Poker Types Of Hands
The card game of poker has many variations, most of which were created in the United States in the mid-1900s. The standard order of play applies to most of these games, but to fully specify a poker game requires details about which hand values are used, the number of betting rounds, and exactly what cards are dealt and what other actions are taken between rounds.
In Stud poker, players are dealt 5 or 7 cards depending on the type of Stud played. Some of these cards are dealt face down and some face up, usually depending on the betting interval. The goal is to make the best possible 5-card hand and win. The is the best possible hand you can get in standard five-card Poker is called a royal flush. This hand consists of an: ace, king, queen, jack and 10, all of the same suit. If you have a royal flush, you'll want to bet higher because this is a hard hand to beat. Liliboas / Getty Images.
Popular poker variants[edit]
The three most popular poker variants are spread in casinos and poker rooms worldwide and can be divided into the following groups:
- Draw poker: Games in which players are dealt a complete hand, hidden, and then improve it by replacing cards. The most common of these is five-card draw.
- Stud poker: Games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. The most common of these are five-card stud and seven-card stud. These two variants are further played in other different formats.
- Community card poker: Games in which each player's incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. The most common of these are Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em.
Here are more common rule variations:
- Lowball: The lowest hand wins the pot. There are different rules about whether or not aces count as low, and the effects of straights and flushes. The most common variants are Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw
- High-low split: the highest and lowest hands split the pot. Generally there is a qualifier for the low hand. For example, the low hand must have 5 cards with ranks of 8 or less. In most high-low games the usual rank of poker hands is observed, so that an unsuited broken straight (7-5-4-3-2) wins low (see Morehead, Official Rules of Card Games). In a variant, based on Lowball, where only the low hand wins, a straight or a flush does not matter for a low hand. So the best low hand is 5-4-3-2-A, suited or not.
- Players can pass cards to each other. An example of this would be Anaconda.
- Kill game: When a fixed limit game is played and a player wins two pots in a row, the stakes are doubled. In some split-pot games, a player winning both halves of the pot may also cause a kill. In some variants of Lowball, a player may choose to kill by placing a double bet after seeing his first two cards.
- Wild cards are added. This can range from simply making deuces wild to the 7-card stud variant named baseball.
- A twist round in which players can buy another card from the deck. If a player does not like the purchased card, the player can purchase another one by adding money to the pot. This is sometimes called a 'tittle.'
- A stripped deck may be used. Poker was first played with only 20 cards. In the spirit of poker history, players will sometimes only play with a stripped deck. A popular poker game in Spain is played with cards 8-A. It is played similar to hold'em, except that one card is dealt at a time and a player must use both hole cards.
- Roll your own is played in stud games, and allows the player to determine which of his or her cards are turned up and visible to the other players. In a game like Seven-card Stud, the 'roll' action only applies to the first 3 cards, all of which are dealt face down. Each player then determines which card to expose. Play then continues as with regular Seven-card Stud. But a game like Mexican stud applies the roll option throughout the game. Two cards are dealt face down, and the players roll one card up. The game continues just as in Five-card Stud, except the cards are dealt face down, and each player then decides which of the two down cards is exposed.[1]
Mixed poker games[edit]
Poker can be played in a mixed game format, for example one half-hour of Texas hold 'em followed by one half-hour of Seven-card stud. There are many types of mixed poker games. The most notable mixed poker variation is H.O.R.S.E. poker. H.O.R.S.E. is a mix of Texas hold 'em, Omaha high-low, Razz, Seven-card stud and Seven-card stud Eight-or-better. Each game will usually be played for a fixed number of hands or time and then the players will move on to the next game.
Other mixed games include:
- H.O.S.E. – same as H.O.R.S.E., except without Razz.
- H.O.E. – same as H.O.R.S.E, except no Razz or Seven-card stud.
- H.O. – Texas hold 'em and Omaha high-low
- O.E. – Omaha high-low and Seven-card Stud Eight or better.
- H.A. – Pot limit Texas hold 'em and pot limit Omaha.
- Omaha High-low Mixed – Fixed limit Omaha and pot limit Omaha high-low
- Holdem Mixed – Fixed limit and no limit Texas hold 'em.
