The other day I was dealt an exciting hand that got me thinking about longshots – both the kind you want to hit and the kind to avoid – so this lesson is the result. I was dealt the Ace and Queen of spades as my pocket cards in a game of Hold ‘em and, as you hopefully know by now, it’s a pretty good way to start. But it got even better when the flop came: Ks, Js, 9d. Now I had a 4-card Royal Flush and needed to catch only the 10 of spades to complete it. “Only” is a relative word, of course because the odds against me catching the 10 of spades on the turn was 1 in 47 (I’ve seen 5 cards to this point, so 47 are left and only one of them is the 10 of spades). Of course, any 10 would make a Straight and any spade would make a Flush, but darn it, I wanted the Royal!
My interest in completing the Royal was not just ego-driven, because the casino where I was playing offers a bonus to anyone who finishes a hand with a Royal. So, not only was I guaranteed to win the pot for the hand (you don’t even have to worry about a tie with a Royal), but I’d also get $500 thrown in as well. I knew the odds against me making it were huge, I’ve drawn to enough 4-card Royals at Video Poker to know that, but at least here I had two shots at it – one on the turn and one on the river. Because it wouldn’t matter when I got the card, only if I got it, I started to think about, first, what I was going to buy with the $500 (I ‘m an optimistic rascal) and second, what kind of expected value is added to our poker hands by such bonuses?
You all remember “expected value” (EV), right? It’s a mathematical calculation based upon what will happen over many hands of play in the case of poker and Blackjack. In other words, we won’t always win with pocket Aces in Hold ‘em, but over thousands of hands we’ll win enough so that we can put a value on it. For example, if we win with AA 50% of the time, on average, then this starting hand has an EV of 50% of all the $$$ we bet in that situation. Of course we can’t pin down the exact size of our bets because it’ll be different from hand to hand, although over a period of time we can probably come up with a fairly accurate average number. But in the case of a Royal Flush bonus, we know it’s a fixed amount so all we have to do is calculate how often we’ll get one and that’ll give us an EV per hand.
Why is it important to know how much EV is added to each hand by a Royal Flush bonus? Well, it isn’t really, but it’s a simple calculation, so why not? Every little bit helps, you know, especially when you’re starting out. Combine bonuses like these with the fact that most online poker rooms have fairly low rakes (compared to brick-and-mortar card rooms), plus there’s no dealer to tip and you have a definite leg-up over your “real-life” counterpart. If nothing else, the cost of gaining some experience at poker will be somewhat lower if you do it online rather than at a brick-and-mortar card room. But I digress.
Just what’s a Royal bonus worth, anyway? To figure it on a per-hand basis, we need to calculate the probability of getting a Royal and that will tell us how often we can expect, on average, to get one. To draw a Video Poker analogy here, we know that a Royal will occur, on average, about once every 40,000 hands in a 9/6 Jacks or Better game, which means the probability is 1 divided by 40,000 = 0.000025. Because that Royal will usually pay 800 for 1, it means that Royal Flushes add .000025 x 800 = 0.02 or 2% to the total return of a 9/6 Jacks game, which is 99.54%. In other words, if there were no Royal “bonus” in a Jacks VP game, the return would be only 97.54%. So does that mean we should expect to get a Royal once every 40,000 hands at Hold ‘em poker? Sadly no, because of the way the game is structured. At Video Poker, you are dealt 5 cards, may hold or fold any or all and then are dealt replacement cards, so you have a “universe” of 10 cards from which to make your Royal.
In Hold ‘em, you are dealt 2 pocket cards that you must keep if you want to keep playing the hand, then 5 more cards come if the hand is played to the end. The universe here is obviously only 7 cards, so it’s probably not too difficult to imagine that we can’t expect to get a Royal once every 40,000 hands. However, there is more than one way to make a Royal in Hold ‘em, just as there is in Video Poker. The first of those is to get a Royal dealt to you. This can happen at VP because you receive a 5-card hand and the probability of that occurring is 1 in 649,740. Well, the same thing can happen at Hold ‘em, because you can be dealt two suited Royal Flush cards in the pocket and then the flop can fill your Royal. The odds of that happening are exactly the same as getting one on the deal in Video Poker:1 in 649,740. Talk about long shots, eh?
