Rhett Butler: Hi Rick, we are here today to discuss texas hold em poker and the values of cards and what hand beats another hand.
Rick Rahim: So Rhett, I have two hands set up, as we know, poker is the game of playing the best combination of the five cards you have right?
Rhett Butler: That is correct.
Rick Rahim: So we have laid out two hands here, let's start talking about what is the worst possible poker hand and we will go into what is the best possible hand? So Rhett talk to us, what do we have here? Rhett Butler: Well, basically, in all poker games, you are trying to get the best possible hands. In this situation, we have two sets of five cards, you take the best possible five cards and in this case there's no pair amongst them, so the best hand would be actually an Ace-high, the Ace-high of diamonds would be the best hand, because neither person has a pair.
Rick Rahim: So, in this hand, in this case, since there's no pair, no straight or no flush, we just -- basically comes down to playing one card, right, who has the best one single card. Rhett Butler: Who has the best possible hand in this poker game?
Rick Rahim: So, in this hand the ace is better than any of the other five cards of this player hand, so this hand would wait.
Rhett Butler: That is correct.
Rick Rahim: Okay. So that's the best possible hand without a pair, or straight or flush, so what would beat, what would be the next best possible hand?
Rhett Butler: The next best possible hand would be one pair, in other words, any type of pair and the hand you just laid out as pair of fours that is higher or better than the king high, that is up against.
Rick Rahim: So, really, it only took two cards here to beat all five of those cards because a pair is harder to get in a combination than any five cards without a pair.
Rhett Butler: That is correct. In poker, all you want to realize is you just want to get a hand that is just better than your opponent's, it doesn't matter, if it's a great hand to you as long as it's a better hand than what your poker opponent has.
Rick Rahim: And as we'll talk about later, some times, you don't even have to have the best hand, you can bluff and win if you make the other guy fool.
Rhett Butler: That's exactly right. Some times the best hand does not always have to win. It's the best bet wins.
Rick Rahim: Perfect. So presume that we have all bet and called and now it comes down to what's the best hand. Suppose I have got a pair, and now, let's suppose that you have got the same pair of Red, so in this case, this hand also has a pair of fours, with three other cards. Rhett Butler: But what you will find and this is not uncommon in poker is that they actually both have the same hand they think, now this is where a kicker will come in, and when we say a kicker, it's the next highest card in your hand. In this particular case, the Ace would be higher than the ten on the other person's hand. So, they have thought they tied, but really the Ace-High with the pair of fours beats the Ten-high with the pair of fours.
Rick Rahim: So, if I was new to poker, I might think because I had a pair of fours and you had a pair of fours that maybe we were splitting the pot and nobody had won or nobody had lost but in truth your Ace, is higher than any of my other three cards, so you have kicked me.
Rhett Butler: And a lot of times, what you find, if you don't have a professional deal or if you are playing in a house game with your friends, you have to know these rules. The Ace plays.
Rick Rahim: The Ace plays, so sometimes it does come down on the kicker. Alright, so we know a pair is the next best hand and if you have - both have a pair, that's the same pair, obviously we go to a kicker. Now if say, you had a pair of fours, or I had a pair of fours, and you had a pair of fives, your higher pair would obviously win the poker game.
Rhett Butler: Exactly, the highest possible pair beats the other possible pair; it comes down to each of you having one pair.
Rick Rahim: Okay, so now what will be better than a pair? Let's find out.
Rhett Butler: We are trying to get two pair.
Rick Rahim: So there it is. I have two pair; I have the pair of queens and a pair of jacks and a five kicker versus only a pair of fours.
Rhett Butler: Right, I mean two pair, any two pair will be a pair of fours, even if we had two's and three's that would beat the pair of fours.
Rick Rahim: So, in your example, even if I had a pair of aces and you had a pair of two's and a pair of three's, two pairs regardless of how high they are would be better than one pair, no matter what.
Rhett Butler: Exactly.
Rick Rahim: Okay, so now we know two pairs is so far the best hand we have seen in poker, what would beat two pair?
Rhett Butler: Well, the next possible hand in poker is what we call a set or three of a kind. That's when you have three matching cards. In this particular hand we have three nines, that's a great hand in poker, especially when your opponent only has two pair or less.
Rick Rahim: So again, it does not matter how high the set is, it just could be three twos, and it will still be better than your queens and your jacks. Exactly right. So people think they have a beautiful hand when they see two queens and two jacks but if someone has three of a kind or what we would call, better or straight which we would show next, that would actually beat it.
Rick Rahim: Okay, three of a kind is good and again if we both had three of a kind, there's no way we would go to a kicker because there's only four of any one kind of card in the deck, so it would be impossible for us to both have three nines.
Rhett Butler: That's exactly right.
Rick Rahim: Okay. So now what would be three of a kind?
Rhett Butler: Well, the next possible hand in Poker and this is not an uncommon as you are trying to make a straight. Five cards in a row that don't necessary have to match and suit, just go in order. So in this case, we have six, seven, eight, nine, ten, five in a row, which is a straight. That beats two of a kind, that beats three of a kind, that beats one pair.
