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How To Play Poker Cards and Their Rankings.
In order to explain how to play Poker – I am going to start out explaining the cards and the Card Rankings then move on to the various types of Games and what the differences are between them. The aim of the game in Poker – is to beat your opponents hands by holding a better ranked hand than they do. The cards rank from Two to Ace (although bear in mind that the Ace is allowed as both a Low and a High Card)
Single Card – This is the worst hand available and is where there is no common ground between any of the cards in your possession – They are not all the same color, not all the same suit and do not have any pairs of the same Marked Number.
A Pair – This is when two of the cards are the same Face Value – with a Pair of 2’s being considerably worse than a pair of Ace’s.
Two Pair – when you have two sets of pairs available to you – although beating a Pair – this is still not a strong hand and unless you have High Cards (Jack through Ace) you should be wary about betting highly.
Three of a Kind – This is when three of the cards available to you are all linked by the same Marked Number. E.g. Three 6’s or Three 10’s.
A Straight – This is when the cards get better and the Term stands for five sequential cards e.g. 4,5,6,7,8 but not all belonging to one suit. The best available Straight is the 10,J,Q,K,A.
A Flush – This is when all the cards are different Marked Numbers but all belong to the same suit – e.g. They are all Diamonds or are all Spades e.t.c. This is generally considered a strong hand and betting heavily on this would be expected. Be aware that the Highest Card of the Flush is the most important card as a 2,3,7,9,Ace would beat a 7,9,10,Q,K!
A Full House – This is a very good hand and is defined as a Pair and a Three of a Kind combined. That means in the five cards used – there are 2 matching numbers and 3 other matching numbers. Again the Three Card medley out-values the Pair should two players have the same hands.
Four of a Kind – A rare delight – when you have drawn this you are expected to bet heavily. This means that four of your cards all belong to the same Marked Number e.g. Four 8’s or Four Queen’s. The fifth card is only important should two players have the same identical cards – an unlikely event with this hand.
A Straight Flush – This is very rare and should be used to full effect when betting. This term applies to a hand of 5 cards – all consecutive numbers and all with the same suit. For example – 3,4,5,6,7 of Hearts would be termed as this and any player lucky enough to get this should bet heavily with it.
The Royal Flush – I have titled this appropriately as it is the hardest hand to get in the Game and should anyone be lucky to draw this at odds of 1 in 649,740 – you should be looking to bring every player into the game and bet all the chips available to you. This means that you have got the 10,J,Q,K,A of the same suit.
Play Poker Online For Free And Win With All In With King-High Hands
When a desperate player in a poker tournament even a free online poker one doesn’t get A-A or K-K they tend to go all-in with Ace-something. A lot of players will go for it with AK, AQ, in some cases even as low as A4.
At worst, if someone with A-4 is called with the medium Pair, there is still one overcard. With A-K you could be called by Ace-lower whilst still being be a significant favorite.
So players running out of chips have a tendency to wait for Ace-something before they move all-in. While the Ace element gives them assurance, the likelihood is that someone will call them with Ace-higher and make them a significant underdog. Furthermore, if the purpose is to move all-in, why not try the same move with King-something (preferably suited)?
The trend for tournament players today has changed slightly in favor of moving all-in with King-something, like K-Q, K-J, K-10 (naturally, the applications here apply also to A-K) as well as K-x suited. Other players will also call with a smaller pocket Pair, and thus A-x has the same chance of winning as K-x against a smaller Pair if both cards are overcards.
And K-x posseses an additional advantage. While a hand like A-5 is really a substantial underdog against A-J, K-Q or K-5 is just a slight underdog.
Approximately, it is a 13 to 7 underdog, but compare this to A-5 which is a 15 to 5 (or 3-1) underdog. What you want to fetch with K-x is its live card value.
While using A-5, you must hit the Five if you want to pair and take the lead. With K-5, you can have both King and Five pairing.
If you extend your all-in hand range to include K-x, you might have to move all-in more than usual. Because many players will fold to an all-in (including marginal high A-x such as A-10 or A-9) other players at the table will get a more aggressive impression of your play.
Also you can steal the blinds more frequently. The all-in itself (and not really the cards employed to move all-in) is a sign of strength; it’s the same with A-x or K-x.
Overall, should you be running out of chips and the all in approach beckons don’t limit yourself to just Ace-x, think about the King too, it may just make your day!
So why not check out the King High approach on the free poker online tables first, get accustomed to it and then apply in more dangerous poker games later.
Hopefully this was interesting and helps your poker game be it free poker games or for cash. Certainly it should demonstrate that in any given poker game situation you will find options to think about based on the cards you’ve got, the game point, opposition and known and estimated risk to name but a few. If you’re a new comer to this approach then by far the simplest way to get ahead is to practice a LOT on free online poker sites such as