1. Hand Decks Poker Games
2. Hand Decks Poker Game

Official Poker Hand Rankings Know your poker hand order. A poker hand consists of five cards, which fall into several categories. Below is the complete list of poker hands, from highest to lowest. Please note that hand rankings for Short Deck are slightly different. Find out more about the short deck poker hand rankings on the dedicated page. All poker hands are made up of 5 cards. So, it would be possible to have 5 of a kind. Card rooms use one deck for poker. With two decks 5 of a kind would be harder to make than a straight. Hence a standard deck contains 13 4 = 52 cards. A “poker hand” consists of 5 unordered cards from a standard deck of 52. There are (52 5) = 2, 598, 960 possible poker hands. Let us now calculate the probability of each of the standard kinds of poker hands. This hand consists of values 10, J, Q, K, A, all of the same suit.

I was very bored today.
Poker traditionally has to be played with one deck. When you have more than one deck, the entire face of the game changes - more hands become possible, the probability of some hands changes drastically, and so on.
To demonstrate this, I decided to analyze poker with two decks of cards. As I calculate it, this is the correct ranking of hands:
Royal flush
Five of a kind
Straight flush
Flush with two pair
Four of a kind
Flush with one pair
Flush with no pairs (1)
Full house
Unflushed straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
Note 1: You could, if you liked, join a flush with one pair and a flush with no pairs. Then, a full house would beat them. Flush with two pair is rare enough that it should stay separate, though.
All ties are handled in the same way they would be in normal poker.
Some notes:

• I tried to stick to the framework of basic poker hands as best I could. Because of this, five of a kind and flushes with pairs seemed like necessary additions. You could add all kinds of other spiffy hands if you wanted to (i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?), but that's beyond the point of my analysis.
• The Royal flush being top dog seemed like something players would expect, so I included it. If you preferred, you could consider the Royal to be a straight flush, with five of a kind being better. As long as the Royal flush is considered separately, however, it wins: there are 128 Royals and only 728 fives-of-a-kind.
• With five decks, the Royal flush gets dethroned as the best hand, because a flushed five of a kind (with only 52 possibilities) would be king. I'm not sure how adding more decks would affect this, however.

For the curious (and peer review), here are my actual calculations for each hand. 'C' means combinations, e.g. 8C3 is the number of combinations for drawing 3 items out of a list of 8, derived from the formula nCr = n! / ( (n-r)! * r! )
Edit: I forgot to account for flushed vs. unflushed pairs. Embarrassing! The new numbers are correct.
Royal flush:
4 different suits to flush in
2 different ways of getting each card in the royal flush
2
2
2
2
128 different Royal flushes
Five of a kind:
13 different ranks
8C5=56 different ways of getting five cards of that rank
728 different fives-of-a-kind
Straight flush:
4 different suits to flush in
9 different high cards (since Ace high gives royal flush)
2 different ways of getting each card in that particular straight flush
2
2
2
2
1172 different straight flushes
Flush with two pair:
4 different suits to flush in
13C2=78 combinations of ranks for pairs
11 different ranks for fifth card
1 combination for first pair in suit
1 combination for second pair in suit
2 cards possible for fifth card in given rank
6884 different flushes with two pair
Four of a kind:
13 different ranks for four-of-a-kind
12 different ranks for fifth card
8C4=70 combinations for four-of-a-kind
8 different cards of rank for fifth card
87360 different fours-of-a-kind
Flush with one pair:
4 different suits to flush in
13 different ranks for pair
12C3=220 combinations of ranks for extra cards
1 combination for pair
2 ways of getting each extra card in chosen rank and suit

Hand Decks Poker Games

2
2
91520 different flushes with one pair
Flush with no pairs:
4 different suits to flush in
13C5=1287 combinations of ranks for five cards
2 ways of getting each card in chosen rank and suit
2
2
2
2
164738 different flushes with no pairs, including straight flushes
Subtract 1172 straight flushes
163566 different flushes with no pairs or straight
Full house:
13 different ranks for three-of-a-kind
12 remaining ranks for pair
8C3=56 combinations for three-of-a-kind
8C2=28 combinations for pair
244608 different full houses
Unflushed straight:
10 different high cards for a straight
8 ways of getting each card in the straight
8
8
8
8
327680 different straights, including straight flushes
Subtract 1172 straight flushes
326508 different unflushed straights
Three of a kind:
13 different ranks for three-of-a-kind
12C2=66 combinations for ranks of extra cards
8C3=56 combinations for three-of-a-kind
8 different cards for fourth card
8 different cards for fifth card
3075072 different threes-of-a-kind
Unflushed two pair:
13C2=78 combinations of ranks for pairs
11 different ranks for fifth card
8C2=28 combinations for first pair
8C2=28 combinations for second pair
8 different cards of rank for remaining card
5381376 different hands with two pair
Subtract 6884 different flushes with two pair
5374492 different unflushed hands with two pair
Unflushed pair:
13 different ranks for pair
12C3=220 combinations of ranks for extra cards
8C2=28 combinations for pair
8 different cards for each remaining extra card
8
8
41000960 different hands with one pair
Subtract 91520 different flushes with one pair
40909440 different unflushed hands with one pair
High card:
13C5=1287 combinations of ranks with no matches
8 ways of getting each card
8
8
8

