Optimal starting hand standards can be very sensitive to factors such as the betting structure of a game, position, and the character of the other players, as well as the rules of the game being played.

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Pocket Aces refers to a starting poker hand that contains two Aces. The most common context is a game of Texas Hold’em.Other names for Ace-Ace include American Airlines, bullets, and rockets.

In a conventional game of hold’em, Ace-Ace is the best possible starting hand. It is the best hand before the flop, is the hand most likely to form the best hand after the flop, and in the long run shows the most earning potential of any starting hand. The second-best starting hand is King-King.

It is also possible to have pocket aces in a game of seven-card stud, if the two hole cards are aces.

The odds against being dealt pocket aces are 220:1.

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In poker, the nut hand, or just the nuts, is the strongest hand possible in any particular situation. The term applies mostly to community card poker games to mean the individual holding that makes the strongest hand possible with the given board of community cards. By extension, the term is used more loosely to refer to any very strong hand.For example in Texas hold ‘em, if the board is 5♠ 6♠ A♣ 9♠ 5♥, a player holding 7♠ 8♠ has the nuts (a 9-high straight flush in spades), and cannot lose. Sometimes it is useful to know that your hand is the second or third best possible. On this same board, the hand 5♣ 5♦ would be the second-nut hand, four fives; and the third-nut hand would be any pair of the remaining three aces, making a full house A-A-A-5-5.

In high-low split games one often speaks of “nut low” and “nut high” hands separately. With an Omaha board identical to the one above, any hand with 2-3 makes the nut low 6-5-3-2-A, while 2-4 is the second-nut low (the nut high hands remain the same).

Finally, one also hears terms such as “nut flush” or “nut full house” to mean the highest hand possible in that particular category in the circumstances, even though that may not be strictly the nut hand. For example, a pair of aces with the above board could be called the “nut full house”, even though there are two higher (but very unlikely) hands possible.

The phrase originates from the historical poker games in the colonial west of America. If one bet to the sum of everything he possessed, he would place the “nuts” of his wagon wheels on the table. Most likely, this was to ensure that, should the wagerer lose the hand, he would be unable to flee and would have to make good on the bet. Obviously, to make such a bet one would need to be sure that he has the best possible hand.

There is also a possibility of having a nut losing hand (a hand that will lose to anything). For example, this occurs when the board has four of a kind and a deuce. In this situation, if you hold pocket 2’s, there is no possibility of this hand winning a showdown with any other hand, as any opponent must have a better kicker than you.

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Video: Hand Two – Individual Hand Tutorials

Non-standard poker hands are hands which are not recognized by official poker rules but are created by house rules. Non-standard hands usually appear in games using wild cards or bugs. Other terms for nonstandard hands are special hands or freak hands. Because the hands are defined by house rules, the composition and ranking of these hands is subject to variation. Any player participating in a game with non-standard hands should be sure to determine the exact rules of the game before play begins.The usual hierarchy of poker hands from highest to lowest runs as follows (standard poker hands are in italics):

