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Suited - Cards of the same suit.
A standard poker deck contains of fifty-two cards. There are four different suits, which are clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. In a
traditional deck, the hearts and the diamonds are printed with red ink, and the spades and clubs are printed with black ink. This can
lead to a considerable amount of confusion and misreading of hands, because there are four independent and distinct suits, but they
are represented by only two different colors. This has led to some casinos to change to a four color deck, which many players prefer.
In a four color deck, hearts are red, diamonds are blue, spades are black, and clubs are green. Each suit, regardless of what color is
used to represent it, consists of thirteen sequentially ranked number and picture cards, which run from deuce (represented by the
number 2) to ace (represented by the letter A). This way, there are exactly the same number and type of cards in the deck for each suit.
A hand consisting of cards of the same suit is referred to as suited, while a hand consisting of cards of different suits is referred
to as offsuit, or unsuited. The distribution of
the suits matters, because players can make a strong hand, called a
flush, by collecting five or more cards of the same
suit. Depending upon the situation, and the type of poker game being played, a flush can be a very valuable hand and a very hard hand
to beat.
A flush consists of any five non-sequential cards of the same suit. A flush draw consists of any four suited cards, with the knowledge
that one more card of that suit is needed to complete the flush. If you hold three suited cards, with at least two more cards left to
come, you hold a very low quality flush draw. This type of draw is commonly called a “three-flush,” or a
“runner-runner flush draw,” and it is a very difficult
flush to complete, because it has to come perfect-perfect in order for you to complete a flush by the time the hand is over. Since the flush
is such a powerful hand, and the flush draw can also be a powerful draw, most players are eager to draw to a flush, and are happy when
they complete it.
The earlier in the hand you pick up a four-flush, the more chances you will have at completion, and the more valuable your draw
becomes. Because of this, players will take into consideration whether or not their starting hand is suited when deciding on whether
or not to play. In a Seven Card Stud game, players are dealt a three card starting hand, and will occasionally be dealt a three-flush
on third street. Since it is a seven card game, this can be a very strong starting hand, provided that there are not a lot of other
cards of that suit out of play already. In a Hold’em game, players start with a two card starting hand, which also benefits from being
suited. In fact, many players will use the fact that a hand was suited, or suited and connected, in order to justify playing a weak
hand. Overvaluing suited cards is commonplace among less experienced players, especially in a Hold’em game, where being suited preflop
only adds a couple of percentage points to your rate of hand completion. Of course, there are many situations where being suited
creates the added value needed to play a hand in a certain spot. But you need to be realistic about how much value being suited
actually adds, if you are going to use it as a justification to play the hand.
In most poker games, a flush is beaten only by a higher flush, a full house, four of a kind, and a straight flush, and it beats all
other hands. The exceptions to this are certain types of
lowball games, where high hands are not desirable,
and a variety of stripped deck five card stud, which is sometimes called Mexican Poker. This name is nor used outside of the United
States, and it is a little misleading. The game is popular widely throughout Latin America, not only in Mexico, where it is referred
to simply as “Pokar.” In this game, the hand rankings are slightly different, because a flush beats a full house instead of the reverse.
Usage: Held Suited Connectors, 7-2 Offsuit
Previous Poker Term: Suck Out
Next Poker Term: Sweat
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