This section holds the pages worth bookmarking rather than reading once: the tables a player checks mid-session and the definitions that settle disagreements at the table.
Every number here comes from one source file inside the site, so a figure quoted on a strategy page matches the figure in the reference table it came from.
Quick Answers
The ten categories in order, with exact frequencies and the rules for breaking ties.
Probabilities for the situations that come up most in hold'em.
Every seat at a nine-handed table and what acting from it means.
No-limit, pot-limit, fixed-limit, spread-limit and cap games compared.
Freezeouts, re-entries, bounties, satellites and the rest.
A timeline of the game from its ancestors to the online era.
The Figures Used Across the Site
These are the numbers quoted most often in the strategy pages. They are reproduced here so they can be checked without opening an article, and they come from the same source file the rest of the site uses.
| Figure | Value | Where it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Five-card hands in a deck | 2,598,960 | Fixes the ranking order |
| Two-card starting hands | 1,326 combinations, 169 distinct | Starting hand selection |
| Any pocket pair dealt | 5.9% | How often set-mining spots arise |
| Flopping a set with a pair | 11.8% | Whether a small pair can call a raise |
| Flush draw, flop to river | 35.0% | Pricing a call with pot odds |
| Flush draw, turn to river | 19.6% | The same call one street later |
| Open-ended straight draw, flop to river | 31.5% | Eight outs with two cards to come |
| Rainbow flop | 39.8% | How often no flush draw is possible |
Each of those appears in full context on the probabilities page, together with the counting method behind it.
How to Use These Pages
- Every table has a heading anchor, so a specific row can be linked or bookmarked rather than the whole page.
- Wide tables collapse into stacked cards on a phone, with the column name shown above each value.
- Figures described as exact are counts of combinations; figures described as approximate shift with the specific cards held.
- Where a rule differs between card rooms — the short-deck ranking, odd chip allocation, draw caps — the page names the variation rather than picking one.
- Nothing here is specific to an operator or a platform; the rules described are the ones card rooms apply in general.
Read next
Hand Rankings
The ten poker hands in order, how often each one appears in a five-card deal, and the rules that settle ties between hands of the same rank.
Hands ranked Ten categories, royal flush down to high card
Poker Probabilities
The numbers behind the common decisions: how often hands are dealt, how often draws complete, and what each flop texture appears at.
Five-card hands in a deck 2,598,960
Table Positions
Every seat at a poker table named and explained: the blinds, under the gun, the lojack, hijack, cutoff and button, at nine-handed, six-handed and heads-up tables.
Reference point The button, which moves clockwise each hand
Betting Structures
No-limit, pot-limit, fixed-limit, spread-limit and cap games compared: what each allows, how raises are calculated, and how the structure changes the way a variant plays.
Most common today No-limit, in hold'em
Tournament Formats
Freezeouts, re-entries, bounties, satellites, shootouts and turbos: what each format changes about entry, elimination and the way a stack should be played.
Default format Freezeout: one entry, no return
Poker Timeline
How poker reached its present form: the betting games that preceded it, the spread of the 52-card deck, the arrival of community cards, and the online era.
Ancestors Betting games including poque, primero and as-nas