← LessonsLesson 7

Two high cards: which two?

When there is no pair and no real draw, high cards are the fallback — jack, queen, king, ace. Two high cards beat one, and if two of them share a suit they are also two cards to a royal, which is better still.

With three high cards in different suits, keep only two, and the one you drop is the ace. A-K-Q becomes K-Q. A-K-J becomes K-J. A-Q-J becomes Q-J. Nothing outranks an ace, so it is the worst of the four for making a straight. The one exception is jack-queen-king — those three high cards all stay.

Example: A♠ K♦ Q♥ 7♣ 3♦. Hold K♦ Q♥ and let the ace go. K♦ Q♥ returns about 0.48 coins per coin bet, A♠ K♦ about 0.47, and all three together only 0.46.

Suited changes the answer. A♠ K♠ is worth about 0.59 against 0.48 for A♠ K♦ — so when two high cards share a suit, those are the two you keep, ace included. A suited ten counts here too: T♥ J♥ is worth about 0.51, better than the jack on its own.

Chart lines

two cards to a royaltwo high cardsthree high cards
Hand12345
Royal Flush25050075010004000
Straight Flush50100150200250
Four of a Kind255075100125
Full House918273645
Flush612182430
Straight48121620
Three of a Kind3691215
Two Pair246810
Jacks or Better12345
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