Poker hands rankings are depending on the likelihood that you will get them.
- Poker Stats To Memorize People
- Poker Stats To Memorize Words
- Poker Stats To Memorize Presidents
- Poker Stats To Memorize Cheat
- Each poker deck has fifty-two cards, each designated by one of four suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades) and one of thirteen ranks (the numbers two through ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace). Therefore, the odds of getting any Ace as your first card are 1 in 13 (7.7%), while the odds of getting any spade as your first card are 1 in 4 (25%).
- Reading and Interpreting Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker Statistics Learning To Read and Interpret Poker Tracking Software Stats. Poker tracking software such as Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager are programs that extract and compile data from hand histories where all actions by you and your opponent's are recorded, resulting in detailed statistical analysis which can give a clearer picture of.
Essential Poker Statistics You Need to Know Which poker stats are most important? Our poker HUD software offers a large amount of statistics. Knowing which ones are relevant and important can be overwhelming. If you are new to poker software you can initially ignore all statistics except the essential three poker statistics. OK, Just Memorize These Common Poker Odds. March 20, 2012 4 min read. Are you good at math? Hmm, thought so. For many poker players, doing math calculations is the.
As for identical poker hands, they rank depending on the player who has the highest values.
The player with the stronger hand decides which hand ranks better.
You can remember important poker hands through mnemonic.
It is a popular memory device used for poker games.
However, you should not just rely on a memory device to work your way through poker hands.
It is best you understand the basic principles to know your best move.
Read more: Poker Hand: Should You Have Favorites?
You cannot have a memory device giving you hints while playing on the table.
Here are some important tips to learn to understand poker hands better and increase your win rate.
EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT
Get this article as a beautiful, easily save as a PDF or print for daily use.
Download an amazing infographic covering this topic to share with your friends.
Get a free copy of our popular eBook “21 Secrets to Dominate the Poker Tables Like a Pro“.
Lower Ranking Poker Hands
Take note that the 0, 1, 2 and 3 comprise the lowest poker hands.
Be careful when having these types of cards in your hand.
Remember that 0 is a high card. When you got 0 pairs, then the rank or value of your hand will rely on your highest card.
Your highest card determines the value or rank of your entire hand.
Do not forget that ace ranks the highest while 2 ranks the lowest.
Understand the following:
- One pair – this means you get two cards with similar value but with different suits. An example would be two of hearts and two of clubs.
- Two Pairs – this means you get two cards with similar value but under different suits. An example would be two of hearts with two of clubs and three of diamonds with three of spades.
- Three of a Kind – this means you get three cards with similar value but with different suits. An example would be four of diamonds with four of spades and four of clubs.
Separate Hands According to Straight
A straight hand can be categorized in between poker hand rankings.
It is not that high or low in the ranking.
As the name implies, you get a straight if you have five cards in any suit with consecutive values.
Related article: The 6 Best Poker Starting Hands You Must Know About
For instance, your straight hand may feature cards 2, 3, 4, 5, including 6. So long as you have them in order, the suit does not matter.
You have a straight.
You can also create a straight hand with a queen, jack, king, ace and 10 from any of the suits.
Understand the Highest-Ranking Poker Hands
Memorize the cards creating the highest-ranking poker hands.
You can better memorize if you count the numbers of letters of the hand’s name.
Take note of the following:
- 5: Flush – this means you get five cards under the same suit and of any value. For instance, you can form a flush with any of the cards under the suit of diamonds. Whether it would be 9, 7, 6, 2 and jack.
- 9: Full House – this means you have three of a kind and a one pair
- 11: Four of a Kind – this comes with four cards with a similar value under the four suits. For example, 8 of hearts, 8 of diamonds, 8 of spades and 8 of clubs.
- 13: Straight Flush – this comes with five cards under the same suit and in consecutive values. For instance, you can form a straight flush with 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of spades.
- 18: Royal Straight Flush – you can form a royal straight flush using an ace for the high card including 10, jack, queen, king and ace of spades. This hand is unbeatable.
High Card
Given a hand cannot be considered in any category then the card with the highest value will decide its rank.
For instance, if the set of cards got the Queen as the highest, then the hand ranks in relation to the queen.
If another player has a similar card then you get the second highest, if not then the third, fourth or even fifth will be considered.
This may be confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it once exposed to some high card situations.
Community Cards
As mentioned in the previous sections, a poker hand consists of five cards.
Depending on their variations, you can reach a certain position or advantage over other players on the table.
The five cards will come from what you have been dealt with or what you have chosen.
For instance, under Texas Hold’em, every player will get two private cards.
However, they can also choose from five community cards.
All players are given the same access. To an extent, all players get equal opportunities at creating a strong hand.
