Poker Hand Rankings

Poker Hand Rankings, Strongest to Weakest

From best to worst, the ten poker hands rank as follows: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card. A hand higher on this list always beats one lower on it; suits are never used to break showdown ties in standard high poker. The royal flush is the highest straight flush, so these ten teaching labels represent nine mathematical categories. This guide assumes a standard 52-card deck without wild cards.

Why Hand Rankings Matter

Hand rankings determine who wins the pot at showdown. Every decision you make — whether to bet, call, raise, or fold — depends on how strong your hand is relative to what your opponents might hold. If you do not know the rankings cold, you cannot make informed decisions.

Start with the ranking order, then practise selecting the best five cards. Hand strength is only one part of a betting decision: the price and your opponents’ possible hands matter too.

The Complete Ranking: All 10 Poker Hands

The table lists every poker hand from strongest to weakest, with exact deal counts and approximate frequencies. The card examples follow below. These are random five-card deals from 52 cards—not seven-card Hold’em frequencies or chances of winning. Rows are mutually exclusive: the straight-flush row excludes royals; flush and straight rows exclude straight flushes.

On a narrow screen, scroll sideways to see every column. Keyboard users can focus the table and use the arrow keys.

Each Hand Explained in Detail

Step-by-Step: How to Determine Your Hand

In Texas Hold'em, you may use two, one or none of your hole cards with the community cards to make your best five-card hand. Here is how to evaluate what you have:

1. Look at all seven cards — your two hole cards plus the five on the board. You will choose the best five of these seven.
2. Check suited cards carefully — five cards of one suit make a flush. Check whether five of that suit are also consecutive: a straight flush is stronger. Having a straight and a flush among seven cards does not automatically mean those same five cards form a straight flush.
3. Check for straights — look for five consecutive cards. Remember, an Ace can play high or low.
4. Count matching ranks — four of a kind, three of a kind, pairs. Compare each legal five-card combination using the ranking list; there are 21 ways to choose five cards from seven.
5. Pick the highest combination — if you have both a pair and a flush possibility, the flush ranks higher. Always use your best five cards.

Kickers, Board Hands and Split Pots

On A♠ A♦ 9♣ 7♥ 2♣, K♠ Q♦ beats K♥ J♦. Both players have aces and a king kicker, but the queen beats the jack: A-A-K-Q-9 versus A-A-K-J-9. Compare kickers in order, not just the highest one.

On this river board, every remaining Hold’em player has the same ace-high straight. No hole cards can improve it; there are not enough board cards of one suit for a flush. Eligible players share the pot. Suits and a sixth card do not break the tie; the room’s rules govern any odd chip.

Omaha is different: exactly two hole cards must play. Holding A♥ and three non-heart hole cards does not make a flush on a four-heart board.

Common Hand Ranking Mistakes

Even experienced players occasionally misread hands. Here are the most frequent errors:

Practical Tips for Remembering Hand Rankings

• Start with the extremes — Royal Flush at the top, High Card at the bottom. Everything else falls in between.
• Pairs are the foundation — One Pair, Two Pair, Three of a Kind, Full House, Four of a Kind. Each step adds more matching cards.
• Suited beats sequenced — a Flush (same suit) beats a Straight (in sequence). A Straight Flush combines both.
• Play hands to practice — nothing reinforces hand rankings like practice. Use dealt sample hands away from live play and check your answer against the reference.

Hand Rankings in Different Poker Games

The standard rankings above apply to the most popular variants:

• Texas Hold'em — standard rankings
• Omaha — standard rankings (but you must use exactly two of your four hole cards and exactly three board cards)
• Seven-Card Stud — standard rankings
• Short Deck (6+) — check the specific game rules; many formats place a flush above a full house
• Lowball / Razz — uses a low-hand system, not simply this list backwards. In ace-to-five games such as Razz, aces are low and straights and flushes do not count against the hand

If you are playing Texas Hold'em or Omaha — these standard high-hand rankings apply. Remember that the games differ in which cards you may use.

Sources and Calculation Method

Standard rules were checked against PokerStars’ published poker rules, its Omaha hand-construction rules and its Razz ranking rules on 23 September 2026. These are instructional sources, not a recommendation to play on a particular site.

The table uses 52 choose 5 = 2,598,960 equally likely five-card deals. Its ten mutually exclusive counts sum to that total. Card examples are deterministic text, not generated teaching images. This content was edited on 23 September 2026; that date is not a claim of independent human expert review.

What to Learn Next

Understanding hand rankings is your foundation. Here is where to go from here:

• How to Play Texas Hold'em — learn the complete rules of the most popular poker game
• Basic Poker Rules — all the fundamental rules explained in plain language
• Table Positions Explained — why where you sit matters as much as what you hold
• Bluffing in Poker — learn when and how to win pots without the best hand
• How to Play Omaha — standard high rankings with a different rule for selecting five cards
• Poker Terms: A Complete Glossary — hand names and the slang that goes with them, defined