• Five of a kind: Five cards of the same rank, only possible using one or more wild cards.
• Skeet flush: The same cards as a skeet and all in the same suit.
• Straight flush: The highest straight flush, A-K-Q-J-10 suited, is also called a royal flush.
• Four of a kind: Between two equal sets of four of a kind (possible in wild card and community card poker games), the kicker determines the winner.
• Big bobtail: A four card straight flush (four cards of the same suit in consecutive order).
• Full house
• Flush: When wild cards are used, a wild card contained in a flush is considered to be of the highest rank not already present in the hand. For example, in the hand (Wild) 10♥ 8♥ 5♥ 4♥, the wild card plays as the A♥, but in the hand A♣ K♣ (Wild) 9♣ 6♣, it plays as the Q♣. A variation is the double-ace flush rule, in which a wild card in a flush always plays as an ace, even if one is already present. In such a game, the hand A♠ (Wild) 9♠ 5♠ 2♠ would defeat A♦ K♦ Q♦ 10♦ 8♦ (the wild card playing as an imaginary second A♠), whereas by the standard rules it would lose (because even with the wild card playing as a K♠, the latter hand’s Q♦ outranks the former’s 9♠).
• Big cat: See cats and dogs below.
• Little cat: See cats and dogs below.
• Big dog: See cats and dogs below.
• Little dog: See cats and dogs below.
• Straight: When wild cards are used, the wild card becomes whichever rank is necessary to complete the straight. If two different ranks would complete a straight, it becomes the higher. For example, in the hand J♦ 10♠ 9♣ (Wild) 7♠, the wild card plays as an 8 (of any suit; it doesn’t matter). In the hand (Wild) 6♥ 5♦ 4♥ 3♦, it plays as a 7 (even though a 2 would also make a straight).
• Wheel: The sequence 5-4-3-2-A. This could technically be considered a round-the-corner straight, but is frequently played even if other round-the-corner straights are not allowed, particularly in pai gow poker. When wheels are recognized as distinct from round-the-corner straights, they are ranked as straights: in most games they are considered five-high, and thus the lowest possible straights, but in pai gow poker they rank between king-high and ace-high straights.
• Wrap-around straight: Also called round-the-corner straight. Consecutive cards including an ace which counts as both the high and low card. (Example Q-K-A-2-3).
• Skip straight: Also called alternate straight, Dutch straight, or skipper. Cards are in consecutive order, skipping every other card. (Example 3-5-7-9-J).
• Five and dime: All cards are fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines, or tens with no pair.
• Skeet: Also called pelter or bracket. A hand with a deuce; a three or a four; a five; a six, a seven, or an eight; and a nine.
• Three of a kind
• Little bobtail: A three card straight flush (three cards of the same suit in consecutive order).
• Flash: One card of each suit plus a joker.
• Blaze: Also called blazer. All cards are jacks, queens, or kings.
• Two pair
• Russ: Five cards of the same color.
• Bobtail flush: Also called four flush. Four cards of the same suit.
• Flush house: Three cards of one suit and two cards of another.
• Bobtail straight: Also called four straight. Four cards in consecutive order.
• One pair
• High card

Some poker games are played with a deck that has been stripped of certain cards, usually low-ranking ones. For example, the Australian game of Manila uses a 32-card deck in which all cards below the rank of 7 are removed, and Mexican stud removes the 8s, 9s, and 10s. In both of these games, a flush ranks above a full house, because having fewer cards of each suit available makes full houses more common.

Cats and dogs

“Cats” (or “tigers”) and “dogs” are types of no-pair hands defined by their highest and lowest cards. The remaining three cards are kickers. Dogs and cats rank above straights and below flushes. Usually, when cats and dogs are played, they are the only unconventional hands allowed.

• Little dog: Seven high, two low (for example, 7-6-4-3-2). It ranks just above a straight, and below a flush or any other cat or dog.
• Big dog: Ace high, nine low (for example, A-K-J-10-9). Ranks above a straight or little dog, and below a flush or cat.
• Little cat (or little tiger): Eight high, three low. Ranks above a straight or any dog, but below a flush or big cat.
• Big cat (or big tiger): King high, eight low. It ranks just below a flush, and above a straight or any other cat or dog.

Some play that dog or cat flushes beat a straight flush, under the reasoning that a plain dog or cat beats a plain straight. This makes the big cat flush the highest hand in the game.

Kilters

A Kilter, also called Kelter, is a generic term for a number of different non-standard hands. Depending on house rules, a Kilter may be a Skeet, a Little Cat, a Skip Straight, or some variation of one of these hands.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Poker Hands – Initial Guide

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Whether to continue with a drawing hand is usually a function of pot odds. Typically, if a player with a strong “made hand” suspects another player of being “on a draw”, the player with the made hand will make a strong bet, so that it is mathematically incorrect for the other player to “chase”.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

One of the things that makes no limit Texas hold ‘em strategically rich and interesting is the unusual relationship of advantage and dominance among various Starting hands. For example, the hand A♣ K♦ is a slight favorite over J♠ 10♠; this hand is a slight favorite over 4♠ 4♣; and in a non-transitive relationship, the fours are a small favorite over A♣ K♦. None of these hands dominates any other, but A♣ K♦ does dominate A♥ Q♦, 4♠ 4♣ is dominated by 7♠ 7♥, and J♠ 10♠ is dominated by Q♣ J♣.

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Video: National Heads-up Poker Finals Part 1

In poker, the dead man’s hand is a two-pair hand, namely “aces and eights.” The origin of the name is the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder, which is accepted to have included the aces and eights of both of the black suits (sometimes considered “bullets”).

