Poker Book Club

More and more people are getting hooked on poker, especially these days when there are a number of poker websites offering free tutorials and games. Like any other gambling activity, poker is one game that promises excitement and thrills. If you’re new at poker, it’s best to learn about its rules, specifically poker hands order, which you need to master in order to make winning combinations.

Poker, a type of card game, requires players to bet on the value of the hand, which is the card combination in their possession, by placing a certain amount of money into the central pot. The one who has the highest hand or remains in the hand after all the other players have folded is the winner. The combination is determined by the established poker hands order or hand rankings hierarchy.

The best possible high hands come in this poker hands order: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and any hand not yet mentioned but wins in view of the possessor’s bluffing prowess that makes all the other players fold.

A royal flush combination is composed of a straight from a ten to an ace which should be five cards of the same suit. In poker, suit does not really matter so that when there are equally strong hands, the pots are split.

A straight flush is any straight, meaning consecutive cards, with all five cards of the same suit.

A four of a kind consists of four cards of the same rank. If there are two players who have the same four of a kind, a fifth card will be dealt to each, and the one with the bigger card wins the pot.

A full house is composed of three cards of the same rank plus two cards of the same rank.

After the full house, the flush is the highest hand in the poker hands order. A flush consists of five cards, which are not consecutive, of the same suit; remember that five consecutive cards of the same suit make up a straight flush. If there are two or more players with flushes, the highest card in each of their hands determines the rank of the flush and the winner.

A straight consists of five consecutive cards that are of different suits. The ace card can function as a low card or a high card, depending on how it can better serve the player.

A three of a kind consists of three cards of the same rank. The best possible combination of a three of a kind is three aces plus a king and a queen.

Two pair is composed of two cards of the same rank plus two other cards of the same rank. The best possible combination of a two pair is a pair of aces plus a pair of kings. In this example, the aces define the rank of the two pair versus other two pair combinations of other players.

One pair is basically five cards that contain a pair of the same rank.

Now you know the poker hands order. Get ready to play and win!

Ready to go from being an average online poker player to being pro?  Pick up your free e-course on poker hands order and start  profiting from playing poker online immediately!  Go to www.PokerOnlineSchool.com today and we will show you how to win $50 an hour or more playing Sit-N-Go’s and Cash Games online.

You may have noticed that while using your poker calculator it displays your hand odds while also using terminology like “hand rank”, “group”, or “group rank” all of which in some way or another refer to author David Sklansky’s Group Hand ranking for hold’em poker. Originally described in the classic book, “Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players”, Sklansky rated all the starting hands and put them in groups according to their similar win rate.

By clustering hands based on win rate and strength, it’s easier to keep track of basic betting strategies associated with each individual hand. For example, in Sklansky Group 3 hands you will find 99, AQ, ATs, and JTs among others. The best cluster though is Sklansky’s Group One which includes AA, AKs, KK, QQ, and JJ. They are going to show very high percentage win rates on your poker calculator as well as “raise, and re-raise” recommendations.

In adopting the Sklansky Group of Hands your poker calculator could in effect make you a “book player”, because many, especially the mathematical poker calculators don’t take other factors into account at the poker table. However, as a guideline, your poker calculator is going to have the exact odds, and correct mathematical indication served up for you, David Sklansky style.

Poker calculators have adopted this because, well they are just software designed by programmers, and not necessarily poker enthusiasts, but Sklansky is a Poker icon, educator, and author. I have had several poker calculators running at the same time for testing, and have found very similar results and percentage recommendations, because they generally use the same statistical backbone as Sklansky Group of Hands.

The difference between them lie in how their other features are factored in, such as how it monitors your position, how many players in the pot, how many tight or aggressive players, stage of a tournament, and if a player’s stake is up or down significantly.

Although published years ago, by using The Sklansky Group of Hands, poker software offers credibility to the ranking system, although it sure didn’t need it. Professional players have known these rankings and what to do with them for years. Seasoned opponents will also know how to use them against you, if you are an obvious book player, so mixing it up is always a good idea.

Some other books published by David Sklansky include The Theory of Poker, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, and Hold’em Poker.

Marty Smith is webmaster of http://www.PokerCalculatorReport.com where all the online poker calculators are tested and reviewed, including Sit and Go Shark, Calculatem Pro, and Poker Spy. He is also editor of http://www.PokerStrategyArticles.com where poker writers can submit thier own articles and links.

It is a fundamental requirement of playing poker that the player understands poker hand rankings, i.e. the order of priority of different hands. As well as being required to determine who has won a particular pot, it is also necessary to understand the hands which other players might be representing and therefore whether you think you can beat them. Different hands are listed below in order of priority, 1. being the best.

1. Royal flush – top of the poker hand rankings is the royal flush, being Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 suited.

2. Straight flush – this is 5 consecutive suited cards, e.g. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of spades. This particular example is a straight to the 7, which would be beaten by a straight to the 8.

3. Four of a kind – this is simply 4 cards of the same value, e.g. 4 Jacks. Note that 4 Queens would beat 4 Jacks.

4. Full house – a triplet (3 cards of the same value) and a pair (2 cards of the same value), e.g. 3 Queens and a pair of 7s.

5. Flush – any 5 cards of the same suit.

6. Straight – any 5 consecutive cards which are not suited (since, if they were suited, the hand would be a straight flush).

