Most Powerful Card In Poker

If you’re new to playing video poker, it’s crucial to have a solid understanding of the different hands and how you can achieve them. All payouts are dictated by the combinations of hands in this game, and as there are so many different variations of video poker, these amounts can vary quite often. This is why we’ve outlined all of the hands you will come across in video poker, along with where each one fits into the paytable.

The is the best possible hand you can get in standard five-card Poker is called a royal flush. This hand consists of an: ace, king, queen, jack and 10, all of the same suit. If you have a royal flush, you'll want to bet higher because this is a hard hand to beat. Liliboas / Getty Images. The Ace is the most powerful card in nearly all forms of poker, and starting with two of them puts you in a fine early position. However, there are still five community cards to come, which may possibly help your opponents more than you and cause them to overtake you by the time the showdown arrives. The next most powerful starting hand is two Kings.

Royal Flush

Royal flushes are the most coveted hands in any variation of video poker. These powerful combos can see you earn a payout of up to 4000 coins on a full pay game of video poker. A royal flush consists of a five-card hand of 10-J-Q-K-A, which must be of the same denomination.

A royal flush tends to pay out around 200 to 300 times your bet and in a variation like Jacks or Better, royal flushes award 250x times your bet. It’s worth noting that practically all versions of video poker provide a bonus for scoring a royal flush. This is only when you’ve wagered the maximum number of coins, though.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that in progressive video poker games, the jackpot is paid out to the first player who hits a royal flush. Certain versions of video poker require the cards in hand to be in sequence, aka, 10-J-Q-K-A, to be eligible to win the jackpot.

While the probability of achieving a royal flush on the first deal is around 1 in every 649,740 hands, drawing cards and scoring a royal throughout any point in the game gives much more favorable odds of about 1 in every 40,000 hands.

Straight Flush

A straight flush is the next best hand you can achieve in any game of video poker. This is a hand that consists of five cards of the same denomination that appear in a sequence (except a royal flush: 10-J-Q-K-A). An example of this hand could be something like 3-4-5-6-6 of diamonds.

Straight flushes typically award a payout between 40 and 60 times your original stake. A payout of 50 times your bet is paid out for a straight flush in games like Jacks or Better. On the first deal, the probability of hitting a straight flush around 1 in every 72,000 hands. These odds increase considerably when a draw is included.

Four of a Kind

Next up is four of a kind, which is the third-best paying hand in video poker. This hand is exactly what it says on the tin and consists of four cards of the same suit. An example of this hand could be K-K-K-K-8.

In most video poker games, four-of-a-kind hands usually pay out around 20 to 30 times your betting amount, and 25x in games like Jacks or Better. The probability of hitting a four of a kind on the first deal is about 1 in 4,000 hands. Like the other paying hands, the odds became more favorable when the player draws.

A bonus that four of a kind offers that the other hands don’t is a higher payout for a combination of four deuces. In games like Deuces Wild or Looses Deuces, the payout for this hand is 200x your bet.

Full House

The fourth best possible hand is a full house. This hand needs to include three of one card and two of another, i.e., 6-6-9-9-9 of any suit.

In most video poker games, full houses usually pay out up to 9 times your bet, including in games like Jacks or Better. However, some Jacks or Better games only pay out 8x your bet if they aren’t full pay machines, which is why it’s worth checking the paytable of any game you choose to play beforehand.

The probability of hitting a full house on the first deal is 1 in every 700 hands, and the odds increase significantly when a draw is included.

Flush

The fifth best hand in video poker is a flush. This hand needs to consist of five cards of the same suit in no particular order. An example of a flush would be 2-6-4-K-A of spades. Bear in mind that scoring a hand with a 5-6-7-8-9 of spades wouldn’t be a flush because the cards are sequential — making it a straight flush.

These hands typically pay out between 4x and 6x your wager and 6x on a full pay version of Jacks or Better. On Jacks or Better games that aren’t full pay, the payout for a flush is 5x. The probability of making a flush on the first draw is 1 in every 500 hands.

Straight

Straights are the sixth-best hands in all variations of video poker. This consists of five cards in a sequence of various suits. An example of a straight would be 2-3-4-5-6. If the cards are all of the same suit, the hand would be a straight flush.

These hands typically award between 3x and 4x your original stake and a payout of 4x in games like Jacks or Better. The probability of achieving a straight on the first deal is 1 in every 256 hands.

Three of a Kind

The seventh best-paying hand in video poker is a three of a kind. These hands need to include three cards of the same suit. For example, a Q-Q-Q-K-4 would be a three of a kind. A hand that includes a three of a kind and a pair is a full house.

This hand typically pays out 3x your original stake in games like Jacks or Better, plus most other non-wildcard variations of video poker. The probability of achieving a three of a kind on the first deal is about 1 in every 50 hands.

Two Pair

The eighth best hand is a two pair. This hand also consists of what it sounds like and needs to include two individual pairs of different cards, i.e., 4-4-J-J-7.