But don’t dispair because there’s a much more common way for it to happen and that’s to have the Royal unfold like the one I had. Two suited Royal cards in the pocket, two on the flop and then draw the fifth on either the turn or the river. I’ll spare you the background math, but the probability of being dealt two suited Royal Flush cards is 1 in 33 (33.15 to be exact), then getting two of the three you need on the flop is 1 in 139 and finally, getting the 5th card on either the turn or river is 1 in 23 (23.25 to be exact). Multiply those three together: 33.15 x 139 x 23.25 and you get 1 in 107,133, which you can safely round to 1 in 100,000. If you’ll receive a $500 bonus for hitting a Royal, you can expect it to happen about once every 100,000 hands, so it’s worth $500 divided by 100,000 = $.005 or about a half-cent per hand.
So, how did my hand work out? If you remember, I had A-Q spades in the pocket, the flop came Ks, Js, 9d, so all I needed was the 10s. The turn was 3d, the river was 3h and I lost to a player holding Kc, 3s. Yep, he had a Full House and I had a busted Flush. Hey, that’s how it is in poker sometimes. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it, so lets talk about some other longshots.
These are the type of longshots to avoid. Or, if you won’t avoid the situation, at least make sure that the “pot odds” are rewarding you. In Lesson 2, I presented a chart of the various odds of completing a hand, such as a 4-card Flush and so forth. The hands presented there were the types of hands you’ll run into all the time, unlike the Royal Flush we discussed earlier. The hands I’m going to discuss here are also the type you’ll run into a lot, but in most cases you shouldn’t play them and the numbers will show you why. For example, you may find yourself with some pretty nice pocket cards like Ah,10h and the flop comes 2s, 6d, 7h. You don’t have much, other than a 3-card Flush draw and a double-inside Straight draw. But, were you to get the Flush, it would be the “nuts” and would beat any Straight that forms. But, with 2 cards to come, can you get what’s called a “runner-runner” to fill the hand? Certainly that’s possible, but the exact odds of success are pretty much against it happening, so you can waste a lot of $$$ in trying. Meantime, the guy with pocket Kings is betting every round and unless another Ace falls, he’s probably going to win the pot.
If you have a 3-card Flush, that means there are 10 cards of that suit remaining in the deck (remember that we don’t count anything we can’t see, so even though other players may also have cards of that suit, they don’t matter for purposes of calculating our odds). So, with 10 cards of the remaining 47 (52 minus the 2 pocket cards, minus the 3 cards on the flop) being cards that will help us and two chances to get them, it doesn’t seem like too bad a deal. But don’t forget that both of the last two cards have to be hearts (in this example) or we’ll have a hand worth basically nothing. Sure, you might win with an Ace-high, but don’t bet on it. Literally.
Nope, we need to hit two running hearts for this to work and the odds against that happening are an amazing 24 to 1. Believe me, I had to double-check my figures when I got that number because it seemed just too high to be correct, but it is. The quick mathematical solution is to figure the probability of getting a heart on the turn (10/47) or 0.212 and multiplying that by the probability of getting a heart on the river (9/46) or 0.195. Well, multiply 0.212 by 0.195 and you get 0.0415. Remember how I showed you to convert probability to odds in Lesson 2? First, subtract the probability of 4 from 100 and you’ll get 96. Now divide 96 by 4 and you’ll get 24 to 1 as the odds against. This obviously means that the value of the pot at the flop is going to have to be 25 times the bet you have to make in order for it to have a positive expectation. I’ve seen such a thing, but it’s very rare, so most of the time you should be folding your 3-card Flushes.
Now I realize there may be other reasons for staying with the hand, but the odds against making various hands that I outlined in Lesson 2 will guide you there. And certainly, if you had the same pocket cards but the Ace were a Jack, then “fuhgedaboudit”, because you wouldn’t be drawing to the “nut” Flush. Yet, a lot of players, particularly in low-limit games, will cling to a “suited” Ace (an Ace plus any card of the same suit) in the pocket until the bitter end. Don’t forget this: A dollar you don’t lose is a dollar earned. The object of this lesson is to cut down on the number of long-shot bets that we all make from time-to-time. Don’t get me wrong; if the pot odds are there, go for it. But if they’re not, then fold.