7. 3 of a kind – very simply, triplets (3 cards of the same value). 3 Aces beat 3 Kings.

8. 2 pair – also very simply, this is 2 separate pairs. Note that there is no better position in the poker hand rankings for 3 pairs, since this is a total of 6 cards and only your best 5 count.

9. Pair – simply 2 cards of the same value and, as usual, a high value pair beats a lower value pair.

10. High card – bottom of the poker hand rankings is the high card. This is simply the highest card from a hand of 5 that has not placed any better combination. So an Ace, 10, 6, 4 and 3 off suit would be called Ace high.

When calculating who has won a particular hand remember that it is only the best 5 cards that count – if 2 players draw with these 5 cards it does not go to who has got the strongest sixth card, and the pot is split. If you are struggling to maintain the importance of poker hand rankings then using a free download poker calculator is a great option. The tools will sit alongside your chosen poker room and provide guidance on which hand to play in each situation.

If you really want to play the best poker hand rankings automatically then you will need an Automatic Poker Odds Calculator. See the Magic Holdem Poker Calculator Review and transform your poker game.

Alex Mayer is a Poker playing professional who issues her poker tips and strategy knowledge at the FirstPokerTips website. Hundreds of great tips available on everything from poker hand rankings to bluffing.

As you learn to play poker, one of the most important things you will need to learn are the Poker Hands Rankings.

Most rankings list the hands from highest to lowest, but here they are shown from lowest to highest, as this is how you will encounter them most often. It is often noted that Las Vegas poker is played by slightly different rules than casinos in Europe, but all online games have agreed to use the Las Vegas Rules, as do the Texas Hold’Em poker tournaments shown on TV including the World Poker Tour and others. These rules for card games were first written down for live card games by Robert Ciaffone in 1984, and have become the standard for online poker and other games of chance played with cards.

In order to win at poker, you need to know how different hands rank: that is, which ones are assigned a higher value than others, and some idea of the odds of creating any particular hand out of your cards and those on the table.

The three fundamental rules of poker (5 or 7-card Poker, High and High-Low Split) are these:

* The deck is counted from 2 to Ace, so Ace is the highest single card.

* Each player can only use 5 of the cards (yours plus those on the table or those you draw) to make your best hand. Don’ t try to use six or all seven.

* The player with the highest-ranked hand wins.

How can you tell who has the highest-ranked hand: Is it you? Memorize these poker hands rankings and practice, practice, practice!

Here are the most-recognized poker hands rankings around the world for any five-card or seven-card poker game:

from Lowest to Highest Rank:

* High Card- you have five cards of all different values and suits, with one card a higher value than all the others.

Example: 3 of Hearts, 5 of Diamonds, 7 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and Jack of Clubs.

ODDS: 1 in 2 that you will get this hand.

* One Pair- you have two cards of equal value in your hand.

Example: 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 7 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and Jack of Clubs. Jack of Clubs, your highest card, is called the kicker. It will help you hold and win the hand. The value of the other cards

is also considered should another player also have the other pair of 3s (Spades and Clubs).

ODDS: 1 in 2.4 that you will get this hand.

Two Pair- you have two sets of 2 cards of equal value in your hand.

Example 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 7 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and 10 of Clubs. The kicker here is

the 7 of Spades. It will help decide if you win the hand, if someone else has two pairs of the same value.

ODDS: 1 in 21 that you will get this hand.

* Three Of A Kind – you have three cards of equal value in your hand.

Example: 3 of Hearts, 10 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and 10 of Clubs, Jack of Clubs. The kicker here is

the Jack of Clubs. It will help you win the hand.

ODDS: 1 in 47 that you will get this hand.

Straight- you have five cards in sequence by value, in more than one suit, in your hand. Ace can be a high or low

card in a Straight. No kicker in this hand

Example: 7 of Hearts, 8 of Diamonds, 9 of Clubs, 10 of Clubs, Jack of Hearts.

ODDS: 1 in 255 that you will get this hand.

Flush- you have five cards of any value that are all in the same suit. No kicker in this hand.

Example: 3, 4, 7, Queen and King of Diamonds

ODDS: 1 in 509 that you will get this hand.

Full House- you have a pair plus three of a kind in your hand. No kicker in this hand.

Example 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 10 of Spades, 10 of Hearts and 10 of Clubs.

ODDS: 1 in 694 that you will get this hand.

* Four Of A Kind- you have all four of the cards of a given value in your hand. Fifth card is the kicker.

Example: 8 of Diamonds, 8 of Hearts, 8 of Spades and 8 of Clubs, and 3 of Diamonds.

ODDS: 1 in 4,164 that you will get this hand.

* Straight Flush – you have five cards in sequence by value, all in the same suit. No kicker in this hand.

Example: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of Spades.

ODDS: 1 in 72,193 that you will get this hand.

* Royal Flush- you have the top five cards in value, all in the same suit. No kicker needed for this hand!

Example: 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of any of the four suits.

ODDS: 1 in 649,740

Remember, the more thoroughly you study the poker hands rankings, and the more you practice at internet and live play, the better you will learn to play poker — and the more you will win!

If you want to win online poker, learn Poker Hands Ranking to play the game for fun or money online or at home. Also, learn to play poker to increase your winning chances.