chinese Poker, Chicago, Poker Menteur and Pai Gow Poker.
Big O Poker Starting Hands
- Low Poker Ranking: A-5, 2-7, A-6
- Hand probabilities and multiple decks - probability tables
Standard Poker Hand Ranking
There are 52 cards in the pack, and the ranking of the individual cards, from high to low, is ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In standard poker - that is to say in the formal casino and tournament game played internationally and the home game as normally played in North America - there is no ranking between the suits for the purpose of comparing hands - so for example the king of hearts and the king of spades are equal. (Note however that suit ranking is sometimes used for other purposes such as allocating seats, deciding who bets first, and allocating the odd chip when splitting a pot that can't be equally divided. See ranking of suits for details.)
A poker hand consists of five cards. The categories of hand, from highest to lowest, are listed below. Any hand in a higher category beats any hand in a lower category (so for example any three of a kind beats any two pairs). Between hands in the same category the rank of the individual cards decides which is better, as described in more detail below.
In games where a player has more than five cards and selects five to form a poker hand, the remaining cards do not play any part in the ranking. Poker ranks are always based on five cards only, and if these cards are equal the hands are equal, irrespective of the ranks of any unused cards.
Some readers may wonder why one would ever need to compare (say) two threes of a kind of equal rank. This obviously cannot arise in basic draw poker, but such comparisons are needed in poker games using shared (community) cards, such as Texas Hold'em, in poker games with wild cards, and in other card games using poker combinations.
1. Straight Flush
If there are no wild cards, this is the highest type of poker hand: five cards of the same suit in sequence - such as J-10-9-8-7. Between two straight flushes, the one containing the higher top card is higher. An ace can be counted as low, so 5-4-3-2-A is a straight flush, but its top card is the five, not the ace, so it is the lowest type of straight flush. The highest type of straight flush, A-K-Q-J-10 of a suit, is known as a Royal Flush. The cards in a straight flush cannot 'turn the corner': 4-3-2-A-K is not valid.
2. Four of a kind
Four cards of the same rank - such as four queens. The fifth card, known as the kicker, can be anything. This combination is sometimes known as 'quads', and in some parts of Europe it is called a 'poker', though this term for it is unknown in English. Between two fours of a kind, the one with the higher set of four cards is higher - so 3-3-3-3-A is beaten by 4-4-4-4-2. If two or more players have four of a kind of the same rank, the rank of the kicker decides. For example in Texas Hold'em with J-J-J-J-9 on the table (available to all players), a player holding K-7 beats a player holding Q-10 since the king beats the queen. If one player holds 8-2 and another holds 6-5 they split the pot, since the 9 kicker makes the best hand for both of them. If one player holds A-2 and another holds A-K they also split the pot because both have an ace kicker.
3. Full House
This combination, sometimes known as a boat, consists of three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank - for example three sevens and two tens (colloquially known as 'sevens full of tens' or 'sevens on tens'). When comparing full houses, the rank of the three cards determines which is higher. For example 9-9-9-4-4 beats 8-8-8-A-A. If the threes of a kind are equal, the rank of the pairs decides.
4. Flush
Five cards of the same suit. When comparing two flushes, the highest card determines which is higher. If the highest cards are equal then the second highest card is compared; if those are equal too, then the third highest card, and so on. For example K-J-9-3-2 beats K-J-7-6-5 because the nine beats the seven.If all five cards are equal, the flushes are equal.
5. Straight
Five cards of mixed suits in sequence - for example Q-J-10-9-8. When comparing two sequences, the one with the higher ranking top card is better. Ace can count high or low in a straight, but not both at once, so A-K-Q-J-10 and 5-4-3-2-A are valid straights, but 2-A-K-Q-J is not. 5-4-3-2-A, known as a wheel, is the lowest kind of straight, the top card being the five.
6. Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank plus two unequal cards. This combination is also known as Triplets or Trips. When comparing two threes of a kind the rank of the three equal cards determines which is higher. If the sets of three are of equal rank, then the higher of the two remaining cards in each hand are compared, and if those are equal, the lower odd card is compared.So for example 5-5-5-3-2 beats 4-4-4-K-5, which beats 4-4-4-Q-9, which beats 4-4-4-Q-8.
