Poker is a card game. To play poker you need a standard deck of cards composed of four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Each suit has got 9 cards numbered from 2 to 10, and 4 court cards: jack, queen, king, and ace. That gives us 52 cards jointly. Poker is a great entertainment for everybody and it is characterized with rules that can be remembered easily since it mainly consists in collecting the strongest card configuration.

Poker Card Hierarchy

The hierarchy of cards is one of the most significant matters in poker. Why? Most of all, it shows what we should expect and what we should create. Cards don’t lie and show explicitly who wins. While it is simple in case of number cards (there are face values from 2 to 10) where the card with the highest value is simply the highest, with other cards it is much different. Above 10 there is the jack (J). Above the jack, the queen (Q) sits nobly, which is the card of medium value. Above the queen there is the king (K) perceived as a strong card. Still, as with most of the card games, the strongest card is obviously the ace (A). The more cards of the same level in the hierarchy you have got, the strongest is your hand. Thus, a three of jacks will be stronger than a two of kings. The below poker hands are worth remembering in order to make the game simpler.

The Highest Card

This is the situation where a player fails to get any of the below hands. In this situation, a player with the highest card wins.

One Pair

Finding your pair is important in life; however, in poker it is not so important since a pair here is a bit lower than any other hand. Admittedly, it is higher than the high card but this hand is of no important value. Provided that you play cautiously, poker is not a difficult game and one pair is a very simple hand for everybody.

Two Pair

Two pair is a hand that contains two cards of the same rank plus two cards of another rank. If two players have the same hand of two pair, the one with the higher fifth card wins, and when two players have different pairs, the one with the higher pairs wins.

Three of a kind

Three of a kind is the situation where we get three cards of the same rank. It is not so hard to get and it gives great chance to win. Many professional poker players claim that it is the most inconvenient hand for the opponents.

Straight

Straight is a situation where we manage to get five cards of a sequential rank. When more than one player at the table gets the straight, the one whose straight is with the highest card wins. The ace can be treated as the lowest or the highest card (but not twofold during one deal). An important issue with the straight – cards should be in at least two different suits.

Flush

A flush is where all five cards are of the same suit but not in sequence. In the situation where more than one player at the table has got a flush, the one with the highest card wins.

Full House

A full house usually means a hand that contains three matching cards of one rank, and two cards that create a pair. Therefore, in poker, this is a combination of a pair and a three of a kind. It happens, although rarely, that two players have got this hand. In this situation, a player of a higher three of a kind wins.

Four of a kind

We get a four of a kind when we manage to collect four cards of the same value. This is rather rare situation; still, it happens. Many bookmakers whose offer includes a poker game, pays special bonus, the so-called Badbeat Jackpot for losing with a four of a kind in hand.

Straight Flush

It is a hand that contains five cards in sequence, all of the same suit, unless the highest card is ace.

Royal Flush

It is the highest ranking poker hand that contains five cards in sequence of the same suit with ace as the highest card. The probability of being dealt this hand is rather small and it is 0,00000154; therefore, if you win a deal with this hand it is worth to take a picture.