Standard Poker Hand Rankings

Poker is a game of strategy, but it’s also a game of luck. Every player starts with two cards, and then they take turns drawing more cards to try to make the best hand possible.

After each round of betting, the dealer then reveals their hole card and gives each player an opportunity to fold or continue playing by placing more bets on top of those already placed by other players.

Standard Poker Hand Rankings

A Royal Flush

A Royal Flush is the highest possible hand in poker and consists of the ace, king, queen, jack and ten of the same suit.

It’s also called a Straight Flush because it must be in sequential order (see below).

The suit doesn’t matter; you could have an Ace-King-Queen-Jack-10 of hearts or clubs or diamonds—as long as those four cards are all one color, you’ve got yourself a Royal Flush.

Straight Flush

A straight flush is a hand that contains 5 cards of the same suit in sequence. Straight flushes are the second-highest ranked hand in poker, just below royal flushes. Straight flushes can be in any suit, but they must be in sequence: A♠ 2♦ 3♥ 4♣ 5♠ is a valid straight flush while A♥ K♦ Q♥ J♥ 10♦ is not because it’s missing an ace (the highest card).

Four of Kind

A four of a kind is a hand where all four cards are of the same rank. The rank can be any card, but all four have to be the same suit. You can also have four tens, or any other combination you want as long as they’re all ten-valued and they share that same suit.

Four Aces: Four Aces are quite rare and considered lucky, because they’re the highest possible poker hand you can make outside of five of a kind (which is even rarer). If you get dealt this hand, you should probably start planning on spending your winnings!

Four 2s: Congratulations! You just beat at least two people at poker—and probably more if there’s more than one person playing with different hands in front of them! Just wait until someone else gets dealt a pair higher than yours; then we’ll see how impressed people are with your wits and skill when it comes down to two players sitting across from each other with nothing but high card values left on their hands.

A Full House

A full house is a hand that contains three of one rank and two of another. For example, if you receive three eights and two queens, you have a full house (8-8-Q). The next highest ranking flush would be an Ace-high straight flush.

Hand Rankings

Straight Flush – 5 cards in sequence; all different suits

Four of a Kind – 4 cards of the same value & 1 card different

Flush – All five cards are the same suit

Full House – Three plus two (or vice versa)

Straight – Five cards in sequence; all different suits

Three of a Kind – 3 cards of the same value & 2 or more different ranks or colors (ex: 6c 6d 6h 7c 7d 8d)

A Flush

A Flush is a hand where all the cards are the same suit. For example, if you have Ace of Hearts, King of Hearts, Queen of Hearts and Jack of Hearts in your hand then you have a flush.

To make a flush, you need to be dealt four cards from the same suit: one card from each rank (high card to low card). If you are playing poker with multiple players and there are no more community cards left in the deck then any player can win by having the highest card in that suit.

For example: If there were three community cards already showing on table when it’s your turn to bet then any player that has at least 2 hearts in their hand will be able to win with this type of hand because they now make up 3 out of 4 community cards making them an even better hand than those who don’t have any hearts at all!

A Straight

The straight flush is a combination of five cards of sequential rank. The highest possible straight flush is a royal flush, which consists of the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten all in the same suit. The best possible poker hand without a royal flush is four-of-a kind (four cards with the same value).

Straight

A straight can be compared to a sequence (also known as an “upcard”), but unlike in card games like Uno it does not have to be composed entirely of face cards for this comparison to be valid. There are two kinds of straights: open straights and closed straights. An open straight has no pairs within it; for example Q J 10 9 8 7 5 ♦ 7 6 4 2 ♣ would be considered an open straight because there are no pairs within it. A closed straight contains one pair; for example K Q 9 6 3 A 2 J 10 8 4 7 5 ♦ 3 ♣ 2 ♠ would be considered a closed straight since there are two kings within it that form their own pair when added together and then added onto their respective ranks (see below).

Three of a kind

Three of a kind is the next hand above two pairs. It’s also known as trips and is one of the most popular hands in poker because it’s not too difficult to get, but it’s still strong enough to win big pots. Three of a kind is made up of three cards with the same rank, plus any other two cards that don’t match. The best possible three-of-a-kind combination would be three ace cards, followed by KKQJT9 (otherwise known as “pocket rockets”) and A23456789TJQK (or “wheel”).

You can see more examples here: https://www.pokerhandrankings.com/poker-hands/three-of-a-kind

Two pair

Two pair is a poker hand where you have two cards of the same rank and two cards of another rank. For example, 5c 5d Jh 9c would be a Two Pair in Texas Hold ‘Em because it contains two pairs of nines (9s) and the other three cards are all different ranks.

If you have three or more cards that rank equally, like two 2s and two 8s, this hand is called a “three-of-a-kind.” The higher ranking card determines what kind of three-of-a-kind your hand is (e.g., if those were both 2s, you’d have an Ace High Three-of-a-Kind).

Pair

A pair is two cards of the same rank. This is probably the most common hand you’ll see in a game of poker, and it’s very easy to identify. A pair can be any two cards, so you might have an ace-high pair or a six-low pair. But how do they rank?

The answer is simple: pairs are ranked by the highest rank of the two cards that comprise them. Get it? If one card is higher than another, then it gets more points (and beats out other hands). For example, let’s say you have an ace-high pair—you would beat someone with a king-high or queen-high because your ace has fewer points than those kings and queens!

High Card

The highest-ranking card in any poker hand is the one that has the highest value, regardless of suit. It’s also the only hand that can’t be beaten by any other hand.

In turn, it’s also the only hand that can’t win a pot. The reason for this is because there are other hands that can beat it, so if two or more players have this same high card at showdown, then no money goes to anyone! In such situations, whoever has the better kicker gets paid (more on kickers later).

By remembering these rankings, you’ll be able to understand the hands dealt in a Texas Hold’em game.

In Texas Hold’em, you can play with any standard 52-card deck. The cards rank in their usual order: A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9 down to 2. But because there are four suits instead of two (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades), the ranking of each card changes slightly.

For example: A high heart is stronger than an ace low diamond (Ace high is 1) but a low diamond is stronger than a high heart (King high is 13).

The highest hand in poker is a Royal Flush which consists of A-K-Q-J-10 all of the same suit. This hand beats everything except another Royal Flush.

Straight flushes are next in value followed by Four Of A Kinds then Full Houses and Flush’s followed by Straight’s followed by Three Of A Kinds then Two Pair and finally High Card Points for ties when players have equal combinations of hands

Conclusion

Hopefully, these poker hand rankings will help you be a better player.