If the dealer has exactly an ACE-high hand “paigow”, then the hand will automatically resolve in a push. The rules are the same as pai gow poker, except as noted below. All the dealer cards are exposed first. If the dealer has exactly an ACE-high hand “paigow”, then the hand is an automatic push. An ace-high straight flush, commonly known as a royal flush, is the best possible hand in many variants of poker. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game.
Below is the complete guide for determining how to rank various poker hands. This article covers all poker hands, from hands in standard games of poker, to lowball, to playing with a variety of wild cards. Scroll to the end to find an in-depth ranking of suits for several countries, including many European countries and North American continental standards.
Standard Poker Rankings
A standard deck of cards has 52 in a pack. Individually cards rank, high to low:
Ace High Poker Hand
Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
In standard poker (in North America) there is no suit ranking. A poker hand has 5 cards total. Higher ranked hands beat lower ones, and within the same kind of hand higher value cards beat lower value cards.
#1 Straight Flush
In games without wild cards, this is the highest ranking hand. It consists of five cards in sequence of the same suit. When comparing flushes, the hand with the highest value high card wins. Example: 5-6-7-8-9, all spades, is a straight flush. A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest ranking straight flush and is called a Royal Flush. Flushes are not permitted to turn the corner, for example, 3-2-A-K-Q is not a straight flush.
#2 Four of a Kind (Quads)
A four of a kind is four cards of equal rank, for example, four jacks. The kicker, the fifth card, may be any other card. When comparing two four of a kinds, the highest value set wins. For example, 5-5-5-5-J is beat by 10-10-10-10-2. If two players happen to have a four of a kind of equal value, the player with the highest ranking kicker wins.
#3 Full House (Boat)
A full house consists of 3 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another. The three cards value determines rank within Full Houses, the player with the highest rank 3 cards wins. If the three cards are equal rank the pairs decide. Example: Q-Q-Q-3-3 beats 10-10-10-A-A BUT 10-10-10-A-A would beat 10-10-10-J-J.
#4 Flush
Any five cards of the same suit. The highest card in a flush determines its rank between other flushes. If those are equal, continue comparing the next highest cards until a winner can be determined.
#5 Straight
Five cards in sequence from different suits. The hand with the highest ranking top card wins within straights. Ace can either be a high card or low card, but not both. The wheel, or the lowest straight, is 5-4-3-2-A, where the top card is five.
#6 Three of a Kind (Triplets/Trips)
A three of a kind is three card of equal rank and two other cards (not of equal rank). The three of a kind with the highest rank wins, in the event they are equal, the high card of the two remaining cards determines the winner.
#7 Two Pairs
A pair is two cards that are equal in rank. A hand with two pairs consists of two separate pairs of different ranks. For example, K-K-3-3-6, where 6 is the odd card. The hand with the highest pair wins if there are multiple two pairs regardless of the other cards in hand. To demonstrate, K-K-5-5-2 beats Q-Q-10-10-9 because K > Q, despite 10 > 5.
#8 Pair
A hand with a single pair has two cards of equal rank and three other cards of any rank (as long as none are the same.) When comparing pairs, the one with highest value cards wins. If they are equal, compare the highest value oddball cards, if those are equal continue comparing until a win can be determined. An example hand would be: 10-10-6-3-2
#9 High Card (Nothing/No Pair)
If your hand does not conform to any of the criterion mentioned above, does not form any sort of sequence, and are at least two different suits, this hand is called high card. The highest value card, when comparing these hands, determines the winning hand.
Low Poker Hand Ranking
In Lowball or high-low games, or other poker games which lowest ranking hand wins, they are ranked accordingly.
A low hand with no combination is named by it’s highest ranking card. For example, a hand with 10-6-5-3-2 is described as “10-down” or “10-low.”
Ace to Five
The most common system for ranking low hands. Aces are always low card and straights and flushes do not count. Under Ace-to-5, 5-4-3-2-A is the best hand. As with standard poker, hands compared by the high card. So, 6-4-3-2-A beats 6-5-3-2-A AND beats 7-4-3-2-A. This is because 4 < 5 and 6 < 7.
