A Special Look at Non Standard Hand Rankings in Poker

A famous, challenging, prominent, strategic and interactive game, poker attracts many people because it has unique and fascinating features. One of the fascinating features of poker is hand rankings, which are the basis for determining winners in poker contests and money games. In other kinds of poker, hand rankings are significant in the sense that the payouts of players depend on the hand that they have.

Even if poker hand ranking is an important element of the game, few players know or have backgrounds on non standard hand rankings. Non standard hand rankings are not commonly use in the famous variations of poker. However, many casinos feature poker variants that use non standard hand rankings since they add excitement to the game.

Five of a Kind and Big Bobtail

Five of a kind refers to a hand in poker wherein all the player's cards have the same rank. However, this hand is only possible to get if a casino uses several decks of cards, or if a casino adds joker to its poker tables. Big bobtail has similarities with straight flush, but, only four of the five cards of the player are in order and have the same symbol.

Flash and Blaze

Do not confuse flash with flush because these two hands are totally different from each other. Flash consists of a joker and four cards that have different suits. On the other hand, blaze refers to a poker hand wherein all the cards of players are kings, queens and jacks.

Skip Straight and Flush House

Alternate straight, skipper, Dutch straight and kangaroo straight are other terms that refer to skip straight. This poker hand follows a particular pattern, skipping each of the card, but still in order. A valid example of skip straight is a hand that has a two, four, six, eight and ten. Meanwhile, flush house refers to a hand that consists of cards that only have two different suits. An example of flush house is a hand that has three of clubs, five of clubs, six of clubs, jack of hearts and an ace of hearts.

It is good to know that some players have a background on non standard hand rankings. The hand rankings that this article mentions are only few of non standard poker hand rankings. Even if these hand rankings are not commonly use in casinos, players must still know them to create an impression that they are knowledgeable on poker, thus, giving ideas to opponents that they are difficult to beat in money games and tournaments.