There are various claims as to the identity of Hickok’s fifth card, and there is also some reason to believe that he had discarded one card, the draw was interrupted by the shooting, and he never got the fifth card due to him.

The Stardust in Las Vegas had a 5 of diamonds on display as the 5th card; in the HBO television series Deadwood, a 9 of diamonds is used; the modern town of Deadwood, South Dakota also uses the 9 of diamonds in displays; and Ripley’s Believe it or Not shows a queen of clubs.

The hand in popular culture

This ominous hand is sometimes used as a portent of death in songs, books and in movies that include

Stagecoach (where a doomed character held the ace of diamonds in place of one black ace, and the queen of hearts as fifth card)
The Plainsman (where Gary Cooper as Hickok held the king of spades as the fifth card)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (in Ken Kesey’s novel McMurphy has a dead man’s hands tattoo)
The collectible card game Doomtown defines a Dead Man’s Hand as having the Jack of Diamonds as the fifth card. In this game, it is considered to outrank any other poker hand, unless an opponent plays the card “That’s Two Pair!” to reduce its rank.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and
Dick Tracy
Along Came a Spider
A Party Poker ad shows a man playing poker against an opponent holding a dead man’s hand with a Five of Diamonds as the fifth card. The camera then pans out to show that the setting is a morgue and the player holding the dead man’s hand is a corpse
Dead Man’s Hand is the name of a first-person shooter for the XBox set in the Old West, which features train trips and shoot-outs on horseback.

Dead Man’s Hand Popular Rockabilly band which originated in Jacksonville, FL and later relocated to Los Angeles known for their blues-rich sound and driving rhythm. Their 1999 full length album, Days You Loved Me, won much acclaim amongst critics and roots music enthusiasts alike.

Bob Dylan’s 1962 song “Rambling Gambling Willie” shows the tradition in these lines:

It was late one evenin’ during a poker game.

A man lost all his money; he said Willie was to blame.

He shot poor Willie through the head, which was a tragic fate.

When Willie’s cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights.

And, in the next verse:

So all you rovin’ gamblers, wherever you might be,

The moral of this story is very plain to see.

Make your money while you can, before you have to stop,

For when you pull that dead man’s hand, your gamblin’ days are up.

Bob Seger’s 1980 song “Fire Lake” make reference to the legend in these lines:

Who wants to play those eights and aces

Who wants a raise

Who needs a stake

Who wants to take that long shot gamble

And head out to fire lake

Motörhead mentions the hand in their 1980 song Ace of Spades in the final verse:

Pushing up the ante, I know you’ve got to see me,

Read ‘em and weep, the Dead Man’s Hand again,

I see it in your eyes, take one look and die,

The only thing you see, you know it’s gonna be,

The Ace Of Spades

Uncle Kracker has based an entire song on the hand, entitled Aces and Eights, where in the refrain, he repeats the lines:

Aces and eights, aces and eights, aces and eights

That’s a dead man’s hand

In Nelson DeMille’s novel The Charm School, the school in question is a Soviet prison camp for American military personnel missing in action forced to serve as role models for future spies, who live with them in a complete simulation of American everyday culture. The prisoners have secretly agreed among themselves on false customs they will teach in order to sabotage their students’ future missions, and DeMille reveals this fact to the reader by describing a poker game where a two-pair hand has just been declared, and a prisoner misleads a student by inappropriately describing it as the dead man’s hand.

Adapting to 7-card games

In five-card games, this category of hands can be succinctly defined as two aces, two eights, and one card of any remaining rank, regardless of suit. In seven-card games, a strict specification of aces and eights is more complicated: in permitting the existence of two pairs, a five-card hand as described also rules out any higher value. Among seven-card hands, as a contrasting example, any with two aces, two eights, and three cards with one other rank in common always provides both two pair and a full house, so a competent player would always set aside the eights and declare the full house; most players would probably thus not consider it a dead man’s hand, any more than they would so consider a full house with aces and eights.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Dead Mans Hand

In poker, players may often use slang terms for particular types of hands. Though most are recent neologisms, others date to poker’s antiquity. All such slang terms typically connect a common concept (from life experience or storytelling) to the hand, in order to more easily characterize its general status relative to other hands. The terms range from whimsical to bawdy, with some being of a racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise controversial nature.