All in all, you can work with seven cards, but you can only choose the five best cards to proceed with the game.
If you are new to poker, then you have to read through the list again.
You cannot get a good grasp of all the rankings unless you go through the list repeatedly.
It also helps to do practice games so you will become familiarized with the hands naturally and slowly. Nothing beats knowing the hands or card arrangements by heart.
You don’t want to miss this: Top 10 Best Poker Books Every Poker Addict Should Read
You need to study the type of poker game you are playing.
Some poker games assign different values to hands.
On others, it might be different which hands decide the winner.
You will understand the real value or strength of the cards as you play along. If possible, play as many variations as you can.
final word
This can help you master how to create and manipulate cards whenever you can.
There are also many cheat sheets or PDF listings you can access to download hand rankings and images.
It can be helpful to memorize the hands if you can see pictures attributed to the rankings.
Some people are visual creatures.
They learn better from what they see. It may do the trick for you.
Go through your chart constantly.
These are just some of the ways you can improve your poker game.
Take some time to master them before taking other lessons.
This is a very important lesson and can also be quite intimidating to a lot of people as we are going to discuss Poker Math!
But there is no need for you to be intimidated, Poker Maths is very simple and we will show you a very simple method in this lesson.
You won’t need to carry a calculator around with you or perform any complex mathematical calculations.
What is Poker Math?
As daunting as it sounds, it is simply a tool that we use during the decision making process to calculate the Pot Odds in Poker and the chances of us winning the pot.
Remember, Poker is not based on pure luck, it is a game of probabilities, there are a certain number of cards in the deck and a certain probability that outcomes will occur. So we can use this in our decision making process.
Every time we make a decision in Poker it is a mathematical gamble, what we have to make sure is that we only take the gamble when the odds are on in our favour. As long as we do this, in the long term we will always come out on top.
When to Use Poker Maths
Poker Maths is mainly used when we need to hit a card in order to make our hand into a winning hand, and we have to decide whether it is worth carrying on and chasing that card.
To make this decision we consider two elements:
- How many “Outs” we have (Cards that will make us a winning hand) and how likely it is that an Out will be dealt.
- What are our “Pot Odds” – How much money will we win in return for us taking the gamble that our Out will be dealt
We then compare the likelihood of us hitting one of our Outs against the Pot Odds we are getting for our bet and see if mathematically it is a good bet.
The best way to understand and explain this is by using a hand walk through, looking at each element individually first, then we’ll bring it all together in order to make a decision on whether we should call the bet.
Consider the following situation where you hold A 8 in the big blind. Before the flop everyone folds round to the small blind who calls the extra 5c, to make the Total pot before the Flop 20c (2 players x 10c). The flop comes down K 9 4 and your opponent bets 10c. Let’s use Poker Math to make the decision on whether to call or not.
Poker Outs
When we are counting the number of “Outs” we have, we are looking at how many cards still remain in the deck that could come on the turn or river which we think will make our hand into the winning hand.
In our example hand you have a flush draw needing only one more Club to make the Nut Flush (highest possible). You also hold an overcard, meaning that if you pair your Ace then you would beat anyone who has already hit a single pair on the flop.
From the looks of that flop we can confidently assume that if you complete your Flush or Pair your Ace then you will hold the leading hand. So how many cards are left in the deck that can turn our hand into the leading hand?
- Flush – There are a total of 13 clubs in the deck, of which we can see 4 clubs already (2 in our hand and 2 on the flop) that means there are a further 9 club cards that we cannot see, so we have 9 Outs here.
- Ace Pair – There are 4 Ace’s in the deck of which we are holding one in our hand, so that leaves a further 3 Aces that we haven’t seen yet, so this creates a further 3 Outs.
So we have 9 outs that will give us a flush and a further 3 outs that will give us Top Pair, so we have a total of 12 outs that we think will give us the winning hand.
So what is the likelihood of one of those 12 outs coming on the Turn or River?
Professor’s Rule of 4 and 2
An easy and quick way to calculate this is by using the Professor’s rule of 4 and 2. This way we can forget about complex calculations and quickly calculate the probability of hitting one of our outs.
The Professor’s Rule of 4 and 2
- After the Flop (2 cards still to come… Turn + River)
Probability we will hit our Outs = Number of Outs x 4 - After the Turn (1 card to come.. River)
Probability we will hit our Outs – Number of Outs x 2
Poker Stats To Memorize People
So after the flop we have 12 outs which using the Rule of 4 and 2 we can calculate very quickly that the probability of hitting one of our outs is 12 x 4 = 48%. The exact % actually works out to 46.7%, but the rule of 4 and 2 gives us a close enough answer for the purposes we need it for.
