Aces in Poker
January 22, 2008
A lot of people do not know how to use aces in poker, but this article should help clear up a lot of confusion for beginners. Here is what you can and can not do with aces on the poker table.
We frequently get questions and comments from our visitors, and we always encourage them. One of the most recent ones we received were on how aces relate in poker, specifically on how you can use it high or low and with straights. The example given was could you use a King-Ace-2-3-4 to form a straight?
The Ace was first used back in the glory days of the French Revolution. The lowest numbered card of that time was the one, and they positioned it above the King to represent the victory of the commoners over the royal monarchy. This little turn of events has carried over through the passage of time all the way until the present day.
Now many of today’s games, with two of the most popular being poker and blackjack, allow the player to choose whether the ace is going to be a high or low card. If you are playing Hold’em poker, the Ace is used as the highest card in the deck, with only a single exception. You can form “the wheel” with an Ace, which is the lowest straight possible, A-2-3-4-5. With this 5-high straight the five is the top card, not the Ace. The Ace is only the top card on the “Broadway” which is the highest straight in the game and also coined the Ace-high straight of Ten-Jack-Queen-King-Ace. Unless you are playing a game where an Ace is specifically given a high or low value, it’s usually played as either, but never both in the same hand. That means that wrapping the Ace as in a King-Ace-2-3-4, would never be allowed.
When playing best low hand, there are some poker games that permit the Ace to play low, ignoring both straights and flushes. For example, the 5-4-3-2-Ace is the best possible low, even if it makes a straight or straight flush. Other games count straights or flushes against you, but let the Ace play low, making 6-4-3-2-Ace the best possible hand. In games where the ace is ranked below the deuce, a pair of aces would also score lower than a pair of deuces.
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