Ok so the first article covered what poker was, the second article went through the mechanics of playing a round of Texas Hold’em, we covered some of the terminology such as what pocket cards are, what a flop is etc, and we covered when and how to bet.
We can now go out and play a game of Texas Hold’em poker and have a general idea of what’s going on and when it’s your turn to do something like make a bet you can and use the right terminology.
In the last article we said that there are only nine hands of poker, they are in order of strength, lowest to highest;
1. Pair – two cards of the same value eg two twos, two fours, if two players have a pair then the highest pair win, the highest being two aces.
2. Two pair – as above but two of, eg. Two two’s and two three’s
3. Three of a kind – Three cards of the same value eg three two’s. Again if two players have a three of a kind then the highest denomination win, the highest being three aces.
4. Straight – a straight is five cards that run one after the other, eg 4,5,6,7,8. It doesn’t matter that the cards are not of the same suit. If two or more people have a straight each then the highest denomination would win.
5. Flush – a flush is where you have five cards of the same suit, they aren’t running and again if there are more than one flush the highest card would win.
6. Full house – is three cards of the same denomination plus two cards of the same denomination. eg. Three threes and two fives
7. Four of a kind – four cards the same eg all the aces or all the threes.
8. Straight flush – this is the same as a straight but in this instance the cards are all of the same suit.
9. Royal straight flush – this is the highest hand you can get, it’s a straight flush, starting with a ten, then jack, queen, king, ace. In a game of Texas Hold’em you can not have more than one player with this hand.
WE say there are nine hands in poker but there is another, and you can win with it but it’s not strictly a hand it is called the highest card.
By learning the above list you will know how to make the best hand possible with your two pocket cards, and be able to value that hand in relation to what other people may have. For example if your pocket cards are a four of clubs and a seven of hearts and the community cards are 4 spades, 7 spades, 7 diamonds, 9 of hearts and 9 of spades, your best hand is a full house – two 4’s and three 7’s. The only hand that can beat you is a four of a kind, in this case four 9’s.
