In Texas Hold’em, the person who starts or goes first is dependent on what stage of the hand being played. Before the flop, the first person to act is the player seated directly to the left of the Big Blind. This seat is often referred to as Under The Gun (UTG).
The sequence of winning hands in poker is the single most important thing to know and memorise. Otherwise how will you know if you are winning the hand or on the losing end? This is important to understand if you want to make money in the casino or the reach the final table in a tournament. Sure, skill comes into it after that, and a Texas Hold’em winning poker strategy, but luck plays enough of a part that you can bypass those aspects if you recognise when you have a chance on the table. A good strategy for beginners Texas Holdem poker and part of learning how to get better at poker is to sit down and remember the types of hands below, the winning poker hands. For winning hands in Omaha poker check here.
Don’t forget that the best poker hand is made of a total five cards from any or all of the five cards on the table and the two in your hand. So the cards laid out below represent that, not just the cards on the table. So if you want to know how to be a better poker player this is the start.
Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten all of one suit, ie diamonds or hearts or clubs or spades. A rare hand, the best hand in p0ker, statistically you are only likely to see one every 650,000 hands. If you do flop, turn or river a Royal Flush, you need a good strategy to get the most chips off other players. This is where you need the best poker tournament strategy you can get. Your play depends on how the other players on the table are betting. If they are loose and call everything, you can raise or even go all in and try and get them to call you. But if they are tight you need to play it wisely and let them make the running, re-raise them if you get the chance, draw them into your winning web.
Five cards all of the same suit, in sequence.
Known as quads, four cards of the same value. If you have one or two of them you will win. If there are four of the same cards on the board, whoever has the highest card to go with them will win, ie ace, and if two people have the highest card its a split pot.
This hand consists of two cards of one value and three or another. If the three cards are kings and the two cards are sevens, its called Kings full. Whichever value cards is the most, they are the full hand. Any three / two card combination will do it.
A flush is five or more cards of one suit. If two people have a flush the one with the hightest card in the flush wins the hand. And if you have ever wondered if a flush beats three of a kind, now you know, it does.
For a straight you need five cards in sequence. They can be of any suit. 6,7,8,9,10 is an example. Any straight needs to have a five or a ten in it. Sometimes people get confused about what is better, a straight or a flush. Even though a straight seems harder to get than a flush, its the flush that wins over a straight, every tine.
Three cards all the same rank.
Any two pairs of two cards.
Two cards of the same value, such as 77 or KK.
If no one makes a hand out of all the cards that come down and the cards in their hand, then the highest card will win. The best highest card is an ace, but it could be a four depending how the hand plays out.
The order in which Texas Hold’em is dealt is very specific and, assuming you’re playing with a table full of lucid, honest people, never changes. First, you are dealt two hole cards. Then comes the flop, turn and river cards.
After a round of betting for the hole cards, a card is burned off the top of the deck (meaning discarded without being looked at — this is done in case the top card had somehow been exposed or marked), and three cards are dealt face-up to the center of the table. This is known as the flop and is the start of the community cards on the table — those cards that everyone may incorporate in his hand.
Everyone who has not folded now has a five-card hand — two hole cards combined with the three community cards. A round of betting takes place.
After the flop betting round, another card is burned from the deck and a fourth community card is exposed. This card is known as the turn (sometimes fourth street).
All players still in the hand now have six cards to choose from to make their best five-card Poker hands. There is another round of betting and one more card yet to be exposed.
A card is burned and the most infamous of community cards, the river (sometimes called fifth street) is dealt. All remaining players have seven cards for selecting their best five-card Poker hand (their two hole cards combined with the five community cards). A round of betting takes place, and the best five-card hand at the table is the winner.
To determine their five-card hand, players may use zero, one, or both of their hole cards in combination with five, four, or three community cards, respectively.
Because a player is required to use at least three community cards to make a hand, there can be no flushes if there are not three cards of the same suit (multiple suits with no flush possibilities based on the current exposed community cards is known as a rainbow). Nor can there be a straight if there aren’t three cards from a five-card sequence (for example, 5-8-9).
Here, George is playing the board and has a king-high heart flush. John is using one hole card for an ace-high flush, but Ringo is the big winner using both hole cards for a straight flush.