Poker Hands and Percentages

+ A few scenarios and helpful hints (part 1)

Here are the chances of achieving certain hands in poker:

Royal Flush 1 in 649,740.00
Straight Flush 1 in 72,193.33
Four of a Kind 1 in 4,165.00
Full House 1 in 694.16
Flush 1 in 508.80
Straight 1 in 254.80
Three of a Kind 1 in 47.32
Two Pairs 1 in 21.03
One Pair 1 in 2.36
No Pair Hand 1 in 1.99


It is interesting to note, the odds of not improving your holding cards at all from their pre-flop state is roughly 1:2. There are seemingly so many things that can happen to make a good hand in Texas Holdem, yet you have an even chance of not getting anything. Further still, these percentages assume that you are able to see all five cards, (flop, turn, and river).


That is why bluffing takes place. If someone had a great hand every time, there would be no need to bluff. You will only pair a hand on the flop one third of the time, yet betting occurs on almost every flop. Ever wonder why!? That is why the aggressive players are the winning players in poker, because in order to win pots, you must bet when you don't have anything.


There is something else that some people may not be aware of. Pocket Aces are not invincible! Sure, against one person in the hand, you have roughly an 85 percent chance of winning, however, once the number of people in the hand increases, your aces decrease in value. For instance, against 5 other players you have a 49 percent chance of winning the hand. Also consider, if you end up loosing the hand, it will in all likely hood be a crippling loss because no one can get off aces cheaply.


As you go down the ladder with hands, your chances of winning of course goes down. Pocket Kings give you around an 82 percent chance of winning against one person, and further down the list, pocket Tens yield a 75 percent chance of winning against one person. That is not as high as many may think, but by knowing some of the basic odds, you will be able to lay down some tough hands.


These percentages should also raise some flags on the dangers of limping into the pot with big hands. Imagine if you get the aces and decide to ?slow play? with a limp into the hand. If you let too many people see the flop for cheap, you will have a chance of loosing to a player in the big blind holding 9-4 off suit. Never make the mistake of ?not wanting to scare people off?. In doing so, you will scare away all of your chips. <--Look how clever I am.


One last nugget of information: suited cards only add three percent to your hand. Hands like 9-10 suited are definitely playable, but do not expect to hit a flush too often. Too many times people call large raises with a marginal hands and use the excuse, ?they were suited!? It doesn't matter if they are suited, throw away 6-2 of hearts!