Texas Holdem What Beats What
Posted By admin On 05/04/22Do you know what beats what in poker? Read this list of five-card poker hands, ranked from the absolute best to the worst.
The Texas Hold’em odds of how likely hands are to unfold after the flop will help guide almost every action you make on the flop Odds On the Flop in Texas Hold’em. The flop is the turning point of a Hold’em hand. This is where you’re going to make your biggest and most expensive decisions. Whether you are looking to get involved in Texas Hold 'Em yourself, or you are trying to learn a little bit more about the game so that you will have a better time when you watch, you'll find that you need to learn a little bit about the various poker hands and about learning what beats what. Take a look at the poker hands below, arranged in ascending order, and you'll soon realize how.
Playing poker online can be a great way to make some extra cash. This article will give you all you need to know about how to play Texas Holdem online, hand rankings, and the Texas Holdem rules. Knowing the basics is essential before playing real money poker online, poker is a fairly simple game, but going to a real money table with no knowledge can be disastrous. Thankfully, these tips will help you get your knowledge up to scratch and get your ready to start playing!
How To Play Texas Holdem Online
In poker, at the beginning of a round, each player on the table is dealt two cards, these are called ‘hole cards’. The hole cards are not shown to any other players, once each player is dealt their hole cards, a betting round commences. Players place a bet based on the potential strength of their hole cards creating a strong hand when the community cards are dealt. There are five community cards dealt in a round of poker, the community cards are cards that are dealt on the table for all players to see and create the best hand using their hole cards. Community cards are dealt periodically, first three cards are dealt on to the table, these are known as ‘the flop’. After the flop is dealt, players are given the option to place a bet based on their hands. After this betting round, another community card is dealt, this is called the ‘turn’. After the ‘turn’ players can then choose to bet again. Finally, the last community card known as ‘the river’ is dealt, then a final betting round occurs and players show their cards, the person with the best hand is deemed the winner.
At the start of each round of poker forced bets called ‘blinds’ are placed. This is to accumulate some money in the pot, these bets are determined by a dealer chip that is passed around the table. The dealer chip moves to the left and given to a different player after each round. The blind bets are paid by the two players sat to the left of the dealer chip. There is a small blind and a big blind, the small blind will be half the value of the big blind. The dealer chip moves this way so that each player pays the blinds, meaning these forced bets are evenly requested from each player at the table.
The main aim of poker is to have a better ‘hand’ than your opponents. In poker, each hand has a different value, a ‘hand is made up of five cards using the hole cards and the community cards on the table. The hands in poker are ranked in order of worst to best, the ranks are detailed below.
Hand Rankings
There are nine hand rankings in poker, in terms of numerical value the cards rank from 2-Ace, 2 being the lowest card and Ace being the highest. The suits of the cards (Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts) do not differ in value. The possible hand ranks are detailed below in order of weakest to strongest:
- High Card: Cards are ranked from 2- Ace. If there are two or more players with the same high card, the second highest card will determine the winner, and so on.
- Pair: A pair is two cards of the same rank e.g. 4H and 4S. A pair of Aces is the best pair. If more than one player holds the same pair, the player(s) with the highest remaining cards will win.
- Two Pair: A two paid is two pairs, e.g. 4H and 4S, and 8D and 8S. If there are more than one player with a two pair, the player with the highest pair wins. If two or more players hold the same two par, then the value of the remaining card (known as a kicker) determines who the winner will be.
- Three of a Kind: Three of a kind is three cards of the same rank, e.g 4H, 4D, 4S.
If two players or more have the same three of a kind, the kickers determine who the winner is. - Straight: A straight is five cards in numerical order e.g 4H,5D,6H,7S,8C. The lowest straight is A-5, with the highest being 10-A. If two players have a straight, the highest straight wins.
- Flush: A flush is five cards of the same suit (diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs). If two players or more have a flush, the player with the highest card in the flush will win.
- Full House: A full house is made up of two other hands ‘three of a kind’ and ‘pair’. If more than one player has a full house, the winner is the player with the highest three of a kind, and pair.
- Four of a Kind: Four of a kind follows the same principle as three of a kind but with 4 cards of the same numerical value e.g 4H, 4S, 4D, 4C. If there are two or more players with the same four of a kind, the winner is chosen based on the kicker card.
- Straight Flush: The straight flush combines a straight and a flush e.g
4H, 5H, 6H, 7H, 8H. it is five cards of the same suit, in numerical order. The highest straight flush is 10-A, this is known as a ‘royal flush’ and is the best hand you can get in poker.
Knowing what beats what in poker or Texas Hold’em is an important early step in learning the game. To help you out, I have provided for you an attractive printable or downloadable “cheat sheet” for both 5 card hand rankings as well as top 24 pre-flop starting hands.