Hand Decks Poker Game

8
42172416 different hands that do not contain a pair, three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, or five-of-a-kind
Subtract 327680 different straights (including straight flushes)
Subtract 163566 different flushes with no pairs (not including straight flushes)
41681170 hands that contain no other hand

I was very bored today.

I'll say! This reminds me of some of the stuff that floats around the internet. It's entertaining, but always leaves me thinking 'Somebody has a lot of free time.'

i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?

Yes.
It's no different than the suited five of a kind in five deck poker that you mentioned.
Similarly, many Black Jack side bets pay X for specific cards, but pay more if they are suited.

i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?

Yes.
It's no different than the suited five of a kind in five deck poker that you mentioned.
Similarly, many Black Jack side bets pay X for specific cards, but pay more if they are suited.
Well, the flushed five of a kind is a special case: it's a flush, and it's five of a kind. Same with a straight flush (or for that matter, a Royal) in normal poker. You certainly could say that suited pairs are better, but keep in mind that there's a difference between, say, a suited pair of aces, and a flush with a pair of aces.

I didn't check all of your figures, but I disagree with your Two Pair / Three of a Kind result:

Three of a Kind
trips ..... combin(13,1)*combin(8,3) = 728
kickers ... combin(12,2)*combin(8,1)*combin(8,1) = 4224
total ..... 728 * 4224 = 3,075,072 (this agrees with your total)
Two Pair
pairs .... combin(13,2)*combin(8,2)*combin(8,2) = 61152
kicker ... combin(11,1)*combin(8,1) = 88
total .... 61152 * 88 = 5,381,376 (this is much higher than your total)

The above Two Pair figure does not subtract the counts for suited Two Pair hands if they are deemed to be higher in rank than other Two Pair hands. Nevertheless, the figures show that Three of a Kind is still a better-ranking hand than Two Pair.

Yeah, that looks right. I'm not sure where my mistake was, but it seems to be in punching numbers into my calculator. How I made the exact same mistake more than once is a bit weird, but whatever. I'll change it.

Yeah, that looks right. I'm not sure where my mistake was, but it seems to be in punching numbers into my calculator. How I made the exact same mistake more than once is a bit weird, but whatever. I'll change it.

I think you missed the last factor of 8, which corresponds to the suit of the kicker. You listed it, but forgot to include it in the calculation.Wizard
Administrator
I have a table for poker combinations with 1 to 8 decks here. Scroll down to 'Multi-Deck Probabilities.'The Casino I work at is getting a 6 deck Texas Hold'Em table game next month. 5 of a kind suited is the best hand. It's called Texas Shootout. It's reviewed on the Wizard of Odds site and looks pretty cool.

The Casino I work at is getting a 6 deck Texas Hold'Em table game next month. 5 of a kind suited is the best hand. It's called Texas Shootout. It's reviewed on the Wizard of Odds site and looks pretty cool.

Here's the Wiz's page on it: http://wizardofodds.com/texasshootout
Looks kinda interesting.
Where do you work?
On a side note: Would that be advertising? Nah. I'd bet that the Wiz wouldn't want you to mention your casino in every post, but since this is tied to the thread's topic, I doubt he'd mind a quick plug.

I have often wondered if anyone ever plays poker with multiple decks of cards. If it is a viable way of playing, what are the rules and hand rankings? I did some research on playing poker with more than one deck and this is what I found out.

Can poker be played with 2 decks? Poker games can only be played with one deck. All poker rules are built around having just one deck. If multiple decks were used the odds and probabilities would change and you would no longer be playing the same game.

Since we know that the game would be altered and could no longer be called poker, let’s take a look at the reasons why this would happen.

Multiple Decks Would Alter the Odds

Playing more than one deck in a poker game would necessarily force you to change your strategy in every situation. Most notably, you would have to revamp your understanding of how the additional 52 cards would effect outs for drawing hands. Here are a couple of examples of things you’d have to consider:

• If you have a two-card flush draw you now have 22 outs instead of 9- In 1 deck poker, your odds of hitting the flush on the next card is 19% (9 outs divided by 47 cards left in the deck= 19). In two deck poker, your odds of hitting a flush would be 22% (22/99= 22).
• If you have an open-ended straight draw you now have 16 outs instead of 8- In 1 deck poker, your odds of hitting a straight on the next card is 17% (8 outs divided by 47 cards left in the deck= 19). In two deck poker, your odds of hitting a flush would be 16%! (16/99= 16).

