Free Poker School PHR101 - Poker Hand Rankings

Free Poker School PHR101 - Poker Hand Rankingsr

Welcome to the free poker school. The first lesson discusses what cards make up the various hands, the ranking of cards and hands, and then how to play the game of Texas Hold’em.

Five cards make up a typical poker hand. Individual cards have a rank, an ace is the highest valued card and a two is the lowest valued card (exception: an ace can be a low card in straights). Every hand (5 cards together) has a rank and a higher ranked hand beats a lower ranked one. Table 1 shows the hand rankings from highest ranked to the lowest ranked. If you want to play poker, you must memorize hand rankings, because you need to know the rank of your hand instantly upon inspection.

Texas Hold’em has three table positions that rotate clockwise as the hands are played. The positions: dealer, little blind, and big blind (in that clockwise order) set the order of betting. The blinds are antes (up-front payment) by two players sitting at the table. The little blind is half the amount of the big blind. If you continue to attend the free poker school you will learn a lot more about the positions and strategy for each position.

Each player receives two cards face down from one deck of 52 cards. Each player then looks at their cards and puts them back face down on the table. Betting starts before any other cards are dealt with the player sitting to the immediate left of the big blind. The bet must at least match the amount of the big blind, so if the player does not like the prospects then the player folds. In “no limit” Texas Hold’em a bettor can put all his chips into play at any time. In “limit” Hold’em a player can only bet up to the value of the pot, which is the sum of the blind amounts for the first bettor when no cards have been seen.

The players sequentially either bet or fold as the opportunity to bet proceeds clockwise until it is betting time for the player sitting at the big blind position. The player posting the big blind can either match a higher bet, check (i.e. neither bet nor fold) if no player raised, or fold if there is no desire to match a raise.

The dealer then lays three cards face up on the table. These three cards are known as the flop and they can be used by any player to form a hand. The betting now starts with the little blind and continues with each player remaining in the hand until the dealer (the last player in the betting rotation) has had an opportunity to raise, check, or fold. A fourth card (known as the turn) is dealt, followed by a round of betting. The fifth and final card (the river) follows the turn and the players make their final bets. The player with the highest 5 card hand formed from the two cards dealt initially and the five common cards on the table wins the chips in the pot for that game. In case of a tie, the players with the same hands split the pot. On completion of the game the dealer, little blind and big blind positions rotate clockwise by one position.

Your homework is to memorize the hand rankings and the mechanics of Texas Hold’em. The free poker school will talk about the strategy of on-line Hold’em when class convenes again.

Thank you to Ed Oppenheimer for teaching Free Poker School PHR101 - Poker Hand Rankings.

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Poker Strategy School Table of Contents:

Poker School - Poker Strategy School introduction and the basics of why online poker is so popular.
Online Poker School - The differences between online internet poker strategies, and playing in real life.
Online Poker Strategy - Introduction to the internet online poker strategy known as the reverse bluff.
Internet Online Poker - Second part of our section on the internet online poker strategy called the reverse bluff
Playing Online Poker - A couple of quick poker tips for the road, and the graduation of the poker strategy school

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