Poker hand rankings: from strongest to weakest

From strongest to weakest, the ten poker hands are: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. In Texas Hold'em your hand is the best five cards you can make from your two cards and the five on the table. Suits never decide a winner: if two players hold hands of exactly the same value, they split the pot. Everything else on this page - ties, kickers and odds - follows from those three sentences.

The hands, from strongest to weakest

A higher hand always beats a lower one, whatever the cards inside it. A small flush beats the best possible straight; a pair of twos beats ace-high.

This page covers what beats what. How a hand of Texas Hold'em is actually played - blinds, the flop, turn and river, betting rounds - is on our poker page.

• Royal flush: A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit, for example A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠. The best hand in poker, and simply the highest straight flush.
• Straight flush: five cards in a row of the same suit, for example 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥.
• Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank, for example Q♣ Q♦ Q♥ Q♠ plus any fifth card.
• Full house: three of one rank and two of another, for example 10♠ 10♦ 10♣ 4♥ 4♠.
• Flush: any five cards of the same suit, not in a row, for example K♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 2♦.
• Straight: five cards in a row of mixed suits, for example 8♣ 7♦ 6♠ 5♥ 4♣.
• Three of a kind: three cards of the same rank, for example 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ plus two others.
• Two pair: two different pairs, for example J♣ J♥ 4♦ 4♠ plus a fifth card.
• One pair: two cards of the same rank, for example A♥ A♣ plus three others.
• High card: none of the above. The hand is named after its highest card - "ace-high", "king-high".

How often each hand turns up

The textbook odds describe five cards. Texas Hold'em deals you seven, and that changes the picture a lot.

Most rankings tables quote the chance of being dealt a hand in five cards, out of 2,598,960 possible combinations. In Hold'em you pick your best five out of seven, which is why strong hands are far more common at a real table than those tables suggest. Both columns below come from the standard calculations published on Wikipedia's poker probability page.

• Royal flush: 0.000154% of five-card hands - 0.0032% of seven-card Hold'em hands
• Straight flush: 0.00139% - 0.0279%
• Four of a kind: 0.024% - 0.168%
• Full house: 0.144% - 2.60%
• Flush: 0.197% - 3.03%
• Straight: 0.392% - 4.62%
• Three of a kind: 2.11% - 4.83%
• Two pair: 4.75% - 23.5%
• One pair: 42.3% - 43.8%
• High card: 50.1% - 17.4%

Two things stand out. A flush is roughly fifteen times more common in Hold'em than in five-card poker, and "high card" drops from half of all hands to fewer than one in five. Over seven cards, two pair or better turns up close to 39% of the time. Keep in mind what the second column measures: how often your best five cards make that hand when all seven cards are dealt. It is not your chance of winning the pot - your opponents are making hands from the same five shared cards.

When both players have the same hand

When two hands are the same type, the ranks inside them decide, and if those are identical too, the pot is split.

This is where most arguments at a table start, so here are the rules with real Hold'em boards. Each example shows the five shared cards, two players' hole cards and the result.

Pair against pair - the kicker decides. Board K♠ 9♦ 7♣ 4♥ 2♠. Player A holds K♥ Q♣, player B holds K♦ J♠. Both have a pair of kings. Next, compare the remaining cards one by one: A's best five are K-K-Q-9-7, B's are K-K-J-9-7. The queen beats the jack, so A wins. That side card is called the kicker.

Two pair - the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the kicker. Board J♣ J♦ 8♠ 5♥ 3♣. Player A holds 8♦ 2♠, player B holds A♠ 5♣. A has jacks and eights; B has jacks and fives with an ace kicker. A wins: the second pair is compared before the kicker, so B's ace never comes into play.

Full house - the three of a kind decides first. Board 8♠ 8♦ 7♣ 7♥ 2♠. Player A holds 8♣ 2♦, player B holds 7♠ A♦. A has 8-8-8-7-7, B has 7-7-7-8-8. A wins, because eights full beats sevens full - the pair only matters if the threes are the same rank.

Flush against flush - compare card by card from the top. Board K♥ 10♥ 6♥ 4♣ 2♥. Player A holds Q♥ 3♠, player B holds J♥ 9♥. A's flush is K-Q-10-6-2, B's is K-J-10-9-6. The kings tie, then A's queen beats B's jack, and the rest does not matter. B holding two hearts gives no advantage.

Straight against the same straight - split. Board 5♠ 6♦ 7♣ 8♥ K♠. Player A holds 9♣ 2♦, player B holds 9♥ K♦. Both have a nine-high straight. B's pair of kings is irrelevant, because a straight beats a pair and B's best five cards are the straight. The pot is split.

Only five cards ever count. Board A♠ A♦ K♣ K♥ 7♠. Player A holds Q♣ 2♦, player B holds Q♥ J♠. Both have A-A-K-K-Q. B's jack would be a sixth card, and a sixth card never breaks a tie. Split pot.

Suits never decide

In Texas Hold'em there is no ranking of suits: hands that differ only by suit are equal, and the pot is split.

Some poker pages claim a flush in spades beats the same flush in hearts. It does not. The World Series of Poker tournament rules use suits only to settle side matters, such as who gets an odd chip left over when a pot is split (rule 73) - never to decide who wins a hand. The list of poker hands states the same general rule: hands that differ by suit alone are of equal rank.

A-2-3-4-5 and other traps

The ace can play low in one straight only, the board can be your whole hand, and the cards - not the player - decide.

• The lowest straight: A-2-3-4-5, the "wheel", is a straight in which the ace counts as a one. It is the weakest straight: 2-3-4-5-6 beats it.
• No wrap-around: Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight. The ace is either at the top or at the bottom, never in the middle.
• Playing the board: your best hand can be the five shared cards alone. If the board is 10♠ J♦ Q♣ K♥ A♠ and nobody can make a flush, everyone still in the hand has the same straight, and the pot is split.
• Cards speak: at a real table, what you announce does not matter - your cards do. The WSOP rules state this directly (rule 69). If you misread your hand and call it a pair, but it is actually a straight, it still plays as a straight when the cards are shown.

Casino versions played against the dealer, such as Casino Hold'em or Three Card Poker, use their own paytables and in places rank hands differently. Check the rules at that table before you play.

Mistakes beginners make

Almost every misread comes from counting the wrong five cards.

• Thinking a suit can win. A heart flush and a club flush with the same ranks are the same hand.
• Counting a sixth card. Once five cards are compared, the hand is over. A higher card that does not fit in your best five does not count as a kicker.
• Claiming the board's straight as your own. If the straight is on the table, everyone has it. Only a higher straight of your own beats the others.
• Comparing the wrong pair in two pair. The higher pair is compared first. Kings and twos beats queens and jacks.
• Treating a full house by its pair. The three of a kind is compared first: sevens full of aces loses to eights full of twos.

If a term here is new, our glossary has short definitions, and the beginner's guide covers the basics of playing online.

Where to play

Poker is played either against other players in a poker room, or against the dealer in a casino version.

Latvian-licensed Optibet runs a poker room on the partypoker network, with cash games and tournaments against other players. Casino versions against the dealer are usually found in the live casino section; how they grew is covered in our piece on live casino shows. For every casino we cover, see all casinos.

Poker is a game of money and risk. Decide how much you are willing to lose before you sit down, and stop when you reach it. Our responsible gambling page lists the tools that help, including Latvia's self-exclusion register. Gambling is for adults aged 18 and over.