The strongest poker hand is the royal flush. It consists of Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, all of the same suit, e.g. Diamonds, spades, hearts, or clubs. #2 Straight Flush The second strongest hand in poker is the straight flush. Minimizing losses with poor hands and maximizing winnings with good hands is the underlying skill that Poker requires. Before the cards are even dealt, the rules of the Poker game being played may require that each player put an initial contribution, called an 'ante,' of one or more chips into the pot, to start it off. Poker Hands The hand that beats all others is the royal flush. A “flush” has all five cards in the same suit, and if it’s royal, it is also the highest straight, running 10-J-Q-K-A. It’s a rare hand, indeed, but you still might be wondering what happens if two players both have this outcome. The hands rank in almost the same order as in standard poker, with straights and flushes counting and the lowest hand wins. The difference from normal poker is that Aces are always high, so that A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, but ranks between K-Q-J-10-8 and A-6-4-3-2.

• The Hands Of Poker In Texas Holdem
• What Is The Order Of The Hands Of Poker
• What Are The Hands Of Poker
• All The Hands Of Poker
• Printable Poker Hands Chart

This week we’re highlighting a common spot in a cash game where you 3-bet preflop from the Button vs a Middle Position open raise.

You should have a fairly high c-bet frequency in this spot in general. As the preflop aggressor, you’ll have a range advantage on most boards and can apply pressure with a continuation bet. You should often size down c-bets to 25% of the pot on static flops, since larger sizing is not necessary on flops where the Villain is less likely to connect.

Larger c-bet sizing can be used on dynamic boards with a more polarized range that consists of bluffs with blockers and vulnerable but high equity value hands. For example, firing a bigger size with a gutshot is often the preferred line as this provides good semi-bluff balance to your stronger made hands.
When value betting strong hands, be sure to size your bets on the turn such that
you can easily get all the chips in on the river. Remember that missed draws are often good candidates to round out a pure bluffing range and provide overall balance to your aggressive lines. Consider bluffing with them some of the time when your draw fails to hit by the river.

You will often be put to tough decisions with marginal hands, with the correct decision often coming down to understanding the effects of blockers and the specific suits you hold. When you block value hands that your opponent can hold, you should be more willing to continue against their bets and raises. When you block potential bluffs they could have, you should be more willing to fold.

To see more examples and test your skills, you can play through five free solved hands from this scenario.

To access the free five hands, visit this page.

Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.

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The Hands Of Poker In Texas Holdem

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As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.

The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we’re giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.

Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week.

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There has been some crazy high-stakes action since the beginning of 2021.

No Limit Hold’em end-bosses have been throwing money around, trying to prove who reigns supreme on the felt. And many of these crazy hands have been anything but “standard.”

Because relatively few people have seen these hands, we’re going over the wildest ones in a new article series. This will be the first of many high stakes hands that will make you scratch your head.

Let’s dive in!

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We’re firing up the Upswing Poker Twitch and Doug Polk’s YouTube to cover an exciting heads-up match between poker pros Fedor Holz and Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski.

He May Be SWEET But He Sure Felt Sour After This One

This hand was played heads-up between high stakes monsters BERRI SWEET and makeboifin at $100/$200 No Limit Hold’em.

The effective stack to start the hand is $20,000.

Preflop

BERRI raises to $480 with T♥ 4♥ from the Button. Makeboifin calls from the Big Blind with A♠ 5♦.

Preflop analysis

Both players played their hands optimally.

BERRI should be opening very wide, with around 70-80% of all possible hands. His hand is well within that margin. His raise size is correct, putting just enough pressure on his opponent’s range to force him to defend with very marginal hands.

Makeboifin’s defense should be comprised of about 20% 3-bets and 55% calls. A♠ 5♦ easily makes the cut, best played as a call.

Note: Want to know how to play every hand in every common preflop situation? Get instant access to extensive preflop charts and lessons (for cash games, heads-up and tournaments) when you join the Upswing Lab training course. Lock your seat now!

The Advanced Solver Ranges for cash games — one of six sets of preflop charts in the Upswing Lab.

Flop

The pot is $960 and the flop comes A♦ 7♦ 3♥.

