hand rankings
Poker hands, best to worst.
Ten hands, one order, and it never changes. A royal flush beats everything. A pair of twos beats nothing but a high card. Everything below is the full list, with how often each one actually turns up out of the 2,598,960 possible five card hands. Texas Hold'em deals you seven cards to choose from, which moves those figures a long way, and how often each hand lands with five cards and with seven is counted out side by side.
| # | Hand | Example | Ways to make it | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Royal flush Ten to ace, all in the same suit. The one hand nothing beats. | 4 | 0.00015% | |
| 02 | Straight flush Five cards in a row, all one suit. | 36 | 0.0014% | |
| 03 | Four of a kind All four cards of one rank. Also called quads. | 624 | 0.0240% | |
| 04 | Full house Three of one rank and two of another. The three decides who wins. | 3,744 | 0.144% | |
| 05 | Flush Five cards of one suit, in any order. Highest card decides. | 5,108 | 0.197% | |
| 06 | Straight Five cards in a row, suits do not matter. | 10,200 | 0.392% | |
| 07 | Three of a kind Three of one rank. Called a set when two of them are your own cards. | 54,912 | 2.11% | |
| 08 | Two pair Two pairs. The highest pair is compared first. | 123,552 | 4.75% | |
| 09 | One pair Two cards of the same rank. The most common hand you will actually win with. | 1,098,240 | 42.26% | |
| 10 | High card Nothing at all. Your highest card plays. | 1,302,540 | 50.12% |
Out of 2,598,960 possible five card hands from a 52 card deck. The ten counts add up to exactly that number, and the build fails if they ever stop doing so.
test yourself
Six spots. Which hand wins?
Reading the list is not the same as seeing it at the table. These are the six confusions that cost real money, including the last one, where both players have the same hand and the kicker decides.
spot 1 of 6
spot 2 of 6
spot 3 of 6
spot 4 of 6
spot 5 of 6
spot 6 of 6
next
Knowing the order is the easy part.
Reading a ranking is not the same as seeing it at speed, with money in the middle and two cards you have to place in half a second. The full trainer runs through every confusion on this page and keeps score.
questions people actually ask
Does a flush beat a straight?
Yes. A flush beats a straight. There are 10,200 possible straights against 5,108 flushes in a 52 card deck, and in poker the rarer hand wins.
Does a full house beat a flush?
Yes. A full house beats a flush, and both of them beat a straight. Only four of a kind, a straight flush and a royal flush beat a full house.
What is the highest hand in poker?
A royal flush: ten, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit. There are exactly four of them in a deck, one per suit, which is 4 out of 2,598,960 five card hands.
Do suits rank against each other?
No. In standard poker no suit beats another. If two players have the same hand down to the last card, the pot is split.
What happens if we both have the same pair?
Then the kicker decides: the highest card next to the pair. If those match too, the next one, up to five cards. Only if all five are identical is the pot split. Losing to a kicker is one of the most common ways to lose a pot you thought you had.
Is an ace high or low in a straight?
Both. An ace is the top of ten-jack-queen-king-ace and the bottom of ace-two-three-four-five, the wheel. It cannot be in the middle: queen-king-ace-two-three is not a straight.