If we don’t hit one of our Outs on the Turn then with only the River left to come the probability that we will hit one of our 12 Outs drops to 12 x 2 = 24% (again the exact % works out at 27.3%)
To compare this to the exact percentages lets take a look at our poker outs chart:
After the Flop (2 Cards to Come) | After the Turn (1 Card to Come) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Outs | Rule of 4 | Exact % | Outs | Rule of 2 | Exact % |
1 | 4 % | 4.5 % | 1 | 2 % | 2.3 % |
2 | 8 % | 8.8 % | 2 | 4 % | 4.5 % |
3 | 12 % | 13.0 % | 3 | 6 % | 6.8 % |
4 | 16 % | 17.2 % | 4 | 8 % | 9.1 % |
5 | 20 % | 21.2 % | 5 | 10 % | 11.4 % |
6 | 24 % | 25.2 % | 6 | 12 % | 13.6 % |
7 | 28 % | 29.0 % | 7 | 14 % | 15.9 % |
8 | 32 % | 32.7 % | 8 | 16 % | 18.2 % |
9 | 36 % | 36.4 % | 9 | 18 % | 20.5 % |
10 | 40 % | 39.9 % | 10 | 20 % | 22.7 % |
11 | 44 % | 43.3 % | 11 | 22 % | 25.0 % |
12 | 48 % | 46.7 % | 12 | 24 % | 27.3 % |
13 | 52 % | 49.9 % | 13 | 26 % | 29.5 % |
14 | 56 % | 53.0 % | 14 | 28 % | 31.8 % |
15 | 60 % | 56.1 % | 15 | 30 % | 34.1 % |
16 | 64 % | 59.0 % | 16 | 32 % | 36.4 % |
17 | 68 % | 61.8 % | 17 | 34 % | 38.6 % |
As you can see the Rule of 4 and 2 does not give us the exact %, but it is pretty close and a nice quick and easy way to do the math in your head.
Now lets summarise what we have calculated so far:
- We estimate that to win the hand you have 12 Outs
- We have calculated that after the flop with 2 cards still to come there is approximately a 48% chance you will hit one of your outs.
Now we know the Odds of us winning, we need to look at the return we will get for our gamble, or in other words the Pot Odds.
Poker Stats To Memorize Words
Pot Odds
When we calculate the Pot Odds we are simply looking to see how much money we will win in return for our bet. Again it’s a very simple calculation…
Pot Odds Formula
Pot Odds = Total Pot divided by the Bet I would have to call
What are the pot odds after the flop with our opponent having bet 10c?
- Total Pot = 20c + 10c bet = 30 cents
- Total Bet I would have to make = 10 cents
- Therefore the pot odds are 30 cents divided by 10 cents or 3 to 1.
What does this mean? It means that in order to break even we would need to win once for every 3 times we lose. The amount we would win would be the Total Pot + the bet we make = 30 cents + 10 cents = 40 cents.
Bet number | Outcome | Stake | Winnings |
---|---|---|---|
1 | LOSE | 10 cents | Nil |
2 | LOSE | 10 cents | Nil |
3 | LOSE | 10 cents | Nil |
4 | WIN | 10 cents | 40 cents |
TOTAL | BREAKEVEN | 40 cents | 40 cents |
Break Even Percentage
Now that we have worked out the Pot Odds we need to convert this into a Break Even Percentage so that we can use it to make our decision. Again it’s another simple calculation that you can do in your head.
Break Even Percentage
Break Even Percentage = 100% divided by (Pot odds added together)
Let me explain a bit further. Pot Odds added together means replace the “to” with a plus sign eg: 3 to 1 becomes 3+1 = 4. So in the example above our pot odds are 3 to 1 so our Break Even Percentage = 100% divided by 4 = 25%
Note – This only works if you express your pot odds against a factor of 1 eg: “3 to 1” or “5 to 1” etc. It will not work if you express the pot odds as any other factor eg: 3 to 2 etc.
So… Should You call?
So lets bring the two elements together in our example hand and see how we can use the new poker math techniques you have learned to arrive at a decision of whether to continue in the hand or whether to fold.
To do this we compare the percentage probability that we are going to hit one of our Outs and win the hand, with the Break Even Percentage.
Should I Call?
- Call if…… Probability of Hitting an Out is greater than Pot Odds Break Even Percentage
- Fold if…… Probability of Hitting an Out is less than Pot Odds Break Even Percentage
Our calculations above were as follows:
- Probability of Hitting an Out = 48%
- Break Even Percentage = 25%
If our Probability of hitting an out is higher than the Break Even percentage then this represents a good bet – the odds are in our favour. Why? Because what we are saying above is that we are going to get the winning hand 48% of the time, yet in order to break even we only need to hit the winning hand 25% of the time, so over the long run making this bet will be profitable because we will win the hand more times that we need to in order to just break even.
