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Cards, Hands, and Rankings

Hearts

One of the four suits in a standard deck, and one of the two red suits. Thirteen hearts per deck, and suits never break a tie in Hold'em.

Hearts

What the hearts suit is

Hearts is one of the four suits in a standard deck, alongside diamonds, clubs, and spades. Every suit holds the same thirteen ranks, ace down to two, so a deck holds exactly thirteen hearts.

Warm paper panel showing four equal suit tiles in a row. The leftmost tile holds a red heart and is the only one ringed by a cyan outline, followed by tiles holding a red diamond, a black club and a black spade. Labels under the tiles read HEARTS, DIAMONDS, CLUBS, SPADES. A red RED label spans the first two tiles and a black BLACK label spans the last two. A pale blue pill below reads 13 CARDS PER SUIT.
Hearts and diamonds are the two red suits, and every suit holds the same thirteen ranks.

Which suits are red

Hearts and diamonds are the red suits. Clubs and spades are the black suits. Two red, two black, no exceptions, and that is the whole of the colour rule.

The colour has no effect on hand strength. It is a printing convention that makes suits easy to tell apart at a glance across the table.

Suits do not break ties

In Texas Hold’em, suits are not used to break ties. No suit outranks another, so a heart flush does not beat a spade flush of the same ranks. If two players finish with the same five-card hand in different suits, they split the pot.

This trips up players who arrive from games where suits do rank, such as some forms of bridge. In poker the ace of hearts and the ace of spades are worth exactly the same.

Where hearts do matter

Suits decide flushes. A flush is five cards of the same suit, so the only time hearts matter more than clubs is when you are holding hearts.

That is also where the counting comes in. Say you hold two hearts and two more hearts land on the flop. Thirteen hearts exist, you can see four of them, so nine hearts are unseen. Nine is your out count for the flush, and that number is the reason suits get counted at all.

Common mistakes

  • Thinking a heart flush beats a club flush. It does not.
  • Counting outs from the whole deck instead of from the thirteen cards in the suit.
  • Calling a hand “suited” when the two cards are red but not the same suit. A heart and a diamond are not suited.

Quick checklist

  • Hearts is one of four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.
  • Hearts and diamonds are red. Clubs and spades are black.
  • Thirteen hearts per deck, one of every rank.
  • Suits never break ties, so equal hands split the pot.
  • Suits do decide flushes, which is where out counting happens.