Poker Hands
A person cannot be said to have understood any game unless they know the scoring criteria used in that game, and poker is no exception to this. The key to understanding poker is understanding the winning poker hands rankings, as it is these rankings which at the end of the day determine who the winner in a given game of poker is. After all, the way poker works is that the person holding the ‘best hand’ at the end of the game is declared the winner of the game – and the ‘best hand’ in question here is determined according to the ranking criteria used to judge the ‘quality’ of a hand one happens to be holding.
The best possible ‘poker hand rankings‘ in poker (where a hand is basically the combination of cards one has at the end of the game) is of course the royal flush. Here, every card belongs to the same units and the arrangement of the cards is sequential like where you have something starting with the ’10’ card and ending with ‘A’ card – with cards J, Q and A (in that order) in the sequence. The second best possible ‘hand’ in poker -after the ‘royal flush’ is the ‘straight flush’ – which occurs when one has any five card sequence, belonging to the same unit, with a catch that they also have to be consecutive, like an A followed by a 2,3,4 and 5 – or an 8 followed by a 9,10, J and Q.
The third best possible ‘hand’ is the ‘four of a kind’ hand – made of 4 cards bearing the same index, like a tetra-J (JJJJ) holding. Then there is the ‘full house’ hand – which is made of three cards of a kind combined with another two of a kind, like where you have J,J,J combined with a 3,3. The fifth best possible ‘hand’ in poker is the ‘flush’ which is simply about having all the five cards belonging to the same units, but being out sequence.
Beyond the ‘flush’ we have the ‘straight’ – not to be confused with the ‘straight flush’ (which is a very ‘prestigious hand’). In the ‘straight’ we have five cards belonging to different units, but at least in sequence. Then there is the ‘three of a kind’ hand, which is simply about having three cards of the same value. Now there is a possibility of two players chancing upon the ‘three cards’ hand – and when this happens, the winner is the person whose three card holding is of the higher value.
The ‘two pair’ hand, which is the next best possible hand is about having two separate pairs in one’s card holding, like for instance 5,5,J, J. Again, where two players chance upon the ‘two pair’ hand, the one with the higher value combination wins. Then there is the ‘pair’ as the next best possible hand in poker – and this is simply having a single pair bearing two cards of the same value. The worst possible hand in poker – but which still turns out to be the hand that determines the winner in many poker games – is the ‘high card’ where the person holding the highest value card on hand at the end of the game is declared the winner.
Poker Rules Guide
The rules that I would enumerate here are not the specific rules of the game. The subsequent items enumerated here are better than the specific rules of the standard game. Many pro players have been adopting these rules and, more often than not, they benefit from these rules.
The first simple poker rule is to use your mathematical skills. Particularly your ability to mentally calculate and estimate bets and percentages of winning. The best poker players know that there is a 1/8 chance of getting a set when a pocket pair is on hand and that there is a 1/3 chance of possessing a flush draw. Mathematical skills also include the ability to know the importance of outs-the cards that can improve the set you have. Determining the pot odds are also dependent on one’s mathematical skills. Once able to compute the gravity of the odds involved, a player will know if he will be able to win and if so, how much to bet. Remember that a mathematical skill is one of the most basic rules of poker. Without this, it would be very difficult to win.
Another simple poker rules are to be disciplined. Non-thinking poker players are usually the least disciplined ones and seldom do they win with their hands. They do not impose a limit on themselves and are usually more than eager to bet everything they have just to play as many hands as possible-they are after the quantity and not the quality of the game. A disciplined player is also the one who knows the right time to play and the best time to stop. He can immediately recognize if the odds are with him or against him, thus, he knows when he has the higher probability of winning than losing. Most of all, a disciplined player knows how to accept his mistakes. He does not put the blame on others and get angry with them for his losses, instead, he puts into mind his mistakes and learns from them. Then he stores this knowledge for future games.