The following lists should not be confused with “official” poker terminology.

Individual card slang

The following table lists slang terms commonly associated with individual cards:

Card	Slang name
A	Bullet, Rocket
K	Cowboy
K♥	Alexander
K♦	Ceasar
K♠	David
K♣	Charles (Charlemagne)
Q	Lady, Bitch, Girl, Cowgirl, Mop Squeezer
Q♥	Judith (may come from Bible)
Q♦	Rachel (may come from Bible)
Q♠	Black Bitch
J	Johnny, Jackal, Knave, Hook (play on shape), Valet (from French)
T	Dime
8	Snowman (play on shape), Ocho (from Spanish)
7	Hockey Stick,Walking Stick, Candy Cane (play on shape)
5	Nickel
4	Sailboat (play on shape)
3	Trey (standard usage, not slang), Crab (play on shape)
2	Deuce (standard usage, not slang), Duck (play on deuce), Quacker (play on duck)

Five-card hand slang

Hand	Slang name
Straight flush, ace to five	Steel wheel
Four of a kind	Book, Quads (e.g., “Quad Kings”)
Four of a kind, aces	Four Pips (Each ace has one pip)
Full house	Full boat, Boat, Full A full house is commonly referred to as Xs full of Ys where X is the three of a kind and Y is the pair. For example, 555KK would be “fives full of kings”
Flush of hearts or diamonds	Pink, All Pink
Flush of clubs or spades	Blue, All Blue
Flush of clubs	Golf Bag, Puppy Feet, Puppy Toes, Pups
Straight, ten to ace	Broadway
Straight, ace to five	Wheel, Bicycle, Bike
Three of a kind	Trips (or Trip as in Ted has trip kings.), Set In Hold ‘em the term “set” refers to when a player has a pair in the hole and one matching card on the board, with “trips” referring to a pair on the board and one in the hand or three of a kind on the board.
Three of a kind, kings	Klan Rally, Alabama Night Riders, Three Wise Men
Three of a kind, sixes	Devil’s hand, Mark of the Beast (referring to the Number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation)
Two pair, aces and eights	Dead Man’s Hand (hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot and killed)
Two pair	Two pair is commonly shorthanded as Xs up or Xs over Ys, with the top pair as X and the bottom pair as Y. For example, KK998 would be “kings up” or “kings over nines”.)
One pair, aces	Aces and spaces (a hand with one pair of aces, and nothing else. Used derogatorily, especially in games such as seven-card stud, where two pair is a typical winning hand)
Outside straight draw	Bobtail, Open-ended An outside straight draw: cards of two different ranks could complete the high or low end of the straight (e.g., _3456_)
Outside straight flush draw	Big Bobtail
Inside straight draw	Gutshot, Belly buster An inside straight draw: only cards of a single rank could complete the straight (e.g., 34_67)
Double inside straight draw	Double gutshot, Double belly buster Double inside straight draw: cards of two different ranks could fill gaps in the straight (e.g., 2_456_8)

Texas hold’em slang

The following refer to hole (pocket) cards in Texas hold ‘em:

