Hand rankings

Is it just me, but does anyone else think that straights should be ranked higher than flushes??? They are in brag. Just curious!

yea and aren't straights percent-wise more difficult to catch than flushes?

open ended straights are barely less likely to fall by the river. 4 flush has 9 outs openend straights have 8....

think about it this way, there are only 13 cards of any given suit. You have to pick up 1/3 of them. As for straits, there are a ton of ways to get them. a5, 26,37,48,59,610,7j, 8q, 9k, 10a. there are four of every card. Therefore you have a ton of chances. That is IMO why flushes are higher than straights.

S'pose, but how many times do you see carefully crafted hands fall by the wayside when the 4th flush card hits!

Straights are simply lower than flushes because of the fact that the % chance of getting a straight, before the cards are dealt, is HIGHER than the chance of getting a flush. Sure, catching a spade on the river is easier than catching an open ended straight, but thats assuming that you already have 4 of those spades. Statistically, flushes are less likely to happen, which is why they are ranked higher.

In brag you only get 3 cards, the odds of getting 3 out of 13 is a lot lower than getting 5 out of 13. lower the odds means easier to catch, there is no way i can work the odds for the straights but i would imagine its the opposite ( so many more variations )

[size=-1]Probablilty of any flush from a random 7 cards is ~0.03, probability of any straight is ~0.045, hence the ranking. It might not seem like this from experience because in free games and at low limits people are more likely to get into and stay in pots with suited cards than connectors, so flushes may tend to come up more.[/size]

Statisically straights are easier than flushes.

But, the brings up another poker hand that I have always been curious about.

Isn't a A to 5 Straight Flush just as hard to get as a 10 to A straight flush? They are both closed on one end.

Now 2 to 6 throught 9 to K straight flush are all the sames odds.

But, I would think A to 5 straight flushes should be as hard to get as a Royal.

Just a thought that has been rattling around in my head for a few years.

Anyone care to give a shot at answering that.

HoldemChamp said:

Statisically straights are easier than flushes.

But, the brings up another poker hand that I have always been curious about.

Isn't a A to 5 Straight Flush just as hard to get as a 10 to A straight flush? They are both closed on one end.

Now 2 to 6 throught 9 to K straight flush are all the sames odds.

But, I would think A to 5 straight flushes should be as hard to get as a Royal.

Just a thought that has been rattling around in my head for a few years.

Anyone care to give a shot at answering that.

Click to expand...

Not really true - there are 4 ways to get an A-5 straight flush, (one way for each suit), and there are 4 ways to get any other specific straight flush (e.g for a flush from 2-6 there's still only one way for each suit). Just because you can't get a straight flush from say QKA23 suited doesn't make an A2345 straight flush any less likely than a 23456 one from a purely statistical way of thinking, and not taking into account the possibility of a person folding a hand (for example because 2345 suited with 8 outs to the straight and 2 to the straight flush is a stronger draw than A234 suited, with only 4 outs to a lower straight, and a single out to the straight flush).

Of course, a royal flush is just as likely to come up as any one particular given straight flush (i.e prob. of TJQKA suited = prob. of 45678 suited), but there are lots (comparatively) of different straight flush possibilities (5 high, 6 high etc..), making the royal 9 times less likely to come up than ANY straight flush.

Well,

Yeah... A10 royal is less likely than any other straight. I was talking about A to 5 in particular.

Also. I kind was leaning towards meaning. Let's say you have 3456 suited you have 2 open ends to fill to make the Striaght flush.

If you have akqj or a234 both only have one open end so they would be equal as far as odds of getting them.

If you speak in terms of having no cards yet. A to 10 and A to 5 Straight Flushes should be just as hard to get.

That is the point I was trying to get across. At least if I am right about that.

Of course if I have 34 67 in my hand and some guy has AKQJ in his hand both of use needing one card to make a straight fluhs his royal. Well, we both have the same chance of catching it then.