Pocket jacks are considered one of the hardest premium hands to play in poker. While the hand has a huge winning percentage against any random two cards, it’s absolutely crushed by pocket aces, pocket kings and pocket queens. It’s also only a 50/50 against ace-king. One of the basics of Texas Hold’em is understanding card strength. One of the key aspects of winning a game of poker is to be able to make the most correct decisions as often as possible; therefore, selecting the hands you will go to war with is among the first steps. Below you will find a list of poker hands in order from highest to lowest to help you get started, as well as the top starting hands for Texas Hold'em. Click the button on the right to get a cheat sheet that displays the traditional poker hand rankings, which are used in the most popular variants of poker (such as Texas Hold‘em). In live texas holdem poker events and games, the specific type of full house is noted as 3's over 2's for the example above or J's over 5's. The emphasis on the strength of the full house when comparing to other full house hands is always on the dominating set (the ranking of the 3 identical card values).
One of the basics of Texas Hold’em is understanding card strength
One of the key aspects of winning a game of poker is to be able to make the most correct decisions as often as possible; therefore, selecting the hands you will go to war with is among the first steps. Making the decision whether to move forward with the hand you got is one of the most frequent ones to make during a game of Texas Hold’em. To succeed at this is not only important to know what hands to play or to fold, but also to know why it is done so, when you face a complex situation, you have a solid base to make the best decision. The first step would be to know the best and worst hands you could get.
The best hands typically include the highest possible pairs like A-A, K-K, Q-Q, or J-J, which are already good so the pressure of improving their value down the road is not that much. These are made hands already and there is less chance of one of your opponents holding a higher pocket pair. Besides pairs, the next best thing will be to have suited A-K or A-Q, which have a good chance to become pairs once the community cards are there. They also have the potential to become high straights and the fact that they are suited gives you the possibility of getting the best possible flushes.
On the other hand, there are some hands to stay away from. These are hands that are worthless unless something else happens on the board – they’re not even worth showdown value on the river.
Hands like 7-2, 8-2, 7-3 and 8-3 off-suit won’t really lead you to something great easily. It can, for instance, become a low pair. Having a low card with a high card also puts you at a disadvantage. When competing for the pot when both you and your opponent have pairs, a low pair won’t give any added value.
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Texas Hold Em Poker hands are ranked by the best five card combination.
This five card combination is made up of the two cards that you, the player, are dealt, also known as your hole cards, and the five cards on the community board.
The rank of the cards within each type of hand can make a difference. This means that a king high flush is better than a jack high flush, for example. A pair of queens is better than a pair of jacks.
Below is the list of Texas Hold Em Poker hands in order, ranked from the best hand to the worst:
Hand #1 – Royal Flush
A royal flush is made up of the top five cards of the same suit. That is the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten of the same suit.
This is the best Texas Hold Em poker hand and statistically the toughest to make!
Hand #2 – Straight Flush
A straight flush in Texas Hold Em Poker is made up of five cards of the same suit in consecutive order.
If more than one player has a straight flush, the player with the highest ranked card in the straight flush wins.
For example a King-high straight flush beats a Queen-high straight flush.
A Royal flush is therefore in essence an Ace-High straight flush, the highest possible straight flush Texas Hold Em Poker hand.
Hand #3 – Four of a Kind (or Quads)
Four of a kind or quads is the third highest rank of the Texas Hold Em Poker Hands.
This hand is made up of four cards of the same rank. For example four aces down to four 2s.
If the four cards being used to make up the quads are the community cards, then the player with the highest 5th card wins the hand. This would therefore ideally be the player with an Ace.
If both players have an ace the pot is split as the two players have the same hand. This applies no matter how many players are involved in the hand.
Hand #4 – Full House (or Boat)
The fouth highest ranked Texas Hold Em Poker hand is called a Full House or Boat.
This is a combination of three of a kind and a pair. That is, three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank.
If two players have a full house, then the player with the highest three matching cards will win the hand.
If two players have the same three highest cards, then the winner is determined by the player who has the highest two matching cards.
Hand #5 – Flush
In Texas Hold Em Poker a flush is made by having five cards of the same suit.
If more than one player at the poker table has a flush, the player with the highest flush will win the hand.
This is determined by comparing the highest card of the flush, with the highest possible flush being the Ace-high flush, which can be made up of the Ace of a suit and any other 4 cards of the same suit.
This is followed by the King-high flush, Queen-high flush and so on.
If the highest card of each player’s flush is the same card, i.e a community card, then the player with the 2nd highest card of the flush has the higher flush, down to the 5th highest as necessary.
Texas Holdem Poker Hands Chart
Hand #6 – Straight
A straight is made up of five cards of any suit in consecutive order.
If both players have a straight, the person with the highest ranked straight wins the hand, with an Ace-high straight (A-K-Q-J-10) being the highest possible straight.
Do note that in Texas Hold Em Poker an ace can be used as the high card of a straight above the king (A-K-Q-J-10) or the low card below the 2 (A-2-3-4-5).
Hand #7 – Three of a Kind (or Set)
The seventh ranked of the Texas Hold Em Poker hands is Three Of A Kind and this is made up of three cards of the same rank.
The highest possible set is three aces with three 2s being the lowest.
If two players have made three of a kind, the player with the highest three cards wins.
If both players have the same three of a kind, the winner is the person with the highest additional 4th card, or 5th card, and therefore the highest five card combination.
Hand #8 – Two Pair
A player can make Two Pair by having two cards of one rank and two other cards of another rank.
The highest possible two pair is Two Aces and Two Kings with a Queen as your fifth card or kicker.
If both players have two pairs, then the player holding the highest pair wins. For example Two Aces and Two Kings beats Two Kings and Two Queens.
If the players both hold the same high pair, then the player with the 2nd highest pair decides the winner. Therefore Two Aces and Two Kings will beat Two Aces and Two Queens regardless of the fifth card.
If both pairs are the same two pairs, the 5th additional card is the decider. For example Two Aces and Two Kings with a Queen kicker beats Two Aces and Two Kings with a Jack kicker.
Hand #9 – One Pair
A player only needs two cards of the same rank to make one pair in Texas Hold Em Poker. Statistically this is the easiest Texas Hold Em Poker hand to make other than High Card, and is therefore the most common poker hand.
The highest pair any player can make is a pair of Aces and the lowest is a pair of Twos.
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Top Texas Holdem Hands
If more than one player has a pair at the showdown the player with the highest pair wins the hand.
If two players have the same pair, the winner is the player with the highest additional card.
Hand #10 – High Card
If you have not made any of the above 9 Texas Hold Em Poker hands by the showdown then you have what is called High Card.
Hands Of Texas Holdem
The winner of the hand is determined by the highest ranked card in the 5 card combination. For example if your highest card is an Ace you will beat any player whose highest card is a King or lower.
If two or more players have the same high card then then the 2nd highest card decides the winner, down to the 5th card if needed.
There you have it!…A complete and official list of all the Texas Hold Em poker hands in order from the best and hardest to make to the lowest and easiest to make.
So study them and learn them so that when you are playing you always know which Texas Hold Em Poker hand you hold and which poker hands can beat yours.
This is crucial to your success!
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