Poker Hand Statistics Texas Holdem
In Texas Hold’em, pocket jacks are known as big danger hand. It provides a player below the chance they require to get a survival with the probability of a top card resulting to a flop about 53%. Below is a table of Texas Holdem starting hands, ordered by their Expected Value (EV) in a 9 player holdem game. These statistics were produced by using millions of hand histories to compute the following results.
Poker Hand Rankings - Texas Hold'em Starting Hands Chart: The statistics are based on 115,591,080 pair of pocket cards dealt at the real money tables. The unit for EV is average profit in big bets. Click here for a table that includes EV with Position for all Starting Hands. Pocket jacks is known as a big danger hand in Texas Hold’em. It may look good, but the chances of a higher card turning up on the flop is 52%, giving your ‘fish-hooks’ less than half a chance of survival.
With few exceptions, all poker games place hands on the same
scale from high- to low-value. Poker hands are ranked depending
on their likelihood. The least-likely hands are the
highest-ranked; the most common hands are the lowest-ranked.
Identical poker hands are ranked by which hands holds cards of
the highest value.
Poker Hand Rank
Here is the standard hand rank, from highest to lowest:
A royal flush is a hand where all the cards are of the same suit and the 5 highest cards in consecutive order (10, J, Q, K, A). This hand is the best hand that you can get in the game of Texas Hold’em.
A straight flush is a hand where all the cards are of the same suit and are in consecutive order. For example, a 23456, all of hearts, is a straight flush. In the event of a tie, the straight flush with the highest card wins.
A 4 of a kind is a hand where 4 of the 5 cards are of the same ranking. An example of a hand with a 4 of a kind might have KKKK2. That would be the 2 in every suit–clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. In the event of a tie, the 4 of a kind with the highest hand ranking wins.
A full house is a hand that consists of 3 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank. An example of a full house might look like this: KKKQQ. In the event of a tie, the hand with the higher cards in the 3 cards is the winner.
A flush is a hand that consists of 5 cards of the same suit—clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades. In the event of a tie, the flush with the highest card is the winner.
A straight is a hand where all 5 cards of consecutive ranks. 23456 is an example of a straight. In the event of a tie, the straight with the highest card is the winner.
2 pairs is a hand where you have 2 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank along with a final card of another rank. An example of 2 pairs might look like this: AAKK7.In the event of a tie, the hand with the highest pair wins.
1 pair is a hand where you 2 cards of one rank and 3 cards with different ranks. An example of a pair might look like this: JJ278. In the event of a tie, the higher ranked pair wins.
High card means a hand where none of the other hand rankings apply. If no one still in the hand can make a pair or better, the player with the highest card in his hand wins the pot.
Playing a live game of poker requires that you know this
hierarchy. For new players, this may seem a little daunting.
After all, here you have nine pieces of complex information to
remember in precise order.
A Word About Mnemonic Devices
I learned the order of poker hands using a mnemonic. I think
anyone can use this simple method to learn the hierarchy in a
matter of minutes. Mnemonics are popular memory devices used by
students, teachers, and people of all stripes for hundreds of
years in order to remember complex information.
You probably used a mnemonic device to remember the order of
the planets in our solar system. I remember learning the
sentence: “My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas.”
The first letter of each of the words in that sentence will help
you remember that the planets go in this order – Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. I’ll
probably never forget that fact, thanks to the mnemonic device I
was taught.
The trouble is, it’s hard to convert hand rankings into
words. Besides that, I don’t think you learn much about poker by
simply memorizing the order of hands. You should use the
opportunity of needing to learn proper hand hierarchy to improve
your understanding of poker strategy.
The tips below will help you understand the proper order of
poker hands better and introduce you to some basic poker
concepts to help you improve your overall game.
Poker Hand Odds Texas Holdem
Low-Value Poker Hands
To remember the order of the four lowest-value hands, just
remember the number series “0, 1, 2, 3.”
- 0 means “high card.” Having nothing in your hand means
the value of your hand depends on the value of your highest
card. Remember – in poker, aces rank high, while 2’s rank
low. - 1 means “one pair.” Any hand that contains just a single
pair of cards and nothing else valuable is a 1. - 2 means “two pair.” This is a hand that contains two
pairs of cards. - 3 means “three-of-a-kind.” It’s the most valuable of the
low-value hands.
