You don’t always need a ranked poker hand to win pots. With the right combination of skill, timing, and good fortune, high card hands can win you a lot of chips.
However, if you’re going to pick up pots and avoid large losses, you need to know the basics. That’s where I come in.
I’ve played millions of poker hands at this point, and I’ve had plenty of high cards. Using this experience, I’m going to explain what a high card is and how to play the worst hand in poker.
So, if you’re ready, let’s get started.
What is a High Card Hand?
A high card hand is any five cards that don’t make a ranked combination. A ranked combination is anything from a pair to a royal flush. Therefore, a high card hand is five unconnected cards.
For example, A♣ 4♦ 8♠ 9♥ J♣ is a high card hand because it doesn’t meet any of the necessary conditions to be classed as a ranked hand.
High Cards Still Have Value
Despite being the worst five-card hand, high cards can still win showdowns. As you can probably guess, the value of this five-card hand is its highest card.
So, from our recent example (A♣ 4♦ 8♠ 9♥ J♣ ), the highest card is an ace. Therefore, the hand is classed as an ace-high hand.
This classification is important when two or more players have high card hands. Here’s what I mean:
Player 1 has A♣ 5♦
Player 2 has K♦ Q♣
The board: 2♦ 9♠ 10♥ 3♣ 6♦
Neither player has connected with the board in this example. They don’t even have a pair. That means they can only rely on their highest-value card.
At this point, I’ll remind you that a player’s hand consists of the five best cards in play. My example is from a game of Texas Hold’em. This means each player has two hole cards.
As per the rules of Hold’em, players can use one, both, or neither of their hole cards in conjunction with the community cards.
Based on this, the best five cards for each player are:
Player 1: A♣ 10♥ 9♠ 6♦ 5♦
Player 2: K♦ Q♣ 10♥ 9♠ 6♦
Now that I’ve written out each player’s final hand, you can see that Player 1 wins because the highest-value card in their combination is an ace.
What if I changed the cards and gave Player 2 an ace?
Player 1 has A♣ 5♦
Player 2 has A♦ Q♣
The board: : 2♦ 9♠ 10♥ 3♣ 6♦
In this scenario, both players have ace-high. Because of this, we have to look at their next highest-value card to determine a winner.
Let’s write out each player’s five-card hand again so we’re clear about who has what:
Player 1: A♣ 10♥ 9♠ 6♦ 5♦
Player 2: A♦ Q♣ 10♥ 9♠ 6♦
Unlike before, Player 2 wins this showdown because their next highest value card is a queen, which beats Player 1’s ten.
The lesson to remember here is that the highest card matters. If two players have the same value high card, the next highest card is taken into account. If these two cards also match, it’s a tie, and the pot is split.
Poker Hand Rankings
High card combinations occupy the lowest rung on poker’s proverbial ladder of hands. They’re unranked hands, which places them below single pairs, as you can see from the poker rankings below:
Rank
Hand
Example
01
Royal flush
02
Straight flush
03
Four-of-a-kind (quads
04
Full house (full boat)
05
Flush
06
Straight
07
Three-of-a-kind (set/trips)
08
Two pair
09
One pair
10
High Card
What are the Odds of Making a High Card Hand?
You’ve got a 50/50 chance of making a high card hand in poker. When the numbers are crunched, you’ve got a 50.12% chance of having a high card with five random cards.
Here’s how I arrived at that number:
A) The total number of five-card combinations in poker = 2,598,960
B) The total number of possible high card hands in poker (aka hands that don’t contain a pair or better) = 1,302,540
From these two numbers, divide B by A to get the chances of having a high card hand with five random cards:
1,302,540 / 2,598,960 = 0.50118 (which equates to approximately 50.12%)
That’s how to calculate your chances of having a high card hand with five random cards. This is useful information if you’re playing Five-Card Draw.
However, the way cards are dealt in Hold’em is different. As you know, you receive two hole cards. These cards can be combined with five community cards dealt in three stages: the flop (three cards), the turn (a fourth card), and the river (the fifth card).
This dynamic affects the odds because our hole cards matter. For example, you’re less likely to have a high card hand if you’re holding two suited cards rather than unsuited cards.
This is because you’re more likely to make a flush with two suited cards rather than unsuited cards, which reduces the chances of ending the hand with a high card.
With this in mind, here are the chances of having a high card hand after the flop in Hold’em:
The chance of having a high card hand on the flop with any two starting cards is 63%.
The chance of having a high card hand on the flop with any unpaired hand is 66.9%.
I can be slightly more specific about the odds with unpaired starting hands by considering suited and unsuited cards:
With an unsuited, unpaired starting hand, such as Q♣ J♠, there’s a 67.2% chance you’ll have a high card hand on the flop.