The payout for a two pair is 2x your original stake in games like Jacks or Better, plus most other non-wildcard variations of video poker. The probability of achieving a two pair on the first deal is 1 in every 20 hands.

Most Powerful Card In Pokemon

Pair

The ninth-best and easiest paying hand you can score in video poker is a pair.

A pair is the minimum needed to score a payout in video poker and must include two of the same card of any suit, i.e., J-J-3-7-4.

This hand typically awards 1x your wager amount in most variations of video poker, which means you’ll get even money. It’s worth noting that not every pair pays out, and the pair usually has to include a pair of Jacks or higher in most games. In Tens or Better, a pair of tens is needed to qualify for a payout.

The probability of achieving a pair on the first deal is approximately 1 in every 2.381 hands. The odds increase considerably when you include a draw.

The Joker is a playing card found in most modern French-suited card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades). From the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in Spanish- and Italian-suited decks, excluding stripped decks. The Joker originated in the United States during the Civil War, and was created as a trump card for the game of Euchre. It has since been adopted into many other card games, where it often acts as a wild card, but may have other functions such as the top trump, a skip card (forcing another player to miss a turn), the lowest-ranking card or the highest-value card. By contrast, a wild card is any card that may be used to represent another card or cards; it need not be a Joker. The Joker is unique within the French pack in that it lacks an industry-wide standard appearance.

Origin[edit]

In the game of Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer or Jack); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps.^[1][2] The concept appears to have originated from Germany where the games Juckerspiel and Bester Bube ('Best Bower') also used Jacks as best, right and left bowers. Around 1860, American Euchre players may have devised a higher trump, the 'Best Bower', out of a blank card.^[3]

Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated 'Best Bower' card in 1863 with his 'Imperial Bower'.^[4][5] Best Bower-type Jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th century. Cards labelled 'Joker' began appearing around the late 1860s, with some depicting clowns and jesters. It is believed that the term 'Joker' comes from Jucker or Juckerspiel, the original German spelling of Euchre.^[6][7] One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871.^[8] The first Joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874.^[9] Italians call Jokers 'Jolly', for many early cards were labelled 'Jolly Joker'.^[10]

The next game to use a Joker was poker around 1875, where it functioned as a wild card.^[11] Packs with two Jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of Canasta.^[12][13][14] Since the 1950s, German and Austrian packs have included three Jokers to play German Rummy; in Poland the third Joker is known as the blue Joker; and in Schleswig-Holstein, Zwickern packs come with six Jokers.^[15]

Appearance[edit]

Jokers do not have any standardized appearance across the card manufacturing industry. Each company produces their own depictions of the card. The publishers of playing cards trademark their Jokers, which have unique artwork that often reflect contemporary culture.^[16] Out of convention, Jokers tend to be illustrated as jesters. There are usually two Jokers per deck, often noticeably different. For instance, the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) prints their company's guarantee claim on only one. At times, the Jokers will each be colored to match the colors used for suits; e.g., there will be a red Joker and a black Joker. In games where the Jokers may need to be compared, the red, full-color, or larger-graphic Joker usually outranks the black, monochrome, or smaller-graphic one. If the Joker colors are similar, the Joker without a guarantee will outrank the guaranteed one. With the red and black Jokers, the red one can alternately be counted as a Heart/Diamond and the black one can alternately be counted as a Club/Spade. The Unicode for playing cards provide symbols for three Jokers: red, black, and white.

Many decks do not provide the Joker with a corner index symbol; of those that do, the most common is a solid five-pointed star or a star within a circle. It is also very common for decks to simply use a stylized 'J' or the word 'JOKER' in the corner.

Collecting[edit]

Joker collecting has been popular for an unknown amount of time, but with the advent of the Internet and social media, it has emerged as a hobby. Many unusual Jokers are available for purchase online, while other collectible Jokers are catalogued online for viewing. Guinness World Records has recognized Denoto de Santis, an Italian magician, as having the world's largest collection of Jokers.^[17]

Tarot and Tarock card games[edit]

The Joker is often compared to '(the) Fool' in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In central Europe, the Fool, or Sküs, is the highest trump; elsewhere as an 'excuse' (L'Excuse) that can be played at any time to avoid following suit, but cannot win.

Cartomancy[edit]

Practitioners of cartomancy often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot. Sometimes, the two Jokers are used. An approach is to identify the 'black' Joker with a rank of zero with the Fool and the 'red' Joker with 'the Magician', also known as 'the Juggler', which is a card with a rank of one that is somewhat similar in interpretation and is considered the first step in the 'Fool's Journey'.

Use of the Joker in card games[edit]

In a standard deck, there are usually two Jokers. The Joker's use varies greatly. Many card games omit the card entirely; as a result, Jokers are often used as informal replacements for lost or damaged cards in a deck by simply noting the lost card's rank and suit on the Joker. Other games, such as a 25-card variant of Euchre which uses the Joker as the highest trump, make it one of the most important in the game. Often, the Joker is a wild card, and thereby allowed to represent other existing cards. The term 'Joker's wild' originates from this practice.