High-Value Poker Hands
For the purpose of this post, I’m calling every hand above a
three-of-a-kind a “high-value hand,” but lots of poker
strategists would consider a straight to be a low-value hand.
This is really a difference in philosophy and a language issue
more than anything else.
For that reason, and for simplicity’s sake, I like to think
of straight as a “/” symbol in my mnemonic. That means our
current mnemonic string goes: “0, 1, 2, 3, /.”
It’s easier to memorize the order of the other high-ranking
hands if you count the number of letters in the hand’s name.
It’s made all the easier to remember by the fact that the number
of letters increases as you move up the scale.
Here’s how I break it down:
- 5 – The word flush contains five letters.
- 9 – The words full house contain nine letters.
- 11 – The words four of a kind contain eleven letters.
- 13 – The words straight flush contain thirteen letters.
- 18 – The words royal straight flush contain eighteen
letters.
Putting them all together, our mnemonic is: “0 – 1 – 2 – 3 /
5 – 9 – 11 – 13 – 18.”
Other Ways to Memorize Hand Hierarchy
I’m not going to pretend that the method I used to learn hand
hierarchy is the only one that will work. The three ideas below
are the most popular tactics on the Web besides the use of
mnemonics, based on my research. You can use any of the four
methods described on this post to keep track of what hand beats
what other hand. That way, you’ll be able to plan your tactics
ahead of time and make smart bidding decisions.
Rote Memorization
Some people learn best by repeated drilling of the material
to be memorized. I’ve heard of actors reading their scripts over
and over, playing tapes of the script in their sleep, and
learning their lines by rote. I can’t think of any reason why
you shouldn’t try this method.
Hand Evaluation Diagrams
Various poker trainer programs and strategy gurus have put
together diagrams to help you analyze your hand. You can use
these in poker rooms, and obviously you can use them online, so
long as you don’t care about the other guys at the table making
fun of you. They’re available for free with a simple Google
search.
Frequent Exposure
Poker Hand Statistics Texas Holdem Real Money
The more rounds of poker you play, the more you’ll become
familiar with all the rules, including the rules of hand
ranking. You may lose a bunch on the way there, because of your
lack of familiarity with hand ranks, but, by God, you’ll get it
eventually.
Conclusion
Remember that some poker variations assign different values
to cards and hands. Some games are totally reversed, rewarding
the lowest-value hand instead of the highest-value one. Other
games may consider an Ace to be low, or use Jokers, which throws
off the hierarchy and strategy a bit.
I hope that this page helped you learn about the value of the
cards you’re dealt. I believe the best way to practice your
newfound understanding of hand hierarchy is to get out there and
play a bunch of poker. If you’re still new to the game and not
yet comfortable with your understanding of hand rankings, you
can always play in free-to-play apps or use play-money at your
favorite online poker room.
Both before and after the flop in any limit Holdem game, it is helpful to be able to make a reasonably accurate estimate of the types and numbers of playable hands that you are likely to be competing against.
Much of your decision making involves the business of 'putting' opposing players 'on their hands' (or in other words, figuring out what cards they are playing). Experienced Holdem players are often very good at this. An understanding of the types of hands that are most likely to be against you helps prevent both underestimating and overestimating your competition.
Here are some stats that are based on the total possible combinations of various Holdem hole cards that are normally playable.
For better viewing on your mobile device (or to download or print the chart), check out holdem hole card frequencies in high resolution universal .pdf format.
The five different types of two card Hold'em hands highlighted here are those that are most commonly played. They are not shown in any particular order and within the groups are powerful hands that are almost always played, down to marginal value hands that can be played under certain betting conditions.
The rest of the hands, shown as All Others, are all the very weak hands that most players hardly ever play.
Pairs - All pairs. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22
Two High Cards Suited - AK(S), AQ(S), AJ(S), A10(S), KQ(S), KJ(S), K10(S), QJ(S), Q10(S), J10(S)
Two High Cards Unsuited - AK, AQ, AJ, A10, KQ, KJ, K10, QJ, Q10, J10
Medium and Low Suited Connectors - These include both no-gap and one-gap connectors: J9(S), 109(S), 108(S), 98(S), 97(S), 87(S), 86(S), 76(S), 75(S), 65(S), 64(S), 54(S), 53(S)
Ace and Non-High Combinations - A9, A8, A7,A6 Note: 25% of these 64 combinations (16) are suited. 75% of the 64 combinations (48) are unsuited.