One pair is a poker hand such as 4♥ 4♠ K♠ 10♦ 5♠, which contains two cards of the same rank, plus three unmatched cards. It ranks above any no pair hand, but below all other poker hands. There are 1,098,240 possible one pair hands, so the odds of getting one pair given a five card hand are 481:352 or approximately 1.37:1.
Between two such hands, the hand with the higher ranking pair wins. If two hands have the same rank of pair, the third card in each hand (called the kicker or side card) is compared in the manner as no-pair hands.
Examples:
10♣ 10♠ 6♠ 4♥ 2♥ (“pair of tens”) defeats 9♥ 9♣ A♥ Q♦ 10♦ (“pair of nines”)
10♥ 10♦ J♦ 3♥ 2♣ (“tens with jack kicker”) defeats 10♣ 10♠ 6♠ 4♥ 2♥
In some games, the kicker becomes very important (typically community card games like Texas hold ‘em), while in other games (such as draw poker) it is almost never significant. Nonetheless, it is always used if needed.
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A no pair hand is a pokerhand such as K♥ J♣ 8♣ 7♦ 3♠, in which no two cards have the same rank, the five cards are not in sequence, and the five cards are not all the same suit. It is sometimes simply referred to as “high card”, as its highest value card determines its rank compared with other no pair hands. It is also known as “nothing” or “garbage,” and many other derogatory terms. It ranks below all other poker hands. There are 1,302,540 possible no pair hands, so the odds of getting no pair given a five card hand are 7879:4861, or about 1.62:1 (that is, slightly more than 50%).
Two such hands are ranked by comparing the highest ranking card; if those are equal, then the next highest ranking card; if those are equal, then the third highest ranking card, etc.
No-pair hands are often described by the one or two highest cards in the hand, such as “king high” or “ace-queen high”, or by as many cards as are necessary to break a tie.
Non-standard poker hands are hands which are not recognized by official poker rules but are created by house rules. Nonstandard hands usually appear in games of five card draw poker. Other terms for nonstandard hands are special hands or freak hands. Because the hands are defined by house rules, the composition and ranking of these hands is subject to variation. Any player participating in a game with nonstandard hands should be sure to determine the exact rules of the game before play begins.
The usual hierarchy of poker hands from lowest to highest runs as follows (standard poker hands are in italics):
High card
Pair
Bobtail straight – Also called four straight. Four cards in consecutive order.
Flush house – Three cards of one suit and two cards of another.
Bobtail flush – Also called four flush. Four cards of the same suit. It is most commonly played in stud poker.
Russ – Five cards of the same color. Usually played in 5 card stud.
Two pair
Blaze – Also called blazer. All cards are jacks, queens, or kings.
Flash – One card of each suit plus a joker.
Little bobtail – A three card straight flush (three cards of the same suit in consecutive order).
Three of a kind
Skeet – Also called pelter or bracket. A hand with a deuce; a three or a four; a five; a six, a seven, or an eight; and a nine.
Five and dime – All cards are fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines, or tens with no pair.
Skip straight – Also called alternate straight, Dutch straight, or skipper. Cards are in consecutive order, skipping every other card. (Example 3-5-7-9-J).
Wrap-around straight – Also called round-the-corner straight. Consecutive cards including an ace which counts as both the high and low card. (Example Q-K-A-2-3).
Wheel – The sequence 5-4-3-2-A. This could technically be considered a round-the-corner straight, but is frequently played even if other round-the-corner straights are not allowed, particularly in pai gow poker. When wheels are recognized as distinct from round-the-corner straights, they are ranked as straights: in most games they are considered five-high, and thus the lowest possible straights, but in pai gow poker they rank between king-high and ace-high straights.
Straight
Little dog – See below.
Big dog – See below.
Little cat – See below.
Big cat – See below.
Flush
Full house
Big bobtail – A four card straight flush (four cards of the same suit in consecutive order).
Four of a kind
Straight flush – Note that the highest, A-K-Q-J-10 suited, is also called royal flush.
Skeet flush – The same cards as a skeet and all in the same suit.
Five of a kind – Five cards of the same rank, only possible using variant rules such as wild cards.
