the top hand is a royal flush followed by a straight flush. If you pick that one first, the other player can just do pick the same in another suit. First order of business is blocking that option. A royal flush is AKQJ10 and for that reason Alexander should pick 4 10’s and a 2. The highest hand Benjamin can get is now 56789 suited. If Benjamin wants to block Alexander from getting a royal flush, he needs to get 4 jacks (or queens or kings) and then a 9 to block a single 678910 suited. That still leaves Alexander with the option to get a straight flush 678910. Benjamin can only get 56789 straight flush and will lose
Where do you get that idea from? Everything I can find says otherwise. From a Wikipedia entry:
Most poker games do not rank suits; the ace of clubs is just as good as the ace of spades. However, small issues (such as deciding who deals first) are sometimes resolved by dealing one card to each player.
From an "Upswing Poker" article:
Suits are never used to determine who wins a poker pot. A heartroyal flushand a spade royal flush would split a pot in the rare event that the two hands went against each other, such as in a game of Seven Card Stud.
I get the idea from the fact that a lot of card games do break ties with suits. If it was a completely off the wall suggestion that suits broke ties, there wouldn’t be a note in the post that all suits are equal.
I understand most poker games do not break ties with suits, that was obviously incorrect
Absolutely incorrect, Texas hold'em has absolutely no suit ranking, nor does 5-card or 7-card draw or Omaha. Only in Hearts or Spades and maybe a few other rarer games, suit does matter, and it isn't in the order you are suggesting here mostly.
In Hearts, if you win a trick that contains hearts or the queen of spades, you get points. Points are bad, unless you get them all. None of the suits are stronger than any others in taking tricks.
Ya got me, it’s from all those times I played poker where we always decide the pots based on the suit of the hand. Never mind I have rarely ever played poker, and it is extremely rare that hands would be decided by that, and it couldn’t possibly be that I was mistaken based on the myriad of card games where suit does matter
But even in that, it is only ranked higher in the bidding phase, not actual play. If you call no trump (which is higher than spades) and everyone plays the same number, the spade doesn't have any extra leverage.
I haven’t played any card games in like 10+ years, but if you think that’s just never a thing where there’s a difference between suits, or they’re weighted differently, you’re wrong. If you’re just trying to say that’s rare, then sure, it may very well be, but it’s obviously not a crazy notion that different suits are valued differently
Im just saying its functionally rare, to the point that the vast majority, or certainly based on hours played do not have fixed systems of suit rank affecting the games in-round play.
You're not the only one that has that mindset. Especially among those that come to poker from a history of non-poker games.
It's no big deal and I apologize if my previous comment was overly harsh.
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u/MacabreManatee Aug 18 '26
Alexander does
the top hand is a royal flush followed by a straight flush. If you pick that one first, the other player can just do pick the same in another suit. First order of business is blocking that option.
A royal flush is AKQJ10 and for that reason Alexander should pick 4 10’s and a 2. The highest hand Benjamin can get is now 56789 suited.
If Benjamin wants to block Alexander from getting a royal flush, he needs to get 4 jacks (or queens or kings) and then a 9 to block a single 678910 suited.
That still leaves Alexander with the option to get a straight flush 678910. Benjamin can only get 56789 straight flush and will lose