Although I’m sure I’ve told this story ad nausuem by now, I started a hand with pocket queens, flopped a set, and picked up the fourth queen on the turn… and lost to a straight flush.
It’s news to me that I was referring the the linked Wiki article as the official rules of poker.
Actually, plenty of sites do just that. Here’s one (of many that Google produces).
Ok, now you’re just embarrassing yourself. Are you reading your own posts? You’re citing you Google references? Give me a cite from the official rules.
I’m letting this hijack go. I suggest you move on as well, Xema.
Since when are there official rules of poker? There are universally accepted rules of poker, sure, but there’s no one in charge to write any official rules.
Chronos has a set of official rules that doesn’t provide a description for a royal flush.
I asked to see it, stating that all the “official” rules I have seen describe what constitutes a royal flush.
**Xema **posted a link to Wiki that actually proved my point…twice! Then tried to Google up something to prolong the debate.
BTW there are official rules, what do you think governs the WSOP, or any other poker league or tournament? All casinos have official rules for all their games.
Even when you play house rules in your basement, you all agree to “official” rules, and most experience card players will defer to “According to Hoyle” or “Robert’s Rules of Poker” when developing said official rules.
Sparky, you protest a bit too much.
I’m not seeking to refer to any “official” rules of poker. Like you, I put the word in quotes - in my case to acknowledge what Chipacabra notes: that the details vary enough from place to place that it’s a strech to say that any version of them is actually official beyond a local scope. Sure, the WSOP has a formal set of rules (couldn’t operate without them) but they are only similar and not identical to rules used elsewhere.
My point is simply that lots of people and websites affect to place a royal flush is a separate category of poker hand, whereas in fact it’s only a version of a straight flush that has its own name. Moreover, nothing about any set of rules for true poker (as distinct from perverse cases like video poker) requires that a RF be regarded as separate from a SF.
Have you been whooshed this whole time?
Chronos wrote:
So… I asked him to provide a cite for this statement as any reference that may be considered a credible source for the “official” rules of poker, in fact, does include a hand description for a royal flush.
Now the onus is on Chronos (hey that rhymes!) to produce said “official” rules to support his claim. Period!
It was you who suggested some people may categorize a royal flush differently than a straight flush for whatever reason but it wasn’t anyone here.
I am well aware that some the rules of poker may vary, but it was **Chronos **who made the broad statement about official rules so you may take it up with him in the future.
In case you still misunderstand me, your beef is not with me. You’re arguing that there are no official rules, OK I get that.
I chose a different tack, my point being that all sets of rules that could be considered “official” include a definition of a royal flush.
Get it now?
Not all. Just yesterday I noted one that had nothing to say about “royal flush” but a parenthetical remark s.v. “straight flush”. But it is certainly very common.
FWIW there are no official rules of poker
Poker is a “House Rules” game and while there is some etiquette and universal rules that should apply to all games, like hand ranking, it is still at the discretion of the establishment hosting the game to set the rules…
If the host wants a game with funky rules, by putting your money on the table you are consenting to those funky rules… As mentioned above it is best that all players are well informed about the rules before the first cards hit the felt…
As for Hand rankings… I would say that a large number of poker players learn the hand ranking from the same source… the extra card included with a deck of cards… so if there was an “official” hand ranking or set of rules… I would have to say it would be from those extra cards from a Hoyle deck… Which as it happens lists the Royal Flush separate from the straight Flush… Which it should… It is its own hand… and if you have ever been dealt one and had it paid off in live play you would know why… awesome experience…
Weird Variations I have played…
The coolest and most usable Holdem Variation that I have played was one I invented with friends… we called it Ontario or sometimes Canadian Holdem… It was the same deal as Texas holdem, two cards to each player, but the Flop, which was called the Lake, was 4 cards instead of 3… followed by the River… which was the last card… This style of holdem benefits the less skilled player… by removing a betting round you take away a chance for a more skilled player to outwit a novice player and allow a player to see where their overall hand will be for less of their chips… its a lot of fun… I would recommend trying it at any casual poker night…
Also a word on Wild Card rules… The only appropriate place to use wild cards is in games of strip poker… Wild cards should not be used in games where $$$ is on the line… 5 of a Kinds should only beat a straight flush if they are higher than the highest card of the straight… and should be considered equal if the those numbers are the same… so 5 of a kind Aces would be equal to a Royal Flush… Nothing should ever beat a Royal Flush… when two hands are equal the hand that uses less wild cards should be awarded the pot… It is not a good move to use wild cards in a game that uses a community board, like texas holdem… if you do the wild card should be counted as face value when it appears on the board…
One game… one time… and I argued against it… we played with a small straight (like in Yahtzee) ranked between two-pair and three of a kind… first I argued that it was not a 5 card hand… and when that did not work I tried to get them to change the ranking to in between one and two pair… in the end it worked out very poorly… and was supposed to have never been spoken of again… but I did…
I’m reading a lot of strong judgement about what are arbitrary variations. I’m not saying there aren’t good reasons for your “shoulds”, but you haven’t listed them, and people are allowed to play by whatever silly rules they want - even if that silly rule is that a “1” is treated as the top card of the suit.
oh ya the OP…
Online I have seen it all… Quads vs Quads vs Straight Flushes vs higher Straight Flushes vs Royal Flushes… It is insanity, but that insanity comes from the massive number of hands that you see when playing online…
Playing live the best hand I have had beaten personally was a full house, by another full house, a number of time… all of my Quads or Straight Flushes have taken the hand and were almost always the stone cold nuts…
But without a doubt the craziest f$%king thing I have ever seen in a live game was at a 5 person $5 Texas holdem home game… In what would end up being 23 hands I watched my friend demolish everyone else sitting at the table… including (not in order of play) beating an Ace high flush with a suck out Full House… beating two full houses with suck out low valued quads… which means that when all the money went in he had a weaker full house… and on the final hand rivered a straight flush to beat an already made Ace high flush… and that was just the highlights… It seem like he was holding one of the top 3 hands available every single time he was in… considering the small number of people playing it was nutty to see so many powerful hands just popping up… If I was not utterly sure that no one in the room had the dexterity to stack or deal from the bottom of the deck… I would have thought some one was cheating…
There are plenty of low ball games where the object of the game is to get the lowest hand and 1 2 3 4 5 or A 2 3 4 5 is considered the strongest hand… or games that the worst poker hand 2 3 4 5 7 is the strongest hand… these games all most likely originate from games where the House decided to change the rules one night to liven things up and the players liked it so it caught on…
The house decides if Aces are high or low or both… split pots for Hi-Lo games and what not… so ya what ever silly rules the house wants to employ is how you will be playing… but most people wont play for money if silly rules are involved…
My point is that Ace is typically considered the high card. A royal flush is a straight flush with Ace high. But Ace has the value 1, and there is no other 1 card in the deck.
Same thing with Blackjack, where Ace can be a 1 or an 11, depending on the player’s needs.
Like I said, silly rules. They’re also standard. You have to specify if you are not using Ace high.
Just saw Set over Set over Set for the first time live the other day.
Flop comes Q T 4. Bet, raise, All-In, All-In, Call. QQ, TT, 44,
River: Ten
Hang on, I don’t know much about poker, but is that right? Surely that would be a straight, which is not a good hand in lowball.
Wouldn’t the strongest hand be 1 2 3 4 6 in mixed suits?
Usually in Lowball or Hi-Low games, straights and flushes are ignored.
And then the police figured it out, beat you up, and threw you out of the club? Did your friend go on to be in Fight Club? 
He should have played the Kings. 