Cats and dogs
“Cats” (or “tigers”) and “dogs” are types of no-pair hands defined by their highest and lowest cards. The remaining three cards are kickers. Dogs and cats rank above straights and below flushes. Usually, when cats and dogs are played, they are the only unconventional hands allowed.
Little dog – Seven high, two low (for example, 7-6-4-3-2). It ranks just above a straight, and below a flush or any other cat or dog.
Big dog – Ace high, nine low (for example, A-K-J-10-9). Ranks above a straight or little dog, and below a flush or cat.
Little cat (or little tiger) – Eight high, three low. Ranks above a straight or any dog, but below a flush or big cat.
Big cat (or big tiger) – King high, eight low. It ranks just below a flush, and above a straight or any other cat or dog.
Some play that dog or cat flushes beat a straight flush, under the reasoning that a plain dog or cat beats a plain straight. This makes the big cat flush the highest hand in the game.
Kilters
A Kilter, also called Kelter, is a generic term for a number of different nonstandard hands. Depending on house rules, a Kilter may be a Skeet, a Little Cat, a Skip Straight, or some variation of one of these hands.
In poker, a made hand is one that does not need improvement to win, in contrast to a drawing hand. For example in Draw poker, if you have two pair, and your opponent is drawing for a straight or flush, you are said to have a made hand because even though you will be drawing a card just as he will, you can win even if you don’t draw a card that improves your hand, while he cannot win unless he improves.
In poker, a drawing hand is a hand that is not yet “complete”; that is, one which does not yet rank highly, but which may do later, depending on what cards a player receives. This contrasts with a “made hand” – a hand which is already somewhat strong.
An illustrative example from Texas Hold ‘em: if Alice holds A♣ K♣, Bob holds 6♦ 7♦, and the flop comes 5♠ 8♠ K♥, then Alice has a fairly strong “made hand” (a pair of Kings, with an Ace kicker), while Bob has a drawing hand: an open-ended straight draw. If allowed to see the final two community cards, Bob can expect to catch a 4 or a 9 (thus completing his straight and winning) about a third of the time.
Whether to continue with a drawing hand is usually a function of pot odds and implied odds. Typically, if a player with a strong “made hand” suspects another player of being “on a draw”, the player with the made hand will make a strong bet, so that it is mathematically incorrect for the other player to “chase”.
In poker, the nut hand, or just the nuts, is the strongest hand possible in any particular situation. The term applies mostly to community card poker games to mean the individual holding that makes the strongest hand possible with the given board of community cards. By extension, the term is used more loosely to refer to any very strong hand.
For example in Texas hold ‘em, if the board is 5♠ 6♠ A♣ 9♠ 5♥, a player holding 7♠ 8♠ has the nuts (a 9-high straight flush in spades), and cannot lose. Sometimes it is useful to know that your hand is the second or third best possible. On this same board, the hand 5♣ 5♦ would be the second-nut hand, four fives; and the third-nut hand would be any pair of the remaining three aces, making a full house A-A-A-5-5.
In high-low split games one often speaks of “nut low” and “nut high” hands separately. With an Omaha board identical to the one above, any hand with 2-3 makes the nut low 6-5-3-2-A, while 2-4 is the second-nut low (the nut high hands remain the same).
Finally, one also hears terms such as “nut flush” or “nut full house” to mean the highest hand possible in that particular category in the circumstances, even though that may not be strictly the nut hand. For example, a pair of aces with the above board could be called the “nut full house”, even though there are two higher (but very unlikely) hands possible.
The phrase originates from the historical poker games in the colonial west of America. If one bet to the sum of everything he possessed, he would place the “nuts” of his wagon wheels on the table. Obviously, to make such a bet one would need to be sure that he has the best possible hand.
There is also a possibility of having a nut losing hand, (a hand that will lose to anything) This occurs where the board has four of a kind and a deuce. In this situation, if you hold pocket 2′s, there is no possibility of this hand winning a showdown with any other hand, as any opponent will have a better kicker than you.
