What Do Your Poker Cards Say?
The game of poker is not really very complicated but it does take some smartness to play.
It is usually played with a deck of 52 playing cards and the cards have different rankings, with the highest ranked being the Aces. The ranking of the cards from the highest to the lowest is Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2.
Cards are also grouped into four suits which are all of the same value, the Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds.
The idea of the game is to end up with a hand of the highest value. Players are dealt five cards each. It would help to understand what each of these hands mean and how valuable each one is.
The following descriptions explain each hand in brief.
Royal flush is the highest and most valuable hand, which comprises of 10, jack, Queen, Kind and Ace and all belonging to the same suit, but the chances of getting this hand are very low.
Straight flush is all the cards of the same suit in numerical order, such as 8, 9, 10, J, Q but a wrap around is not allowed, which means you cannot have cards with Q, K, A, 2, 3. Landing with a straight flush is also rare and it is understood that the person who gets two straights in a row is cheating. If two people have straight flushes at a single table, then the winner is the person who has the highest card values.
Four cards is, having four cards of the same ranking and the fifth can be anything. Again, if there is more than one person, the person who has the highest four of the same kind is the winner.
Full house means when three of the five cards have the same numerical ranking and the other two cards also have the same numerical ranking. If there is a tie, it is broken by first going with the three of the same type and then two of the same type.
Flush means all five cards belonging to the same suit, and the numerical ranking is not taken into consideration. Winner is the person with the highest ranking cards in case of a tie.
Straight is five cards in order numerically, irrespective of the suits. Straight cards should not wrap around, similar to straight flush. Tie again breaks with the highest ranking cards being the winner.
Three of a kind is three cards with the same numerical value and two other cards that are random and not a pair.
Two pairs is a hand with two sets of pairs along with a random card.
One pair is, as is obvious; one pair of cards and the other three cards should be random cards.
The lowest is the high card, which means if none of the players have any of the above hands; the person whose hand is higher is declared the winner.
This helps you understand how cards are paired and what winning cards are, and this knowledge is essential before playing poker.
Matthew Smith is a poker expert and has played many variations of poker. He offers is experience to new players at http://www.freeonlinepokergame.co.uk
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