Hypothetical concept: 5th Flush in the Deck

Gohaku94

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Hello,
So I was thinking about a hypothetical idea about having a 5th flush in the deck and how would that change things.

The most drastic change i could think of was probably changing the rank of hand and flush would become less valuable than straight because one more flush would reduce the chance to hit your draw by the river more than a straight.

What are your thoughts about it and what would change the most about the game?
 
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OzExorcist

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So... you mean adding an entire new suit (ie: another 13 cards) to the deck, right? Assuming that's the case yes, you'd have to reassess the hand rankings to make sure they were still in line with their probability.

I'm not going to do the full math, but I'm pretty sure it would actually make flushes harder to get, not easier. Say you're four to a flush going to the river. With a regular four-suit deck, 9 of the remaining 46 cards complete your flush, so you'd hit 19.5% of the time. With a five-suit deck you still need one of 9 cards to complete your flush, but now there's 59 unseen cards. You're only 15.2% to hit your flush in that spot.

Other hands can become harder to make too. Say you're open ended going to the river. With a regular deck you've got 8 outs in the remaining 46 cards, for a 17.4% chance to hit. With a five-suit deck you've got 10 outs in the remaining 59 cards for a 16.9% chance. That's not as big of a drop, but it's still a drop.

Long story short, with a fifth suit you may or may not get extra outs (depending on what you're chasing) but you add a lot more brick cards to the deck too.
 
10058765

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interesting concept.
It could create some new hands too, like 5 of a kind, a straight-straight (a straight of 5 suits) and a Royal straight (10 to A with 5 suits).
This would really make all the math way more complex.
 
8bod8

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interesting concept.
It could create some new hands too, like 5 of a kind, a straight-straight (a straight of 5 suits) and a Royal straight (10 to A with 5 suits).
This would really make all the math way more complex.
indeed, interesting concept, but fundamentally the math does not become more complex; with the example given: the human brain needs to handle 12 instead of 9 value levels.

I guess one could also do something similar without a 5th suit, expanding the straight (currently straight = 5 cards, but 4, 3 and maybe 2 can be added) and flush (currently 5 cards, but 4, 3 and 2 can be added; with a flush of 2 cards replacing the current high card). One could argue this makes sense as it complements the "high card-pair-set-quad series".

Maybe the book quoted earlier shines some light on the usefulness/additions/drawbacks.
 
Brandlad

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Very well and to the point explained. I think 52 cards deck is enough to beat us badly. LOL...
 
Gohaku94

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Yeah.. thinking more about it the only thing it would do is make poker harder. It would be harder to calculate outs and ranges and it wouldn't be really benefic for any player, new or old.
 
PHX

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New suit will make the game more harder to win with skill and be more luck dependant. Opening ranges will tighten up and hand values that we know would decrease.

As someone rightly pointed out above on a maths basis a flush will be slightly harder to make as well as straigths. This will reduce the value we place on draws meaning we will need better price to chase draws.
 
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