JackSpade
JackSpade
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October 1st, 2024 at 2:18:32 PM permalink
Why does a poker hand conventionally consist of 5 cards instead of 4?

4 is harmonious with a deck of cards containing 4 suits and 4 non-numerical cards.

Hitting four of a kind can be thrilling, but there is something aesthetically unpleasing about drawing 4 queens, then seeing an irrelevant 6 of clubs sandwiched in between them. QQQQ looks like more of a proper hand than QQ6QQ.

A royal flush ought to consist of three face cards plus an ace. There is nothing special about a 10. In fact, it's in an entirely separate class of pip cards. It may be the highest number card, but it's still just a number card - there's nothing 'royal' about it.

From a practical perspective, hitting a 5-card royal flush can be agonizingly elusive. It almost never comes into play during a live poker game (except maybe in Hollywood renditions). Hitting a royal on a single line video poker machine is far rarer than hitting a keno jackpot (even though overall returns on keno are worse), making vp too boring for many gamblers. Makers of vp machines have addressed this problem by adding multiple lines, multipliers, dream cards, and skewed pay tables that treat more common 4 of a kind hands like jackpots. Why don't any of them just switch to dealing 4 cards?

I'm sure someone here who is mathematically adept can calculate the odds of hitting a 4 card royal flush. There would be no 4 card full houses, but more straights and flushes. Live poker would presumably consist of a 2 card flop before the turn and river.
DJTeddyBear
DJTeddyBear
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October 1st, 2024 at 3:36:10 PM permalink
You have to think about the history to understand it. Originally, a deck of cards consisted of four suits with only five cards each.

A straight was called a wheel because the five numbers wrapped around like a wheel. If it was suited, they called it a steel wheel. I’m not really sure where the term ‘steel’ came from.

As far as royal flush is not appearing very often, you’re right. I had one lifetime when playing live poker.

It was this past February, playing at Wind Creek in Pennsylvania, during the Super Bowl, and thinking about my Super Bowl prop bets that I had with the Wizard. 😁

The pot wasn’t very big, but I qualified for the hourly high hand. I think it was $300. 👍

I invented a few casino games. Info: http://www.DaveMillerGaming.com/ ————————————————————————————————————— Superstitions are silly, childish, irrational rituals, born out of fear of the unknown. But how much does it cost to knock on wood? 😁
Dieter
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Dieter
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October 1st, 2024 at 5:20:13 PM permalink
Quote: JackSpade


From a practical perspective, hitting a 5-card royal flush can be agonizingly elusive. It almost never comes into play during a live poker game (except maybe in Hollywood renditions).
link to original post



(truncated heavily)
I think you've nailed it by accident.
A five card straight flush, ace high, is darn hard to achieve, which is why it beats (almost) everything.
Replace any card with an offsuit 7, and you have garbage.

A 5 card hand gets you a lot of chances to make pairs, trips, fulls, and makes straights and flushes challenging (unlike in 3 card brag).
May the cards fall in your favor.
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