Poker hands ranked from best to worst:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pair
- One Pair
- High Card
To make things easier on you, I have included some handy charts that can be used to reference during play or even printed out.
Poker Hand Rankings Chart
Never forget what beats what again. Feel free to save this to your phone/tablet/computer or print the chart out.
Click below to download a high-quality PDF that includes a printable copy of both the showdown and pre-flop hand rankings.
The Top 24 Hold’Em Starting Hand Rankings
To help you out, I have also included the top 24 no-limit hold’em starting hands to give you a further idea of what beats what in poker. I based this list on both raw equities as well as post-flop playability.
I have used over 10 years of experience in both tournaments and cash games to compile this info. You get to benefit from my hard work!
How These Hands Were Determined
I took a look at a few of the pre-flop hand ranking charts out there and, while most appeared to get it right for the most part, there seemed to be something off.
The thing is, everyone always does pretty well on the top 5 or 6 hands. However, after that things get a bit murkier
So, what really matters when it comes to weighing hand strength? I decided to take a close look at the problem. Using the knowledge I’ve gained over the past few years, I tried to come up with a better way of codifying hand rankings.
Determining the Overall Playability of Each Hand
I decided to go about it from a logical standpoint. When deciding whether to play a hand or not, what are the factors a strong player considers before acting
So, I decided that there are basically two main factors to consider in determining the strength of a particular pre-flop hand. And, since equity is the tool we use to rank the value of hands I just had to figure out what type of equities matter most and then apply it to each factor
Once I was able to define which equities to consider, it just took a bit of math.
1. Pre-Flop Equity
The first equity I decided to factor in is a hand’s raw pre-flop equity. I mean, sometimes you need to get all-in before the flop, right?
Of course, some hands will get all-in more frequently than others but for the sake of simplicity, raw equity against a strong range will give us a decent enough metric to come up with a comparative ranking.
2. Post-Flop Equity
Secondly, we need to factor in how a hand does post-flop. There’s no doubt, that certain hands play much better after the flop than others.
To calculate how well a hand does after the flop I looked at what post-flop hands tend to get all-in most of the time in a post-flop scenario. This includes the strongest made hands, including top pair and better, as well as strong draws.
Once I was able to figure out what hands are likely to get all-in, I just had to figure out the equity of every hand versus that range on a random flop.
Compiling the Final List
Texas Hold Em Hand
Doing these kinds of calculations by hand would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Luckily, there is a software program called Cardrunner’s EV that does the math for me.
After I figured out both the raw pre-flop equity and the likely flop equity of each hand, I just used excel to average them. That data was used to compile the rankings.
Here are the final equity percentages:
Texas Holdem What Beats What Chart
Which Poker Starting Hand Ranges Should I Use?
Knowing which hands to open raise is important to your success. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Free Basic Poker Strategy Charts
I have built charts that provide you profitable opening ranges from every position. As a bonus, the charts also include what to do at every decision point possible for playing a 20 to 40 big blind stack
The guide will give you an excellent starting point for playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em and will get you off on the right foot by allowing you to play fundamentally sound poker right now!
FAQ
What if my opponent and I have the same hand at showdown ?
If more than one player has the same hand then you have to follow the tie-breaker rules to determine the winner.
If two or more players have a flush or straight
In the case where two players have a flush or straight, the person who has the highest card in their hand wins. For example, T9876 beats 76543.
If two or more players have a full house
In the case of multiple full houses, the player with the highest “trips” as part of their full house wins. For example, TTT22 beats 555AA.
What if two or more players have the same pair or two pair?
If multiple players have exactly the same two pair, the highest kicker is used to determine the winner. For example, JJ66Q beats JJ66T.
The same process is used for one-pair. The next highest kicker is used. If that is the same, you use the next highest kicker. So on and so forth until the tie is broken. For example, AAK85 beats AAK84.
Who wins if more than one person has the same high card?
Similarly to one pair and two-pair hands, you use the next highest kicker to determine the winner. You keep moving on to the next kicker until a winner is determined. For example, KT763 beats KT753.
Which is better, trips or two-pair?
Three of a kind beats two-pair. It also beats a pair and high card.
Which is better, a flush or a straight?
A flush beats a straight. It also beats three of a kind, two pair, a pair, and high card.
Texas Hold'em Chart What Beats What
What is the worst hand in poker?
The worst hand against multiple players is 72 offsuit. The worst hand heads-up is 32o.
What are the odds of getting a Royal Flush in Texas Hold’em?
A royal flush is extremely rare. You can only expect to get a royal flush once every 650,000 hands. That doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed. Personally, I have played well over 5 million hands and have only had one royal using both cards.
Final Thoughts
I hope this article has helped you learn more about how hand rankings work in poker. If you want to learn about basic poker strategy, be sure to check out my detailed no-limit hold’em basic tutorial.