Poker is a game that seems to have been around forever in the gambling world, but not everyone is familiar with the poker hand rankings. For you to be a pro at the game of poker, the first thing you need to do is memorise poker hands.
If you are interested in starting your poker gaming adventure, keep reading to see the full list of poker hands and what beats what.
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There are ten poker hands, and they rank the same way in Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud and Five-Card Draw. Whatever the game, you make your best hand from five cards, and a higher-ranked hand always beats a lower one, however high its cards.
| Rank | Hand | Example | Beaten by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ | Nothing |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♣ 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣ | A higher straight flush |
| 3 | Four of a kind | A A A A 8 | Straight flush |
| 4 | Full house | K K K 10 10 | Four of a kind or better |
| 5 | Flush | Q♣ 8♣ 6♣ 4♣ 3♣ | Full house or better |
| 6 | Straight | 6 5 4 3 2 | Flush or better |
| 7 | Three of a kind | J J J 8 5 | Straight or better |
| 8 | Two pair | 10 10 6 6 K | Three of a kind or better |
| 9 | One pair | A A 8 6 2 | Two pair or better |
| 10 | High card | K J 10 6 3 | Any pair or better |
Suits are all equal: no suit beats another, and two identical hands in different suits split the pot.
Ace, king, queen, jack and 10, all of the same suit. It is simply the highest possible straight flush, and nothing beats it. There are only four royal flushes in the deck, one per suit, so you will see one in five dealt cards about once in 649,740 hands.
Five cards in sequence, all of the same suit, such as 5-6-7-8-9 of clubs. Between two straight flushes, the one with the higher top card wins. The lowest is A-2-3-4-5 of one suit and the highest below the royal flush is 9-10-J-Q-K. There are 36 of them (nine per suit).
Four cards of the same rank, plus any fifth card, the kicker. Also called “quads”. Higher quads beat lower ones; if two players share the same four cards on the board, the kicker decides.
Three cards of one rank and two of another, also called a “boat”. It is named by its three cards, so K-K-K-10-10 is “kings full of tens”. Between two full houses the higher three of a kind wins, and only if those match does the pair decide. It loses only to four of a kind, a straight flush and a royal flush.
Any five cards of the same suit that are not in sequence. Between two flushes, compare the highest card, then the next, and so on down to the fifth: Q-8-6-4-3 beats Q-8-6-4-2.
Five cards in sequence in more than one suit. The ace can play high (10-J-Q-K-A, called “Broadway”, the best straight) or low (A-2-3-4-5, called “the wheel”, the lowest), but it cannot wrap round: Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight. The straight with the higher top card wins.
Three cards of the same rank and two unrelated cards. In Hold’em, a set is three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one card on the board, and trips is made with one card in your hand and a pair on the board. They rank the same. Three of a kind beats two pair and loses to a straight.
Two cards of one rank, two of another and a fifth card. Between two players with two pair, the higher top pair wins; if that matches, the second pair; if both match, the kicker.
Two cards of the same rank and three unrelated cards. A higher pair beats a lower one, and when the pairs match, the three side cards are compared one by one. The best possible one pair is two aces with king, queen and jack.
No pair, no straight, no flush. The hand is ranked by its highest card, then the next, so K-J-10-6-3 beats K-J-9-8-7. The best is ace-high and the lowest possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2 in mixed suits.
Wagering: 40x
Wagering: 35x
Wagering: 40x
When two players have the same kind of hand, you compare the cards that make it, highest first, and then the leftover cards, the kickers. A few rules settle almost every dispute:
The hands are ranked by how rare they are. The table shows how often each one comes up in five cards dealt from a full deck, as in Five-Card Draw before the draw, and how often it is the best hand you can make from seven cards, as in Texas Hold’em once all five community cards are out.
| Hand | Ways in 5 cards | Chance in 5 cards | Chance, best of 7 cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 4 | 1 in 649,740 | 0.0032% |
| Straight flush | 36 | 1 in 72,193 | 0.028% |
| Four of a kind | 624 | 1 in 4,165 | 0.168% |
| Full house | 3,744 | 1 in 694 | 2.6% |
| Flush | 5,108 | 1 in 509 | 3.0% |
| Straight | 10,200 | 1 in 255 | 4.6% |
| Three of a kind | 54,912 | 2.1% | 4.8% |
| Two pair | 123,552 | 4.8% | 23.5% |
| One pair | 1,098,240 | 42.3% | 43.8% |
| High card | 1,302,540 | 50.1% | 17.4% |
There are 2,598,960 possible five-card hands and 133,784,560 seven-card hands. With seven cards the order changes a little: you are more likely to end up with three of a kind than a straight, and more likely to have one pair than no pair at all. The rankings still follow the five-card odds, which is why they are the same in every game.
There are 1,326 possible two-card starting hands.
Holding one card, the chance that the next card pairs it is 3 in 51, because three of the 51 cards left match its rank.
It is fundamental for any poker player to understand the concept of the absolute and relative value of a poker hand. If you know this, you will surely be better at understanding the game of poker, thus making much better decisions during your gameplay.
You need to know exactly what a flush is, when a full house is possible, and so on. You can do this with some easy memorisation of the possible hands in poker. This is absolute hand strength explained very briefly.
However, making decisions based only on this is not recommended and is incomplete. You need to consider the strength of your opponent’s hand and measure it against yours. This is the next level of thinking in poker, and it is called relative hand strength.
To put it simply, the value of every hand in poker depends on the value of your opponent’s hand, or their range of hands, to be more specific. Moreover, another way you can see the relative strength of your poker hand is by seeing what the community cards are when they are dealt.
Strong in showdownStrong starting position
May become overconfidentBetter evaluation of the situationPromotes unbiased thinking You may underestimate the value of your handThe royal flush: ace, king, queen, jack and 10 of the same suit. All four royal flushes are equal, because suits do not rank.
There isn’t one. A deck has four suits of 13 ranks, and in standard poker all suits are equal. The ace is the highest rank and the 2 the lowest, except that the ace can play low in an A-2-3-4-5 straight.
There are 2,598,960 different five-card hands from a 52-card deck, the number of ways to choose 5 cards from 52. They fall into the ten categories above. Counted by rank alone, ignoring suits, there are 1,277 different high-card hands, 858 different three-of-a-kind hands and 2,860 different one-pair hands.
For how the hands fit into a full game, see our poker rules guide and the Texas Hold’em strategy guide.
Also worth a look: the same rankings apply in Omaha poker, but you must use exactly two of your four hole cards.
Also worth a look: with only three cards the order changes: in Three Card Poker a straight beats a flush.
Also worth a look: three-card hands rank differently; see the Three Card Brag rules, where a run beats a flush.
Also worth a look: the same hand rankings decide every payout in Mississippi Stud, from a pair of jacks at 1 to 1 to a royal flush at 500 to 1.
Four cards, a different order: in Four Card Poker three of a kind beats a flush and a straight.
Now that all the important aspects of the game are covered, it is time to take a look at some of the poker hand rankings FAQ, so you have a bit of a shortc
After going through several successful experiences with several industry pioneers, Fadi Hayek has managed to excel in the world of content for online gaming by providing unique content for several projects that allowed him to obtain the necessary experience to launch his career. Last but not least, Fadi also holds several certificates, including but not limited to content marketing and iGaming.