7. Two Pairs
A pair consists of two cards of equal rank. In a hand with two pairs, the two pairs are of different ranks (otherwise you would have four of a kind), and there is an odd card to make the hand up to five cards. When comparing hands with two pairs, the hand with the highest pair wins, irrespective of the rank of the other cards - so J-J-2-2-4 beats 10-10-9-9-8 because the jacks beat the tens. If the higher pairs are equal, the lower pairs are compared, so that for example 8-8-6-6-3 beats 8-8-5-5-K. Finally, if both pairs are the same, the odd cards are compared, so Q-Q-5-5-8 beats Q-Q-5-5-4.
8. Pair
A hand with two cards of equal rank and three cards which are different from these and from each other. When comparing two such hands, the hand with the higher pair is better - so for example 6-6-4-3-2 beats 5-5-A-K-Q. If the pairs are equal, compare the highest ranking odd cards from each hand; if these are equal compare the second highest odd card, and if these are equal too compare the lowest odd cards. So J-J-A-9-3 beats J-J-A-8-7 because the 9 beats the 8.
9. Nothing
Five cards which do not form any of the combinations listed above. This combination is often called High Card and sometimes No Pair. The cards must all be of different ranks, not consecutive, and contain at least two different suits. When comparing two such hands, the one with the better highest card wins. If the highest cards are equal the second cards are compared; if they are equal too the third cards are compared, and so on. So A-J-9-5-3 beats A-10-9-6-4 because the jack beats the ten.
Hand Ranking in Low Poker
There are several poker variations in which the lowest hand wins: these are sometimes known as Lowball. There are also 'high-low' variants in which the pot is split between the highest and the lowest hand. A low hand with no combination is normally described by naming its highest card - for example 8-6-5-4-2 would be described as '8-down' or '8-low'.
It first sight it might be assumed that in low poker the hands rank in the reverse order to their ranking in normal (high) poker, but this is not quite the case. There are several different ways to rank low hands, depending on how aces are treated and whether straights and flushes are counted.
Ace to Five
This seems to be the most popular system. Straights and flushes do not count, and Aces are always low. The best hand is therefore 5-4-3-2-A, even if the cards are all in one suit. Then comes 6-4-3-2-A, 6-5-3-2-A, 6-5-4-2-A, 6-5-4-3-A, 6-5-4-3-2, 7-4-3-2-A and so on. Note that when comparing hands, the highest card is compared first, just as in standard poker. So for example 6-5-4-3-2 is better than 7-4-3-2-A because the 6 is lower than the 7. The best hand containing a pair is A-A-4-3-2. This version is sometimes called 'California Lowball'.
When this form of low poker is played as part of a high-low split variant, there is sometimes a condition that a hand must be 'eight or better' to qualify to win the low part of the pot. In this case a hand must consist of five unequal cards, all 8 or lower, to qualify for low. The worst such hand is 8-7-6-5-4.
Deuce to Seven
The hands rank in almost the same order as in standard poker, with straights and flushes counting and the lowest hand wins. The difference from normal poker is that Aces are always high , so that A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, but ranks between K-Q-J-10-8 and A-6-4-3-2. The best hand in this form is 7-5-4-3-2 in mixed suits, hence the name 'deuce to seven'. The next best is 7-6-4-3-2, then 7-6-5-3-2, 7-6-5-4-2, 8-5-4-3-2, 8-6-4-3-2, 8-6-5-3-2, 8-6-5-4-2, 8-6-5-4-3, 8-7-4-3-2, etc. The highest card is always compared first, so for example 8-6-5-4-3 is better than 8-7-4-3-2 even though the latter contains a 2, because the 6 is lower than the 7. The best hand containing a pair is 2-2-5-4-3, but this would be beaten by A-K-Q-J-9 - the worst 'high card' hand. This version is sometimes called 'Kansas City Lowball'.
Ace to Six
Many home poker players play that straights and flushes count, but that aces can be counted as low. In this version 5-4-3-2-A is a bad hand because it is a straight, so the best low hand is 6-4-3-2-A. There are a couple of issues around the treatment of aces in this variant.
- First, what about A-K-Q-J-10? Since aces are low, this should not count as a straight. It is a king-down, and is lower and therefore better than K-Q-J-10-2.
- Second, a pair of aces is the lowest and therefore the best pair, beating a pair of twos.
It is likely that some players would disagree with both the above rulings, preferring to count A-K-Q-J-10 as a straight and in some cases considering A-A to be the highest pair rather than the lowest. It would be wise to check that you agree on these details before playing ace-to-six low poker with unfamiliar opponents.
Selecting from more than five cards
Note that in games where more than five cards are available, the player is free to select whichever cards make the lowest hand. For example a player in Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better whose cards are 10-8-6-6-3-2-A can omit the 10 and one of the 6's to create a qualifying hand for low.