The Joker can be an extremely beneficial, or an extremely harmful, card. In Euchre it is often used to represent the highest trump. In poker, it is wild. However, in the children's game named Old Maid, a solitary Joker represents the Old Maid, a card that is to be avoided.

Role in multi-player games[edit]

• Euchre, 500: As the highest trump or 'top Bower'.
• Canasta: The Joker, like the deuce, is a wild card. However, the Joker is worth 50 points in melding, as opposed to 20 for the deuce.
• Gin Rummy: a wild card, able to be used as any necessary rank or suit to complete a meld.
• Chase the Joker: An alternative version of Old Maid, where the Joker card is used instead of the Ace.
• Poker: A Joker can be wild, or can be a 'bug', a limited form of wild card which can only be used to complete straights and flushes.
• War: In some variations, beats all other cards.
• Pitch: A point card in some variations. Jokers usually are marked as 'High' and 'Low', one outranking the other.
• Daihinmin: a wild card, or a deuce (which ends the round and clears the discard pile).
• Crazy Eights: a 'skip' card, playable on top of any other card, that forces the next player to lose a turn.
• Spades: uncommon, but can fulfill one of two roles. When playing with three or six players, they are added to make the cards deal evenly (18 or nine cards each, respectively). They are either 'junk' cards playable anytime that cannot win a trick, or they count as the two highest trumps (the two Jokers must be differentiable; the 'big Joker' outranks the 'little Joker'). They also can be used in conjunction with teammates cards to create a pseudo-'trump', i.e. an Ace of Hearts and Joker played together would be counted as an Ace of Spades, inferior only to a natural Ace of Spades.
• Double King Pede: As the lowest-ranked card, but worth 18 points.
• Go Fish: In a game with two players, the Joker pair is often used to bring the number of pairs to 27 and prevent a 13-13 tie.
• Dou dizhu: Jokers are used as the highest value cards; one is little and one is big, usually the colored one being bigger. Both Jokers together is the only unbeatable play.

Role in patience (solitaire) games[edit]

Generally, the Joker is omitted from patience games as in many others of its type. However, there are variations of solitaire games where a Joker does take part, most often as a wild card.

• Forty Thieves: the Joker is placed on the foundations, while the natural card is unavailable. Any applicable cards are placed over the Joker. When the natural card becomes available, it replaces the Joker, which in turn is placed on the top of the foundation pile. When the Joker is placed on an empty foundation, it stays there until an Ace appears.
• Freecell: the Joker functions the same way as mentioned above, but when the natural card it replaces becomes available and the Joker is placed on top, the Joker can be placed on another foundation.
• Golf: where Kings can be built, the Joker, whenever available, is placed on the wastepile as a wild card and any card can be placed over it.
• Klondike: the Joker acts the same way as it is in Forty Thieves. It can also be built while it is still on the tableau. The United States Playing Card Company's version, created by Joli Quentin Kansil, uses two Jokers, with the black joker to be used as a wild black card and the red joker as a wild red card. [1]
• Pyramid: the Joker is discarded together with any available card. In this case, the stock is dealt one card at time and can be reused twice.
• Aces Up: The Jokers are used to clear out a row and are sometimes referred to as 'Joker Bombs'. When a Joker is dealt into a column, the entire column is reshuffled into the stock and that particular Joker is removed from the game. This leaves an empty foundation slot and greatly increases the win rate.

References[edit]

1. ^Parlett, David (1990), The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, p. 190, ISBN0-19-214165-1
2. ^Beal, George. Playing cards and their story. 1975. New York: Arco Publishing Comoany Inc. p. 58
3. ^Trumps The modern pocket Hoyle. 1868. New York; Dick & Fitzgerald. p. 94.
4. ^Dawson, Tom and Judy. (2014). The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Ch. 5.
5. ^Wintle, Simon. Samuel Hart at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
6. ^Parlett, David. Euchre at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
7. ^Joker at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
8. ^Wintle, Simon (10 April 2008). 'The Evolution, History, and Imagery of Playing Cards'. Collectors Weekly. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
9. ^Goodall, Michael. (2001). 'The Origin of the First English Joker'. The Playing-Card Vol. 29, p.244-246
10. ^Anderson, Matthew. 'The foreign words that seem like English - but aren't'. BBC Culture. BBC Online. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
11. ^Parlett, David (1990), The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, p. 191, ISBN0-19-214165-1
12. ^Powills, Dorothy. (1989). 'A Voice From the Past'. Chicago Playing Cards Collectors Bulletin. Vol. 36-3, p. 1809.
13. ^McLeod, John. (2005). 'Playing the Game: Canasta Relatives'. The Playing-Card, Vol. 34-2, p.141.
14. ^Wintle, Simon. Canasta at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
15. ^McLeod, John. Zwickern at pagat.com. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
16. ^'playing card joker collection'. dotpattern. 2003-06-07. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
17. ^'Guinness World Records'. February 14, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2018.

What Is The Strongest Card In Poker

External links[edit]

• Media related to Jokers (playing card) at Wikimedia Commons