What is A Straight Poker? Detailed Explanation For Beginners

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Straight is a common term in video poker. It is a strong hand that can help you achieve valuable wins. Today's article will provide everything you need to know about this hand, its strength, the probability to get it, and the right strategy to help you get the most out of this poker hand.

What Is Straight In Poker?

A straight is a hand-created by five related cards with consecutive ranks, regardless of their suit. In this scenario, the Ace might be the lowest card in a 5-4-3-2-A straight or the highest card in an A-K-Q-J-10 straight. A Straight Flush occurs when the suits of the cards are identical.

Straight Examples

Examples of straight poker hands can be K-Q-J-10-9, 6-5-4-3-2, 9-8-7-6-5, 5-4-3-2-A, and so on. Remember, when it comes to straight, the suit doesn’t matter. So, a straight only means the five cards with a progressive value in a row.  

How Do Straights Work In Poker?

The strength of the straight is determined by the highest-value card of the straight. So, when two straights compete, the hand with the stronger high card wins. For example, a J-10-9-8-7 straight can beat a 5-4-3-2-A straight.

The ace is a special card in poker because it can have two values. It might be the low end of an ace-to-five straight or the high end of a ten-to-ace straight. The lowest possible straight is ace-to-five, whereas the greatest possible straight is ten-to-ace.

Read more: How to Tell if a Poker Chip Is Real

What Beats A Straight? (Chart)

A straight is a good holding, but it falls short of the five hands above it on the poker hand rankings chart. Straights are defeated by royal flushes, straight flushes, four-of-a-kind, full houses, and flushes. When up against one of these powerful hands, the power of a straight is meaningless.

Besides, remember that a straight can be beaten by a higher straight as well, which is determined by the highest-value card in the straight. 

Nonetheless, a straight is a strong hand, particularly in short-handed play, such as four-handed or six-handed activity. A Straight may beat a wide range of cards in Texas Hold'em since it is one of the best poker hands. Three of a Kind is the one after it on the list. It can, of course, defeat Two Pairs or One Pair.

To make it easier for you, refer to the poker hand rankings chart below to see the power of a straight. The power of these poker hands is described in descending order, with the royal flush being the strongest poker hand.

Moreover, there is a notice for poker players, that is, the probability of making a straight is more than double that of making a flush, which is the next-highest hand. Thus, owning a straight means you’re having a great chance to win the pot

How Should You Play A Straight In Texas Hold’em?

In poker, a straight is not usually a winning hand, but it may be if played correctly.

If a player's two holding cards match with two cards on the board to form a straight draw or an actual straight, they will have more betting choices and higher odds.

It's less likely that any opponent will likewise draw a straight or create one with two holding cards in such circumstances.

Next, poker players need to know what they should do if they’re having four of the five cards needed to make a straight. In that situation, poker terms determined it as a straight draw. There’s an important thing about them is that straight draws are not all made equal. Some of the draws are located in the interior. Some are open-ended or outdoors. 

First, let's take a look at their definitions. If the cards you have are consecutive and the straight may be completed with a card ranked higher than your highest card or lower than your lowest card, your draw is "open-ended" or "outside."

For example, let's say you have the numbers 5-6-7-8, you may complete a straight by drawing a 4 or a 9. Because there is a 4 and a 9 in each of the four suits, you have eight possible cards for a straight.

What about the so-called “inside” straight draw? First, consider the second portion of that definition. Aces can be treated like 1s, the lowest card in the deck, for the purposes of straights. So Ace-2-3-4 provides you four cards to a straight, but you can only finish it with a 5 because there is no lower card than an Ace.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jack-Queen-King-Ace leaves only one denomination to complete the straight. The 10 is the only card below the Jack. There is no higher card when the Ace is used as the high card, therefore only the four tens complete a straight here.

As a more common example, suppose you have 4-6-7-8, you'll need a 5 to finish the straight. Because you're holding cards lower (the 4) and higher (the 6, 7, and 8), this is an inside draw. There are four cards that might complete your straight in this case of an inside-straight draw. That would be the four 5s in this scenario.

Thus, it is understandable that outside straight draws are far more lucrative than inside straight draws since there are eight cards available to complete outside straights and only four to complete inside straights. So, if you have an open-ended straight draw, you may afford to be a little more aggressive with your play and increase your stake since you have eight possible outs as opposed to four for an inside straight draw.

Finally, when playing a straight draw, keep an eye out for opponents who could draw flushes or complete houses. It's easy to get caught up in making a straight and lose sight of other players' potential draws.

Straight Probabilities

A straight has a 0.3925 percent probability of being formed when five cards are drawn at random from a regular 52-card deck. This probability translates to a 253.8-to-1 chance of drawing a straight.

The deck provides ten different ways to draw a straight since the suits are not taken into account in this computation. They are straights ranging from 5-4-3-2-A to A-K-Q-J-10. In this calculation, straights such as 10♥9♠8♦7♥6♠ and 10♣9♥8♠7♣6♥ are considered as one possibility.  

On the other hand, if we approach different suit combinations, there are 10,200 potential chances to draw a straight from a 52-card deck, theoretically.

In poker, your mission is to make the best five-card hand possible out of seven total cards. Therefore, you have a 4.62 percent probability of making a straight if all five community cards are on the board.

Conclusion

Today's article has summed up everything you need to know about straight, one of the strongest hands in poker. In addition, our website offers other detailed how-to articles on every topic in the world of online sports betting and gambling. So no matter what your questions are, we have tips on hand to help you improve your understanding.