High Card Poker
Introduction
High Card Poker Calculator
High Card Flush made its debut at Harrah's Laughlin in summer 2011. In February 2013 it found another placement at the M in Las Vegas. After that slow beginning the game caught on and today has lots of placements.
The game follows a fold or raise structure, like Caribbean Stud Poker and Three Card Poker. Where it differs is in the hand ranking, which is all about making the highest possible flush out of seven cards.
Rules
Getting a high card in free poker games means having no unique cards for a player. The best one will qualify for the High Card from the cards that he has. With the aid of an example, let us look at this. Player A has a hand that consists of numbers 3, 6, 8, 9 and a king. The King will automatically qualify for the High Card. High Card is the worst possible hand on the poker hand rankings list. It consists of no pair or any other hand type – just a high card. The words “High Card” should have you thinking straight away about a hand with the highest card.
High Card Poker Rules
- High Card Flush is played with a standard 52-card deck of playing cards.
- To begin play, each player makes the mandatory Ante wager, and if desired, the optional Bonus wager.
- The player and dealer each receive seven cards face down.
- Hands are evaluated in the following fashion:
- The first ranking criteria is the greatest number of cards in any one suit. This is referred to as the 'maximum flush.' For instance, any hand with a maximum four-card flush beats any hand with a maximum three-card flush, but loses to any hand with a maximum five-card flush.
- The second ranking criteria is the standard poker-rankings for flushes; that is, a hand with a maximum four-card flush of K-Q-J-T would beat a hand with a maximum four-card flush of K-Q-J-9, but lose to a hand with a maximum four-card flush of A-4-3-2.
- Each player then decides upon one of the following options:
- Fold, and surrender the Ante.
- Raise, placing a second bet equal to at least the Ante. The maximum amount of the Raise wager depends on the rank of the player?s hand:
- With a two-, three- or four-card flush, the maximum Raise wager is equal to the Ante wager.
- With a five-card flush, the maximum Raise wager is double the Ante wager.
- With a six- or seven-card flush, the maximum Raise wager is triple the Ante wager.
- Once all players have decided, the dealer turns over his seven cards and evaluates his hand in a similar fashion as described above.
- If the dealer does not have at least a three-card flush, nine-high, all remaining players have their Antes paid, and the Raise bets are pushed.
- If the dealer has at least a three-card flush, nine-high, his hand is compared to each other player:
- All players with a higher-ranking hand win, and have their Ante and Raise wagers paid at even money.
- All players with a lower-ranking hand lose, and have their Ante and Raise wagers collected.
- Players with the exact same ranking hand as the dealer push both their Ante and Raise wagers.
- Finally, any player who made the Bonus wager has his hand evaluated against the Bonus paytable, and the Bonus wager is either paid or collected as necessary.
Mousseau Strategy
Charles Mousseau determined that without regard to cards not part of the highest flush, a close to perfect strategy is to raise on T-8-6 or higher. The player should always make the largest allowed Raise bet. This strategy has a house edge of 0.06% higher than optimal strategy.
That means to raise any four-card or higher flush, and any three-card flush of rank T-8-6 or greater. For example, you would raise J-3-2, but fold T-7-5.
The following table shows the probability and return for each possible event under the Mousseau strategy. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 2.71%.
Mousseau Strategy Return Table
| Event | Pays | Probability | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player raises 3x, dealer qualifies, player wins | 4 | 0.001604 | 0.006416 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer qualifies, player wins | 3 | 0.021374 | 0.064121 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer qualifies, player wins | 2 | 0.258352 | 0.516703 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer does not qualify | 1 | 0.160076 | 0.160076 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer does not qualify | 1 | 0.006590 | 0.006590 |
| Player raises 3x, dealer does not qualify | 1 | 0.000444 | 0.000444 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer qualifies, player pushes | 0 | 0.000839 | 0.000000 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer qualifies, player pushes | 0 | 0.000001 | 0.000000 |
| Player raises 3x, dealer qualifies, player pushes | 0 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 |
| Player folds | -1 | 0.320589 | -0.320589 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer qualifies, player loses | -2 | 0.229568 | -0.459136 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer qualifies, player loses | -3 | 0.000559 | -0.001678 |
| Player raises 3x, dealer qualifies, player loses | -4 | 0.000003 | -0.000013 |
| Totals | 1.000000 | -0.027065 |
Under the Mousseau strategy, the average final wager is 1.712 units. Thus, the element of risk is 2.706%/1.712 = 1.581%.