Hand Walk Through #2
Lets look at another hand example to see poker mathematics in action again.
Before the Flop:
- Blinds: 5 cents / 10 cents
- Your Position: Big Blind
- Your Hand: K 10
- Before Flop Action: Everyone folds to the dealer who calls and the small blind calls, you check.
Two people have called and per the Starting hand chart you should just check here, so the Total Pot before the flop = 30 cents.
Flop comes down Q J 6 and the Dealer bets 10c, the small blind folds.
Do we call? Lets go through the thought process:
Poker Stats To Memorize Presidents
How has the Flop helped my hand?
It hasn’t but we do have some draws as we have an open ended straight draw (any Ace or 9 will give us a straight) We also have an overcard with the King.
It hasn’t but we do have some draws as we have an open ended straight draw (any Ace or 9 will give us a straight) We also have an overcard with the King.
How has the Flop helped my opponent?
The Dealer did not raise before the flop so it is unlikely he is holding a really strong hand. He may have limped in with high cards or suited connectors. At this stage our best guess is to assume that he has hit top pair and holds a pair of Queens. It’s possible that he hit 2 pair with Q J or he holds a small pair like 6’s and now has a set, but we come to the conclusion that this is unlikely.
The Dealer did not raise before the flop so it is unlikely he is holding a really strong hand. He may have limped in with high cards or suited connectors. At this stage our best guess is to assume that he has hit top pair and holds a pair of Queens. It’s possible that he hit 2 pair with Q J or he holds a small pair like 6’s and now has a set, but we come to the conclusion that this is unlikely.
How many Outs do we have?
So we conclude that we are facing top pair, in which case we need to hit our straight or a King to make top pair to hold the winning hand.
So we conclude that we are facing top pair, in which case we need to hit our straight or a King to make top pair to hold the winning hand.
- Open Ended Straight Draw = 8 Outs (4 Aces and 4 Nines)
- King Top Pair = 3 Outs (4 Kings less the King in our hand)
- Total Outs = 11 Probability of Winning = 11 x 4 = 44%
What are the Pot Odds?
Total Pot is now 40 cents and we are asked to call 10 cents so our Pot odds are 4 to 1 and our break even % = 100% divided by 5 = 20%.
Total Pot is now 40 cents and we are asked to call 10 cents so our Pot odds are 4 to 1 and our break even % = 100% divided by 5 = 20%.
Decision
So now we have quickly run the numbers it is clear that this is a good bet for us (44% vs 20%), and we make the call – Total Pot now equals 50 cents.
So now we have quickly run the numbers it is clear that this is a good bet for us (44% vs 20%), and we make the call – Total Pot now equals 50 cents.
Turn Card
Turn Card = 3 and our opponent makes a bet of 25 cents.
After the Turn Card
This card has not helped us and it is unlikely that it has helped our opponent, so at this point we still estimate that our opponent is still in the lead with top pair.
This card has not helped us and it is unlikely that it has helped our opponent, so at this point we still estimate that our opponent is still in the lead with top pair.
Outs
We still need to hit one of our 11 Outs and now with only the River card to come our Probability of Winning has reduced and is now = 11 x 2 = 22%
We still need to hit one of our 11 Outs and now with only the River card to come our Probability of Winning has reduced and is now = 11 x 2 = 22%
Poker Stats To Memorize Cheat
Pot Odds
The Total Pot is now 75 cents and our Pot odds are 75 divided by 25 = 3 to 1. This makes our Break Even percentage = 100% divided by 4 = 25%
The Total Pot is now 75 cents and our Pot odds are 75 divided by 25 = 3 to 1. This makes our Break Even percentage = 100% divided by 4 = 25%
Decision
So now we have the situation where our probability of winning is less than the break even percentage and so at this point we would fold, even though it is a close call.
So now we have the situation where our probability of winning is less than the break even percentage and so at this point we would fold, even though it is a close call.
Summary
Well that was a very heavy lesson, but I hope you can see how Poker Maths doesn’t have to be intimidating, and really they are just some simple calculations that you can do in your head. The numbers never lie, and you can use them to make decisions very easy in Poker.
You’ve learnt some important new skills and it’s time to practise them and get back to the tables with the next stage of the Poker Bankroll Challenge.
Poker Bankroll Challenge: Stage 3
- Stakes: $0.02/$0.04
- Buy In: $3 (75 x BB)
- Starting Bankroll: $34
- Target: $9 (3 x Buy In)
- Finishing Bankroll: $43
- Estimated Sessions: 3
Use this exercise to start to consider your Outs and Pot Odds in your decision making process, and add this tool to the other tools you have already put into practice such as the starting hands chart.