Wed, 04/13/2011 – 22:50 – PokerPages Staff

#5 – Tie – 2/9, 3/9, 4/9
Kicking off our list is a tie for fifth with 2 – 9, 3 – 9 and 4 – 9. The potential pair 9 is pretty much all you’re going to get with these hands, and that’s easily beaten. Straights can’t fill the gap and a high 9 flush has a decent chance of being beaten by one of the cards on the table.

#4 – 2/6
Fourth is 2 – 6. Not a nice hand. If you hit 3 – 4 – 5 somehow on the flop, you’re still in serious danger of someone with 6s and 7s drawing a higher straight than you: and that’s before you’ve taken into account the turn and the river.

#3 – 3/8
Third sees 3 – 8 slot into place. You can’t make a straight between the two cards and if even if they’re suited, an 8 high flush is pretty low for Hold ‘em.

#2 – 2/8
Second is 2 – 8; similar to third place, the 2 stretches you even further away from a straight and you have the same problem with the flush. This hand doesn’t even have the ‘honour’ of being truly the worst. Utterly worthless.

#1 – 2/7
Coming in at first on our list is 2 – 7. These two sorry cards are the lowest you could hope to find in a game of Hold ‘em that can’t make a straight. With 4 cards between the two and the seven you’ll have a hard time trying to get anything out of these. Suited, they’ll make an awful flush. Players call this hand ‘the hammer’ and some like to play it as a joke.