Poker Hands.. Whatcha got?

One of the first things you need to know before you start playing poker is the hierarchy of winning hands.  In a 52 card deck, there are 4 suits (aces, hearts, spades, and clubs).  Each suit has 13 cards - 2 thru 10, then Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. So 13 x 4 = 52. 

Starting out, you'll get 2 cards (called hole cards) that can be matched with the 5 community cards to make the best hand. You want to have the best hand possible and bet accordingly to win the pot.  So which ones are better? Below is the list of poker hands, from weakest to strongest. First, note the shorthand that's used to reference specific cards. 

As=Ace of Spades
Td=Ten of Diamonds
5c=5 of clubs
Jh=Jack of hearts

Ok..as Letterman would say... starting at :

10.  High Card - The highest ranked card you hold.  If you don't have any of the other hands listed below, the player who wins the pot is decided by who has the highest card.  If you both have the same card (say, a Jack), it then goes to your second hole card.  Unless you're going heads-up against one other person, I wouldn't want to stake any bets on high cards.

 9.  1 Pair - Any 2 cards of the same rank (ie 2 Aces, 2 Tens, or 2 Fours, etc.).

 8.  2 Pair - 2 SEPARATE Pairs (2 Aces AND 2 Tens).

 7. 3 of a Kind (also called 'a set' or trips) - 3 of any card of the same rank (ie 3 Aces, 3 Tens, or 3 Fours).

 6. Straight - 5 cards in sequence, but NOT in the same suit (4c-5d-6h-7d-8s).

 5. Flush - 5 cards of the same suit, but NOT in sequence (3s-5s-9s-Js-Ks)

 4. Full House - A 3 of a kind PLUS 1 pair (4s-4d-9h-9s-9c)

 3. 4 of a Kind (also called 'quads') - 4 of any card (that'd be all of the Aces, Tens, or Fours).

 2. Straight Flush - 5 cards in sequence and in the same suit. (3h-4h-5h-6h-7h)

 1. Royal Flush - A, K, Q, J, T in any ONE suit.

As you can see, the more valued hands are much tougher to obtain.  Hitting 1 pair from 2 unpaired hole cards, plus the community cards is much more likely than obtaining 4 of the same rank (a 4 of a kind).  I'll go into the odds of hitting each of these hands in a later post, but this is one of first things you need to learn before playing.  You have to know 'when to hold'em and when to fold'em'.  Later!