Starting hand	Slang name
AA	Pocket Rockets, American Airlines, Bullets, Two Pips
AK	Big Slick (originally referred to A♠K♠, but the name has become common for any Ace-King, especially suited), Anna Kournikova (looks good but rarely wins), Machine Gun (AK-47), Walking Back to Houston (“I can see you learned to play in Houston. Those Houston players would come to Dallas and play that ace-king, but they’d always end up against a pair of aces. That’s why we call that hand ‘Walking back to Houston.’” – T.J. Cloutier, quoted by Barry Greenstein)
AQ	Little Slick, Big Chick, Mrs. Slick
AJ	Blackjack, Ajax
A8	Dead Man’s Hand (by analogy with Wild Bill’s aces and eights)
A3	Baskin-Robbins (plays off the number 31: 31 Flavors), Friday The 13th (An ace played low would be considered equivalent to 1)
A2	Acey-Deucey, Drinking Age
KK	Cowboys, Elvis Presley, King Kong, Ace Magnets
KQ	Marriage, Royalty
KQ suited	Royal Marriage
KQ unsuited	Mixed Marriage
KQ hearts	Valentine’s Day
KJ	Kojak, King John
K9	Canine, Dog, Fido, Sawmill
K3	King Crab, Alaska Hand
QQ	Cowgirls, Ladies, Siegfried & Roy, Hilton Sisters, Olsen Twins, Dykes, Girls with curls, Bitches, Mop squeezers
QJ	Maverick (the theme song for the television series “Maverick” speaks of the title character as “livin’ on jacks and queens”)
QT	Q-Tip, Varkonyi (named after Robert Varkonyi, 2002 World Series of Poker main event champion, who rather liked this hand)
Q9	Quinine
Q7	Computer Hand (according to a computer simulation, the hand of non-connected cards that makes the most straights)
Q3	Gay Waiter, San Francisco Busboy (“Queen with a trey”)
Q3 suited	Posh Gay Waiter
Q♥3♥	Flaming Gay Waiter
JJ	Fishhooks, Hooks, Jokers
JT	Cloutier (play on name: T. J. Cloutier)
J♣9♣	T.J. Cloutier (T.J. flopped three straight flushes with this hand in one year)
J7	Jack Daniel’s (Jack Old No. 7)
J6	Railroad Hand
J5	Motown, Jackson Five
J4	Flat Tire (“What’s a jack for?”)
TT	Dimes, TNT
T5	Five and Dime, Woolworths
T4	Good Buddy, Over and Out, Roger That (play on radio code 10-4), Broderick Crawford
T2	Doyle Brunson, Texas Dolly (Brunson won the World Series of Poker with it twice in a row—1976 and 1977)
99	Wayne Gretzky (his jersey number), German Virgin (“nein, nein” means “no, no” in German)
98	Oldsmobile
96	Big Lick, Porno, Dinner for Two (play on number 69)
96 suited	Prom Night (“Sixty-nine suited”)
9♥6♥	Valentine’s Day
95	Dolly Parton (she sang Workin’ 9 to 5), Full-time job
94	Gold Rush, San Francisco (play off the number 49)
93	The Sik
92	Montana Banana
88	Little Oldsmobile, Snowmen, Infinities , Double Infinity
86	Maxwell Smart (Agent 86 in Get Smart)
83	Raquel Welch
77	Hockey Sticks, Candy Canes, Walking Sticks
76	Philadelphia, Union Oil, Trombones (from the song 76 Trombones)
75	Heinz, Ketchup (play on Heinz’s 57 varieties)
74	Double Down, Blackjack hand
73	Hachem (named for Joseph Hachem, winner of World Series of Poker, 2005 who won the $7.5 million prize with this hand when he flopped a straight)
72 offsuit	The Hammer
72 suited	Velvet Hammer
66	Route 66
62	Ainsworth
55	Presto, Speed Limit, Nickels
54	Jesse James, Colt 45 (both play off the number 45), Moneymaker (winning hand of Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion)
52	Bomber (B-52 bomber)
44	Sailboats (looks like two sails), Midlife Crisis, Magnum, Luke Skywalker (“May the fours be with you”)
4♠4♣	Darth Vader (“Dark Side Of The Fours”)
33	Crabs, Hooters
32	Can of Corn
32 offsuit	Houta Hand (pronounced like “Hooter”, named for a Native American dealer who advocates playing this hand)
22	Ducks (from “deuces”), Swans, Sleepers, Quack Quack
any pocket pair	Wired pair, Wired For example, a starting hand of 8-8 might be called “wired eights” or “eights wired”

In addition, two types of hands are called “blackjack hands”:

• Hands which are naturals in blackjack: any ace with any face or ten.
• Hands whose numeric total is 11: 9-2, 8-3, 7-4, 6-5. (In blackjack, such hands are very good for players.)

Omaha slang

Omaha slang is not as well developed as Texas Hold’em. The game is not as widely played, and there is a much greater variety of hands, since the pocket is four cards. In the hole in Omaha hold’em:

Hand	Slang name
A-K-4-7	Assault Rifle

Flop slang

The following terms refer to the flop in Omaha hold’em and Texas hold’em:

Flop	Slang name
Three different suits	Rainbow
Three face cards	Paint (can also be used to refer to any picture card. I need to hit paint indicates somebody who is looking for a J,Q,K.)
Three low cards	Rags, Ragged flop (cards unlikely to have helped anyone)

References

• Michael Wiesenberg’s Dictionary of Poker

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Ace-to-five

Ace-to-five low is the most common method for evaluating low hands in poker, nearly universal in U.S. casinos, especially in high-low split games.