In poker, a dominating hand is one with an overwhelming statistical advantage over another specific hand. For example, in Seven-card stud, while a Starting hand of K♠ K♥ Q♦ has the lead over A♦ K♦ 10♥, the latter has many outs (ways to improve) to beat the former (catching an ace, the straight, the flush, etc.), making it a roughly even contest. However, the first hand dominates in a contest with a hand like Q♥ Q♠ J♣, because this hand has no ways to improve that the first one doesn’t also have (two pair, trips, straight), and the first hand has some of the second hand’s outs as well (unseen cards include two kings, but only one queen), giving it a significant advantage.
This concept is most important in no limit play, where it is possible to bet all your money early in the hand. One must judge not only whether your opponent’s hand might be better than yours, but whether or not it might dominate yours to such a degree that long-run fluctuations of luck will amplify the consequences of a mistaken play rather than mitigating them.
One of the things that makes no limit Texas hold ‘em strategically rich and interesting is the unusual relationship of advantage and dominance among various Starting hands. For example, the hand A♣ K♦ is a slight favorite over J♠ 10♠; this hand is a slight favorite over 4♠ 4♣; and in a non-transitive relationship, the fours are a small favorite over A♣ K♦. None of these hands dominates any other, but A♣ K♦does domimate A♥ Q♦, 4♠ 4♣is dominated by 7♠ 7♥, and J♠ 10♠ is dominated by Q♣ 10♣.
The poker term high hand means simply the best poker hand, using traditional poker hand rankings. It is a retronym coined in response to lowball. The term is used most commonly in High-low split games.
Deuce-to-seven low is a method for evaluating low hands in poker. It is often called “Kansas City” low or just “low poker”. It is almost the direct opposite of standard poker: high hand loses. It is not as commonly used as the ace-to-five low method.
As in all lowball games, pairs and trips are bad: that is, any hand with no pair defeats any hand with a pair; one pair hands defeat two pair or trips, etc. No-pair hands are compared starting with the highest ranking card, just as in high poker, except that the high hand loses. In deuce-to-seven low, straights and flushes count for high (and are therefore bad). Aces are always high (and therefore bad).
For example, the hand 8-5-4-3-2 defeats 9-7-6-4-3, because eight-high is lower than nine-high. The hand 7-6-5-4-2 defeats both, because seven-high is lower still. The hand 7-6-5-4-3 would lose, because it is a straight. Aces are high, so Q-8-5-4-3 defeats A-8-5-4-3. In the rare event that hands with pairs tie, kickers are used just as in high poker (but reversed): 3-3-6-4-2 defeats 3-3-6-5-2.
A special rule is that a wheel is not considered a straight: A-5-4-3-2 is simply ace-high no pair (it would therefore lose to any king-high, but would defeat A-6-4-3-2.
It’s called deuce-to-seven low because the best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2, followed by 7-6-4-3-2, 7-6-5-3-2, 7-6-5-4-2, 8-5-4-3-2, 8-6-4-3-2, etc.
When speaking, low hands are referred to by their highest ranking card or cards. Any nine-high hand can be called “a nine”, and is defeated by any “eight”. Two cards are frequently used: the hand 8-6-5-4-2 can be called “an eight-six” and will defeat “an eight-seven” such as 8-7-5-4-2.
Another common notation is calling a particular low hand “smooth” or “rough.” A smooth low hand is one where the remaining cards after the highest card are themselves very low; a rough low hand is one where the remaining cards are high. For instance, 8-7-6-4-2 would be referred to as a “rough eight,” but 8-5-4-3-2 would be referred to as a “smooth eight.”
Wild cards are rarely used in deuce-to-seven games, but if used they play as whatever rank would make the lowest hand. Thus, in 7-6-Joker-3-2, the joker plays as a 4, while in Joker-5-4-3-2 it would play as a 7 (a six would make a straight, and an ace would make ace-five high).
High-low split games with deuce-to-seven low are usually played with a declaration.
The poker term high hand means simply the best poker hand, using traditional poker hand rankings. It is a retronym coined in response to lowball. The term is used most commonly in High-low split games.
Non-standard poker hands are hands which are not recognized by official poker rules but are created by house rules. Nonstandard hands usually appear in games of five card draw poker. Other terms for nonstandard hands are special hands or freak hands. Because the hands are defined by house rules, the composition and ranking of these hands is subject to variation. Any player participating in a game with nonstandard hands should be sure to determine the exact rules of the game before play begins.