High Card Flush Advanced Strategy
Wizard of Odds contributor Gordon Michaels has published a High Card Flush Advanced Strategy. His strategy considers the suit distribution of the penalty cards with T-3-2 to T-9-8. The bottom line is a house edge of 2.6855%. Please click the link for the specifics.
Optimal Strategy
An optimal strategy has yet to be put in writing. However, we can narrow it down, as follows.
- Make maximum raise bet with J-9-6 or higher.
- Fold 9-7-4 or lower.
- You're on your own with 9-7-5 to J-9-5.
The following table shows that under the unknown optimal strategy the house edge is 2.64%.
Optimal Strategy Return Table
| Event | Pays | Probability | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player raises 3x, dealer qualifies, player wins | 4 | 0.001618 | 0.006473 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer qualifies, player wins | 3 | 0.021472 | 0.064417 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer qualifies, player wins | 2 | 0.258181 | 0.516361 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer does not qualify | 1 | 0.160038 | 0.160038 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer does not qualify | 1 | 0.006617 | 0.006617 |
| Player raises 3x, dealer does not qualify | 1 | 0.000448 | 0.000448 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer qualifies, player pushes | 0 | 0.000840 | 0.000000 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer qualifies, player pushes | 0 | 0.000001 | 0.000000 |
| Player raises 3x, dealer qualifies, player pushes | 0 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 |
| Player folds | -1 | 0.321365 | -0.321365 |
| Player raises 1x, dealer qualifies, player loses | -2 | 0.228857 | -0.457715 |
| Player raises 2x, dealer qualifies, player loses | -3 | 0.000560 | -0.001679 |
| Player raises 3x, dealer qualifies, player loses | -4 | 0.000003 | -0.000013 |
| Totals | 1.000000 | -0.026418 |
Under the Mousseau strategy, the average final wager is 1.711 units. Thus, the element of risk is 2.642%/1.711 = 1.544%.
Miscellaneous statistics:
- All told, when the player plays optimally, the player will raise 67.86% of the time.
- The dealer will have a qualifying hand 75.36% of the time.
- The player and dealer will tie 0.08% of the time.
- The standard deviation is 1.63.
Flush Bet
I have heard of two pay tables for the Flush bet. The following three tables show the details.
Pay Table 1
| Cards | Pays | Probability | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 300 | 6,864 | 0.000051 | 0.015392 |
| 6 | 100 | 267,696 | 0.002001 | 0.200095 |
| 5 | 10 | 3,814,668 | 0.028514 | 0.285135 |
| 4 | 1 | 26,137,540 | 0.195370 | 0.195370 |
| 3 or less | -1 | 103,557,792 | 0.774064 | -0.774064 |
| Total | 133,784,560 | 1.000000 | -0.078072 |
Pay Table 2
| Cards | Pays | Combinations | Probability | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 300 | 6,864 | 0.000051 | 0.015392 |
| 6 | 75 | 267,696 | 0.002001 | 0.150071 |
| 5 | 5 | 3,814,668 | 0.028514 | 0.142568 |
| 4 | 2 | 26,137,540 | 0.195370 | 0.390741 |
| 3 or less | -1 | 103,557,792 | 0.774064 | -0.774064 |
| Total | 133,784,560 | 1.000000 | -0.075292 |
Straight Flush Bet
The Straight Flush side bet pays according to the longest straight flush the player can make. I observed it only at the Planet Hollywood. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 13.11%.