Okay, enough preaching. Here is a list of various hands you might find yourself with after the flop. In other words, you’ve seen five cards, two are yet to come and now you have to make a decision to bet or fold. This chart is really just a continuation of the chart I presented in Lesson 2:
Hand at the Flop
Becomes
At this rate of probability
Bet Multiplier
3-card Flush
Flush
4.1%
25
3-card Straight
(like 5,6,7)
Straight
2.6%
40
Ace-high
Pair of Aces
12.2%
8
Ace-high
Trip Aces
0.3%
33
A-Ko
Two-pair,
(Aces & Kings)
1.4%
70
Notes and comments: I’ve included the Ace-high hands because I’ve seen so many players hold onto their Aces with a death-grip, as I mentioned above. Now don’t get me wrong; Trip Aces will win most hands of Hold ‘em, but as this chart shows you it’ll happen only once every 33 times you hold a single Ace at the flop. For me, this type of chart removes the guesswork, “intuition” or whatever you care to call it, from the game. If the pot odds warrant the play, do it, otherwise fold. Oh, I fully realize that the first time you fold a 3-card Flush, the turn and river will bring the cards you needed, but that’ll be the exception, I assure you. As a quick review, the “Bet Multiplier” is something I presented in Lesson 2 and it’s a quick way to see if the bet you must make to stay in the hand has a positive EV. In a $1/$2 game, for example, if the bet you must make to stay in the hand is $1 and you’re drawing to a 3-card Flush, the pot should be at least $25. If the bet you must make is $2, the pot has to be $50 or you should fold.
For example, look at the hand of A-Qo (remember, “s” is suited and “o” is off suit). If you’re in Early Position (see Lesson 11 for the various position designations), you should raise with A-Qo. Now, look at the * (asterisk) next to most of the starting hands, including A-Qo. Down at the bottom, you’ll see this note: * = fold if a player before you raises preflop. So, if the UTG were to raise and you’re next to play, you fold with A-Qo or any other hand marked with an asterisk. About 90% of the time you’ll be either raising or folding. If you’ve read many books on no-limit Hold ‘em, you’ll often see the words “raise or fold” and it’s good advice. Also note that most of the hands have a “Fold” designation in the Early Position column. It means just that; you don’t limp and you certainly don’t raise in EP with A-Jo, you simply throw it away. About the only time you’ll call in EP is when you have 9-9 to Q-Q and the pot’s been raised in front of you. Those hands are just too good to fold, but they’re not strong enough to re-raise.
Let’s continue with A-Qo. If you’re in Middle Position and no one has raised ahead of you, (which would cause you to fold), you’ll raise with A-Qo. If one or more players have limped, you’ll still raise, but you should raise more than the standard 3 times the big blind, which is why I say, “Raise should be 3-4x Big Blind” in a note at the bottom of the matrix. You’ll fold if someone (anyone) re-raises after you. It’s tough to do, I know, but it’ll be the correct play the vast majority of the time. Oh, sure, you’ll get some player who will re-raise with A-10s every now and then, but most of the time you’ll lose if you call the re-raise. If you’re in Late Position, you should raise with A-Qo, assuming no one has raised in front of you (in which case you’d fold), but call if someone now re-raises you. Because the re-raise might come from an early position limper, you might wonder why you’d call and it all has to do with position. You’ll most likely be last to act for the rest of the hand, so it’s profitable to see the flop, then make a decision by how others bet it. See how this matrix uses hand strength and position to dictate the play? I’m sure it’s not perfect, but I will say it works pretty well if you follow it.
