Rank

In the context of gambling, the term rank can refer to two different concepts. A card rank is the card’s position in the card hierarchy (e.g. Jack or King). A hand ranking is the power of a specific hand in games such as poker.

Card Rank

A standard French deck consists of 52 cards and 2 jokers. Aside from the latter, all of the cards can be divided into four suits of thirteen ranks. The suits are clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. The ranks consist of number cards (2-10) and face cards (aka paint cards), which represent the French royal court. Arranged from strongest to weakest, the ranks are as follows:

Ace. The second newest addition to the deck, aces were originally introduced in the 18th century to collect taxes on playing cards. The presence of an ace on a deck meant that the required taxes were paid for the production of the deck.

King. Up until the 18th century, the king was the strongest card in the deck.

Queen. Originally introduced by the French. The British used to have a custom by which the queen would be stronger than the king is the current UK monarch was a woman.

Jack. One of the original cards. The Germans called this card untermann (the under man). 

Numbers. The numbers from 10 to 2. Spanish decks typically don’t have 10 pip cards.

Poker Hand Ranking

In most variations of poker, the winner of the pot is decided based on the rarity of the combination they assembled. Video poker machines, such as Jacks or Better and Double Bonus Poker, only pay out when a player assembles a hand of a certain strength, and the payout amount is based on the hand’s value in the payout table.  

These are the top five strongest hands in poker and the probability of assembling them:

1. Royal Flush (0.000154%)
2. Straight Flush (0.00139%)
3. Four of a Kind (0.0240%)
4. Full House (0.1441%)
5. Flush (0.1965%)

Rank:

• Card rank: is the card’s position in the card hierarchy (e.g. Jack or King).
• Hand ranking: is the power of a specific hand in games such as poker.