Poker Combinations Chart
Poker cards explained, learn how poker hands work and understand the card combinations. See the Official poker hand ranking and learn how to play Texas Hold'em poker. An easy guide for Pokerhands. Great for when you play Texas Holdem poker with friends. Know how to play, how poker ranking works by learning the poker combinations and rules. Understand the official poker chart in one easy. The Poker Hand Range Calculator instantly show equities, combination counts, and hand value breakdowns. Use the reset buttons to start over the calculation. First, we start with a preflop range. Get started by selecting a preflop range for the scenario you are analyzing. What is the highest hand and hands order in poker? In the last couple of years, as theoretical understanding of poker has galloped forward, an entire new vocabulary has emerged. I mean, when I was playing limit hold'em in San Jose 25 years ago.
- Poker Hand Rankings & Charts: Evaluate Your Poker Cards. Before you take us up on our free poker money offer on your way to becoming a World Series of Poker champion, you must first master the basics. The most important in the game is to understand the poker hand strength and rankings.
- You don’t have to be an expert to read poker charts. There are all possible pairs of cards in the table that could be dealt to you in Texas Holdem (total amount is 196 possible combinations). The suit of the cards is not taken into account here. The only fact that is taken into account here is.
In the last couple of years, as theoretical understanding of poker has galloped forward, an entire new vocabulary has emerged. I mean, when I was playing limit hold'em in San Jose 25 years ago, had you said, 'minimum defense frequency,' they'd have thought you were talking about the 49ers.
One of the words that you hear most frequently now is 'combinations' or 'combos.' Once you accept the concept of an opponent (or yourself) having a range of hands, the next interesting question is, 'Well, how many hands are in that range?' The way you answer that is to figure out how many 'combinations' there are of the hands that make up the presumed range.
Counting Combos: Pocket Pairs
Let's try one. Suppose you are playing $1/$3 no-limit hold'em and before the flop, you raise to $12 in early position with a pair of jacks. A straightforward and uncreative player in late position reraises you to $40. It folds back around to you. Based on your knowledge of this player, you expect her to three-bet with only a pair of queens or better, and all of her ace-kings. So her three-betting range is Q-Q, K-K, A-A, and A-K. How do your jacks fare against her presumed range?
Well, there are six combos of every pocket pair. To determine that, we see that we can randomly pick any of the four queens in the deck, and now have three remaining queens with which to make a pair. So that's 4 x 3 = 12. However, if we pick the first, and then the , that's no different than picking the first and then the . So we must divide by two to get a total of six.
Another way of skinning the same cat: pick the and see that you can then pick the , , or to make a pair. That's three. Now pick the first, leaving just the and to pair. Two more. Finally, the has only the to pair it. One more. 3 + 2 + 1 = 6. Math is beautiful.
So, six combos for each pocket pair. For Q-Q / K-K / A-A, that's a total of 18 combos. So far so good.
Counting Combos: Non-Paired Hands
What about A-K combos? If we give the villain all of the ace-king combos, then she can make one by taking any of the four aces and crossing them with any of the four kings. 4 x 4 = 16 and that's the number of combos.
Of course, if she restricts herself to suited ace-kings, then pretty clearly there are just four of those — , , , .
Calculating Our Equity
Combination In Poker
We'd agreed that she would three-bet all of her ace-king combos plus queens, kings, or aces, so we conclude she has one of 34 possible hands: 18 pocket pairs and 16 ace-kings.
The 18 pocket pairs are 81-to-19 favorites against us, while we are a 57-to-43 favorite against the 16 ace-kings. To determine our equity against her, we weight each combo by its share of the range pie, compute our equity against that slice, and then sum them up.
For this example, we can compute our equity as follows:
- Against the higher pairs, we have 0.18 (18%) equity. The higher pairs make up 18 / 34 of the villain's presumed range. So our equity for that piece = 0.18 x 18 / 34 = 0.10 or 10% (0.095 to be closer).
- Against the ace-king combos, we have 0.57 (57%) equity. The ace-kings make up 16 / 34 of the villain's range. Our equity against that piece is 0.57 x 16 / 34 = 0.27 or 27%.
- Summing the two, we get 0.10 + 0.27 = 0.37 or 37% equity against her presumed range.
The good news is that there are programs such as Pro Poker Tools and the like that let you ask questions such as 'How much equity does a pair of jacks have against a range of Q-Q / K-K / A-A / A-K?' But it's useful to know how those things are calculated.
Using Combos to Improve Decision-Making
What to do with that information is beyond the scope of this article, but as an example, if the villain were all in for her $40, we'd know exactly how to proceed.
Setting aside rake for the moment, there's $12 + $40 + $1 + $3 = $56 in the pot. It costs us another $28 to call. Conveniently enough, we're getting exactly 2-to-1 odds to call, so we must have at least 33.3% equity to call her shove. We have a hair above that (37%), so we shrug, slide in the extra $28, and ask the dealer to run out the board.
By the way, I had suggested that we ignore the rake for simplicity. Note that in this case once we take the rake into effect, this could turn into a fold. If you don't see that, subtract the rake ($5 or whatever) from the pot and redo the pot odds calculations, remembering that you still need to call the full $28.