Okay, now let’s discuss the hand of A-Qo in the Blinds. You’ll notice that I didn’t make a distinction between the Small Blind and the Big Blind in the matrix. I did that primarily to keep it simple, but also because in most no-limit cash games the Blinds are a relatively unimportant part of the pot. Admittedly, they can be a factor in tournaments, but we’ll discuss that in a later lesson. For now, treat the SB and the BB the same. With A-Q in either Blind, re-raise a Late Position raise, but just call a raise made by a player in any other position. So, if the UTG raises, for example and you have A-Qo in one of the Blinds, just call, assuming it’s a 3x to 4x BB raise. If you re-raise a Late Position (“button”) raise and that player re-raises again, just call. How do you know to do that? You know because there’s not a “RR2″ designation on the hand. Looking at the notes on the bottom, you’ll see this: RR2 = Raise a Reraise. You’ll also see that RR2 applies only to A-A, K-K and A-Ks. So, a re-raise of your raise by a LP player warrants only a call.
Let’s say you’re in the BB with A-Qo and everyone has limped in. Regardless of their position – early, middle, late or SB – you should raise about the size of the pot, but certainly not less than 3 times the Big Blind bet. If someone subsequently re-raises you, it’s just a call because there’s no “RR2″ next to the hand, remember? If everyone folds to the SB and s/he limps by only completing the bet, then you should raise. If the SB raises, that’s a Late Position raise, so you should re-raise. Of course, if you have A-Qo in the SB, it’s the same as if you had it in the BB: re-raise a Late Position raise. But if the BB or anyone else re-raises you, then just call, because A-Qo doesn’t rate a “RR2″ designation.
You can see that there’s a (1) next to Q-Js in the Blinds column. That relates to the comment at the bottom. If everyone has limped into the pot, then raise from the SB or BB with Q-Js or higher. “Higher” refers to every hand above it in the left-hand column, which essentially means you’ll raise in that situation with any of the playable hands I show on the matrix. This situation will actually occur quite often in cash games because people like to see cheap flops, but you’re not going to let that happen, are you? If you get re-raised, just call because Q-Js does not have the RR2 designation.
And that’s basically it for now. Just play your hand as shown for the position you’re in and you’ll soon be holding your own in No-Limit Hold ‘Em. (Poor pun, I know.) When in doubt, fold; there’ll be another hand coming along soon enough. I’m not trying to turn you into a wimpy player, but folding is the best tactic if you’re confused about a hand. In time, you’ll begin to feel real comfortable with this matrix and as the $$$ come rolling in, you’ll know it’s working.
Oops! I almost forgot the ** designation that you’ll find next to the LP column up top. In the notes at the bottom, you’ll see this: **LP = 2-3 players left. This is a reminder that you must “open up” your game when you get down to 2 or 3 players left. As time goes on, you’ll find yourself as one of the last few players in SnGs and, because the Blind bets will be coming around a lot quicker, you cannot sit and wait for premium hands. When that happens, start making all of your plays according to the LP column regardless of the position you’re in. In the case of A-Qo, for example, you’d raise and call a re-raise even if you were UTG at the short-handed table. A-Qo isn’t a great hand at a full table, but it’s not bad when there are only three of you left.
Okay, as promised, here’s a chart of probabilities for various hands you might hold at the flop, which means the first three community cards have been dealt. This chart assumes you’ll get to see two more cards – the turn and the river – and further assumes you won’t have to make any futher bets. That’s not likely to happen, of course, but remember that you might make your hand on the turn in which case the numbers become unimportant, because you’ll likely call (if not raise) any bet from that point forward.
Hand at the Flop
Becomes
At this rate of probability
Bet Multiplier
Two-pair
Full House
6.5%
-card Flush
Flush
5.0%
-card open-ended Straight
Straight
1.5%
.3
-card inside Straight
Straight
6.5%
Any Pair
Three-of-a-kind
.5%
2
Any Three-of-a-kind
Four-of-a-kind
.4%
2
If you miss making your hand on the turn, here’s a chart to help you decide if you should call a bet before the river card is dealt:
Hand at the Turn
Becomes
At this rate of probability
Bet Multiplier
Two-pair
Full House
.7%
2
-card Flush
Flush
9.5%
-card open-ended Straight
Straight
7.4%
-card inside Straight
Straight
.7%
2
Any Pair
Three-of-a-kind
.3%
2
Any Three-of-a-kind
Four-of-a-kind
.1%
8
The numbers to use to multiply your proposed bet in order to compare it with the pot to see if you’ll be betting with a positive expectation are a little on the conservative side, so adjust them if you can live with more risk, especially where you already have a “made” hand, such as Trips, etc. As I explained above, sometimes the hand you’re hoping to improve will be good enough to win the pot, so over-betting a little probably won’t hurt you in the long run, but remember that 4-card Straights and Flushes are basically worthless if they don’t convert, so I’d advise against “pushing the envelope” when it comes to betting those hands.