Poker Hand Ranking with Wild Cards
A wild card card that can be used to substitute for a card that the holder needs to make up a hand. In some variants one or more jokers are added to the pack to act as wild cards. In others, one or more cards of the 52-card pack may be designated as wild - for example all the twos ('deuces wild') or the jacks of hearts and spades ('one-eyed jacks wild', since these are the only two jacks shown in profile in Anglo-American decks).
The most usual rule is that a wild card can be used either
- to represent any card not already present in the hand, or
- to make the special combination of 'five of a kind'.
This approach is not entirely consistent, since five of a kind - five cards of equal rank - must necessarily include one duplicate card, since there are only four suits. The only practical effect of the rule against duplicates is to prevent the formation of a 'double ace flush'. So for example in the hand A-9-8-5-joker, the joker counts as a K, not a second ace, and this hand is therefore beaten by A-K-10-4-3, the 10 beating the 9.
Five of a Kind
When playing with wild cards, five of a kind becomes the highest type of hand, beating a royal flush. Between fives of a kind, the higher beats the lower, five aces being highest of all.
The Bug
Some games, especially five card draw, are often played with a bug. This is a joker added to the pack which acts as a limited wild card. It can either be used as an ace, or to complete a straight or a flush. Thus the highest hand is five aces (A-A-A-A-joker), but other fives of a kind are impossible - for example 6-6-6-6-joker would count as four sixes with an ace kicker and a straight flush would beat this hand. Also a hand like 8-8-5-5-joker counts as two pairs with the joker representing an ace, not as a full house.
Wild Cards in Low Poker
In Low Poker, a wild card can be used to represent a card of a rank not already present in the player's hand. It is then sometimes known as a 'fitter'. For example 6-5-4-2-joker would count as a pair of sixes in normal poker with the joker wild, but in ace-to-five low poker the joker could be used as an ace, and in deuce-to-seven low poker it could be used as a seven to complete a low hand.
Lowest Card Wild
Some home poker variants are played with the player's lowest card (or lowest concealed card) wild. In this case the rule applies to the lowest ranked card held at the time of the showdown, using the normal order ace (high) to two (low). Aces cannot be counted as low to make them wild.
Double Ace Flush
Some people play with the house rule that a wild card can represent any card, including a duplicate of a card already held. It then becomes possible to have a flush containing two or more aces. Flushes with more than one ace are not allowed unless specifically agreed as a house rule.
Natural versus Wild
Some play with the house rule that a natural hand beats an equal hand in which one or more of the cards are represented by wild cards. This can be extended to specify that a hand with more wild cards beats an otherwise equal hand with fewer wild cards. This must be agreed in advance: in the absence of any agreement, wild cards are as good as the natural cards they represent.
Incomplete Hands
In some poker variants, such as No Peek, it is necessary to compare hands that have fewer than five cards. With fewer than five cards, you cannot have a straight, flush or full house. You can make a four of a kind or two pairs with only four cards, triplets with three cards, a pair with two cards and a 'high card' hand with just one card.
The process of comparing first the combination and then the kickers in descending order is the same as when comparing five-card hands. In hands with unequal numbers of cards any kicker that is present in the hand beats a missing kicker. So for example 8-8-K beats 8-8-6-2 because the king beats the 6, but 8-8-6-2 beats 8-8-6 because a 2 is better than a missing fourth card. Similarly a 10 by itself beats 9-5, which beats 9-3-2, which beats 9-3, which beats a 9 by itself.
Ranking of suits
In standard poker there is no ranking of suits for the purpose of comparing hands. If two hands are identical apart from the suits of the cards then they count as equal. In standard poker, if there are two highest equal hands in a showdown, the pot is split between them. Standard poker rules do, however, specify a hierarchy of suits: spades (highest), hearts, diamonds, clubs (lowest) (as in Contract Bridge), which is used to break ties for special purposes such as:
- drawing cards to allocate players to seats or tables;
- deciding who bets first in stud poker according to the highest or lowest upcard;
- allocating a chip that is left over when a pot cannot be shared exactly between two or more players.
