Mastering the Ranking of Poker Cards and Hands
It is simply unthinkable for anyone to join a poker game without ample knowledge of the ranking of cards and hands. This is the most basic skill that people who want to play poker have to learn.
Ultimately, it is the card combinations that decide the winners in a poker game. Poker players base their strategies and bets on the strength of their card combinations, so it is vital that they know very well the ranking and odds of poker cards and hands before starting the game. The players decide whether to drop out, call or raise their bets based on the strength of their hands.
The ranking of poker cards is easy to understand because of its simple logic. An ace can either be the strongest card (high ace) or the weakest one (low ace) in a hand. As it is in real life, the king is superior to the queen, while the queen is superior to the jack. Knowing that suits are all equal makes mastering the ranking of individual cards less complicated.
The confusion begins, however, when one encounters the eleven different hand combinations. Based on the ranking of poker hands, a Straight Flush is always stronger compared to a Four of a Kind. An inexperienced poker player might be misled into thinking that, for example, a hand which consists of four aces and a king (a Four of a Kind) is stronger than a hand with a five, a four, a three, a two and a low ace all from the same suit (a Straight Flush). A player who failed to master the poker hands might conclude that since the highest hand is the Five of a Kind, the Four of the Kind is the second, not the fourth, strongest hand.
This is a dangerous mistake because the player might overestimate the strength of the given Four of a Kind hand by focusing only on the ranking of individual cards. It is true that four aces and a king is the strongest possible Four of a Kind hand, but all Four of a Kinds lose to Five of a Kinds, Royal Flushes and Straight Flushes. Overestimation of a hand's strength might cause the player to be unintentionally more aggressive during play, by betting more or by refusing to drop out.
A player might also underestimate the strength of a hand. In the given Straight Flush example, a player who failed to master the ranking of hands might mistakenly assume that the hand is weak, because the individual cards are low in rank. But the Straight Flush is the third strongest hand, and by failing to recognize this, a player might play more passively and drop out during betting and lose one's chance to win.
In deciding which five-card combination is stronger in poker games, remember that the ranking of HANDS are considered first. The players will only check the ranking of cards only when the hands are of the same category, such as two Full Houses.
Mastery of the ranking of cards and hands is vital in knowing how to best win a game of poker, or else you will be going to battle without knowing how to win, and ultimately, without winning.