Online casinos and poker

Knowing the rank of hands in poker is a must for any live or online gambling enthusiast. Not only is correct knowledge of hand ranking required to play traditional poker, you’ll also need to know how the hands are against each other and what the odds are when drawing to, say, a flush in Texas Holdem. Study the hand ranking and try a online free texas hold em calculator to obtain a deeper knowledge of the math behind poker.

Hand Rankings in Poker

Royal Flush: The royal flush is the best poker hand you can have. It consists of five cards of the same suit running consecutively from ten to ace, for example the ten, jack, queen, king and ace of hearts. This hand, regardless of suit, beats any other poker hand.

Straight Flush: The next strongest hand is a straight flush, which is any five consecutive cards of the same suit, such as five, six, seven, eight, nine of clubs.

Four of a Kind: Four of a kind, also called quads, is next. This means you have all the cards of a given rank, for example, all the fives, all the eights, all the kings. The fifth card in your hand does not matter.

Full House: A full house is three of one rank and two of another, such as three eights and two fours.

Flush: Just below a full house is a flush, any five cards of a given suit.

Straight: Losing to a flush but beating weaker hands is a straight, any five cards in consecutive order. An ace can be high or low but cannot wrap around, so ace, two, three, four, five is a straight. However, queen, king, ace, two, three is not.

Three of a Kind: Also called trips or in some cases a set, this is three cards of the same rank with two unpaired cards, like three nines, a king and a jack.

A Pair: Two matching cards with three unmatching cards, like two fives, a six, a three and a nine.

High Card: Simply the highest card in your hand if none of them match and they are not suited or consecutive. If you hold ace, nine, two, three, six you have an ace high hand.

Prepared to carry on? Then try the free online party poker software, one of the best tools on the Net.