Poker Hand Rankings

1. Royal Flush

A Royal Flush is the strongest and rarest poker hand. This hand is made up of the highest five cards of any single suit. The four examples are as follows:

The odds of hitting a Royal Flush are 1 in 649,739, so don’t expect it. If you do get exceptionally lucky, however, then you’re pretty much guaranteed to win the hand.

2. Straight Flush

A straight flush is the same as a royal flush in principle, just with lower cards. The lowest and highest possible straight flush hands are:

As with a royal flush – which is the only hand that can beat this one – the suit does not increase or decrease the value of a hand. Two identical straight flushes are worth the same, and would result in a split pot in the incredibly rare situation that they occur in the same round. 

3. Four-of-a-Kind

Four-of-a-Kind – or Quads – is one of the best standard hands and, as the name suggests, consists of four cards of equal rank. The best possible 4-of-a-Kind combination is four Aces – in an Ace high game. 

The rank is important here, as the higher the value of the cards, the better the hand. This means that four 2s is the lowest possible four-of-a-kind hand. However, being the third most valuable hand in all of poker, four 2s still gives you a good chance of winning. 

The fifth card in your hand, often known as the kicker, is not important here. If you are playing a single deck game, there are only four cards of each rank, meaning a draw is impossible. 

4. Full House

The Full House is in fourth place when it comes to the best poker hand rankings – if you consider a Royal Flush a separate hand. Consisting of a Three-of-a-Kind combination plus a Pair, the best possible full-house hand is Aces over Kings, represented as:

The value of both the three and two combinations is important here, but the former matters most. For example, if you have Kings over 2x, you will beat any full house hand with a three-of-a-kind combo ranked below a King. However, if someone else has Kings over 3s, they will beat you due to the higher ranking of the pair.

5. Flush

A Flush is a handful of cards of an identical suit and is the fifth-best poker hand. Again, the ranking of your cards matters here, with, for example, an Ace-high flush like:

being valued higher than a: 

If two Ace-high flushes show at the end of a game, the hand is decided by whoever has the highest ranking second card, if these are the same, then the third, and so on. In the unlikely event that players have matching flushes of different suits – something that is only possible in some poker games – it couldn’t happen in Texas Hold’em, for example, then the pot would be split. 

Keep in mind that the strength of a flush hand usually depends on the variant of poker you play. Flushes often represent a strong option in Hold’em, but not so much in Omaha, for example.

6. Straight

The Straight is the sixth-best poker hand and requires five consecutive ranked cards.

The best possible Straight hand (known as “Broadway”) is:

The lowest straight is:

The suit of the cards does not matter, unless they are all the same, then see Straight Flush above. 

7. Three-of-a-Kind

As you have probably worked out from the name, three-of-a-kind has the same logic as four-of-a-kind, just with one less card. This is a mid-level poker hand in terms of strength and can have different chances of winning depending on factors like what variant you are playing, or what the community cards are showing in a Hold’em game. 

The highest and lowest value three-of-a-kind hands are as follows:

If you’re playing Hold’em, there are two terms for this hand. Trips is a term for when two of your three identically ranked cards are on the board, while a Set means the pair is in your hand with the last card being in the community section.

8. Two Pair

Two Pair is another self-explanatory poker hand. To achieve this hand, you need to have two different pairs of equally ranked cards. The best combo here is Aces and Kings and all pairs are regarded as equal independent of a suit. The fifth card, or kicker, comes into play if two players have identical pairs. However, if only one pair is the same, the pot goes to the player with the highest-ranked second pair.

For example,

would beat:

While

would win over:

9. Pair

A pair is the second lowest value hand in poker, and often a tough one to win with. To have this hand, you need two cards of equal rank, and then three cards with no connection between them. This creates the novel situation of having three kickers, meaning if you have a pair of 4s, and someone else has the same hand, the highest value third card will be taken into account. If this is the same in both hands, then the fourth is taken, if that’s the same, then the fifth. Two identical five-card hands – aside from the suits of the pair, obviously, will result in a split pot. 

In the example below, the first hand would beat the second due to the higher value of the third kicker. 

10. High-Card

If you don’t manage to land any of the above options, then your hand will be judged on the value of the highest card. It is rarely a good idea to play through to the showdown of any poker variant with a high card unless you’re playing Hi-Lo or another variant where the lowest possible poker hand is rewarded.

One high-card hand against another essentially has the kicker logic on all five cards. If the highest value card is the same in two hands, the value of the second determines the winner, and so on. In the examples below, the first hand would be the winner thanks to the value of the third card in the sequence, as the two higher cards are the same. It is not important what the two lower values are, as the highest differing card is the kicker between two high card hands.