Poker is a game which is loved by millions of players all over the world. And whilst it’s a fun game to play, it’s also a game which needs to be properly understood if it is to be mastered. Understanding the probabilities of the different hands in poker is important so that you know if you have a good hand or not. The better the hand, the lower probability it would be to get that hand. Therefore if you do get that hand, you will be able to have a good idea what you should do with it (check, call/raise, call, fold, etc.) The least likely hand you could get is a royal flush. This is seen as the ‘holy grail’ of poker hands and consists of cards of the same suit ranging from 10 all the way up to ace. The odds of getting this hand is incredibly unlikely – actually 1 in 649,740! Many poker players will go their whole poker playing lives without getting this hand. Therefore if you get this hand, you can rest assured you’re onto a winner. In contrast, if you get a pair – for example if you get a five of hearts and five of diamonds – this is a very likely combination. The odds for this are quite low, only 1 in 1.28. Therefore, we can see that this really isn’t a great hand to have, and it’s pretty likely that at least somebody you are playing against in your game of poker will have a better hand. Of course, learning the probabilities of poker hands is not the only thing you need to get good at poker, but it’s a good start. There are other things you need to learn too – such as how to be patient! Intuition is also something you’ll pick up when you play more and more poker. Good luck!