Poker Hands In Order
3 Card Poker Hand Ranking. Below is the ranking of hands as used in the casino table game of Three Card Poker. Here are a few quick notes on the game: Cards are drawn from a standard 52 card deck without replacement. Rankings are listed from highest to lowest. When a hand qualifies for two ranks the highest is used. Suits are not used to break. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win. This hand has any five cards, all of the same suit, in order, such as the 4-5-6-7-8 all of hearts. It doesn't bring quite the adrenaline rush of a royal flush, but it's still a reliable winner.
A standard pack of 52 cards is used. The ace is the high card, but it can also be used as the low card depending on your hand.
Despite the many different types of Poker Game Variants, the ranking of Poker hands is always consistant. While online poker games are almost always played with a 52 card deck, the Joker is sometimes used for Draw style games and is never used when playing ‘flop games’ like Texas Hold’em. All poker hand rankings are made from the best five cards available, and suits are not ranked.
Hand Rankings
Below you see the hands you can get in poker. Number 1 is the best possible hand and number 11 the weakest.
1. 5 of A Kind
When using a joker or wildcards then “Five of a Kind” is the best hand in online poker. However, as already mentioned that a 5 of a kind is not available in flop games such as Texas Holdem. Cards are ranked with Ace as the highest card, and then face cards down to the two, or Deuce. Because of this a hand of five aces, with four aces and a joker, is the best possible hand in online poker.
2. Royal Flush
In online poker where the joker is not in play, then the best possible hand is the “Straight Flush.” This is five cards of the same suit in consecutive order and the same suit. (the Ace of clubs, King of clubs, Queen, Jack and Ten of clubs for example. (In Spades, Diamonds, Hearts or Clubs)
3. Straight Flush
A Straight Flush is all five cards in the same suit. For example, the Jack of clubs, 10 of clubs, 9, 8 and 7 of clubs for example. (In Spades, Diamonds, Hearts or Clubs)
4. Four of a Kind
After the Straight Flush is a “Four of a Kind,” which are four cards of the same number or value, with any card as a fifth. The higher ranking the four cards the better the hand, for example, four nines beat out four eights in online poker and so on.
5. Full House
A “Full House” in online poker is three cards of the same rank combined with another pair from a different rank, (three Queens and two fours, or three fives and two Aces). Three cards of one number or face value and two cards of another number or face value. If more then one player has a full house, the full house with the highest ranking three of a kind wins.
6. Flush
After a Full House comes the “Flush,” with five cards of the same suit is the best hand in online poker. The cards are not in consecutive order, and different hands are ranked in order of the highest card down. A Flush that starts with an Ace and then skips down to a 7,6,4,3 still beats a Queen, 10,8,6,3. If two flushes have the same cards then the pot is split.
7. Straight
A straight is five cards in sequence. Cards Can be in any suit and an ace can be used as high or low. As an example, a hand with 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of any suit constitutes a straight hand. Where there are two straights in the same game by two separate players, the player with the highest card wins.
8. Three of a kind
Three cards of the same number or face value with two additional cards. These two separate cards are called a kicker. Where two players in a game both have a 3-of-A-Kind, the player with the highest card rank wins. For example, three Kings beats three Jacks. If cards are of the same rank for example both players have 3 Jacks, then the highest kicker is used to determine the winning hand, then the second kicker if necessary. A 3-of-A-Kind is also referred to as a set or trips, however, in Texas Holdem, the 3-of-A-kind is only a set only when the player has pocket pairs with the 3rd card to make up the 3-of-A-Kind on the board.
9. Two Pair
A Pair is a two cards of the same number with another two cards consisting of another number, with one final card called the kicker. If two players have a two pair, the hand with the highest pair wins. Where both players have the same ranking cards for pairs, the kicker card determines the winning hand.
10. One Pair
Two cards of the same number or value. The player with the highest number valued pair wins, where two players both have a Pair. Where both players have the same ranked card as a pair, the highest kicker card (3 remaining cards of different rank) determines the winning hand.
11. High card
The hand with the highest cards wins. The Ace being the highest card with two the lowest. Where both cards have the same number ranked high card, the next high card is used to determine the winning hand.
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For anyone who has played poker for a while, you are probably familiar with the standard poker hands. But did you know there are names for non-standard poker hand too?
And even some of the names that we think are standard poker hands aren’t really standard, but variations of a standard hand.
