These new hands are exactly what they sound like: four-card versions of the hands you already know. A four-card flush is made when you hold four cards of the same suit, while a four-card straight is made by holding four consecutive ranks of cards (i.e., 4-5-6-7). In Soko Poker, these hands beat a pair, but lose to two pair. This makes the new hand rankings as follows:

Straight Flush
Four of a Kind
Full House
Flush
Straight
Three of a Kind
Two Pair
Four-Card Flush
Four-Card Straight
One Pair
High Card

Other than this one change, Soko Poker is played just like the Five Card Stud games you know and love. To begin, everyone contributes an ante to the pot. In the first round of betting, each player receives two cards – one face down, one face up. The player with the lowest face up card is forced to make a bring-in bet. Moving clockwise around the table, each player can choose to fold, call the bet, or raise.

Everyone remaining in the hand gets a 3rd card, face up. The player with the best hand showing (either high card or a better completed hand like a pair or three-of-a-kind) has the first option to check or bet, after which play proceeds as normal, clockwise around the table.

You can check out SOKO Poker in action at Fortune Poker and even play for play money until you get the hang of it.  For more information on Fortune Poker, read this Fortune Poker Review.

Everyone remaining in the game after that round receives their 4th card, face up. In most games, the size of the bet now doubles, but otherwise, the game continues as normal. This process continues with the 5th and final card which is dealt face up. Any players remaining in the hand at the end of final round of betting must showdown their hands. Each player makes their best five-card hand (including, in Soko Poker, four-card straights and flushes), with the highest ranking hand taking down the pot.

As you can see, Soko Poker is played almost identically to Five Card Stud. The added hand categories is the only thing you must keep in mind while playing, so if you know how to play one game you should have no problems playing the other.

Now – read our SOKO Poker Strategy Guide.

Soko Poker is also known as Canadian Stud or Scandinavian Stud. In fact, Sökö is the Finnish name for the game, which might give us a clue as to how the game originated. Sökö is also the Finnish word for “check,” as the phrase minä sökötän means “I check.” The game is probably still most popular among Scandinavian players, though it has spread all across the poker world.

The only difference between Soko Poker and regular Five Card Stud is that two new hands have entered the rankings. These are a four flush and a four straight – four card versions of the normal versions of a flush and a straight. Both of these hands rank just below two pair, with a four flush beating a four straight. Flushes and straights are pretty rare in Five Card Stud, so adding them to Soko Poker makes for a livelier game with a lot more action and more variety in the hand types you’ll see during a session.

Soko Poker is definitely a fun game, and since it’s a game played mostly by those looking to gamble it up, it can be a lucrative version of poker too! If you want to try Soko Poker online, the best room that features it is Fortune Poker.

While Five Card Stud has become just a footnote in modern poker, becoming less popular year after year, Soko Poker is on the way up. It is quickly becoming one of the most popular poker variants, so now is the time to start playing! Just remember not to try taking down your next Hold’em pot with a four flush.  If you’re not quite sure about the rules, check out our page on how to play Soko Poker.

If you aren’t too familiar with Soko, we recommend reading the What Is SOKO Poker? and How To Play SOKO Poker articles first.

Starting hand selection is vitally important to Soko Poker. All pairs are playable from any position, although you might occasionally fold some of your smaller pairs if there is a raise from a tight player in front of you. Big pairs should always be played. In later position – yes, position is important in Soko too – you might also play two Broadway cards (that’s two cards ten or higher), at least if there hasn’t been too much action in front of you. Suited cards are only slightly better than unsuited ones; the four flush is more common than a flush, but you still aren’t likely to make one even if you start with two suited cards. Most of your advantage in Soko Poker will come from starting with better hands than your opponents, so don’t loosen up too much, even in a wild game.

In the first two rounds of betting, play very aggressively with smaller pairs. These hands are vulnerable, as even opponents playing junk unpaired hands might be likely to catch something that’ll give them a better pair. It’s better to make them pay for this privilege at every opportunity by betting and raising as long as you think you still have the best hand. Sure, sometimes they’ll suck out and beat you anyway, but the odds are on your side, and getting those extra bets will show a nice profit in the long run. You can be a little more coy with bigger pairs, but don’t get too cute – you need to bet and raise with all but the very strongest hands early on to maximize your profits.

If you believe a player is on a draw to a four-card straight or flush, it’s especially important to make them pay to try and draw out on you. This is easier to do in pot limit, when they certainly won’t have the odds to call a pot-sized bet, but you should do this in limit too; they might be right to call, but it’s still better to make them put a bet in when they’re behind in the hand.

Finally, there’s the golden rule of Soko Poker and Five Card Stud: if your four cards that are showing after 5th street represent your best hand (i.e., your hole card doesn’t improve you at all), and you beat all the other boards, don’t bet! Nobody is going to call a bet if they can’t beat your board, and anyone who does call will have you beat anyway. You’re much better off just checking.