Figuring out draws actually becomes easier

This is something that surprised me. You may have also noticed this trend in the above calculations. In two-deck poker, your percentage of hitting your draw is the same as the number of outs you have. Here is an outs chart to illustrate my point:

2-Deck Poker Hand Rankings and Probabilities

Since hand combinations would be built differently, you would run into some issues when determining hand rankings. The problem with 2-deck poker is that the rankings would not flow logically the same way it does in normal poker. An example, it is less likely to make 5 of a kind than it is to make a straight flush. That simply makes no sense, straight flushes are the 2nd best hand in poker next to the Royal flush.

Here is what the hand rankings would be for two-card poker:

1. 5 of a kind with Flush
2. Royal Flush
3. Five of a kind
4. Straight flush
5. Flush with two pair
6. Four of a kind
7. Flush with one pair
8. Flush with no pairs
9. Full house
10. Unflushed straight
11. Three of a kind
12. Two pair
13. One pair
14. High card

Combinations possible for 2-deck poker hands:

1. Royal Flush- 128
2. Five of a kind- 728
3. Straight flush- 1172
4. Flush with two pair- 6,884
5. Four of a kind- 87,360
6. Flush with one pair- 91,520
7. Flush with no pairs- 163,566
8. Full house- 244,608
9. Unflushed straight- 326508
10. Three of a kind- 3,075,072
11. Two pair- 5,374,492
12. One pair- 40,909,440
13. High card- 41,681,170

2-Deck Poker Strategy

It’s obvious that 2-deck poker would play more like Omaha, save for having two hole cards instead of 4. Draws would go way up in value and the hand leading on the flop would rarely be the winner on the river.

On the plus side, there would be a huge amount of action in every hand. Being ahead or behind would become murkier and you would probably see multi-way pots for multiple streets more often than not. Here are some general guidelines for two-deck poker:

• Bluff less- Fold equity will be low since there are so many possible hand combinations out there.
• Play tighter than you think you need to- Due to all the possibilities of making a hand, it might be tempting to get in there and mix it up. While this might not be poker in the truest sense, I would be willing to bet there is one carryover. Normal poker theory dictates that you should play loose when everyone else is tight and tight when everyone else is loose. Therefore, I recommend being as big of a nit as is reasonably possible. I imagine 16-20%VPIP is probably optimal for 6-max games and 10-14% for 9-max tables.
• Upgrade your requirements for continuing- By this, I mean you will need a much better hand to call a raise or value bet. A good rule of thumb might be to upgrade one tier for every situation. In other words, if you would normally need top pair or better to continue, you now need two-pair. If two-pair was needed before, now you are required to have trips. Follow this rule and you will probably be okay.

Keep in mind that these strategic suggestions are based purely on my experience and examination of the basic rules. I could be way off. I would recommend a resource for you to study. Unfortunately, I know of no professional 2-deck poker players or anyone who plays that game on a regular basis. If you figure something out, please comment below.

Should We Play 2-Deck Poker?

In my opinion, you can’t even call 2-deck poker “poker” since the hand rankings are different. The one thing that is in common among all high-card poker games is the hand rankings. Change that, and you are playing something else. Maybe you could call it “Toker”?

What if we have too many players for one deck?

The main reason people may try 2-deck poker is if they have so many people they are afraid of running out of cards. However, this is not a huge concern. There are only 8 cards needed to do the flop, turn, and river including the burn cards. This leaves 44 cards to deal to players. That means 22 players can play poker on a single deck!

Even so, this would be a cluster muck, to put it mildly. Instead, it’s much better to just use two decks and play two different tables. If you want to all still play together, just do a tournament. Everyone throws an equal amount in a hat and you all play for a prize pool.

Final Thoughts

Unless you are looking for a new game to play and don’t mind having to completely relearn poker rules, or “toker” rules, then I recommend not playing poker with two decks. Besides, Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or any of the other variants are poker are complicated enough to learn. I’ll stick with what I know.

Related Questions

What is the best playing card brand? There are 3 main quality poker brands on the market. My favorite happens to be Copag.

How many cards are in a poker deck? In a standard poker deck, there are 52 cards and usually two jokers.

Can you play poker with two players? Two players can play a game of poker. This is called “Heads-Up” poker. The rules of position and dealing order are slightly different, but everything else plays the same.

What is the max players on a poker table? Theoretically, 22 players could be on the same poker tables with one deck. However, the most you will usually see is 10 people. However, I have been in tournaments that put the final 11 on the same table when the “bubble” was 10 players.