Is Ace to 5 a Straight in Poker?

Most poker games, including Texas Hold’em, use what is called a “standard” deck of 52 cards. There are four suits of cards (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades), and each suit has 13 ranks (2 through 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace).

An Ace can either be high or low in rank, but it can never be both at the same time. So, in other words, an Ace can be used as a 1 or an 11, but never a 12.

PRO TIP:In many variations of poker, a straight is considered to be a hand that contains 5 cards in sequential order. However, in Ace to 5 lowball, straights are not counted. Ace to 5 lowball is a variant of draw poker where the lowest hand wins. As such, A-2-3-4-5 would not be considered a straight in this game.

The 5-high straight is not a valid hand in most poker games because there are only four cards of each rank and the 5 is the Lowest rank. However, there are some variants of poker that do use a 5-high straight as a valid hand.

These variants include Chinese Poker, Lowball and some forms of Stud Poker.