As I said in Lesson 1, Internet poker rooms are different than their brick-and-mortar counterparts and the instant tabulation of the pot’s value is one of those distinctions. Rather than spending your time trying to figure what’s in the pot, you can spend it by seeing if your bet will have a positive EV and, in the long run, that’ll be worth a lot of $$$ to you.
Guts is quite different from most other poker games (in fact classifying it as a poker game at all is somewhat questionable). Rather than the customary rounds of betting followed by a single showdown, guts features multiple rounds, each of which consist of the decision to be “in” or “out”, and each of which contains a showdown. Only the players who stay “in” participate in the showdown. In the most common version, the player who stays in with the best hand receives the current pot, while all other players who stayed in must match the pot. (For example, if the pot is $5 and three people stay in, then one player will receive the $5 pot and two players will be forced to add $5 each to the pot, thus doubling it.) Then the hand is re-dealt, and all players (even those who were “out” in the last round) can participate again. The game ends when only a single player has the guts to stay “in”, and thus the pot is taken without replenishment.
Each player’s hand usually consists of a reduced poker hand of either 2 or 3 cards. The cards are ranked as in regular 5-card poker, but in some variations straights and flushes count and in some they do not.
Another variation is for three-card guts. The hands are ranked as follows: Three of a kind, straight flush, straight, flush, pair. Each player receives two cards face down. In turn, each player declares whether they’re in or out. If they’re in, they receive their third card face up. The dealer declares last; if no other player has stayed in, then the dealer must have a pair or better to win the pot. Another variation is for the other players to have another chance to declare and challenge the dealer. With this variation, there is no requirement for the dealer’s hand; if no one challenges him, the dealer wins.
Declaring “in” or “out” is similar to declaring high or low in high-low games. Each player takes a chip, places their hands under the table, and either places the chip in one fist or not. Each player then holds their closed fist above the table, and the players simultaneously open their hands to reveal their decision (a chip represents “in”, an empty hand represents “out”).
Because the pot can double (or more) each round, the stakes can grow exponentially, and pots of 50 or 100 times the original ante are not unheard of.
There are many variations. Sometimes only the single player with the worst hand (who stayed in) must add to the pot, but they must double the pot rather than match it. In an especially vicious variation, nobody wins the pot unless nobody else stays in. This can degenerate quickly, when one player must add a large amount to the pot, and decides to stay in until he wins it back. Thus the game continues indefinitely, with one player continually adding larger and larger amounts to the pot. The pot may grow so big that no player has enough cash to match it, leading to arguments about how to end the game. (This variation is not recommended when playing among friends. Often this variation is abandoned after the first really big pot leads to conflict.)
One solution to the exponentially growing pots is to cap them at 50x or 100x the ante. That is, if there are 5 players with an ante of $1, the pot started at $5. If there were 3 doublings, the pot is now at $40. Suppose the “cap the pot at $50″ rule were in force. Then, if another doubling occurred, each loser would pay $40, but the pot would now be at $50 and the extra $30 would be set aside as the ante once there’s a hand with a winner and no loser.
Caribbean stud poker is a casino table game with rules similar to five card stud poker. However, unlike standard poker games, Caribbean stud is played against the house rather than against other players (and, like most such games, it cannot be beaten in the long run). There is no bluffing or other deception. For these reasons, most poker players do not consider it to be a form of poker. (They do not necessarily feel that it should not be called poker, but means merely that they will not refer to it as simply “poker”. For instance, a gambler might say “I played poker” if he played seven card stud, but probably would not if he played Caribbean stud.)
The following rules are typical of U.S. casinos, but some of the details (the payouts and limits) vary from casino to casino.