If you’ve never played SOKO Poker on the Boss Network, you just have to.  You have absolutely no idea how bad the players are, and with this strategy guide you will clean up.  So start making some easy money today – sign up at Fortune Poker.

SOKO Poker is on the Boss Network, host to a lot of sites including Celeb Poker, Paradise Poker and Pokerheaven.  Even if you have an account at one of those sites, the poker room we highly recommend is Fortune Poker.

We have been playing on Fortune Poker since 2005, and have made thousands in rakeback thanks to Fortune.  Fortune Poker is also a very customer-friendly poker room, and their managers are very open to players e-mailing them with any problems, etc.

We have set up a deal with the popular rakeback provider Rakeback Resource to offer you 30% rakeback at Fortune Poker.  On top of the rakeback is lots of promotions like rake races.  You will also get an exclusive A-7 5 Card Draw Strategy Guide when signing up at Rakeback Resource, which is another game on the Boss Network you can easily dominate.

Sign up for Fortune Poker Rakeback today – visit Rakeback Resource.

However, our recommendation is to play Soko on Fortune Poker. For one thing, Fortune Poker is known for its extremely loose games. This means that once you’ve mastered the basics of poker strategy, you can make a killing dominating the tables filled with big gamblers and other weak players. The number of fish is astounding; to paraphrase a famous poker saying, if you can’t find the sucker at your table after 10 minutes, you’re not at Fortune!

Fortune’s software is solid and easy to navigate. If you like to multitable, you can play up to five tables at once. The player base is not quite as large as some of the megasites out there, but there are always more than enough players around to get whatever kind of game you’re looking for. On that note, Fortune Poker offers a pretty wide range of games, including all the games you normally expect plus Soko Poker, Five Card Draw, Five Card Stud, and A-7 Five Card Draw.

You can read a more detailed Fortune Poker Review at Ultimate Poker Search.

If you’re a big player, we recommend getting rakeback at Fortune Poker.  If you don’t play too often, then sign up directly as you will be able to participate in the Fortune Poker loyalty program, which is great for the casual player.  You can get 30% rakeback at Fortune Poker, and during their reload bonus periods, that number jumps to 35%. They also offer daily freerolls that are great for players with small bankrolls looking to make a few extra bucks; if you thought the regular games at Fortune were weak, you won’t believe the fish in their free tournaments!

Get 30% rakeback at Fortune Poker – visit Rakeback Resource.

The support available on Fortune is the same solid support you’d find on any of the Boss Network sites. There is one difference, however; Fortune has a great manager who is always looking to help meet the needs of his players. On most sites, you’ll be lucky to ever hear from the room manager, but at Fortune, the manager is likely to try to get to know you better and make sure you’re happy with the product. It’s not a big thing, but it’s one of those nice touches that help make Fortune Poker a great site to play on.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, we highly recommend Fortune Poker as the place to play Soko Poker online. If you’re looking for other options, we’d also suggest trying out the rest of the Boss Network.  Sign up here for Fortune Poker.

However, there are some small adjustments you can make that might help you make even more money in the long run. These changes are all related to the one difference between regular Stud and Soko Poker – the addition of the four-card flush and four-card straight to the hand rankings.

If you’ve played a lot of Five Card Stud, you know how important it is to protect your vulnerable hands – namely, smaller pairs. This becomes even more important in Soko Poker, where the addition of those four-card draws gives your opponents yet another way to catch up to your hands. You may want to consider playing even stronger pairs more aggressively on the early rounds to make sure you’re making your opponents pay for their drawing attempts.

Of course, you can take advantage of this in other ways, too. Your opponents will often be drawing to a four-card hand without having nearly the odds they should to do so. They’ll also be likely to overplay these hands dramatically, meaning that when you make a strong hand – two pair or better – you’ll be likely to extract a lot of money from the fish who are overvaluing their “big” four-card hands. This happens VERY often at Fortune Poker – click here.

It may seem like suited cards and connectors would go way up in value thanks to the increased odds of making a draw. However, making a four-card hand is still not easy, and you’re drawing to a fairly weak hand – unlike a traditional flush or straight, you may not feel confident about winning even if you do make your draw. That said, their value shouldn’t be discounted too much; an otherwise marginal hand in Five Card Stud might be playable in Soko Poker if it is suited or connected (or preferably, both). This is especially true in late position if you’re confident you can see 3rd street for cheap. If you have three cards to a four-card hand, your hand does have some value if you can get two chances to draw to them and nobody is showing a pair on board.

After you gain some experience playing Soko Poker, these adjustments will seem like second nature to you, and you’ll see your advantage over the many fish in these games increasing. There’s usually more action in a Soko game than in standard Five Card Stud, which can make the game both more fun and more profitable for you.

Click to find out Where To Play SOKO Poker Online.