I'm happy to answer in more ways. It's usually the Cheatin Resolutions that affect Hand Ranks where this comes in more often.
Just for sake of example, lets say you have a cheatin HR 3 and I have HR 2 I could drop you by 4 Hand ranks with What you know..., but it won't do much, I'll only win by 1 HR since you can't go below 1. If I can handle the casualty hit, I'll save it, especially at a 2 GR cost.
Then second round, I get a Full house (the hand I tend to expect from my deck) and you get a cheatin 4oak. I hit you with the CR I saved and now you're down 3 HR from me.
Of course, there are tons of things that can make situations like this pop up. Hand Rank manipulation is one of the biggest ones with cards such as Force Field and Calling the Cavalry.