Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Today, determining the winner
Today, determining the winner of any poker hand is straightforward, since the ranking of poker hands has become standardized. Everyone knows that a Flush beats a Straight. However, this wasn’t always the case. Long ago, circa the 1850’s, a player could have a “skip,” a “blaze,” or even a “tiger,” as a winning hand. Today, poker hands are ranked on the odds of the hand being dealt in five cards. The more difficult it is to receive an established five-card combination, the higher it’s ranked on the scale of hands.
Poker Hand Odds
Poker Hand Odds against Forming An Example of the Hand Royal flush 650,000 to 1 A. K. Q. J. 10. Straight flush 65,000 to 1 J. 10. 9. 8. 7. Four of a find 4,000 to 1 5. 5. 5. 5. ? Full house 700 to 1 5. 5. 5. 10. 10. flush 500 to 1 K. 10. 7. 4. 2. ftraight 250 to 1 J. 10. 9. 8. 7. Three of a Kind 50 to 1 10. 10. 10. ? ? Two pair 20 to 1 10. 10. 5. 5. ? One pair 1.25 to 1 K. K. ? ? ? No pair 1.002 to 1.000 A. J. 10. 5. 2.