Poker hand order: cheat sheet and best combos

If you’ve played poker offline, there’s always someone asking about the poker hand order. There is the friend who asks for a cheat sheet, the one who asks each move… In this article, you will find this explanation of the hierarchy of poker plays, and a guide with the best hands in your poker strategy.

With this list, you will avoid making mistakes with the order of poker hands, but you will also learn to play better. You don’t want to be celebrating a win with your two pair against your opponent’s set, but you also don’t want to know if the two cards you’ve been dealt are part of a good strategy or not.

Before going for the guide… How do you win at poker? To take the pot, you must be the last player to bet, that is, nobody follows your bet. Otherwise, the pot will be won by whoever has the best combination, which can go from the highest card to the straight flush, passing through the highest pair or the straight.

What is the order of the poker cards?

We start with the worst, since it is the most frequent… Remember that in the order of poker hands the best five cards are taken into account among the five common ones and the two from each hand of each player. DO YOU ALREADY KNOW THEM ALL? THEN… GO DOWN TO THE SAND TO PLAY!

High card: If nobody has any combination, the highest card will take the pot. You will rarely win anything with a high card. What happens if two players have the same high card? It will continue in a correlative way until one of the two has a higher one.

Pair: You have a pair when among the five common cards on the table and the two in your hand, two are the same. If two players have a pair, the higher one wins. If both have a pair of K, for example, the tie would be broken by the 3rd high card, and if it is still the same, go for the 4th and so on

Two Pair: Two pairs at the same time among the 7 cards. In case of a tie, the highest pair wins, if it is the same, the second pair wins. If the two pairs are shared, the 5th high card.

Three of a Kind: Two of the same cards. In case of a tie, the previous logic is followed (value of the trio and value of the other two best cards). Remember that in the order of poker hands the sixth card will never matter.

Straight: Five consecutive cards, their color being indifferent. Important: If they go from 2 to 6, it will not matter if someone has an A in their hand, since the sixth card does not matter. But if someone has the 7 yes, because he would have a higher straight (3-7 vs 2-6)

Flush: Five cards of the same suit. In case of a tie, high card.

Full House: A couple and a threesome. In case of a tie, the trio wins, and if it is the same, the couple. If both the three of a kind and the pair are the same, it is a tie, since you only play with 5 cards.

Poker: Four cards of the same value. If the strange case is fulfilled that the 4 are in the common zone, the first high card would break the tie.

Straight flush: Straight and flush at the same time. The strongest combination in the poker hand order would be the royal straight flush, not because it is magical, but because it would be the highest possible straight flush.

So… who wins poker or straight? Poker is far superior to straight. In fact, a flush and full house are already better combinations than the straight, even worse than poker. the straight only achieves an advantage against the trio and other minor combinations, even though it is very rare.

What is worth more in poker?

What is worth more in poker are the straight flush, four of a kind or the full house in that order, but they are infrequent hands. In most cases, with a combination higher than three of a kind or two pair, you will have enough to win. Taking this into account… What cards win in poker? In the vast majority of tables, the highest pair will allow you to play with some strength, always looking at the table and the plays of your opponents. From two pair or three of a kind (especially) you can bet with some security, while any combination higher than the straight will almost always win. Of course, always keep in mind how the common cards and your ‘kicker’ are.

What are the best cards in poker? In this sense, the best hands are those with higher cards, combinations with paired cards or cards of the same or consecutive color. They are the ones that give you options to already have an advantage (pairs in hand) or link monsters as a three of a kind, full house or poker, as well as that the combinations you achieve have an advantage (high cards). Obviously, consecutive cards and the same color open the door to straights or flushes.

Best poker hands

If you want to master the strategy for playing preflop, with only two cards in play, this article on poker hand ranges has it covered. Beyond this, these are some of the best duos you can find in your day-to-day gaming.

• AA: The best Hold’em poker hand could not be without nicknames. “The rockets” or “the vowels” are some of them. But above all “the American Airlines” as a reference to the initials of the North American airline.
• AK: The Americans call it “big slick”, something like the “big slip”. Because it is a very good hand (the 4th best preflop) but it can give us great trouble. She is also known as “Anna Kournikova”, referring to the pretty tennis player because she tells the malicious people that she is very pretty but she never wins anything. Hands like AQ or AJ have similar but less power.
• QK: Seeing this type of poker hands made up of a queen and a king, it was almost inevitable that someone would baptize it as “marriage” but without a doubt one of the nicknames popularized and extended by Juan Manuel Pastor, a benchmark for poker broadcasts in our country, has been the one of “the mussels”. Alluding to CUCA, the famous brand of preserves.

Ttreacherous poker hands

These are seemingly good Holdem poker hands, but they can play tricks on you. They are playable poker hands, they are not cards that you should discard yes or yes, but each one in its context and moment.

A+Low Card: A Holdem poker hand that includes the strongest card comes with great responsibility. A novice player this hand, because he’s going to be impressed right off the bat when he sees the ace. You shouldn’t demonize that hand, as it can be played in certain contexts, but you shouldn’t treat it like an AK or AQ. The main dangers of this poker hand are facing an opponent with a higher A. It is good when we have a good position, little stack or in late game situations, such as heads-up.

The hooks (JJ): It is a good hand, one of the best poker hands that we will normally play and win, but if we take into account how the other players perform. It’s a very powerful Holdem poker hand preflop, but it gets weaker as more cards come up. If we see an A, K, or Q among the community cards and a high-stakes game is in progress, we should be able to get out of the mess in time.

QK: Was this not good? The QK hand carries a danger similar to any hand that includes two different (non-A) face cards: JQ or JK. Especially if they are the same color. They are very good types of hands, but the fact of seeing two letters can make us overexcited and lead us to think that we have an invincible hand, and it is not so. If you get reraised preflop (especially conservative players with lots of spread chips), fold. Otherwise, an AA, AK, KK, or even QQ will do a lot of damage to you.

Analyze each poker hand in its moment

And beyond this? With experience, it is found that a 2-7 is much worse than a 4-5. A 2-7 wins by high card, but a 4-5 (we don’t even talk about whether they are the same color anymore) open up the possibility of a straight, for example. This also explains why lower pairs can be played if a high amount is not called. Not because you think a 2-2 is a winning hand, but because it can get you closer to a set, or you can hide a two pair well by doubling down on a community card. Now, if you see 5 cards that don’t match you, those ducklings are probably worth little to you.

This explains the power of an A-K or A-Q as well. Even if they are not strong partners, you will have a clear advantage over your rival. If you both hit the same thing, you will always win. If no one links, you win by high card, if you both have a pair, you will have the highest pair. If there is color, your color will be the winner. Now, playing an A-K if you don’t hit is not the most desirable. But we will no longer teach you this in this guide, you will learn this with advanced poker strategies and going down to the arena.