As in all low hand games, pairs count against the player. That is, any hand with no pair defeats any hand with a pair; one pair hands defeat two pair or three-of-a-kind, etc. No-pair hands are compared starting with the highest ranking card, just as in high poker, except that the high hand loses. In ace-to-five low, straights and flushes are ignored, and aces play as the lowest card.

For example, the hand 8-5-4-3-2 defeats 9-7-6-4-3, because eight-high is lower than nine-high. The hand 7-6-5-4-3 defeats both, because seven-high is lower still, even though it would be a straight if played for high. Aces are low, so 8-5-4-3-A defeats 8-5-4-3-2. Also, A-A-9-5-3 (a pair of aces) defeats 2-2-5-4-3 (a pair of deuces), but both of those would lose to any no-pair hand such as K-J-8-6-4. In the rare event that hands with pairs tie, kickers are used just as in high poker (but reversed): 3-3-6-4-2 defeats 3-3-6-5-A.

This is called ace-to-five low because the lowest (and therefore best) possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A, called a wheel. The next best possible hand is 6-4-3-2-A, followed by 6-5-3-2-A, 6-5-4-2-A, 6-5-4-3-A, 6-5-4-3-2, 7-4-3-2-A, 7-5-3-2-A, etc.

When speaking, low hands are referred to by their highest ranking card or cards. Any nine-high hand can be called “a nine”, and is defeated by any “eight”. Two cards are frequently used: the hand 8-6-5-4-2 can be called “an eight-six” and will defeat “an eight-seven” such as 8-7-5-4-A.

Another common notation is calling a particular low hand “smooth” or “rough.” A smooth low hand is one where the remaining cards after the highest card are themselves very low; a rough low hand is one where the remaining cards are high. For instance, 8-7-6-3-A would be referred to as a “rough eight,” but 8-4-3-2-A would be referred to as a “smooth eight.”

High-low split games with ace-to-five low are usually played cards speak, that is, without a declaration. Frequently a qualifer is required for low (typically 8-high or 9-high). Some hands (particularly small straights and flushes) may be both the low hand and the high hand, and are particularly powerful (or particularly dangerous if they are mediocre both ways). Winning both halves of the pot in a split-pot game is called “scooping” or “hogging” the pot. The perfect hand in such a game is called a “steel wheel”, 5-4-3-2-A of one suit, which plays both as perfect low and a straight flush high. Note that it is possible–though unlikely–to have this hand and still lose money. If the pot has three players, and one other player has a mixed-suit wheel, and a third has better straight flush, the higher straight flush wins the high half of the pot, and the two wheels split the low half, hence the steel wheel wins only a quarter of a three-way pot.

Ace-to-five lowball, a five-card draw variant, is often played with a joker added to the deck. The joker plays as the lowest card not already present in the hand (in other words, it is a wild card): 7-5-4-Joker-A, for example, the joker plays as a 2. This can cause some interesting effects for high-low split games. Let’s say that Alice has 6-5-4-3-2 (called a “straight six”)–a reasonably good hand for both high and low. Burt has Joker-6-5-4-3. By applying the rule for wild cards in straights, Burt’s joker plays as a 7 for high, giving him a seven-high straight to defeat Alice’s six-high straight. For low, the joker plays as an ace–the lowest card not in Burt’s hand–and his hand also defeats Alice for low, because his low hand is 6-5-4-3-A, lower than her straight six by one notch. Jokers are very powerful in high-low split games.

Wheel

A wheel or bicycle is the poker hand 5-4-3-2-A, regardless of suit, which is a five-high straight, the lowest-ranking of the straights.

In ace-to-five low poker, where aces are allowed to play as low and straights and flushes do not count against a hand’s “low” status, this is the best possible hand. In high/low split games, it is both the best possible low hand and a competitive high hand.

The origin of the name “Wheel” probably derives from the Bicycle playing cards issued by the U.S. Playing Card Company.

Ace-to-six

Ace-to-six low is a method for evaluating low hands in poker. It is not as commonly used as the ace-to-five low method, but it is common among home games in the eastern United States, and also common in the United Kingdom (it is the traditional ranking of London lowball, a stud poker variant).

