The Best Poker Hands

March 25th, 2008

When talking about the best hand in poker, people immediately think about the Royal Flush. While that is indeed the best possible five-card hand in poker, it is so rare, it can hardly be considered a hand that one shall win a lot of money on. A truly good poker hand is always the one that you win big on, regardless of its value.

Players call it “the perfect hand”. The perfect hand can be anything from a mere high card to a Royal Flush, its value not lent to it by its own strength but rather but the strength of the hand it goes up against.

If you ever came across a monster of a hand, only to have everyone fold on you, you can probably appreciate the value of the perfect hand.

If you have a set of 9s and your opponent has a set of 8s, 7s or even 2s, then you have the perfect hand. A perfect hand means that you won’t run into any trouble getting your opponent all-in, because his hand will give him enough confidence to attempt to get you all-in.

If your hand is a high card A, and your opponent’s hand is a high card K, that’s another example of a perfect hand on one hand, on the other hand though, you’re not likely to be called all-in on a high card. That means your opponent needs to have something, something that gives him enough confidence to call you.

Trips can be exploited nicely in this respect. In a recent online poker game, I flopped a set of 7s, which I slow-played on the turn, and then tried to trap someone all-in on the river. The board texture looked nice, and I got called by one of the players. At showdown he showed me two pairs against my trips. In that instance, three sevens were indeed the perfect hand.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself at the receiving end of such situations. There’s nothing more disheartening in the world than when you see your monster fall to a marginally better hand. Very few people can spot such situations, although sometimes they are rather obvious. The difficult ones require master player reading skills. Dodging a bullet, as Phil Hellmuth once called it, is not something you’re likely to achieve in online poker although you might if you get a really good read on someone based on his/her betting patterns.

At first glance, it doesn’t really look like you can do anything to facilitate such perfect hands to come by and –what’s more – to go down in your favor, but you can do something. It all comes down to implied odds. A,x suited carries excellent implied odds in this respect. If you do hit a flush on a hand like that, yours will be the nut flush, which means regardless of the flush your opponent makes, you’ll win the hand. Of course, you’d like him to make a K high one, which would give you an excellent return, but even if he only hits a J or 10 high one, he’ll be tempted to call you, or even re-raise you for an all-in, because a large part of your flush remains hidden. That’s why it pays to see a cheap flop on a hand like that whenever possible, because you actually stand a pretty good chance to make a flush with it, and if you do, your winnings are likely to far exceed your losses counting all those times when you do not make a hand.

It’s a small trick you might want to exploit, because that is what winning poker is about at the end of the day: the systematic exploitation of such small edges.

While at it, do not forget to take advantage of small edges – like rakeback – that are not directly play-related.

They’ll boost your winnings or keep you out of trouble if you’re a break-even player.

Remember, the best poker hand is always the one that beats someone who’s eager to go all-in against you.

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