The best hand with a pair is A-A-4-3-2, this is often referred to as California Lowball. In high-low games of poker, there is often a conditioned employed called “eight or better” which qualifies players to win part of the pot. Their hand must have an 8 or lower to be considered. The worst hand under this condition would be 8-7-6-5-4.
Duece to Seven
The hands under this system rank almost the same as in standard poker. It includes straights and flushes, lowest hand wins. However, this system always considers aces as high cards (A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight.) Under this system, the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 (in mixed suits), a reference to its namesake. As always, highest card is compared first. In duece-to-7, the best hand with a pair is 2-2-5-4-3, although is beat by A-K-Q-J-9, the worst hand with high cards. This is sometimes referred to as “Kansas City Lowball.”
Ace to Six
This is the system often used in home poker games, straights and flushes count, and aces are low cards. Under Ace-to-6, 5-4-3-2-A is a bad hand because it is a straight. The best low hand is 6-4-3-2-A. Since aces are low, A-K-Q-J-10 is not a straight and is considered king-down (or king-low). Ace is low card so K-Q-J-10-A is lower than K-Q-J-10-2. A pair of aces also beats a pair of twos.
In games with more than five cards, players can choose to not use their highest value cards in order to assemble the lowest hand possible.
Hand Rankings with Wild Cards
Wild cards may be used to substitute any card a player may need to make a particular hand. Jokers are often used as wild cards and are added to the deck (making the game played with 54 as opposed to 52 cards). If players choose to stick with a standard deck, 1+ cards may be determined at the start as wild cards. For example, all the twos in the deck (deuces wild) or the “one-eyed jacks” (the jacks of hearts and spades).
Wild cards can be used to:
- substitute any card not in a player’s hand OR
- make a special “five of a kind”
Five of a Kind
Five of a Kind is the highest hand of all and beats a Royal Flush. When comparing five of a kinds, the highest value five cards win. Aces are the highest card of all.
The Bug
Some poker games, most notably five card draw, are played with the bug. The bug is an added joker which functions as a limited wild card. It may only be used as an ace or a card needed to complete a straight or a flush. Under this system, the highest hand is a five of a kind of aces, but no other five of a kind is legal. In a hand, with any other four of a kind the joker counts as an ace kicker.
Wild Cards – Low Poker
During a low poker game, the wild card is a “fitter,” a card used to complete a hand which is of lowest value in the low hand ranking system used. In standard poker, 6-5-3-2-joker would be considered 6-6-5-3-2. In ace-to-five, the wild card would be an ace, and deuce-to-seven the wild card would be a 7.
Lowest Card Wild
Home poker games may play with player’s lowest, or lowest concealed card, as a wild card. This applies to the card of lowest value during the showdown. Aces are considered high and two low under this variant.
Double Ace Flush
This variant allows the wild card to be ANY card, including one already held by a player. This allows for the opportunity to have a double ace flush.
Natural Hand v. Wild Hand
There is a house rule which says a “natural hand” beats a hand that is equal to it with wild cards. Hands with more wild cards may be considered “more wild” and therefore beat by a less wild hand with only one wild card. This rule must be agreed upon before the deal begins.
Incomplete Hands
If you are comparing hands in a variant of poker which there are less than five cards, there are no straights, flushes, or full houses. There is only four of a kind, three of a kind, pairs (2 pairs and single pairs), and high card. If the hand has an even number of cards there may not be a kicker.
Examples of scoring incomplete hands:
10-10-K beats 10-10-6-2 because K > 6. However, 10-10-6 is beat by 10-10-6-2 because of the fourth card. Also, a 10 alone will beat 9-6. But, 9-6 beats 9-5-3, and that beats 9-5, which beats 9.
Ranking Suits
In standard poker, suits are NOT ranked. If there are equal hands the pot is split. However, depending on the variant of poker, there are situations when cards must be ranked by suits. For example:
High Low Poker Rules
- Drawing cards to pick player’s seats
- Determining the first better in stud poker
- In the event an uneven pot is to be split, determining who gets the odd chip.
Typically in North America (or for English speakers), suits are ranked in reverse alphabetical order.
