Oct 19, 2019 Poker Hand Rankings FAQ. How many poker hands are there? In Holdem there are 1326 possible combinations of starting hands, and once we take into account that there are multiple combinations of hands with same preflop value such as Q♠ J♠ and Q♥ J♥, the actual number is 169 different starting hands. You therefore need to know the ranking of poker hands, ie, what beats what. In Texas Hold’em, players make the best hand using their two hole cards and the five community cards. A poker hand must consist of five cards, and it does not matter how many of your hole cards you use.

What Beats What In Poker Printable

Starting Hand Selection:Chen Formula : Sklansky Starting Hand Groups

The Sklansky & Malmuth starting hands table.

Group	Hands
1	AA, AKs, KK, QQ, JJ
2	AK, AQs, AJs, KQs, TT
3	AQ, ATs, KJs, QJs, JTs, 99
4	AJ, KQ, KTs, QTs, J9s, T9s, 98s, 88
5	A9s - A2s, KJ, QJ, JT, Q9s, T8s, 97s, 87s, 77, 76s, 66
6	AT, KT, QT, J8s, 86s, 75s, 65s, 55, 54s
7	K9s - K2s, J9, T9, 98, 64s, 53s, 44, 43s, 33, 22
8	A9, K9, Q9, J8, J7s, T8, 96s, 87, 85s, 76, 74s, 65, 54, 42s, 32s
9	All other hands not required above.

This table comes from the book Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth.

This is a strategy book for limit Hold'em, but the starting hand groups do have some practical use in no limit Hold'em.

What is the Sklansky and Malmuth starting hands table?

The table is a general ranking of hands in Texas Hold'em.

The Sklansky and Malmuth starting hands table groups together certain hands in Texas Hold'em based on their strength. Starting with the strongest set of hands that you can be dealt in group 1, the hands get progressively weaker working down the table until the virtually unplayable hands in group 9.

The rough idea is that a hand in one group has roughly the same value and can be played the same way preflop as any other hand in that group.

How to use the starting hands table.

In their book, Sklansky and Malmuth provide some in-depth guidelines for starting hand strategy in limit Texas Hold'em using this table. Unfortunately, I'm not going to work out any guidelines for you for the NL Hold'em game using this table because:

It would be quite a tricky job.
It would be difficult to remember and implement.
Like any starting hand strategy, it would have its flaws.
You should avoid using strict guidelines and set rules as much as possible during play.

So really there is not a lot to take away from this table from a purely strategic perspective. Nonetheless it's interesting to see how specific starting hands compare to one another based on their preflop value.

If you're really after a starting hand strategy guideline, try the Chen Formula.

Sklansky and Malmuth hand rankings evaluation.

Although it's a very popular hand group rankings table, it's not going to do you too much good to learn the whole thing off by heart. In my opinion, the real value of this table is being able to see how different starting hands can be grouped together and ranked based on their value before the flop.

For other useful charts and tables, see the odds charts page from the Texas Hold'em tools section.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

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Hand combinations in poker is a cornerstone, because if you don’t know the poker hand rankings, you are simply going to lose money. Hand rankings in poker is one of the components of the poker rules, because the main goal is to form the strongest card combination available, or either to force your opponent to fold his cards.

This article is the third one in the series of educational materials about poker rules. In this article we will go through the hand rankings in poker, which are used in the most varieties of poker games, including no-limit Texas Hold’em.

This article will teach you:

What are the hands in Texas Hold'em;
The names of combinations of poker hands;
How to know your chances to get this or that particular poker hand/combination;
What are poker hands in order of strength (from highest to lowest) and many things more.

We’ve also made up a small step-by-step tutorial for you to remember all the combinations in poker and also to decide immediately their seniority:

Step 1. Print out the table with poker hands in order or a pictures with poker combinations and always keep these images at hand;
Step 2. Try to remember 10 names of poker card hand combinations and also rules how to collect them;
Step 3. To make the whole process of remembering things easier try to take part in games for chips or poker freerolls;
Step 4. Get 888 poker $88 no deposit poker bonus or any other no deposit poker bonus to put your knowledge to use.

Texas Hold'em poker hand combinations for beginners

This lesson should be studied by you in the first place, because it’s pretty hard to imagine a winning (or a break even player) player, who doesn’t know the cornerstone of No-Limit Texas Hold’em - hand rankings. We’re sure you have some sort of understanding of hand combinations in poker (a Texas Hold’em variety), because it’s highest combination - royal flush - is often used in many images with cards.

Anyone who wants to succeed in any case has to study his thing thoroughly, and only then get down into business. In poker it is the same: the first thing a beginner should do is study all the possible card combinations, as well as their strength, and only then proceed to the more advanced rules and especially - playing the game. Don’t be afraid, you will not need to strain your memory, as you did (or still doing) in school. In this case everything is much simpler - only 10 (ten) poker combinations, that differ one from another radically. 10 fingers on your hands - 10 combinations in poker. Everything is pretty simple, isn’t it?

For starters, let’s get acquainted with the strength of cards in poker on their own (from the weakest to the strongest one):

- deuce (weakest card)
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten (can be indicated as either T or 10)
- jack
- queen
- king
- ace (strongest card)

Texas Hold’em: hand rankings/order

Below you can see all possible poker hands combinations. They’re displayed by strength, from the senior combination (the strongest hand) to the minor one (the weakest one). The structure of poker hands presenting is the following: the name of the combination, an example, chances, and combination description in poker. So, let’s get started.

How many card combinations are there in poker? What are their names? What is the weakest/strongest/best combination in poker? What’s the order of poker hands? Answers to these questions can be found in the text below.

Here you can find a brief review of all combinations by seniority (from the weakest one to the strongest):

High card - the weakest hand in poker
Pair
Two pair
Three of a kind
Straight
Flush
Full house
Four of a kind
Straight flush
Royal flush - the highest hand in poker

Below we’ll give you these combinations in detail with examples and explanations, but in reverse order - from the strongest one to the weakest one.

What is the order of winning hands in poker

You will find the poker hand rankings below. Combinations are ranged in descending order, from the strongest to the weakest one. These card combinations are used for the majority of poker games: Omaha, 27 Draw, Stud, Badugi and etc. That’s why you should keep in mind one thing: once remember these poker hands, you’ll feel confident with the rules of most of the poker games. E

Poker Hands Rankings Texas Holdem