Makeboifin (A♠ 5♦) checks. BERRI SWEET (T♥ 4♥) fires a $297 c-bet and Makeboifin calls.

Flop analysis

Makeboifin’s check is standard. He is at a range disadvantage and thus should check with all of his hands in order to protect his overall range.

BERRI should be firing a c-bet pretty often on this type of board (around 60% of the time for a 33% pot c-bet). As far as hand selection goes, T♥ 4♥ is a good candidate since it has both a backdoor flush draw and a couple of backdoor straight draws.

This type of hand is great because it can continue barreling as a semi-bluff when it adds a gutshot or a flush draw on the turn, especially when other draws complete. Not firing these kinds of hands on the flop will leave you with too strong of a range on a variety of turns.

Makeboifin has a super easy call with a top pair with a weak kicker. It doesn’t make sense to raise with this hand, even with these wide ranges, because he needs to protect the many weaker hands with which he will also call on the flop (such as a small pair).

Turn

The turn comes a T♣ making the board A♦ 7♦ 3♥ T♣. The pot is now $1,553.

Makeboifin (A♠ 5♦) checks, BERRI SWEET (T♥ 4♥) bets $1,116, makeboifin check-raises to $4900, and BERRI SWEET calls.

Turn analysis

This is where the hand starts to live up to the title of this article.

Makeboifin’s check is once again standard due to him, being out of position without a nut advantage.

BERRI’s turn c-bet is okay because it can get thin value from hands like a pair of sevens, pair plus flush draws, flush draws, and strong gutshots like KJ and QJ offsuit.

Makeboifin strays from an equilibrium strategy here with his check-raise.

If he wanted to play a strict GTO-oriented strategy, this hand is a clear call. Ace-five has showdown value, and check-raising with it risks forcing out BERRI’s bluffs that may have continued barreling on the river. Plus, most of BERRI’s calling range will be stronger top pairs, some pair plus flush draws, and flush draws. It’s tough to imagine getting called by many worse made hands.

This hand only makes sense as a raise if makeboifin thinks BERRI is deviating from that equilibrium strategy quite a bit by calling vs the check-raise and/or 3-betting on the turn way too much.

And he does exactly that. BERRI calls with his T♥ 4♥, a call he should never make against a well-built check-raising range. This justifies makeboifin’s super thin check-raise.

River

The river comes 6♣ making the board A♦ 7♦ 3♥ T♣ 6♣. The pot is now the size of a 2017 Nissan Rogue Sport (or $11,350).

Makeboifin (A♠ 5♦) bets $3,744. BERRI SWEET (T♥ 4♥) goes all-in for $14,324. Makeboifin makes the call for another $10,580 and scoops a total pot of $40,000 (roughly a basic trim level 2021 Mercedes-Benz A-Class).

River analysis

Makeboifin is once again pushing the envelope. He goes for a 33% pot bet, either to extract super thin value or to induce aggression from BERRI. This line is also far far away from the equilibrium strategy in this spot. However, his adjustment is proven to be a good one by BERRI’s retort.

From BERRI’s point of view, the raise does make sense because he is blocking the value range that Makeboifin is representing (which is mostly AT-offsuit). It also unblocks the bluffing range which would be comprised of hands such as 98 or some missed flush draws.

What Is The Order Of The Hands Of Poker

Those are the upsides to BERRI’s river raise…but there are downsides to consider.

The problems with the river raise are two-fold:

What Are The Hands Of Poker

1. BERRI shouldn’t have reached this part of the game tree with this hand (at least from a theoretical perspective).
2. He seems to have a tendency to take this kind of line (otherwise makeboifin wouldn’t have made this incredibly ambitious play).

Making crazy aggressive plays is one thing, but doing so when your opponent knows you like to make such plays is very risky. All they have to do is click call.

Wrapping Up

This hand once again goes to show that poker is an ever-evolving game and that the introduction of solvers has only added a new shade to strategy development.

All The Hands Of Poker

That’s all for this article! Stay tuned as I am going to break down some other amazing nosebleed action that took place so far this year.

Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!

Printable Poker Hands Chart

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