Conclusion
I grant that counting pairs and ace-king combos is relatively simple. But suppose in the heat of battle, a flop comes down and you believe that your opponent could have (among other possible hands) any of the heart flush draws that are two suited Broadway cards, plus all of the ace-high flush draws. How many flush draw combos does she have? (See the answer below.)
Not surprisingly, the best way to get better at this is to practice in the lab (a.k.a. 'your kitchen table'). Go over common situations and learn the arithmetic. Eventually, you'll be as comfortable with the important ones as you're sure that jacks have 37% equity against a range of {QQ+, AK}.
This stuff is not trivial and if you're not used to working with numbers, it can be a bit daunting. But at least some of your opponents are already doing it, and once you get the hang of it, you might even enjoy the mental gymnastics.
P.S. Your villain can have the suited-in-heart combos of A-Q, A-J, A-T, A-9, A-7, A-6, A-5, A-4, A-3, A-2, Q-J, Q-T, J-T, for a total of 13.
Lee Jones can help you count combos and then count your winnings. Go to leejones.com/coaching and schedule a free coaching consultation. Lee specializes in coaching live cash game players.
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Poker combinations are important. Poker, as we all should know by now, is a game of skill and luck.
Fate and the dealer decide what cards you start off with, and that can make the difference between winning and losing a game.
There are 52 cards in a deck, which means that you can get up to 169 different combinations for your starting cards.
The cards you are dealt at the start do not make or break your game, but they play a huge role in defining how you progress.
We look at the best poker combinations of cards which you should be looking out for if you want to win big in poker.
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Aces and Kings
Probably the best starting poker combinations you could game are a pair of Aces or Kings, irrespective of the suit.
The chances of someone getting a pair is exceptionally remote but if you do get such a pair always think about raising the pre-flop.
A word of caution though, these hands are tough to beat but are not unbeatable.
Also, if you are playing with a couple of Kings, there is the possibility of someone playing with a couple of aces, so always tread carefully.
Possible Poker Hand Combinations
poker combinations: Queens, Jacks and an Ace-King pair
The next highest possible poker combinations are also based on the highest cards.
Again getting a Queen pair or a jack pair is extremely rare but the chances of winning a hand significantly increase.
Of course, they can still be beaten if the right moves are made but this is a strong hand to play with.
The Ace-King pair is another strong hand to think about.
This combination works well and gives you a lot of opportunities to make strong hands.
This isn’t as strong as a starting pair of high cards, but it is a good bet for a win at the table.
Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack
The next best poker combinations to start a poker game with is the Ace-Queen pair.
This is similar to the Ace-King pair but has a few limitations since the Queen card is ranked lower than the King card.
The Ace-Jack combination ranks below the Ace-Queen pair.
All the above pairs are made in the same suit, except in the case of a pair of cards which are of similar value.
Always the need to have same suit cards trumps cards of the same value.
So a Jack-Ace of the same color will trump, a Jack-Ace of different colors.
While these cards will undoubtedly play a huge role in deciding who wins a game.
It isn’t the end of the world if you are not dealt the above pairs.
There are many other ways to ensure you end up winning the game and we look at some of the best combinations of hands possible in the game of poker.
You might need to be a little sly in hoping that you get these cards from the dealer, but if you get the following combinations, you are guaranteed to win the game or at least do well.
Winner winner, chicken dinner!
Playing your way through the game is not easy but having the following hands will undoubtedly ensure victory and a nice amount of money for you to win.
Some of these hands are guarantees to win while some would require you to do some bluffing.
So without further to do, here are the best poker combinations you could have in a game of poker.
The Royal Flush
Royalty is vital in the game of poker and having a ‘Royal Flush’ is the best possible poker combinations of cards you could have after all the cards have been given to you.
A Royal Flush consists of the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 of the same suit.
Nothing can beat this hand in a game of poker.
Straight Flush
Almost the next best thing to the Royal Flush, having 5 cards which are in a consecutive rank, for, eg, 5,6,7,8 and 9 of diamonds.
In case two players have a straight flush, the one with the higher denomination of cards wins.
Four of a kind
As the name suggests, having 4 cards of the same rank, high-value cards of the same rank will beat cards of a lower value.
Full House
Having three cards of the same rank and two other cards of a different rank.
In case of a tie, the highest ranking three cards of a player win the game.
Flush
This happens when a player has five cards which are of the same color but are not in any specific order.
This can include high cards with low-value cards.
Three of a kind
Having three cards which are of the same rank/strength, and two cards which are of a different color or unrelated side cards.
Two pair
Having two pairs of cards which are of the same value; for example, having two 10’s and two 6’s in hand.
One pair
In this hand, two cards must have the same value; and the other three cards can be of any other denomination.
Poker Combo Chart
High card
Just having one high card in hand should win you the game. In case any of the above hands don’t take place.
Poker Guide Chart
So there you have it, the best starting poker hand combinations which can set you out for glory. And the best possible hand combinations at the end of the game before you go on to bet and win.
Remember, poker isn’t an easy game to pick up; there will always be a lot of people who try different tactics to get a slight edge.
While having a Royal Flush in your hand is a guaranteed win; the other options aren’t.
You need to keep your wits about it. And one way of doing it is by practicing and keeping yourself informed.
Poker Pair Chart
Also, you should use a few tools to aid your game like poker calculators and odds calculators. They might not help you out in the table games, but will help you make decisions faster and help solve tables better.