Straight Flush Side Wager
| Cards | Pays | Combinations | Probability | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 8000 | 32 | 0.000000 | 0.001914 |
| 6 | 1000 | 1,592 | 0.000012 | 0.011900 |
| 5 | 100 | 39,960 | 0.000299 | 0.029869 |
| 4 | 60 | 676,196 | 0.005054 | 0.303262 |
| 3 | 7 | 8,642,932 | 0.064603 | 0.452224 |
| 2 or less | -1 | 124,423,848 | 0.930031 | -0.930031 |
| Total | 133,784,560 | 1.000000 | -0.130864 |
Internal Links
Acknowledgements
- Thanks for Charles Mousseau for providing the math for this game, except on the Straight Flush side bet. Charles' web site is tgscience.com.
- Gordon Michaels for his High Card Flush Advanced Strategy.
Written by: Michael Shackleford
High card by suit and low card by suit refer to assigning relative values to playing cards of equal rank based on their suit. When suit ranking is applied, the most common conventions are:
- Alphabetical order: clubs (lowest), followed by diamonds, hearts, and spades (highest). This ranking is used in the game of bridge.
- Alternating colors: diamonds (lowest), followed by clubs, hearts, and spades (highest). Similar to alphabetical ranking in that the two highest rankings are occupied by the same two suits (hearts and spades) in the same relative position to one another, but differing in the two lowest rankings, which while occupied by the same two suits (clubs and diamonds) have their relative position to one another swapped. This ranking is sometimes used in the Chinese card game Big Two or Choh Dai Di.
- Some Russian card games like Preference, 1000 etc. use the following order: spades (lowest), clubs, diamonds and hearts (highest). The Australian card game 500 also uses this ordering.
- Some German card games (for example Skat) use the following order: diamonds (lowest), hearts, spades and clubs (highest).
Poker[edit]
Most poker games do not rank suits; the ace of clubs is just as good as the ace of spades. However, small issues (such as deciding who deals first) are sometimes resolved by dealing one card to each player. If two players draw cards of the same rank, one way to break the tie is to use an arbitrary hierarchy of suits. The order of suit rank differs by location; for example, the ranking most commonly used in the United States is not the one typically used in Italy.
Cards are always compared by rank first, and only then by suit. For example, using the 'reverse alphabetical order' ranking, the ace of clubs ranks higher than any king, but lower than the ace of diamonds. High card by suit is used to break ties between poker hands as a regional variance,[1] but more commonly is used in the following situations, as well as various others, based upon the circumstances of the particular game:
- Randomly selecting a player or players.
- To randomly select a player to deal, to choose the game, to move to another table, or for other reasons, deal each player one card and the player with high card by suit is selected. Multiple players can be selected this way.
- Assigning the bring-in.
- In games such as Seven-card stud, where the player with the lowest-ranking face-up card is required to open the first betting round for a minimal amount, ties can be broken by suit. In such low stud games as razz, the player with the highest-ranking upcard must post the fractional bet.
- Awarding odd chips in a split pot.
- In High-low split games, or when two players' hands tie, the pot must be split evenly between them. When there is an odd amount of money in the pot that can't be split evenly, the odd low-denomination chip can be given to the player whose hand contains the high card by suit. (This solution is not necessary in games with blinds, in which case the odd chip between high and low is awarded to the high hand, and the odd chip between a split high or split low is awarded to the first player following the dealer button.)
- Breaking ties in a chip race
- During poker tournaments, a chip race is used to 'color up' large numbers of smaller-denomination chips, and a modified deal is used to assign leftover chips. Ties in the deal are broken by suit.
Contract bridge[edit]
In bridge, suit rank during the bidding phase of the game is by ascending alphabetical order.
During the play of the cards, the trump suit is superior to all other suits and the other suits are of equal rank to each other. If there is no trump suit, all suits are of equal rank.
References[edit]
High Card Poker Nj
- ^'Rules of Card Games: Poker Hand Ranking'. www.pagat.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2018.