Rick Rahim: So we have five consecutive cards in a row making a straight which is a much harder combination to be dealt in the game of poker, than even three of a kind. And it's important to know that an ace can be used as an high card or a low card so you could have ace, two, three, four five, for a straight or you could have Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten. If you have that which Ace straight would beat the other one?
Rhett Butler: It's always the one going to next highest card, so the Ace with the King below it, is always going to beat the Ace through five.
Rick Rahim: Okay, but remember, an Ace can be used at the bottom end below a two or the top end above the king so you could have Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten or Ace, two, three, four five.
Rhett Butler: But you cannot have Jack, Queen King, Ace, Deuce. It does not go over.
Rick Rahim: You cannot wrap around.
Rhett Butler: That's called a wrap around.
Rick Rahim: I tried it once and you guys said, no to it right. Okay, so we have got a straight, what would be the straight?
Rhett Butler: Well, the next best hand in poker is a Flush where you get all five cards in the same suit. You try to get either Diamonds, Clubs, whatever it may be but that's what we call a Flush and that's another great hand in poker and that does beat a Straight or anything below it.
Rick Rahim: Now, in this Flush, I do not necessarily have a big card, to have a Ace, king or Queen, and they are not all in order, they are not in sequential order so there's no straight but they are all of the same suit. So what you are saying is as long as all five are of Diamonds or of Clubs or of Hearts, five of the same suit called the Flush would beat even an Ace-high Straight.
Rhett Butler: That's exactly right. Just to reiterate, we go pair, two pair, three of a kind, now we are on straight and now Flush. There's a sequence of order in all these hands and they just keep getting better.
Rick Rahim: Right, and those were the most common hands probably. You see a lot of Straights and a lot of Flush's in Red, as you and I know all the time people think their two pairs or three of a kind are great, and they tend to lose a lot of money because Straights and Flushes are still pretty easy to make.
Rhett Butler: Exactly.
Rick Rahim: Okay, so now we have a Flush as our best hand that we have seen so far, what might be the Flush?
Rhett Butler: Well, the next hand you are trying to make is what's called a Full House and that's where you are going to have three of a kind, and another Pair. Does not matter what they are as long as you have three of one kind and two on another, so in this case we have three kings and two aces, great hand because that's going to be just about almost any other Full House unless they had Aces full, and here we go, this is one of the best hands in poker, Full House.
Rick Rahim: So just to get the jargons, a Full House is also known as a Full Boat or a Boat some times, and it can also be refereed to as in this case Kings Full. So in this case, I have a set of kings so I have a set of kings so I have kings Full of Aces, right.
Rhett Butler: When you say set that means three of a kind in Poker. So whenever you have any three of a kind, people say I have a set or I have a Boat. A Boat is when you have a three of a kind and another pair.
Rick Rahim: So, a Boat is the same thing as a Full House. We are looking at a very powerful Full House here, because it's Kings full of Ace.
Rhett Butler: Exactly.
Rick Rahim: Alright, so those are the most common hands, now every once in a while you get extremely lucky and tend to defy the odds and tend to earn lot of money when you have some of next couple of hands we are about to see right.
Rhett Butler: Right, I mean that what we are talking about now, is called Quads or Four of a kind in Poker. So you are trying to get any four cards that are the same. In this case we have four Deuces, not big cards but if you have four of anything that's going to beat just about anything out there. In this case it's going to beat a Full House, the kings full, and the person would probably lose a lot of money, if he had kings full in this particular hand.
Rick Rahim: Alright, I think I lose all my money here, if you had the Quads that's for sure.
Rhett Butler: And I hope I did have the Quads here.
Rick Rahim: Alright, so full house, then four of a kind, now four of a kind is just one of the most powerful hands you could ever have in Poker and if you get action or get people betting and calling with you, you are going to win a lot of money, more often than not. However every once in a while a player might have a very well disguised hand. There is one other possibility that can beat four of a kind red, and boy is this ever a odd beating hand if you can manage to pull it off.
Rhett Butler: You don't see a lot of these hands in poker but it's a straight Flush. In this case, we are going to show what's called a Royal Straight Flush. This is the highest possible hand in texas hold em, when you don't play wild cards and this is the ace through the ten of the same suit. If you have this hand, feel free to bet whatever you have .
Rick Rahim: You can't lose right?
Rhett Butler: You cannot lose, the worse you could do is tie, and I have never seen anyone tie with a Straight Flush.
Rick Rahim: So, the key is sometimes we will talk about strategy from your expert point of view later, you want to keep other players in the hand because you can't lose so in this case, you are not going to be afraid of a player outdrawing you or catching up in the end.
Rhett Butler: You are trying to let people catch up, when you are having a hand that's this powerful, you want to let them in and hopefully they catch the best possible card they can.
Rick Rahim: So, the key elements to a straight Flush or just that you must have a straight and a Flush so you must have five cards in consecutive order, in this case Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, but it could just as easily be seven, eight, nine, ten, Jack and they also must be of the same suit or a Flush as well.
Rhett Butler: Consecutive order and same suit as a Straight Flush and the higher the card the better.
Rick Rahim: So there you have it, we now know hand values and what hand beats another in poker. In our next clip we will talk about how to deal the game of no limit texas hold em poker.
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