High(Hi) poker hand rankings:
Everybody probably already knows High poker hand rankings, but here we go anyway… Hand rankings from the weakest to the strongest:
One pair:
Two Pair:
Three of a Kind(Trips):
Streight:
Flush:
Full House(Boat):
Four of a Kind:
Streight Flush:
Royal Flush:
Remember, all hands in poker consist of 5 cards, even a pair. The cards that don’t make the actual hand(like the other 3 cards in a Pair hand) are kickers. If, for example, two players have the same pair, the player with the highest kicker wins. If there are more kickers you look at the highest one of both players first, if it’s the same you look at the next one and so on(if all are the same it’s a split pot). Again, remember, 5 card combos, sooo… straights, flushes, full houses and straight flushes don’t have kickers!
Low(Lo) poker hand rankings:
Low rankings can be a little tricky. Basically the person with the worst hand wins. So no pair beats a pair and so on. Now, if nobody has even a pair, you look at the lowest card of each player and the one that has the lowest wins, if it’s the same then you look at the second lowest and so on. Remember, low combinations also consist of 5 cards. Seems rather simple, right? Well, there’s more to it… there are special variations of low rankings:
1.In some games flushes and streights don’t count as a hand, so the best possible hand is A2345(it might even be that flushes count and streights don’t or the other way around), if they do count the best hand is A2346.
2.In some games an Ace is a low card and in some it’s a high card. This can also be combined with the straights and flushes rule.
So my advice to you, if you intend to play a Low game somwhere first check out the rules on hand rankings for that particular game.
High/Low(Hi/Lo) explained:
Now that you know what Hi rankings are, and you know what Lo rankings are, Hi/Lo should be a piece of cake. It basically means that the pot is split in two, half the pot goes to the Lo hand(s) and half goes to Hi hand(s) that win. But be aware, one player can have the best Hi and the best Lo hand, in that case he scoops the entire pot, or he can split one half of the pot with someone else who also has the same Lo or Hi hand.
Also there is one special rule that is pretty common(especially online) so I should mention it here. Sometimes in Hi/Lo games Lo hands only count if they are low enough. The most common rule of this kind is Low 8-or-better. When you see Stud8 or Omaha8, it means that this rule applys. It basically means that only no pair Lo hands with the highest card 8 or lower count as a Lo hand.