To play, every player places his ante on the layout where indicated; all ante wagers must be placed prior to the dealer announcing “No more bets“. Each player and the dealer will then receive 5 cards, face down. The dealer will turn over one of his cards, then push the cards toward the players, after which the players may look at their cards. They may only look at their own cards, and may not discuss what they have with any other player at the table.
Players have the option to play or fold; if they choose to play, they place their bets (twice the amount of their respective ante) in the bet box. If they choose to fold, they forfeit their ante. After all the players have made their decisions, the dealer reveals his hole cards. The dealer only plays with an ace/king or higher; he then compares his cards to the players’ cards (individually, right to left), and the best poker hand wins.
There are some major rules in Caribbean Stud Poker that must be observed at all times while playing:
Only one hand per player. Players cannot hold or wager on multiple hands at the table.
Players choosing to play the Progressive Payout feature are responsible for ensuring their $1 wager has been inserted into slot and the “Indicator Light” is ON.
Players may not exchange or communicate information regarding their hands to other players or the dealer. Player violation will result in a dead hand and forfeiture of all wagers.
Incorrect amount of cards to the player constitutes a dead hand (or push) for that player only.
The decision of the table/casino supervisor is final.
If the dealer is dealt four cards of the five-card hand, the dealer shall deal an additional card to complete the hand. Any other misdeal to the dealer shall result in all hands being void and the cards shall be reshuffled.
Each player shall be required to keep the five cards in full view of the dealer at all times. Once each player has examined his or her cards and placed them face down on the layout, they may not touch the cards again.
If a hole card is exposed prior to the dealer announcing No More Bets, all hands shall be void.
If a player’s cards beat the dealer’s cards, the player will receive even money (1-1) on the ante, and the following on his bet (with a maximum payout of $5,000 U.S. Dollars per hand on each bet wager):
Royal flush
100 to 1
Straight flush
50 to 1
Four of a kind
20 to 1
Full house
7 to 1
Flush
5 to 1
Straight
4 to 1
Three of a kind
3 to 1
Two pair
2 to 1
One pair or less
1 to 1
If the dealer does not have at least ace/king, all bet wagers will be void, and players will receive even money on their ante bet only. If the dealer’s cards beat a player’s cards, the dealer collects both the ante and bet.
In addition, in Caribbean stud poker, players can also bet on their poker hands and win the “progressive feature”; this is done by dropping a 1.00 dollar gaming chip into the chip acceptor on the table after placing the ante. Players with a flush or higher win, regardless of the outcome of their table bets:
Royal Flush
100% of Progressive Meter
Straight Flush
10% of Progressive Meter
Four-of-a-Kind
$500
Full House
$100
Flush
$50
Winning progressive payout hands are paid in accordance with the amount on the meter when it is the player’s turn to be paid. However, if more than one player at a table has a royal flush progressive payout hand, each player shares equally in the amount on the meter when the first player with a royal flush is to be paid.
In the game of poker, the term cards speak (“for themselves”) is used in two contexts:
First, it is used to describe a High-low split game without a declaration. That is, in a cards speak game, players all reveal their hands at the showdown, and whoever has the highest hand wins the high half of the pot and whoever has the lowest hand wins the low half.
The other context is a key rule in casino poker rooms. “Cards speak” means that any verbal declaration as to the content of a player’s hand is not binding. If Mary says she has no pair, but in fact she has a flush, her cards speak and her hand is viewed for its genuine value, that of a flush. Likewise if John says he has a flush, but in fact he does not, his hand is judged on its actual merits, not his verbal declaration. At the discretion of management, any player miscalling his hand may have that hand fouled, but this is not required.
The “cards speak” rule does not address the awarding of a pot, player responsibilities, or the one player to a hand rule. It merely means that verbal statements do not make a hand value. The cards do.
The large and growing jargon of poker includes many terms. This page contains brief definitions of the most common terms you may encounter in text or at play. If possible, a link to a more complete article on the topic is given. Though space is not an issue here, the list has been trimmed to primarily those poker-specific terms one might find in poker texts or in common use in casinos.
