In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment.It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by a secret ballot of the seven players. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Texas Hold'em Hand Names) This list of playing card nicknames has some nicknames for the playing cards in a 52-card deck, as used in some common card games, such as poker. For a list of words relating to Poker, see the Poker category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Starting Hand Selection:Chen Formula : Sklansky Starting Hand Groups

All Texas Hold’em starting hands can be separated into two categories: “suited” and “offsuit”. Suited hands contain two cards of the same suit, like J♣9♣, A ♥ K ♥, K♠Q♠ and 9 ♦ 3 ♦. All other starting hands are in the offsuit category, like A♠8 ♦, 7♣5 ♥ and K ♥ 9 ♦. However, there are 1,326 different starting poker hands in Texas Holdem, and even 270,725 poker hand variations in Pot Limit Omaha. While there are many different starting hands options in various games, the winning hand is determined by poker hand rankings consisting only of 10 options. When is the kicker used to determine the winning poker hand?

The Sklansky & Malmuth starting hands table.

This table comes from the book Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth.

This is a strategy book for limit Hold'em, but the starting hand groups do have some practical use in no limit Hold'em.

What is the Sklansky and Malmuth starting hands table?

The table is a general ranking of hands in Texas Hold'em.

The Sklansky and Malmuth starting hands table groups together certain hands in Texas Hold'em based on their strength. Starting with the strongest set of hands that you can be dealt in group 1, the hands get progressively weaker working down the table until the virtually unplayable hands in group 9.

The rough idea is that a hand in one group has roughly the same value and can be played the same way preflop as any other hand in that group.

How to use the starting hands table.

In their book, Sklansky and Malmuth provide some in-depth guidelines for starting hand strategy in limit Texas Hold'em using this table. Unfortunately, I'm not going to work out any guidelines for you for the NL Hold'em game using this table because:

1. It would be quite a tricky job.
2. It would be difficult to remember and implement.
3. Like any starting hand strategy, it would have its flaws.
4. You should avoid using strict guidelines and set rules as much as possible during play.

So really there is not a lot to take away from this table from a purely strategic perspective. Nonetheless it's interesting to see how specific starting hands compare to one another based on their preflop value.

If you're really after a starting hand strategy guideline, try the Chen Formula.

Sklansky and Malmuth hand rankings evaluation.

Although it's a very popular hand group rankings table, it's not going to do you too much good to learn the whole thing off by heart. In my opinion, the real value of this table is being able to see how different starting hands can be grouped together and ranked based on their value before the flop.

For other useful charts and tables, see the odds charts page from the Texas Hold'em tools section.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

Comments

A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to a flush. In contrast, a made hand already has value and does not necessarily need to draw to win. A made starting hand with no help can lose to an inferior starting hand with a favorable draw. If an opponent has a made hand that will beat the player's draw, then the player is drawing dead; even if they make their desired hand, they will lose. Not only draws benefit from additional cards; many made hands can be improved by catching an out — and may have to in order to win.

Outs[edit]

An unseen card that would improve a drawing hand to a likely winner is an out. Playing a drawing hand has a positive expectation if the probability of catching an out is greater than the pot odds offered by the pot.

The probability ${\displaystyle P_1}$ of catching an out with one card to come is:

${\displaystyle P_1=\frac{\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{s}}}$

The probability ${\displaystyle P_2}$ of catching at least one out with two cards to come is:

${\displaystyle P_2=1-\frac{\mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{s}}\times \frac{\mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}-1}{\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{s}-1}}$

${\displaystyle \mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}=\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{s}-\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}}$

A dead out is a card that would normally be considered an out for a particular drawing hand, but should be excluded when calculating the probability of catching an out. Outs can be dead for two reasons:

• A dead out may work to improve an opponent's hand to a superior hand. For example, if Ted has a spade flush draw and Alice has an outside straight draw, any spades that complete Alice's straight are dead outs because they would also give Ted a flush.
• A dead out may have already been seen. In some game variations such as stud poker, some of the cards held by each player are seen by all players.

