Tag Archives: ranking
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.
Playing 5 Card Games
There are many types of poker games available for online and offline play. This article will focus on the most common 5 card poker games which are 5 card draw and 5 card stud poker. For the beginning poker player, a basic knowledge of poker rules and terms is required to develop into a seasoned gamer. Poker, in general, is a card game of skill and luck in which players obtain the best hand of cards to win. Most poker games require a hand to be made up of either seven or five cards. A good hand can be made up of either all cards of the same suit, all cards in order sequentially, or multiple sets of cards with the same rank. A “hand” in poker is the cards that each player is dealt. A suit is one of these four: spade, club, diamond, or heart. “Rank” is the number of the card and can be: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, or Ace.
5 Card draw poker can be played by as few as three and as many as seven players. It is widely popular because of the speed and competitive nature of the game. Five cards are dealt to players, face down. Players can select 1-3 cards to exchange per bet or players can keep the cards they are initially dealt. This continues in a second round and so on until a player “folds,” or gives up. Players may show their cards and the player with the best hand wins.
5 Card stud poker is different in that, initially, players are dealt one card face up and one card face down. The player with the lowest ranking face card must begin the betting. Subsequent cards are dealt face up until the player with the player with the highest ranking face card beginning the bet. The player with the best hand wins.
5 Card Low/5 Card High.
Most poker games can be played “low” or “high.” This refers to the ranking of the cards in each player’s hand. In 5 card low, aces usually count as the number “1.” The best hand a player can get is the lowest in rank: 5, 4, 3, 2, ace. Playing 5 card high requires a player to obtain subsequent high cards to win with the highest ranking set being: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10. Because 5 card games of poker make it more difficult to get a good hand (since fewer cards make up each hand), a good tip is to attempt to collect suits or sets rather than straight hands unless specifically playing low or high.