Various poker hands have been given many names, and these are listed in List of slang names for poker hands. Finally, this is not meant to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.
Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players. Many people make the distinction in poker between hard cheating (mechanics, collusion, and the like) and soft cheating (noting the bottom card that the dealer happened to expose without calling for a misdeal). While the rules are explicit on the subject of cheating in general, many otherwise fair players are tempted to “soft cheat”. Miscalling your hand (calling four hearts a flush, for example–hence a “four-flusher”) is cheating, while offering alcoholic drinks is not, because each player can decline.
Cheating is more common in poker than most people care to believe. Although most cheating occurs in private games that do not follow strict gaming procedures, it is also very common in regulated card rooms and casinos. Cheating can be done either by means of collusion, sleight-of-hand (such as bottom dealing, stacking the deck, switching cards etc), or the use of cheating gaffs (such as marked cards, holdout devices, glims etc).
Cheating is as common in friendly games as it is in high-stakes games. A card cheat may operate alone, but most of them operate in pairs or small groups. The groups are often composed of one card mechanic who is in charge of manipulating the cards, one or several shills who pose as regular players, and a muscle who acts as a bodyguard. Street gangs also often employ a wall man who acts as a lookout, however this approach is more common with three card monte mobs, and back-alley dice gangs.
Following is a list of terms used to categorize specific card cheats:
card mechanic — A card cheat who specializes in sleight-of-hand manipulation of cards.
base dealer/second dealer — Also called bottom dealer/second dealer is a cheat that specializes in bottom/second dealing.
paper player — A card cheat that exploits the use of marked cards.
hand mucker — A card cheat that specializes in switching cards.
machine player — A card cheat that uses mechanical holdouts.
crossroader — Originally, any kind of traveling hustler; but now the term is mainly use to describe cheats who specialize in hitting casinos.
A unit of play consisting of a deal, one or more rounds of betting, and possibly a showdown.
A set of five cards with a certain value. For example, the hand A♥ 10♥ 9♥ 5♥ 3♥ is a “flush”, a hand that is valuable because each card is of the same suit.
A player’s set of non-communal cards.
The second and third definitions are often used interchangeably. For example, in Texas hold ‘em, a player holding A♣ K♠, with a board of A♥ K♣ K♦ 7♠ 3♦, might say, “my hand is ace-king”. However, his best 5-card hand (the portion of the hand which determines value) is the kings-over-aces full house.
General rules
The following general rules apply to evaluating poker hands, whatever set of hand values are used.
Individual cards are ranked A (high), K, Q, J, 0, ,
,
,
, , , , (low).
Individual card ranks are often used to evaluate hands that contain no pairs or other special combinations, or to rank the kickers of otherwise equal hands. The Ace is ranked low in ace-to-five and ace-to-six lowball games.
Suits have no value.
The suits of the cards are mainly used in determining whether a hand fits a certain category (specifically the Flush and Straight flush hands). In most variants, if two players have hands that are identical except for suit, then they are tied and split the pot. Sometimes a ranking called high card by suit is used for randomly selecting a player to deal.
A hand always consists of five cards.
In games where more than five cards are available to each player, hands are ranked by choosing some five-card subset according to the rules of the game, and comparing that five-card hand against the five-card hands of the other players. Whatever cards remain after choosing the five to be played are of no consequence in determining the winner. (For example, when comparing identical full houses, there are no “kickers”.)
Hands are ranked first by category, then by individual card ranks.
That is, even the minimum qualifying hand in a certain category defeats all hands in all lower categories. The smallest Two pair hand, for example, defeats all hands with just One pair or No pair. Only between two hands in the same category are card ranks used to break ties. The highest single card in each flush or straight is used to break ties (the Ace-through-five straight is the lowest straight, the Ace being a low card in this context). Within two Two pair hands, the higher pairs are first compared. If they tie, then the secondary pairs are compared, and then finally the kicker.
The order in which cards are dealt is unimportant.
For ease of explanation, hands are shown here neatly arranged, but a poker hand has the same value no matter what order the cards are received in.