Standard Poker Hands
The standard poker game has a standard ranking system. This system assumes that there are no wild cards and follow standard poker play where each player is dealt a minimum of 5 cards and only 5 cards are used to determine the winning hand. Below I have ranked in order from best to worse, the standard hands in poker:
- Straight Flush. A straight flush contains 5 cards in consecutive order all of the same suit. The lowest ranking straight flush (assuming the game allows for aces to be high or low) is an ace, a 2, a 3, a 4, and a 5. All must have matching hearts, clubs, spades, or diamonds.
- Four of a Kind. When a player has four of a kind, the player has 4 cards of the same rank. The lowest four of a kind hand would be 4 2’s.
- Full House. In a full house, a player has 3 cards of matching rank and 2 cards of another matching rank. It is a combination of 2 lower-ranking hands: three of a kind and a pair. The lowest ranking full house would be a hand containing 3 2’s and 2 3’s.
- Flush. Any five cards of the same suit. An example of a flush could be a 2, a 4, a 6, a 7 and a jack all of clubs.
- Straight. A straight contains 5 cards in order but have different suits. The lowest ranking straight would be an ace 2, a 3, a 4, and a 5 all of a different suit (once again assuming that the ace can be played either high or low).
- Three of a Kind. A three of a kind contains 3 cards of the same rank, For example, 3 7’s.
- Two Pair. When a player has two pair, he has 2 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank. The lowest ranking two pair hand would be 2 2’s and 2 3’s.
- One pair. This is when a player has 2 cards of the same rank. The lowest ranking pair is 2 2’s. However, in most video poker games, a player must have 2 jacks or better to have a winning hand, but this can vary based on the version of the video poker game the person is playing.
- High Card. This is simply the highest card in a hand where none of the cards match up to make one of the above scenarios.
As you can see this covers all the standards, but even in this case, there are some you may have heard of that are not there. And there are definitely others that have interesting stories behind the names.
Non-Standard Poker Hands
5 of a Kind
Everyone has heard of 5 of a kind, and the name is self-explanatory. You have 5 matching cards. This is a non-standard hand because there are only 4 of each kind in a deck. But when you are in a casino that plays poker with multiple decks or playing a game with wild cards, the possibility exists for 5 of a kind. It is the highest ranked hand in these types of games
Royal Flush
This is also one that everyone had heard of, but it is not technically a standard poker hand. It is technically a straight flush with the highest ranking cards. Incidentally, the term flush comes from the Latin “fluxus” which means flow and is used in poker because it means fullness, in this case, full of the same suit.
Big Bobtail
A big bobtail is when you have a 4 card straight flush. The term bobtail simply means cut short. So a big bobtail is one card cut short of a straight flush.
Straight Flush House
A straight flush house is when you have 3 cards of one suit and 2 cards of another in consecutive order. As the name indicates, the hands of a straight, a flush and a full house are used to coin this term.
Wrap-Around Straight
In this hand, the player will have a Q-K-A-2-3. With the ace being both a high and low card in most games, the Q-K-A combination are the top 2 ranks and the A-2-3 cards are the lowest, thus this hand bridges or wraps the cards around from highest to lowest via the ace. It is also known in some circles as a round-the-corner straight.
Skip Straight
A skip straight is cards in consecutive order that skip ranks, for example, a hand of 2-4-6-8-10 would be a skip straight as it is consecutive but skips the 3, 5, 7 and 9. Other names for this are alternate straight, Dutch straight, skipper, or kangaroo straight.
Five and Dime
A five and dime hand is one where the player has all of their cards between 5 and 10 with no pairs with a 5 as the low card and the 10 as the high card. Since there are six ranks between 5 and 10 (inclusive) this would mean they are one card short of a straight or straight flush (if all of the cards are of the same suit). This hand gets its name from the famous Woolworth stores in the US at the beginning of the 20th century, which were called five and dimes because all of the items were either 5 or 10 cents.
Little Bobtail
Much like the big bobtail, this hand means you are short from making a straight flush. In this case 2 cards short. This hand contains 3 cards, all of the same suit, in consecutive order
Flash
This is a very uncommon hand because, in most games, the Joker is not used, but in games where it is used, you can have a flash hand. It consists of one card of each suit (any rank) and the Joker. Where the term flash came from, in this case is not very clear, but it seems to be due either the fact that there are only 2 Jokers in a deck, meaning they are less likely to appear making a quick appearance in a game where they are played or because they are rarely used in a game so they appear “in a flash” and are gone.
