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Victory at the Table: Poker Hand Rankings

A true member of the poker family can usually be spotted if they're using the same hand ranking system. Poker variants of all kinds use different five card combinations to determine which of the players is the winner. Of course, in the same way that sentences are first made up of words, poker hands are first made up of cards and the cards themselves, in any poker variant, have rankings.

The European card deck is the one traditionally used for poker games. It usually has fifty two pieces or cards, which offers a lot of variety and range. Most commercial decks are printed with two or even four joker cards, though they are rarely used in actual play. The European card deck cards have four different suits which each suit possessing thirteen cards under their banner. The suits themselves are the clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds and in most poker variants, have no ranking themselves. Many poker variants start with the ace as the highest card, to the king, then the queen then the jack then the ten card down to the two.

Due to poker's depth, more often than not hands are not even compared - if you're the last person still in the pot, you take the pot home. If that isn't the case, then the players who are still in the current hand must finally reveal their hands in order to properly compare their hand and figure out the winner. Most poker variants look at which player has the highest value hand, though there are of course, exceptions. Some variants even award both the worst and best hands around and are commonly called hi-low split games. The worst hand usually has to meet a requirement to prevent thorough and obvious abuse.

High hands games have the royal flush as their highest possible hand, one that is largely unbeatable except by another royal flush in another suit. Of course, in some poker variants, this is actually impossible, which increases the value of the hand. Straight flushes of all kinds are powerful in any poker variant. Poker is of course, not that simple. There are numerous other hands, even some that can be formed with less than five cards, that a person can actually win with.

This is what gives poker its true depth - while card and hand rankings are important, there are of course more ways than one to skin a cat.