Poker hand rankings: what beats what

How do I remember what beats what?

What does each hand actually mean?

Here's each one in plain words, with the rule that decides it when two players make the same hand.

• The top of the list

  Royal flush

  Ace, king, queen, jack and ten of one suit. Nothing beats it, and you'll only see a tie if all five cards are on the board.

• Straight flush

  Five in a row, all the same suit, such as 9-8-7-6-5 of spades. If two players have one, the higher top card wins.

• Four of a kind

  All four cards of one rank, often called quads. Bigger quads win. If the four are on the board, the highest fifth card decides.

• Full house

  Three of one rank and two of another, often called a boat. Compare the three of a kind first and the pair second, so kings full of eights beats queens full of aces.

• Flush

  Any five cards of one suit, in any order. Compare the highest card, then the next, all the way down.

• Straight

  Five cards in a row, in mixed suits. The top card decides it, and the ace can be high or low.

• Three of a kind

  Three cards of one rank. Players call it a set when you hold a pair and one more is on the board, and trips when two are on the board and you hold one. A set is much harder for anyone to see coming.

• Two pair

  Two different pairs. Compare the higher pair, then the lower pair, then the side card.

• One pair

  Two cards of one rank. The bigger pair wins, and if the pairs match, the highest side cards decide.

• High card

  Nothing at all. Your best five cards are compared from the top down.

How often do you actually make each hand?

Less often than TV poker suggests. You see seven cards by the river (your two plus the five on the board) and you keep the best five. Out of every 100 deals, this is roughly what you end up with.

What 100 hands look like by the river

Each dot is one deal

Chance of making at least this hand

By the river, in Texas Hold'em

Notice that one pair is the most common result by a long way, and two pair comes up more often than plain high card. So a pair is rarely as strong as it feels.

Chance of each hand by the river

Every 7-card deal counted: 133,784,560 of them

There's an oddity in those numbers. With seven cards, you make a pair more often than high card and three of a kind almost as often as a straight.

The order was set for five-card poker, where high card is the most common hand of all (50.1%) and a straight is far rarer than three of a kind (0.39% against 2.11%).

Five cards against seven

Why the order looks odd in Hold'em

How long would you wait for each hand?

Hours of live poker to make each hand once

30 hands an hour, staying to the river every time. Bars use a log scale so the rare hands fit.

Can I see it for myself?

Yes. Each press deals seven random cards and finds the best five. Deal a few thousand and watch your counts settle on the exact numbers.

What's a kicker?

What does a real showdown look like?

These four come up at every table, and each one has started an argument somewhere. Under each player you can see the five cards that count.

Which situations cause the most arguments?

These are the ones that get a dealer called over.

• Only five cards countThree pairs is impossible as a hand: you play the top two pairs and your best side card.
• Two flushesCompare by highest card, then the next, and so on. Suits don't matter.
• Ace can be lowA-2-3-4-5 is the lowest straight, called a wheel, and it loses to 2-3-4-5-6.
• Straights can't wrap aroundQ-K-A-2-3 is nothing at all.
• Two full housesCompare the three of a kind first. Threes full of aces lose to fours full of twos.
• You can play the boardIf the five community cards beat anything you can make with your own, everyone left splits the pot.

How do I read a board quickly?

Run the same three checks every time, in this order, and you'll stop missing things.

• Is it paired?A full house or four of a kind is possible.
• Three of one suit?A flush is possible.
• Close together?If three cards fit inside a five-card stretch, a straight is possible.
• None of those?The best hand anyone can have is three of a kind.

Which starting hands are best?

Your two cards are your hole cards, and a pair of aces is the best you can be dealt. You'll see it 1 time in 221.

The ten best starting hands

Chance of beating one random hand

Being ahead before the flop is only a start, because five more cards are coming. Aces still lose about 15 times in 100 to one random hand. The preflop charts show which hands to play from each seat.

How often does the flop help you?

Less often than it feels. With two different cards in your hand, the flop pairs at least one of them about 1 time in 3, so two flops out of three miss you completely.

What the flop gives you

Counted across all 19,600 possible flops

That's why betting big on every flop with ace-king burns chips. It's also why a pocket pair that misses is usually just a pair: you make three of a kind on the flop only 12 times in 100.

Which hands have their own names?

Plenty of them, and you'll hear these at any table.

• Pocket rocketsTwo aces, the best start in the game.
• CowboysTwo kings. K for cowboy.
• LadiesTwo queens.
• FishhooksTwo jacks. Look at the shape of the J.
• Big slickAce-king. It looks great and it still has to hit something.
• The hammerSeven-deuce offsuit, the hand players love to call the worst in poker.
• Doyle BrunsonHe won the World Series main event holding it two years running, in 1976 and 1977.
• Dolly PartonNine-five, after her song.
• Dead man's handBlack aces and black eights. Legend says Wild Bill Hickok was holding them when he was shot in Deadwood in 1876.

Do the rankings change in other games?

Nearly every form of poker uses this same list. In Omaha you must use exactly two of your four hole cards, and the order of hands stays the same. A few games do change it.

• Short deckThe 2s through 5s come out, and a flush beats a full house, because flushes get harder to make.
• ★
  Wild cardsThey add five of a kind, which beats a royal flush.
• LowballThe list turns upside down and the worst hand wins. In deuce-to-seven, this is the best hand there is.

Which hand wins?

Twelve spots in three rounds, with real cards, and the reason after every answer.

Questions players ask about hand rankings

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes. A flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush.

What is the best hand in Texas Hold'em?

A royal flush: ace, king, queen, jack and ten of one suit. By the river you'll make one about 1 time in 30,940. The best starting hand is a pair of aces.

Can two players have exactly the same hand?

Yes, and then they split the pot. Suits never break a tie.

Does a straight beat three of a kind?

Yes. A straight is one step above three of a kind on the list.

Is an ace high or low?

Both, but only at the two ends of a straight. Everywhere else it's the highest card.

What if we both have two pair?

Compare the higher pair, then the lower pair, then the fifth card. Kings and twos beat queens and jacks.

Which suit is the best?

None of them. Suits only matter for making a flush.

Do you have to use both of your cards?

No. In Texas Hold'em you make the best five from your two and the five on the board, using two, one or none of your own.

How the numbers on this page were worked out

We listed all 133,784,560 possible sets of seven cards and all 2,598,960 sets of five, and put each one in its category. The totals match the published tables on Wikipedia's poker probability page. The dealer on this page uses random cards, so your counts will wobble around the exact figures and get closer the more you deal.

A dealer turning one hand a second, day and night, would need more than four years to get through the seven-card deals.

Know someone who still thinks a straight beats a flush?

Send them this page, or save the cheat sheet for your next game.