Types of draws[edit]

Flush draw[edit]

A flush draw, or four flush, is a hand with four cards of the same suit that may improve to a flush. For example, K♣ 9♣ 8♣ 5♣ x. A flush draw has nine outs (thirteen cards of the suit less the four already in the hand). If a player has a flush draw in Hold'em, the probability to flush the hand in the end is 34.97 percent if there are two more cards to come, and 19.56 percent (9 live cards divided by 46 unseen cards) if there is only one more card to come.

Outside straight draw[edit]

An outside straight draw, also called up and down, double-ended straight draw or open-ended straight draw, is a hand with four of the five needed cards in sequence (and could be completed on either end) that may improve to a straight. For example, x-9-8-7-6-x. An outside straight draw has eight outs (four cards to complete the top of the straight and four cards to complete the bottom of the straight). Straight draws including an ace are not outside straight draws, because the straight can only be completed on one end (has four outs).

Inside straight draw[edit]

An inside straight draw, or gutshot draw or belly buster draw, is a hand with four of the five cards needed for a straight, but missing one in the middle. For example, 9-x-7-6-5. An inside straight draw has four outs (four cards to fill the missing internal rank). Because straight draws including an ace only have four outs, they are also considered inside straight draws. For example, A-K-Q-J-x or A-2-3-4-x. The probability of catching an out for an inside straight draw is half that of catching an out for an outside straight draw.

Double inside straight draw[edit]

A double inside straight draw, or double gutshot draw or double belly buster draw can occur when either of two ranks will make a straight, but both are 'inside' draws. For example in 11-card games, 9-x-7-6-5-x-3, or 9-8-x-6-5-x-3-2, or in Texas Hold'em when holding 9-J hole cards on a 7-10-K flop. The probability of catching an out for a double inside straight draw is the same as for an outside straight draw.

Other draws[edit]

Sometimes a made hand needs to draw to a better hand. For example, if a player has two pair or three of a kind, but an opponent has a straight or flush, to win the player must draw an out to improve to a full house (or four of a kind). There are a multitude of potential situations where one hand needs to improve to beat another, but the expected value of most drawing plays can be calculated by counting outs, computing the probability of winning, and comparing the probability of winning to the pot odds.

Backdoor draw[edit]

A backdoor draw, or runner-runner draw, is a drawing hand that needs to catch two outs to win. For example, a hand with three cards of the same suit has a backdoor flush draw because it needs two more cards of the suit. The probability ${\displaystyle P_{rr}}$ of catching two outs with two cards to come is:

${\displaystyle P_{rr}=\frac{\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{s}}\times \frac{\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}-1}{\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{s}-1}}$

For example, if after the flop in Texas hold 'em, a player has a backdoor flush draw (e.g., three spades), the probability of catching two outs on the turn and river is (10 ÷ 47) × (9 ÷ 46) = 4.16 percent. Backdoor draws are generally unlikely; with 43 unseen cards, it is equally likely to catch two out of seven outs as to catch one out of one. A backdoor outside straight draw (such as J-10-9) is equally likely as a backdoor flush, but any other 3-card straight combination is not worth even one out.

Drawing dead[edit]

A player is said to be drawing dead when the hand he hopes to complete will nonetheless lose to a player who already has a better one. For example, drawing to a straight or flush when the opponent already has a full house. In games with community cards, the term can also refer to a situation where no possible additional community card draws results in a win for a player. (This may be because another player has folded the cards that would complete his hand, his opponent's hand is already stronger than any hand he can possibly draw to or that the card that completes his hand also augments his opponent's.)

See also[edit]

• Poker strategy

References[edit]

Texas Holdem Poker Hands Wikipedia Rules

1. ^Odds Chart. 'How to play texas holdem poker'. Howtoplaytexasholdempoker.org. Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2010.

External links[edit]

Poker Hands Texas Holdem Rules