Poker is the most popular card game. There are many poker variations that have different rules and look and fell differently. At this page we will explain the basic concept of poker applicable to all poker games.
What is Poker?
Poker is a card game most commonly played with a standard 52 card deck that includes 4 suits of 13 cards. Each suit contains number cards from 2 to 10 and face cards: Jack, Queen, King and Ace. Some poker games can also be played with added Jokers or with a Spanish deck of 36 cards.
The target of all poker games is to combine the best possible poker hand. Standard poker hands are composed of five cards and are evaluated according to the following ranking (from lowest to highest):
Poker Hands Ranking
- High Card: A hand that does not contain any higher combinations. Such hand is evaluated according to the highest single card.
- Pair: A hand that contains a single pair of two matching cards (cards of the same rank). For example, two Jacks
- Two Pair: A hand that consists of two pairs of matching cards. For example, two Jacks and two Queens
- Three of a Kind: A hand with three matching cards. For example, three Jacks
- Straight: A hand with five subsequent cards (cards that follow each other by rank). For example, 8-9-10-Jack-Queen
- Flush: Five cards of the same suit
- Full House: A hand that contains Pair and Three of a Kind. For example, Jack-Jack-Queen-Queen-Queen
- Four of a Kind: A hand with four matching cards. For example, four Jacks
- Straight Flush: A hand that is Flush and Straight at the same time, which means that is contains five consecutive cards of the same rank. For example, 8 of Spades, 9 of Spades, 10 of Spades, Jack of Spades and the Queen of Spades.
- Royal Flush: Same as Straight Flush, but with cards of the highest rank: 10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace
If two players have equal hands, the winner is determined by the highest card included in the combination. For example, if one player has a Pair of Jacks and another one has a Pair of Queens, the player with a Pair of Queens wins. Note that other cards in the hand that do not form a poker combination do not affect the strength of the poker hand. A special case is Full House. In this hand the highest of the three matching cards defines the strength of Full House while two other matching cards are not taken into the account when comparing two Full Houses. For example, a player with J-J-K-K-K beats a player with A-A-Q-Q-Q, despite the fact that the latter has a pair of Aces.
The hands ranking described above is applicable to all kinds of poker games, but can be slightly modified in games that use less than five cards. In such games five-card poker hands such as Straight, Flush, Full House etc. can never appear. Therefore these games use hands ranking with fewer hands. But besides, some of these games can involve alternative hands. For example, some variations of Three Card Guts consider three-card Straight and three-card Flush legal hands. These hands beat a pair but lose to Three of a Kind, while three card Flush beats three card Straight. This is done to vary a three card game where High Card, Pair and Three of a Kind are the only possible poker hands.