Thus there are C(52, 5) = 2598960 different hands. The product 52×51×50×49×48 must be divided by 5! because the order in which the five cards are added to the hand is of no importance, e.g., 7♣8♣9♣10♣J♣ is the same hand as 9♣7♣10♣J♣8♣. There are C(52, 5) possible combinations of 5 cards selected from a deck of 52: 52 cards to choose the first of the five from, 51 cards to choose the second one. Poker uses the standard deck of 52 cards. Below, we shall evaluate probabilities of several hand combinations.
The hands are compared according to a predetermined ranking system.
Common to all is the fact that players get - one way or another - hands of five cards each.