- Spades (highest suit), Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs (lowest suit)
Suits are ranked differently in other countries/ parts of the world:
- Spades (high suit), Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts (low suit)
- Hearts (high suit), Spades, Diamonds, Clubs (low suit) – Greece and Turkey
- Hearts (high suit), Diamonds, Spades, Clubs (low suit) – Austria and Sweden
- Hearts (high suit), Diamonds, Clubs, Spades (low suit) – Italy
- Diamonds (high suit), Spades, Hearts, Clubs (low suit) – Brazil
- Clubs (high suit), Spades, Hearts, Diamonds (low suit) – Germany
REFERENCES:
http://www.cardplayer.com/rules-of-poker/hand-rankings
https://www.pagat.com/poker/rules/ranking.html
https://www.partypoker.com/how-to-play/hand-rankings.html
An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the ace of spades. This embellishment on the ace of spades started when King James VI of Scotland and I of England required an insignia of the printing house to be printed on the ace of spades. This insignia was necessary for identifying the printing house and stamping it as having paid the new stamp tax.[1] Although this requirement was abolished in 1960, the tradition has been kept by many card makers.[2] In other countries the stamp and embellishments are usually found on ace cards; clubs in France, diamonds in Russia, and hearts in Genoa because they have the most blank space.
The word 'ace' comes from the Old French word as (from Latin 'as') meaning 'a unit', from the name of a small Roman coin. It originally meant the side of a die with only one pip, before it was a term for a playing card.[3] Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English, but as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has since changed to mean 'high-quality, excellence'.
Ace promotion[edit]
Historically, the ace had a low value and this still holds in many popular European games (in fact many European decks, including the French- and Latin-suited decks, do not use the 'A' index, instead keeping the numeral '1'). The modern convention of 'ace high' seemed to have happened in stages. Card games, before they arrived in Europe, had suits that were in reverse ranking. In the Chinese game of Mǎ diào, which lacked court cards, the suit of coins was inverted so the 1 of Coins was the highest in its suit.[4][5] In the Ganjifa games of Persia, India, and Arabia, only the pip cards of half the suits were reversed so the 1 ranked just below the lowest court card. This convention carried over to early European games like Ombre, Maw, and Trionfi (Tarot). During the 15th and 16th centuries, the ranking of all suits were becoming progressive. A few games from this period like Triomphe, has the ace between the ten and the jack. The earliest known game in which the ace is the highest card of its suit is Trappola.[6] In Ace-Ten games like Brusquembille, Pinochle and Sixty-six, the ace dragged the 10 along with it to the top so the ranking became A-10-K. Some games promoted the deuces and treys too like Put, Truc, and Tressette. 'King high' games were still being made in the 17th century, for example Cribbage. Many games, such as poker and blackjack, allow the player to choose whether the ace is used as a high or low card. This duality allows players in some other games to use it as both at once; some variants of Rummy allow players to form melds, of rank K-A-2 or similar. This is known colloquially as 'going around the corner'.
It was not only the French deck which experienced this promotion, but some games involving the Swiss and German deck also evolved into using the Daus (deuce) as the highest card.[7] The ace had disappeared during the 15th century, so the deuce took its place.[6] The Ass (ace) and Daus (deuce) were conflated into a single card and the names are used interchangeably along with Sau (sow) as early cards of that rank depicted a pig. Some decks in southern Germany use 'A' for the index because 'D' is reserved for Dame (Queen) in French-suited decks. Confusion is also avoided as German-suited decks lack numbered cards below '7' or '6'. Despite using French-suited cards, Russians call the Ace a Deuce (tuz), a vestige of a period when German cards were predominant in central and eastern Europe.
References[edit]
Near Ace Is High Definition
- ^Mann, Sylvia (1990). All Cards on the Table. Leinfelden: Jonas Verlag. pp. 128–130.
- ^Knuckle, White, A Brief History of Playing Cards
- ^Parlett, David (1990). The Oxford Guide to Card Games. Oxford: Oxford. p. 32.
- ^Lo, Andrew (2000). 'The Late Ming Game of Ma Diao'. The Playing-Card. 29 (3): 115–136.
- ^Lo, Andrew (2000). 'The Game of Leaves'. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 63 (3): 389, 390, 405. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00008466.
- ^ abDummett, Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth. pp. 25–55.
- ^John McLeod. 'Games played with German suited cards'. pagat.com/. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
