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Stuart Rutter's Poker Strategies - Hand Evaluation

Beginners’ strategy - Hand Evaluation

If you watch any poker programme on the TV, they will list the ranking of poker hands in order in an attempt to explain their value. This, however, is only a tiny part of the equation. The value of a hand depends not just on its name, but all kinds of things to do with the board and the situation.

I’ll give you three different hands which all fit into the same category, but differ massively in strength. Test yourself by seeing each time if you can put the hands into order of strength:

Top pair

In what order would you rank the value of hitting these hands?

A) Ace of Clubs - Hand EvaluationAce of Spades - Hand Evaluation on King of Spades - Hand EvaluationNine of Hearts - Hand EvaluationEight of Clubs - Hand Evaluation

B) Ace of Clubs - Hand EvaluationKing of Hearts - Hand Evaluation on King of Spades - Hand EvaluationTen of Hearts - Hand EvaluationTwo of Clubs - Hand Evaluation

C) Ace of Clubs - Hand EvaluationNine of Spades - Hand Evaluation on Nine of Hearts - Hand EvaluationSeven of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationTwo of Clubs - Hand Evaluation

Answer

The weakest is of course hand C). Quite simply, it is losing to more hands than the other two, namely tens, queens and jacks.

The strongest hand, however, is counter-intuitive. I am going to claim that it is B), rather than the pocket aces in A).

In general, it is better to hit top pair top kicker on a high board than it is to hold the overpair. With the top pair and kicker, you hold one of the key cards (in this case the King of Hearts - Hand Evaluation ), and so narrow down the possibilities for you to be beaten. You will also hold more outs if your opponent holds a nasty hand like bottom two pair, as you can of course hit your ace kicker in addition to your king.

If you hold aces and it comes a even greater “action” board, like Ten of Hearts - Hand EvaluationEight of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationSeven of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation, you are actually in even worse shape than with Ace of Clubs - Hand EvaluationNine of Spades - Hand Evaluation on the more controlled board C).

Bottom two pair

A mid-position player has raised before the flop, and you are the sole caller from the big blind. In what order would you rank these hands?

A) Seven of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationFive of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation on Ace of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationSeven of Clubs - Hand EvaluationFive of Spades - Hand Evaluation
B) Queen of Hearts - Hand EvaluationSeven of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation on Ace of Spades - Hand EvaluationQueen of Spades - Hand EvaluationJack of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation
C) Six of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationFive of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation on Queen of Spades - Hand EvaluationSix of Hearts - Hand EvaluationFive of Clubs - Hand Evaluation

All of these hands give you the bottom two pair, but which is the strongest hand? We are going to think of the hands according to three different categories:

1) The chance that your opponent has hit one pair- This is exactly what you want, so that your opponent will find it difficult to get away from his hand. This is of course always more likely with an ace on board as in A) and B), which is why hitting bottom two pair with an ace on board can be such a gem.

2) The chance that you could be beat- If you are beaten, bottom two pair is a nightmare hand. You will be drawing almost dead to outdraw your opponent, but at the same time will find it very difficult to release your hand. Board B) is the most dangerous in this respect; Ace of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationQueen of Clubs - Hand Evaluation and Ace of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationJack of Spades - Hand Evaluation are very typical hands for a raise from mid position, and will have you in horrible shape. Board A) is perfect, as a hand like Ace of Spades - Hand EvaluationSeven of Spades - Hand Evaluation or Ace of Hearts - Hand EvaluationFive of Hearts - Hand Evaluation is far less likely.


3) Outdraws - the number of dangers of your opponent making a straight or flush - A made hand like two pair is always best on  an dry textured (non-action) board, as the danger is minimal. On the Ace of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationSeven of Clubs - Hand EvaluationFive of Spades - Hand Evaluation board A), there is virtually no hand which is drawing against you. The Ace of Spades - Hand EvaluationQueen of Spades - Hand EvaluationJack of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation board leaves you much more vulnerable. There is a possible flush draw, and even a hand like Ace of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationKing of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation is drawing to nine outs (three kings, two aces and four tens against you).

Solution

Board A) is the strongest two pair to hold in every respect; any two pair on a low, non-drawing board is a true “cinch” hand. Board C) is a safe two pair, but less likely to get you action, and board B) is by far the weakest. There is a danger you are beat, and even the hand you are hoping for, ace-king, is drawing very live against you.

For this reason, it may be worth making the safety play of flat-calling on the flop, and waiting to see what the turn brings. If it is a spade, ace, king or ten, you may be successful in slowing down the action, or even passing your two pair if your opponent shows enough strength.

Three of a kind

There are of course two different ways to hit three of a kind; when you hold a pocket pair and hit your third card, it is often known as trips. How would you rank these three hands in order?

A) Ace of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationTen of Diamonds - Hand Evaluation on Ace of Spades - Hand EvaluationAce of Clubs - Hand EvaluationNine of Spades - Hand Evaluation
B) Seven of Spades - Hand EvaluationSeven of Clubs - Hand Evaluation on Ace of Spades - Hand EvaluationSeven of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationTwo of Clubs - Hand Evaluation
C) Six of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationSix of Spades - Hand Evaluation on Eight of Spades - Hand EvaluationSeven of Spades - Hand EvaluationSix of Hearts - Hand Evaluation

Solution

Hand B) is by far the strongest set to hit, and is a true dream hand. There is very little chance of being outdrawn, and your hand is very well disguised on a very innocuous-looking board. You hope that your opponent holds an Ace of Clubs - Hand EvaluationKing of Spades - Hand Evaluation hand, and this will be very difficult for him to pass when he can see so few hands that have him beat. A set is always even better with an ace on board, and it is well worth betting out big into your opponent. If he holds the hand you want him to, you may well trap him into a massive pot.

Hand C) is still a good hand, but ranks as the last of our three as one of the weakest sets that you could ever hit. There are now multiple hands that have you beat, and even a hand like Ace of Spades - Hand EvaluationNine of Spades - Hand Evaluation will be racing against you (it has 15 outs). Another weakness is of course that your hand is not at all disguised. If you show strength on such a dangerous board, a decent opponent should be able to get away from a hand like Jack of Diamonds - Hand EvaluationJack of Hearts - Hand Evaluation.

Hand B) is of course the other type of  “three of a kind” hand, and this type is not as strong as most sets. Every pocket pair hand is drawing live against this hand. If one it hits for a full house, could be devastating for you. It is actually best to bet these hands out strongly- partly because you will not be believed for strength when you bet, but also because you need to charge any pocket pair hands to “draw” against you.

See the 32Red Poker page for more on learning poker.

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