How to Determine the Winning Hand
In poker, a hand is determined by a set of five cards composed of either the cards dealt to a player or the community cards in the middle for everyone to see. Texas Hold’em games consist of two dealt pocket (face down) cards and five community cards. When determining the winning hand, the first thing that a dealer dealer does is to look for similar cards a player’s hand and group them together into pairs (2 cards of the same rank), trips (3) and quads (4). There is also a combination concerning a set of three of a kind cards and a set of a two of a kind cards, this is called a full house. The more cards of the same rank in a hand, the higher it is regardless of the rank itself. For instance, A A A K K will still lose to 2 2 2 2 3. However, if two players have the same number of grouped cards, then the rank is taken into consideration. 8 8 8 8 2 and 7 7 7 7 A are both quads, but since 8 is higher than 7, the first hand is the winning hand.
If there are no groups that can be made from the hand based on the rank, then the dealer looks for five cards with the same suit called a flush. These can be any five cards regardless of rank. When two players each have five cards of the same suit, then the highest card is used to break the tie. When a player chances upon five cards in an ascending or descending order containing the same suit, this is called a straight flush.
When there is neither cards of the same rank nor the flush, the dealer looks for ranks that may be grouped in an ordered succession – this is what they call a straight. An example of a straight would be 4 5 6 7 8. In the event that two or more players have a straight as their best hand, then the winning hand will be determined by the highest card visible in each hand. The ace is the highest card and 2 is the lowest. When both the ace and 2 are present in a straight hand (A 2 3 4 5) then the next highest card is used as the basis – therefore, A 2 3 4 5 will lose to 10 J Q K A because a king is higher than an ace. In the even that two players get the same ranks for the straight, then the pot is split as the suit has no relevance in straights.
Below is the list of how the cards and combinations rank:
- Royal Flush – a straight flush made of a ten, jack, queen, king and an ace.
- Straight Flush
- Quad aka Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Trip aka Three of a Kind
- Two Pairs
- One Pair
- High Card – when there are no possible combinations (not even a pair) that can be formed