Here is my question. It is releated to the game of poker, so if you don’t know how to play poker, then you may not be able to get the answer.
Anyways…
What are the odds, in a poker game, of getting dealt “nothing” in your initial 5 card deal? By ‘nothing’ I mean you don’t get any pairs, triples, flushes… etc. The odds of getting just a plain old hand with ‘nothing’ in it that is actually worth something.
Odds, anyone?
PS: I was dealt a royal flush once.
I have got a royal flush of hearts playing with my dad and sister. Admittedly, we were playing a game previoulsy which required the “high” cards to be grouped together by suit, but the deck was still shuffled and I threw down a few cards and picked up as well.
On a side note… thankyou for your answer.
I think it should be noted that the site that Anthracite linked to counts both A2345 and 10JKQA as a straight. If you play like everyone I play with does, then only the latter is the straight, and the former counts as “nothing”. In these rules, your chances of getting dealt nothing would be slightly better - 50.157% rather than 50.118%.
**[hijack]
**I think that most people consider the Ace either high or low for a straight. So, A2345 and 10JQKA are both OK.
[/hijack]
Ace is not low.
Oops, away to IMHO
What about in the case of a Royal Flush - which I believe was originally termed a “Royal Straight Flush”?
I guess it all depends on which rules you want to play by. A co-worker who spends 20 vacation days a year gambling in Vegas (poker and blackjack) claims that in “Vegas rules”, the Ace is high or low.
He cashed in his 401k to go on a month-long Vegas luxury gambling spree (to live like a “whale”, as he put it - now he’s a 56 year old man with no retirement, except that which my tax dollars will provide him) so I hope he knows enough to accurately convey what the rules at Vegas casinos are.
He calls his trip the “Million Dollar Vacation”. It was actually only about $800,000 that he dropped, but hey! Many compulsive gamblers aren’t that good at math or statistics anyways… 
While it was still no doubt a lucky thing, I doubt your family shuffled the deck sufficiently. Hmmm… Gives me an idea for our next poker game. Anyway. See here:
http://www.rge21.com/lib/manvscom.htm
“The most recent work on shuffling indicates that seven riffles are required to randomly rearrange a deck of cards.”
(I had read that before, just had to find a link covering it [this being the SDMB and all])
As any serious poker player can tell you, an A-5 sequence is a valid straight. A low straight; but a straight nonetheless. A “wheel” in poker lingo. There is no casino poker game where A-5 would not be considered a straight. True, in lo-ball where you can also count it for low if you want.
Of course, if by “poker,” you mean buddies at the kitchen table playing Baseball, Dr. Pepper, and one-eyed jacks wild with the suicidal king; well, you can rearrange the poker hands all you want, I guess.
But go to a casino or play with knowledgable players, and try to claim that your AAAKQ beats A2345. You’ll get laughed off the table.
I stand corrected.