With a suited unpaired starting hand, such as T♥ 9♥, there’s a 65.4% chance you’ll have a high card hand on the flop.
There are even more nuances to consider, such as the proximity of the cards in terms of value. For example, you’ve got more chance of having an unranked hand (i.e., a high card) with 7♣ 2♦ than J♥ T♠. This is because you can make straights with J♥ T♠, and you can’t make them with 7♣ 2d.
These nuances mean you must understand the value of starting hands. Poker pros talk a lot about hand selection, and this is what they mean. Some starting hands give you more opportunities to make ranked combinations than others. That’s why you should be highly selective with the cards you play.
How to Play a High Card Hand: 3 Basic Strategy Tips
The secret to playing high card hands is avoiding showdowns. You can do this in one of two ways: you can fold before a showdown, or you can try to make everyone else fold.
For the purposes of giving you some strategy tips, I’ll assume that you want to make everyone else fold:
1. Tell a Convincing Story
Poker is all about telling stories and reading other people’s stories. By stories, I mean the story of a hand. For example, if someone starts a hand with a bet and continues to bet on each street, their story is that they’ve got a strong hand.
Your job is to decide whether it’s a truthful story or not. I won’t go into the nuances of hand reading because there are a lot of things to consider. What I’ll say, though, is that you need to piece together each part of the story to see if it makes sense.
If one part of the story doesn’t fit with the rest, it might tell you something about the hand. The same principle applies to your own hands. If you’re going to bluff with a high card hand, your story needs to be convincing.
You can’t suddenly bet on the river after playing passively throughout the hand. This isn’t a convincing story. No one sets out to bluff with a high card hand because you never know if you’re going to make a ranked hand before the flop.
However, if you’re in a position where you’re unlikely to make a ranked hand and you want to bluff, the story needs to make sense. Learn how to tell a convincing story, and you’ve got a better chance of getting bluffs through.
2. Don’t Bluff Fish
Building on the idea that bluffs need to be supported by a convincing story, it’s important to consider your audience. Some people are better at reading than others. Fish, aka weak players, aren’t good at reading stories.
In fact, they rarely pay attention to what anyone else is doing because they’re only focused on their cards. That’s why you shouldn’t bluff fish.
If you see a player calling a lot and going to showdowns often, the chances are they’re a fish. Don’t bluff these players with high card hands because you’ll lose more often than you’ll win.
3. Stacks Matter
The final factor to consider before you run a bluff is the chips in play. It’s hard to bluff someone if you don’t have a lot of chips because you can’t put them under much pressure. Similarly, players with small stacks are less likely to fold because they don’t have much to lose.
Therefore, if you’re going to bluff, make sure you and your opponents have a sufficient amount of chips. In a cash game, a sufficient amount of chips is approximately 60 big blinds or more. In tournaments, a sufficient amount of chips is between 40 and 100 big blinds, depending on the stage of the tournament.
Mistakes to Avoid with High Card Hands
The most important thing to remember when you’ve got a high card is that it’s not a made hand. Even if you’re holding an ace, it’s unlikely you’ll win a showdown.
In most cases, people end up with high card hands because they’ve chased a draw and missed. Then, at the last minute, they try to turn their hand into a bluff.
This works sometimes, but not a lot. I’ve seen too many players lose pots because they chased draws, tried to bluff, and ran into a player with a made hand. Don’t be that person.
If you chase draws and miss, only bluff if it looks convincing. If not, just accept that you’ve only got a high card and check. It’s better to walk away and lose a small pot than let your ego take over and lose a big one.
Conclusion: How to Play High Card Hands in Poker
That’s all you need to know about high card hands in poker. As I’ve said, there aren’t many occasions when this type of hand is going to win a showdown.
However, if the timing is right and you’ve got enough courage, it’s possible to win with a bluff. If not, simply accept that you probably won’t win a showdown and move on to the next hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
A high card hand is any unranked combination of five cards. Because your five cards don’t make a ranked combination, you have to rely on the power of your highest value card, hence the name high card hand.
Yes, it’s possible to win pots with high card hands in all forms of poker. You can win with a high card if you bet in such a way that everyone folds before a showdown. Alternatively, if you get to a showdown and no one else has a ranked poker hand, you could win the pot by having the highest-value card.
The best high card hand in poker contains an ace. For example, A♣ 5♦ 8♥ 10♠ Q♦ is an ace-high hand because the five cards don’t make a ranked combination. Despite ace-high being the best high card hand, it still loses to all ranked combinations, including pairs, sets, straights, and flushes.
