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It is important to know and thoroughly understand poker hands’ rankings as this is crucial when you try to take decisions about which card to hold and which card to discard. Apart from this, by having a clear idea about rankings of poker hands, you will be able to weigh your chances and place bet or fold accordingly.

Straight flush is when 5 cards of same suit are in continuous sequence; ace can be either high (Royal Flush) or low. Example: T♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠ or A♠ 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ 5♠

Four of a Kind is also known as quads when out of five cards, four are of same rank from different suits. For instance, K♠ K♥ K♦ K♣ Q♠ can win you the pot in most of the probabilities.

Full House or full boat/boat represents hands’ rankings when the 3 cards are of same rank and the other two are of another same rank; K♥ K♦ K♣ Q♠ Q♣ can be termed as “Kings full of Queens”. If community cards or wild cards are used, it is possible for two players to have same set of 3 cards of same rank. In this case, the rank of the other 2 cards is considered for tie breaking.

Discussed below are few of the other poker hands’ rankings which can decide your fortune of winning the pot.

Flush is when all the five cards of the hand are of same suit but not in sequence. The player with highest rank card wins and the next highest cards are considered for tie breaking. A♥ Q♥ 7♥ 4♥ 2♥ can be read as
Ace-high flush.

Straight – the cards must be in sequence but not necessarily from same suit. For instance, 4♥ 5♣ 6♦ 7♠ 8♥ is Eight-high straight.

“Trips,” “set,” or Three of a Kind represents hand ranking when three out of five cards are of same rank. 2♦ 2♠ 2♥ 7♥ K♣ can be read as “a set of Deuces” or “trip Deuces.”

Two Pair – the player will have two pair of cards, each pair of different rank. For instance, K♥ K♦ Q♦ Q♣ J♦ can be declared as Kings and Queens or Kings Up.

One Pair, as the name indicates, will consist of two cards of same rank. A♦ A♣ K♦ 9♥ 5♠ can be read as Aces or Aces with a King.

High Card is one of the annoyingly common hand rankings; no two cards are of same rank nor are all the cards from same suit. For instance, 4♥ 5♣ 6♦ 7♠ T♥ is Ten High.

What is the Correct Low Hand?

There are certain games such as triple-draw Lowball and Razz that are played only for low hand. But in the case of High-Low split games, there are few rules which must be understood before playing. To begin with, a proper low hand must consists of five cards which are unpaired and each card must be an Eight or even lower. For instance, 8542A qualifies for high-low split games while 9743A does not qualify due to the presence of 9.

Another fact to be considered is that the low hands will be counted from highest card down, unlike the usual lowest card up. To be clear, if there are two players having 86432 and 8742A respectively, the one with 6 as second highest card will win over the player with 7 as second highest card. Thus it is essential to know the ways of evaluating low hands.

Few Examples of High-Low Split Games

In case of Q♦ A♣ 7♥ 5♦ K♠ 6♣ 2♣, the lowest possible hand is 7♥ 6♣ 5♦ 2♣ A♣ while low hand is not possible if there are no five cards lesser than an eight, for instance, K♠ 9♥ 8♠ Q♦ 4♦ 3♦ A♠. Similarly, you can try forming the lowest possible hand with the cards you play with.