Blaze
Also known as a blazer, this occurs when all the cards in your hand are jacks, queens and/kings. Since it means that you could have a full house or 2 pairs, the hand is “on fire” thus the term blaze.
Flush House
A flush house consists of 2 cards of one suit and 3 cards of another. It gets its name from a full house and a flush.
Cats and Dogs
Cats and dogs are no pair hand. The type of cats and dogs hand you have is determined by the highest and lowest cards.
Cats and Dogs rank below straight flush houses and above straights in games where they are allowed. Usually, if cats and dogs hands are played, they are the only unconventional hands allowed. It ranks just above a straight, and below a straight flush house or any other cat or dog.
- Little dog: Has a 2 as the low card and 7 as the high card. This allows for 1 non-consecutive card in the hand as you would see in the five and dime hand.
- Big dog: Has a 9 as the low card and an A as the high card and also allows for 1 non-consecutive card. This ranks above a straight or little dog, and below a straight flush house or cat.
- Little cat: Has a 3 as the low card and 8 as the high card. This hand ranks above a straight or any dog, but below a straight flush house or big cat.
- Big cat: A big cat is an 8 low card, K high card hand. This hand ranks just below a straight flush house, and above a straight or any other cat or dog.
It should be noted that in some games a dog or cat flush beats a straight flush, under the reasoning that a plain dog or cat beats a plain straight. In these circumstances, the big cat flush would be the highest hand in the game.
In some circles, the word tiger is substituted for cat.
These hands got their names because of dogs and cats tendency for these animals to chase things. In the case of these hand, you are chasing the missing card to make the straight.
Russ
A russ is 5 cards of the same color. The relationship of the names to the cards is unclear. There are 2 unsubstantiated origins of the term. The first is that it started to be used after World War 1 and was originally the term for all red cards, red being the color of the Communist Soviet Union or Russian, thus the shortened term russ. The other possible origin is from the Hindi term juice. The term juice has been slang for blood for centuries, thus as in the first possible origin, red cards were russ, then expanded to all black cards as well.
Skeet
Poker Hands In Order Of Best To Worst
A skeet is a hand consisting of a 9, a 5, a 2, and two other cards lower than 9. The word skeet means to shoot or spray. In this case, the ranks are spread out or sprayed over the non-suited cards. A skeet can also be referred to as a pelter or bracket
Rank Of Poker Hands In Order
This hand also allows for a Skeet Flush, which is a skeet with all of the cards of the same suit.
Kilter
A kilter or kelter is what we have been learning today. It is a general term for all non-standard hands. The term means order or good condition. A phrase you may have heard of is off-kilter, which means out of balance; away from the norm. A kilter hand is one that is out of the norm.
Where Kilters Would Be Used
Most of these hands obviously would be meaningless or even impossible in standard poker, but there are games where they are not only meaningful but vital to know.
Games with wild cards would allow for the 5 of a kind hand.
Games with the joker (and the joker is not wild) would be games where the flash hand is used.
Games like Manilla which removes all cards below the rank of 7 and Mexican Stud where the 8s, 9s, and 10s are removed utilizing a good number of Kilter hands.
Ranking Hands with Kilters
At the beginning of this article, we showed you standard poker card rankings. But how would the kilter hands fit in? The answer is in the list below:
- 5 of a Kind
- Royal Flush
- Skeet Flush
- Straight Flush
- 4 of a Kind
- Big Bobtail
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight Flush House
- Big Cat
- Little Cat
- Big Dog
- Little Dog
- Straight
- Wrap-Around Straight
- Skip Straight
- Five and Dime
- Skeet
- 3 of a Kind
- Little Bobtail
- Flash
- Blaze
- 2 Pair
- Russ
- Bobtail Flush
- Flush House
- Bobtail Straight
- One Pair
- High Card
Conclusion
It is quite possible that you will never play a game of poker where most of the kilter hands are used. But they exist and they exist for a reason. The reason is that poker had hundreds of variations and these variations require rule changes.
Knowing these terms can also increase your reputation around the poker table. Even though a standard game wouldn’t use a big cat or a bobtail flush, you can impress your opponents in your friendly weekly poker game by commenting on how they almost got what they needed for a flush, but instead got a bobtail flush. This might make them think twice about calling a bluff in a future hand.
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