As in all lowball games, pairs and trips are bad: that is, any hand with no pair defeats any hand with a pair; one pair hands defeat two pair or trips, etc. No-pair hands are compared starting with the highest ranking card, just as in high poker, except that the high hand loses. In ace-to-six low, straights and flushes count for high (and are therefore bad), and aces play as the lowest card.

For example, the hand 8-5-4-3-2 defeats 9-7-6-4-3, because eight-high is lower than nine-high. The hand 7-6-5-4-2 defeats both, because seven-high is lower still. The hand 7-6-5-4-3 would lose, because it is a straight. Aces are low, so 8-5-4-3-A defeats 8-5-4-3-2. Also, A-A-9-5-3 (a pair of aces) defeats 2-2-5-4-3 (a pair of deuces), but both of those would lose to any no-pair hand such as K-J-8-6-4. In the rare event that hands with pairs tie, kickers are used just as in high poker (but reversed): 3-3-6-4-2 defeats 3-3-6-5-A.

It is called ace-to-six low because the best possible hand is 6-4-3-2-A, followed by 6-5-3-2-A, 6-5-4-2-A, 6-5-4-3-A, 7-4-3-2-A, 7-5-3-2-A, etc.

When speaking, low hands are referred to by their highest ranking card or cards. Any nine-high hand can be called “a nine”, and is defeated by any “eight”. Two cards are frequently used: the hand 8-6-5-4-2 can be called “an eight-six” and will defeat “an eight-seven” such as 8-7-5-4-A.

A wild card plays as whatever rank would make the lowest hand. Thus, in 6-5-Joker-2-A, the joker plays as a 3, while in Joker-5-4-3-2 it would play as a 7 (an ace or six would make a straight).

High-low split games with ace-to-six low are usually played with a declaration.

Deuce-to-seven

Deuce-to-seven low is a method for evaluating low hands in poker. It is often called “Kansas City” low or just “low poker”. It is almost the direct opposite of standard poker: high hand loses. It is not as commonly used as the ace-to-five low method.

As in all lowball games, pairs and trips are bad: that is, any hand with no pair defeats any hand with a pair; one pair hands defeat two pair or trips, etc. No-pair hands are compared starting with the highest ranking card, just as in high poker, except that the high hand loses. In deuce-to-seven low, straights and flushes count for high (and are therefore bad). Aces are always high (and therefore bad).

For example, the hand 8-5-4-3-2 defeats 9-7-6-4-3, because eight-high is lower than nine-high. The hand 7-6-5-4-2 defeats both, because seven-high is lower still. The hand 7-6-5-4-3 would lose, because it is a straight. Aces are high, so Q-8-5-4-3 defeats A-8-5-4-3. In the rare event that hands with pairs tie, kickers are used just as in high poker (but reversed): 3-3-6-4-2 defeats 3-3-6-5-2.

A special rule is that a wheel is not considered a straight: A-5-4-3-2 is simply ace-high no pair (it would therefore lose to any king-high, but would defeat A-6-4-3-2.

It’s called deuce-to-seven low because the best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2, followed by 7-6-4-3-2, 7-6-5-3-2, 7-6-5-4-2, 8-5-4-3-2, 8-6-4-3-2, etc.

When speaking, low hands are referred to by their highest ranking card or cards. Any nine-high hand can be called “a nine”, and is defeated by any “eight”. Two cards are frequently used: the hand 8-6-5-4-2 can be called “an eight-six” and will defeat “an eight-seven” such as 8-7-5-4-2.

Another common notation is calling a particular low hand “smooth” or “rough.” A smooth low hand is one where the remaining cards after the highest card are themselves very low; a rough low hand is one where the remaining cards are high. For instance, 8-7-6-4-2 would be referred to as a “rough eight,” but 8-5-4-3-2 would be referred to as a “smooth eight.”

Wild cards are rarely used in deuce-to-seven games, but if used they play as whatever rank would make the lowest hand. Thus, in 7-6-Joker-3-2, the joker plays as a 4, while in Joker-5-4-3-2 it would play as a 7 (a six would make a straight, and an ace would make ace-five high).

High-low split games with deuce-to-seven low are usually played with a declaration.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.