I have, however, heard from several home poker players who play by house rules that use this same ranking of suits to break ties between otherwise equal hands. For some reason, players most often think of this as a way to break ties between royal flushes, which would be most relevant in a game with many wild cards, where such hands might become commonplace. However, if you want to introduce a suit ranking it is important also to agree how it will apply to other, lower types of hand. If one player A has 8-8-J-9-3 and player B has 8-8-J-9-3, who will win? Does player A win by having the highest card within the pair of eights, or does player B win because her highest single card, the jack, is in a higher suit? What about K-Q-7-6-2 against K-Q-7-6-2 ? So far as I know there is no universally accepted answer to these questions: this is non-standard poker, and your house rules are whatever you agree that they are. Three different rules that I have come across, when hands are equal apart from suit are:
Big Poker Hands
- Compare the suit of the highest card in the hand.
- Compare the suit of the highest paired card - for example if two people have J-J-7-7-K the highest jack wins.
- Compare the suit of the highest unpaired card - for example if two people have K-K-7-5-4 compare the 7's.
Although the order spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs may seem natural to Bridge players and English speakers, other suit orders are common, especially in some European countries. Up to now, I have come across:
Big Two Poker Hands
- spades (high), hearts, clubs, diamonds (low)
- spades (high), diamonds, clubs, hearts (low)
- hearts (high), spades, diamonds, clubs (low) (in Greece and in Turkey)
- hearts (high), diamonds, spades, clubs (low) (in Austria and in Sweden)
- hearts (high), diamonds, clubs, spades (low) (in Italy)
- diamonds (high), spades, hearts, clubs (low) (in Brazil)
- diamonds (high), hearts, spades, clubs (low) (in Brazil)
- clubs (high), spades, hearts, diamonds (low) (in Germany)
As with all house rules, it would be wise to make sure you have a common understanding before starting to play, especially when the group contains people with whom you have not played before.
Stripped Decks
In some places, especially in continental Europe, poker is sometimes played with a deck of less than 52 cards, the low cards being omitted. Italian Poker is an example. As the pack is reduced, a Flush becomes more difficult to make, and for this reason a Flush is sometimes ranked above a Full House in such games. In a stripped deck game, the ace is considered to be adjacent to the lowest card present in the deck, so for example when using a 36-card deck with 6's low, A-6-7-8-9 is a low straight.
Playing poker with fewer than 52 cards is not a new idea. In the first half of the 19th century, the earliest form of poker was played with just 20 cards - the ace, king, queen, jack and ten of each suit - with five cards dealt to each of four players. The only hand types recognised were, in descending order, four of a kind, full house, three of a kind, two pairs, one pair, no pair.
No Unbeatable Hand
In standard poker a Royal Flush (A-K-Q-J-10 of one suit) cannot be beaten. Even if you introduce suit ranking, the Royal Flush in the highest suit is unbeatable. In some regions, it is considered unsatisfactory to have any hand that is guaranteed to be unbeaten - there should always be a risk. There are several solutions to this.
In Italy this is achieved by the rule 'La minima batte la massima, la massima batte la media e la media batte la minima' ('the minimum beats the maximum, the maximum beats the medium and the medium beats the minimum'). A minimum straight flush is the lowest that can be made with the deck in use. Normally they play with a stripped deck so for example with 40 cards the minimum straight flush would be A-5-6-7-8 of a suit. A maximum straight flush is 10-J-Q-K-A of a suit. All other straight flushes are medium. If two players have medium straight flushes then the one with higher ranked cards wins as usual. Also as usual a maximum straight flush beats a medium one, and a medium straight flush beats a minimum one. But if a minimum straight flush comes up against a maximum straight flush, the minimum beats the maximum. In the very rare case where three players hold a straight flush, one minimum, one medium and one maximum, the pot is split between them. See for example Italian Poker.
In Greece, where hearts is the highest suit, A-K-Q-J-10 is called an Imperial Flush, and it is beaten only by four of a kind of the lowest rank in the deck - for example 6-6-6-6 if playing with 36 cards. Again, in very rare cases there could also be a hand in the showdown that beats the four of a kind but is lower than the Imperial Flush, in which case the pot would be split.
Hand probabilities and multiple decks
The ranking order of poker hands corresponds to their probability of occurring in straight poker, where five cards are dealt from a 52-card deck, with no wild cards and no opportunity to use extra cards to improve a hand. The rarer a hand the higher it ranks.
This is neither an essential nor an original feature of poker, and it ceases to be true when wild cards are introduced. In fact, with a large number of wild cards, it is almost inevitable that the higher hand types will be the commoner, not rarer, since wild cards will be used to help make the most valuable type of hand from the available cards.
Mark Brader has provided probability tables showing the frequency of each poker hand type when five cards are dealt from a 52-card deck, and also showing how these probabilities would change if multiple decks were used.