Ranking of hands
The most common ranking of hands is as follows:
Royal flush: Five cards in sequence and of the same suit, starting from the Ace down to the 10. Example:A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ (Note: A Royal Flush is not a category of hand in and of itself, it is simply the highest-valued straight flush, and thus also the highest-valued hand. Since it is mentioned often in the context of hand rankings, it is worth noting in this list.)
Straight flush: Any five cards in sequence and of the same suit. Example:Q♦ J♦ 10♦ 9♦ 8♦
Four of a kind: A hand with four cards of the same rank. Example: ♣
♦ 4♥ 4♠
♥
Full house: A hand with three cards of one rank and two of another. Example:
♣ ♦ 8♠ K♥ K♠
Flush: Five cards of the same suit. Example:K♠ J♠ 8♠ 4♠ 3♠
Straight: Five cards in sequence. (The ace can be considered higher than the king, or lower than the two.) Example:♦ 4♥ 3♠ ♦ A♦
Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank. Example:
♣ ♥ 7♠ K♦ 2♠
Two pair: Two cards of one rank, two of another. Example:A♣ A♦ 8♥ 8♠ Q♠
One pair: Two cards of the same rank. Example:
♥ 9♠ A♣ J♠
♥
No pair: Also known as a high card hand. The following example is considered “Ace high.” Example:A♦ 10♦ 9♠ 5♣ 4♣
The hands are ranked in this order because of their relative probabilities, with rarer hands ranking above more common hands.
An additional hand type, five of a kind, exists when wild cards are used. Five of a kind outranks the straight flush (and therefore the royal flush too) making it the most valuable hand.
Variations
Some games called lowball or low poker are played where players strive not for the highest ranking of the above combinations but for the lowest ranking hand. There are three methods of ranking low hands, called Ace-to-five low, Deuce-to-seven low, and Ace-to-six low. The ace-to-five method is most common. A sub-variant within this category is high-low poker, in which the highest and lowest hands split the pot (with the highest hand taking any odd chips if the pot does not divide equally). Sometimes straights and/or flushes count in determining which hand is highest but not in determining which hand is lowest (being reckoned as a no-pair hand in the latter instance), so that a player with such a holding can win both ways and thus take the entire pot.
Certain variants use hands of only three cards, either high or low. Three-card low hands can be ranked by any of the three methods above, although with three cards they become ace-to-three (rather than ace-to-five), deuce-to-five, and ace-to-four. The ace-to-three method is the most common, just as the ace-to-five method is most common method for five cards. Three-card high hands are ranked in one of two ways: either with or without straights and flushes. Without them (which is the most common, and used such games as Chinese poker), the hands are simply no pair, one pair, and three of a kind. If you add straights and flushes, the order of hands should be changed to reflect the correct probabilities: no pair, one pair, flush, straight, three of a kind, straight flush. This order is used, for example, in Mambo stud.
Some poker games are played with a deck that has been stripped of certain cards, usually low-ranking ones. For example, the Australian game of Manila uses a 32-card deck in which all cards below the rank of
are removed, and Mexican stud removes the
s,
s, and 0s. In both of these games, a flush ranks above a full house, because having fewer cards of each suit available makes flushes rarer.
Some games add one or more unconventional hands, or have special exceptions to the rules above. For example, in the game of Pai gow poker as played in Nevada, a Wheel (-4-3-2-A) ranks above a king-high straight, but below an ace-high straight. This is not the case in California, where the nearly identical game is played under the name Double-hand poker using traditional hand values.
The other day I was dealt an exciting hand that got me thinking about longshots – both the kind you want to hit and the kind to avoid – so this lesson is the result. I was dealt the Ace and Queen of spades as my pocket cards in a game of Hold ‘em and, as you hopefully know by now, it’s a pretty good way to start. But it got even better when the flop came: Ks, Js, 9d. Now I had a 4-card Royal Flush and needed to catch only the 10 of spades to complete it. “Only” is a relative word, of course because the odds against me catching the 10 of spades on the turn was 1 in 47 (I’ve seen 5 cards to this point, so 47 are left and only one of them is the 10 of spades). Of course, any 10 would make a Straight and any spade would make a Flush, but darn it, I wanted the Royal!
The standard poker hands in descending order.
