Rule on getting to know the Texas Holdem hand rankings is a good rule for you to follow although it is not something official. When you know all the hand rankings, you will know what are the hand rankings you can consider chasing in a game and eventually create your own personally strategies to win. And when you know the hand rankings, playing the game will be so easy for you. Thus, if you still don’t know what are the Texas Holdem hand rankings, we suggest that you start knowing them now.
Texas Holdem Rankings
Royal Flush – the best possible straight flush and is an unbeatable hand. It is consists of ace, king, queen, jack and ten of a suit.
Straight Flush – is a hand consists of five cards of the same suit, in sequence.
Four-of-a-Kind – also known as Quads. It is consists of four cards of the same rank.
Full House – also known as Full Boat or sometimes simply Boat. It is consists of three-of-a-kind and a pair.
Flush – it is consists of five cards of the same suit.
Straight – also known as Run. It is consists of five cards of rank in sequence. It is notable that in Holdem, Aces can be high or low.
Three-of-a-Kind – also known as Trips or Set. It is consists of three cards of the same rank.
Two Pair – a hand which is consists of two cards of the same rank and another two cards still of the same rank. Example could be “Jacks and Twos”.
One Pair – consists of two cards of the same rank.
High Card – It is the highest card you hold in your hand. You can resort to this, when you don’t hit any of the above. Example could be “High card King” or “King High”.
Hello,
I’ve been playing $2-4 online for some time now and actually been trying so hard to be tight aggressive.
In a short span of time I’ve been into Poker, I’ve already experienced so many ups and downs and faced a lot of intriguing hands. There were three hands I can’t forget.
The first hand I lost to a straight flush, I have a full house. Second hand I don’t have directly anything to do but it was the very next hand and another straight flush was dealt. I’m curious how often such situation happens? Third and final hand, I had full house but lost to another full house pulled on the river by which was far better.
Well, first thought in my mind was that maybe I wasn’t that aggressive enough in terms of betting particularly on two hands I lost. But on the contrary, though I was aggressive enough the other player might still not fold therefore I could have lost even more.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks,
Jamez
Jamez,
Without more information, I cant say whether you were not aggressive in your betting of hands. In regards to back to back straight flushes, that is very rare, but is possible. I personally have never seen it happen. I’ve seen two in the span of 10 minutes, but not in back to back hands.
In regards to your betting, you may have pushed someone out of the hand, but depending on how the hand unfolded, you may have lost more money as well. To be honest, you had three highly rare situations unfold there. They happen, and when they do, you will lose money. They are so rare that I would just look at them as what they are, abnormalities. Congratulate your opponent for a fortunate hand and take his money later.
Hi,
The other night, I was in a weekly game with 8-10 players. Tables were very passive at the start, lots of players have called the big blind and have never raised before the flop, they were tight. Do you think such situation can justify playing rag hole cards?
Well, for me, you can expect players to have at least one face card as they’re tight. Though I have face cards then I wouldn’t be that confident in case I flop a pair. However if I play rags and then pair middle or top pair on the flop, someone with Ace King might call me to the river to win win. In addition, if I flop 2 pair or be in a great tension with a straight or full house at the turn or river, it’s impossible there’d be someone who won’t believe I’d stay to the river with those cards.
Once in a certain game, I was the chip leader and decided to play a 4 – 6 off suit. Flop back then was 5 Q 6 rainbow. Later I flopped middle pair and stayed as I had a big stack and bets were okay. Turn came and brought 7. River followed and was an 8. I had only 1 opponent, he had J Q, top pair. I then decided to raise and was actually called. He can’t believe I played my hand to the river.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks,
Tristram
Tristram,
If you have a table of tight players, you can consider playing your rag cards, especially if you can get in cheap. However if you miss and face resistance, get out of the hand.
If you are a chip leader, you can open up your hand ranges with the hopes of trying to bust shorter stacks or hit lucky and add chips to your stack.
Hello,
With what should slow play be applied? With two pairs? How about with full house?
Hope to hear from you soon.
Many thanks,
Abie
Abie,
If you flop two pair or three of a kind, slow play if there isn’t a potential straight or a flush draw present. If you make a full house, slow play if you think your opponent will bet into you or to let them try and catch a hand that they may bet into you with.
Hello,
For about a month now, I’ve been playing Holdem at Empire Poker. Usually I play for about 3 hours a day. As of the moment I’m curious about $0.5-$1.0 Limit. I believe the level itself is very tight with usually only 2 or 3 players seeing the flop, often with very little preflop raises.
Oftentimes, level transforms into something potentially unprofitable game of luck. I also notice that having just the second best hand doesn’t work at all at such level. And when I have the winning hand, my losses end up exceeding my wins as I can’t have sufficient action. On the better side, I do well with slow playing hands as JT with flop of 7TT. Same thing with pocket pairs. On the flip side with hands as T4o and A6o I just normally end up having small win that doesn’t cover my blinds.
Generally speaking, I can actually mix up my play and have the potential of remembering the cards I have folded to check if what could have had happened. However, with 52o, I usually fold which isn’t supposed to be. I never realized that I could have won a decent size pot with a full house or if not maybe two pair.
As of now, I believe tight and aggressive game is my aim. I typically win 2 or 3 pots early to be $15- $20 up however later on will just end up losing when the above mentioned factors kick in. Once to change things up, I tried playing two tables at the same time and I could say it was a successful attempt. Also, I tried my hand and luck at the small No Limit game, $25.00 buy-in, blinds $0.5/$0.25 and for some reasons I lost my shirt in the end. Not yet tired of trying so I gave sit and go tournaments, $5+1 NL a shot. I first tried to allow first 3 or 4 wild gamblers weed themselves out as I wait for some strong hands. Well, such approach worked and so I went home with more money though I was just second.
Now, I have two questions:
- Do you think it’s really possible for internet poker games to go this far and this tight even at the smallest pot levels?
- Based on what I’ve shared to you, do you have any piece of advice for me? Should I just stick at tourneys? Do you think it would be best if I try higher limit NL games as players there might act more predictably? And is it wise to just ignore the “life is one big session” motto and just quit while I’m leading?
Thanks in advance!
Regards,
Mark
Mark,
- It is possible for games to be this tight. It all depends on the players. If a game is bad, you can always find a better game. You usually can check the stats on most rooms to determine which games are the most profitable.
- Your approach seems to be decent, but it sounds like you have been in a couple of bad games in the limit side of things. Limit and No-Limit are two totally different games and as a result, I would stick with one or the other as my main game and then slowly work my way into the other. As far as tournaments, one tournament is not enough for me to determine whether you should play tournaments or not. Try a few more and if you do well, you may want to look into that possibility.
