The Low-Down on Three Card Poker Hand Rankings

Poker is an extremely diverse family of games with different rules, betting structures, and inter-player relations. However, there is one thing that holds all of them together: the hand ranking system. A lot of poker fans are more familiar with five-card hand rankings, perhaps because five-card games happen to be the most popular ones. Indeed, many online sources discussing hand rankings will assume that you are only interested in those for five-card games.

Still, the FullTilt poker family would not be complete without games that do not use five-card hands, such as Three Card Poker. Of course, the plain fact that the number of cards is lower means that five-card rankings cannot be “translated” into three-card games without a little adjustment. Below, in descending order, are the hands to look out for in Three Card Poker.

Straight Flush

This is very similar to the five-card straight flush. Basically, it means that you have a group of cards all from the same suit, which are in perfect numerical sequence. For instance: Eight, Nine, and Ten, all hearts. However, not all straight flushes are equal. The higher the numerical value of your straight flush, the better. In that case, your best possible hand would be a royal flush, which would be an Ace, King, and Queen of the same suit.

Three of a Kind

This basically means three cards of the exact same rank. (Differing suits, of course. If you have two cards of the same rank and suit around, either your deck/dealing process is faulty or someone has just been caught cheating.) Once again, the highest numerical rank wins (i.e. three Sixes beat three Fours, etc.). You will notice that the Three of a Kind hand has a privileged position in this game. Since a hand has only three cards, players have less leeway than they would in a five-card hand, where two of the cards would be extraneous. In effect, a player in a five-card hand game would have two extra chances to get this hand right, but in Three Card Poker, those chances do not exist.

Straight

This would be a group of three cards in numerical order. The higher the value, the better.

Flush

Again, this is very similar to the five-card version of the hand. It is basically a straight flush, but with not all of the cards being of the same suit.

Pair

This would be two cards with the same value, plus an “extra” card. The higher the FullTiltPoker.net download value of the paired cards the better. However, it is possible that two players will get pairs of the same value (i.e. each player has two of the Queens). In that case, the tie-breaker would be the value of the extra card.

Nothing/High Card

Sometimes, a showdown happens wherein none of the abovementioned hands shows up. Everyone has “nothing,” i.e. no cards that match or are in straight numerical sequence. In that case, whoever has the card with the highest value wins. Of course, ties are possible. The players then compare their second-highest cards, then, if still necessary, their last cards.