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”.

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A certain situation happened not only once or twice but a lot of times, more or less 75% of the heads up matches I have been into. In the said situation I’m typically the aggressor in the beginning. I of course have an opponent and he usually folds a lot which then makes me think he’s actually a tight player or a wise one trying to discover how often do I raise, check, call, and the like. I’m confident most of the time but then suddenly he’d turn around maybe 5 min into the match. He then begins to raise almost all hands preflop and then bets on flop and turns if in case I call.

Oftentimes, I’m supposed to win in 5 hands as I raise or call down and win with high card however he normally be in between and then will start to take over and so I’ll be left troubled, clueless of what to do next. Raises aren’t small. If blinds are 15/30, BB preflop raise will be three times and bet will be pot size by which can be your stack in a while.

Just yesterday, same situation happened. I tried to bully the guy more. With high card A on the flop, I checked raised him and he just called and checked. Quite as I expected, I won the pot. I tried such approach for several times but then to my surprise he turned gears again. When I’m up to do check raising back then, for about 3/4 of my stack he would raise me. Well, I wanted to call however I don’t want to take risk specially I don’t have a top pair or something else good.

Any thoughts? Any strategy I can use to eventually play effectively against such wild player the next time around?

By the way, you’re site is so helpful. Keep up the good work!

Thanks a lot!

Regards,
Merlin
Merlin,

You will have to change gears at different times. When your aggression isn’t working, then play tight. If the player lets you see flops cheap, then see them and punish him when you connect well. Chances are this player is getting tired of getting bullied and is starting to get desperate. The easiest way to beat this player is usually wait for strong hands and push them hard. The blinds are so low that you can sit back and play tight for a while.

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Once you’ve mentioned that a good portion of the hands is win over with only a high card. Well, I dealt over 100 hands and plotted the results. I found out that only 2 out of the 100 hands were won with a high card. Some of the hands were won with medium to high pairs while some with 2 pairs.

To make sure, I purchased a Poker simulator on the web and ran it a lot of times. I also tried the simulator against 2, and 3 other opponents and still got same results. In the event played to the river, high cards at times.

I guess the only way I can make sense of the proportion you’ve mentioned is through ascertaining if winner emerges from pre-flop betting. High card dealt face down almost always will be the best hand pre-flop. However, I guess this is not what you’re trying to imply. Personally, I believe players need to play high cards pre-flop aggressively, however to win against a call or re-raise, such cards should improve.

By the way, in a small local tournament last night, I met very conservative, tight players. At some point, I noticed they typically never open a pot without an Ace or medium pair, however I never saw a high card Ace or King holding up to win unless it paired or helped make part of either a straight or flush. I believe if they were more aggressive in terms of their betting, they could have won more pots.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Regards,
Anthony
Anthony,

The typical winning hand in Texas Holdem is two pair. A high card only wins the hand a small portion of the time.

Hands such as A-K really need to improve in order to have a solid chance of winning. A-K is really just a glorified drawing hand.

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