- Eight Game Mix – Fixed limit 2-7 Triple Draw, fixed limit Texas hold 'em, fixed limit Omaha Hi-Low Eight or better, Razz, fixed limit Seven-card stud, fixed limit Seven-card stud Hi-Low eight or better, no limit Texas hold 'em and pot limit Omaha.
- Ten Game Mix (introduced at 2011 World Series of Poker) – No limit Hold'em, fixed limit Seven-card Razz, fixed limit Hold'em, fixed limit Badugi, fixed limit Seven-card Stud, no limit 2-7 Single Draw, fixed limit Omaha Hi-Low eight or better, pot limit Omaha, fixed limit 2-7 Triple Draw and fixed limit Seven-card stud Hi-Low eight or better (played with 6 players on a table).
Specific poker variant games[edit]
Some poker games don't fit neatly into the above categories, and some have features of more than one of these categories. These variants are most often played in home games, usually as part of a dealer's choice format.
High Chicago or Low Chicago[edit]
Either of these two versions can be played in any stud high game. In High Chicago, or sometimes simply called Chicago, the player with the highest spade face down (referred to as in the hole) receives half the pot. In Low Chicago, the player with the lowest spade in the hole receives half of the pot, with the A♠ being the lowest. If the player with the highest hand also has the highest/lowest spade in the hole, then that player receives the entire pot - having won both sides of the bet.
Follow the Queen[edit]
This 7-card stud game uses a wild-card designated as whichever card is immediately dealt (exposed, or face-up) after any queen previously dealt (exposed). In the event that the final card dealt (exposed) is itself a queen, then all queens are wild. If no queens are dealt (exposed), then there are no wilds for that hand. Betting is the same as in normal 7-card stud games. Follow the Queen is a typical game variant in Dealer's Choice poker games.[2][3]
Countdown[edit]
In this 5-card game, the dealer gives each player 5 cards face down. After the first round of betting, each player may choose to replace zero to three cards. A second round of betting follows and then players may opt to replace zero to two cards. Upon completing another round of betting, each player may replace one card of the cards in their hand. After a final round of betting, any remaining players show their hands, and the highest 5 card hand wins. The cost of cards doubles each round. For example, if the dealer says each replacement card costs $10 in the first round, then each card costs $20 in the second round, and $40 in the final round. When players purchase cards to replace ones in their hand, they put the cost of the cards in the pot.[4]
This game will only work with 4 players (or fewer) otherwise you will run out of cards.
Billabong and Shanghai[edit]
Just as Oxford stud is a mixed stud/community card version of Texas hold 'em, Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two down-cards and one up-card. Low up-card starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high card starts the betting. Next, two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker hand (counting the community cards, as in Oxford stud). Then a third community card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community card is dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination.
Shanghai is the same game with an extra hole card, but no more than two hole cards play. That is, the game begins with each player being dealt three down-cards and one up-card; each player must discard one of his hole cards at some point during the game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to discard immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to discard just before showdown as in Tahoe.
Guts[edit]
Guts is a family of games that are cousins of poker rather than poker variants. They usually involve hands of 3 or fewer cards, ranked similarly to hands in poker, and multiple successive rounds of betting each of which consist of the decision to be 'in' or 'out', and each with its own showdown. The losers of rounds of guts generally match or double the pot, which grows rapidly.
Five-O poker[edit]
Five-O Poker is a heads-up poker variant in which both players must play five hands of five cards simultaneously. Four of the five cards in each hand are face-up. Once all five hands are down, there is a single round of betting. The winner is determined by matching each hand to the corresponding hand of the opponent. The player with the stronger poker hand in three (or more) out of the five columns, wins, unless a player folds on a bet that was made. If a player beats their opponent with all five hands, this is called a “Five-O” win.
Chinese poker[edit]
Chinese poker is a 2-4 player poker game with thirteen cards. The idea is to make three poker hands with increasing rank : two with five cards and one with three cards. If one of the hands does not adhere to increasing rank (i.e. is mis-set), the hand is declared dead and results in some sort of penalty.
