Tag Archives: flush
Poker Jargon For Beginners – Describing The Hand You're Dealt
If you have had a look at a poker dictionary, you will realize that getting used to all that vocabulary is a matter of months or years. Reading those long, long lists is definitely the last thing you should be doing if you want to get acclimatized to the jargon.
The best way to get used to terms is to split them up according to contexts – what terms are used to describe players? How do cardsharps (what are cardsharps?) talk about hands that are good or bad? Do cards have nicknames?
Here, I’ll be telling you how to value the cards you are dealt. The ranking of a hand is decided according to two factors.
A. The type of hand. The royal flush is the highest hand, and the order of ranking is –
Royal flush Straight flush Four of a kind Full house Flush Straight Three of a kind Two pairs One pair High card
B. The ranking of cards in the hand. Aces can be ranked high or low depending on what type of poker is being played. However, the type of hand is more influential in determining the ranking than the rankings of individual cards. C. Now, we move on to the types of hands. Remember – each hand contains five cards.
Flush – Five cards belonging to the same suit, regardless of the number
Straight – five cards in consecutive order of numbering. For example, 3-4-5-6-7. The arrangement of cards in any hand does not affect its value
High card – One card of high value is present in the hand. Aces are usually the highest valued, followed by Kings, Queens, Jacks and so on.
Royal Flush – 10, J, Q, K, A all of the same suit. No suit is ranked higher than the other
Four of a kind – Four cards of the same rank, with a fifth card of different rank
Full house – Three cards of one rank, and two of another rank. A hand with three sevens and two fives, for example, will be described as “Sevens full of fives”. This will be ranked higher than “fives full of sevens”, as sevens are valued higher than fives.
Three of a kind – Any three cards in the hand have the same rank
Pair – two cards which share the same rank. There may be two such pairs in the hand, when it is called “two pair”. Pair, like any hand that depends on the rank of cards, does not depend on suit.
As you see, unless you have a Royal Flush there is absolutely no way to tell how likely it is for your hand to be a winner just by looking at your cards. This is what makes poker such an involved and interactive game of strategy – smile or frown at the wrong time, and you may end up giving the game away.
Oh, and if you didn’t know it already – a “cardsharp” is an expert card game player. That’s the first of the poker terms you will come to know.
Poker Cheat Sheet
I don’t know if there is a real name for it, but ‘Cheat Sheet’ is what me and buddies call the little piece of paper that most of us keep next to us in a game for the purpose of surreptitiously having a sneak in order to determine our hands, because remembering the sequence of poker hands still alludes me, even after 3 years of playing. Knowing what is what in your hand is probably the most important part of poker, so here it is, the poker novice’s (or not-so-novice’s) best friend; print it out, stick it up, do what ever you will with it.
Your poker hand is the best of the following that you can make up with 5 cards that you have available to you:
High Card: When your cards don’t make up any of the other combinations you are left with a High Card: The highest card in your hand.
One Pair: 2 of the same number or picture. When more than one player has a pair of the same, the winner is determined by who has the next highest card.
Two Pair: 2 x pair. Again when more than one player has the same two pairs it is the remaining card in the hand that decides the winner.
Three of a kind: 3 of the same number and 2 cards that are not related. When more than one player has a 3 of a kind, the hand with the highest value of the 3 cards wins.
Straight: five cards in sequence but not of the same suit. The highest run wins, e.g. 3,4,5,6,7, looses to 5,6,7,8,9.
Flush: All the same suit but not in sequence, e.g. all clubs. Should two players have a flush, the highest card in the hand determines the winner; if this is the same for both, the next highest card is looked to, and so on.
Full House: one pair plus three of a kind. If two players have full houses the highest 3 of a kind determines the winner. Should both have the same 3 of a kind, as is possible in a wilds game, the one with the highest pair wins.
Straight Flush: All the same suit, all in sequence. The highest card of the sequence determines the winner.
Royal Flush: Not really a hand as it is simply the highest straight flush possible; 10, J, Q, K, A all of the same suit.
Five of a Kind: Many tables do not accept five of a kind, but for those that do; this is 5 cards of the same value, with a wild card as the 5th.