Kuhn poker[edit]
Kuhn poker, using a three card deck, is more of game theory problem than an actual game people play, but it can be played by two players.[5]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Pagat.com: Roll Your Own
- ^Pokernews.com: Fun Home Poker Game Rules - Follow the Queen
- ^Pokerrules.net: How to Play Follow the Queen
- ^Pokerrules.net: How to Play Countdown Poker
- ^'A Parameterized Family of Equilibrium Profiles for Three-Player Kuhn Poker'(PDF).
Poker Types Of Hands Signals
Understanding the Different Types of Poker Hands
Two Simple Hands
Strictly speaking, in most standard poker games like Texas Holdem, there are only two types of hands that you should be concerned about: starting hands and the actual five-card poker hands. Let’s take a look at each one below:
Please note the following card references:
(h) Hearts (d) Diamonds (c) Clubs (s) Spades
Starting hands
As the name implies, a starting hand is made up of the initial cards that you are dealt. In games like Texas Holdem, it consists of a pair of cards that you could later on turn into a full five-card poker hand once all community cards are revealed.
Now, while there’s really no way to know for sure whether or not a specific starting hand would turn into a winner come showdown time, seasoned players know, based on experience (and a little bit of math), that certain starting hands have a better chance of building into something strong later in the game over others. These are called premium starting hands. In Texas Holdem, they are as follows:
- AA
- KK
- AK (suited)
- JJ
If you’re a beginner, it would be a good idea to start out only playing when you get any of these starting hands and just folding when you get anything else. Of course, the more games you play and the better you get at strategizing, reading your opponents, and bluffing (which you can learn more about here), the more starting hands you can add to your play list.
Let’s now move on to the next type of poker hands you should familiarize yourself with:
Five-card hands
Most standard poker games, even the three- and seven-card varieties, only compare the strongest five-card hand the players can build come showdown time.
Listed below are all the five-card hands at your disposal:
#1 Royal Flush
The most difficult hand to come by in poker, the royal flush only has a 0.000154% probability of occurring. It is made up of five suited cards of consecutive values and uses an ace its highest card. It is considered the strongest hand in poker.
Ex: Ac Kc Qc Jc 10c
#2 Straight Flush
This hand is pretty much the same as a royal flush. The only difference is that it has a king or lower as its highest card, which is why it only comes second on the list.
Ex: 10s 9s 8s 7s 6s
#3 Four of a Kind
Made up of four same-valued cards and an additional random fifth card, the odds of any player getting this hand are 4,164:1.
Ex: 8d 8h 8s 8c As
#4 Full House
This hand is made up of two parts: a trip and a pair. A trip consists of three cards of the same value while a pair, as you may have figured out by its name, is made up of two same-valued cards.
Ex: 4d 4h 4s 8s 8c
#5 Flush
Remember the straight flush? Well, this hand is pretty much the same thing except that it doesn’t require your card values to be in consecutive order.
Mathematically speaking, there are 5,108 ways you can build a flush with a standard deck of 52 cards. Regardless, the hand is still quite difficult to get. In fact, your odds of doing so are just 508:1.
Ex: Kh 9h 6h 4h 2h
#6 Straight
Another hand that’s derived, if you will, from a straight flush, a straight does not care about the suit of your cards. All you need to build one are five cards of consecutive values.
Ex: Kd Qc Js 10c 9h
#7 Three of a Kind
With a 2.1128% probability of occurring, this hand is essentially just the trip part of a full house plus two additional random cards to complete the set.
Ex: 3h 3s 3c Qd 8s
#8 Two Pair
Remember the pair part of a full house? Well, just take that then add another pair plus one more random card and you have a two pair hand.
Ex: Jd Jh 8d 8c 3s
#9 One Pair
No need for long explanations for this one. It’s just a pair of same-valued cards plus three other random cards to meet the five-card requirement.
Ex: Qd Qh As 3c 2s
#10 High Card
If you can’t build any of the preceding hands, then you get this one by default. It’s made up of just five totally random cards.
Needless to say, it is the weakest hand in poker.
Ex: 10d 8c 7s 5h 3h
Poker Types Of Hands Clipart
You’re now a poker hand type master!
Poker Types Of Hands
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