Poker hand rankings, from royal flush to high card

Poker hands rank from the royal flush at the top down to high card at the bottom, and the order is based on how rare each hand is. The ten standard hands, best first, are royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. The same order is used in Texas hold'em, Omaha, stud and draw poker.

The ten poker hands in order

Every poker hand is made of exactly five cards, even in games such as hold'em where you choose your best five from seven. Aces are high, except that they can also count as the lowest card in the straight A-2-3-4-5.

• 1. Royal flush: A-K-Q-J-10, all of the same suit. It is simply the highest possible straight flush.
• 2. Straight flush: five cards in sequence and of the same suit, such as 9-8-7-6-5 of hearts.
• 3. Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank plus one other card, such as Q-Q-Q-Q-7.
• 4. Full house: three of a kind plus a pair, such as 10-10-10-4-4, described as 'tens full of fours'.
• 5. Flush: any five cards of the same suit that are not in sequence, such as K-J-8-6-3 of clubs.
• 6. Straight: five cards in sequence of mixed suits, such as 8-7-6-5-4.
• 7. Three of a kind: three cards of the same rank plus two unrelated cards, such as 7-7-7-K-2.
• 8. Two pair: two different pairs plus one other card, such as J-J-5-5-A.
• 9. One pair: two cards of the same rank plus three unrelated cards, such as 9-9-A-8-3.
• 10. High card: no combination at all, ranked by its highest card, such as A-J-9-6-2, known as 'ace high'.

Straights cannot wrap around the corner. A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest straight and 5-4-3-2-A, often called the wheel, is the lowest, but a hand such as 2-A-K-Q-J is not a straight at all, as the card game reference site Pagat notes.

Poker hand probabilities

A standard 52-card deck can produce 2,598,960 different five-card hands. Counting how many of them fall into each category explains the ranking: the rarer the hand, the higher it sits. The figures below, which match the table published by the Wizard of Odds, apply to five cards dealt from a full deck. Each hand is counted once, in its best category, so the straight flush figure excludes royal flushes and the flush figure excludes straight flushes.

• Royal flush: 4 hands, 0.00015%, about 1 in 649,740
• Straight flush: 36 hands, 0.0014%, about 1 in 72,193
• Four of a kind: 624 hands, 0.024%, 1 in 4,165
• Full house: 3,744 hands, 0.144%, about 1 in 694
• Flush: 5,108 hands, 0.197%, about 1 in 509
• Straight: 10,200 hands, 0.392%, about 1 in 255
• Three of a kind: 54,912 hands, 2.11%, about 1 in 47
• Two pair: 123,552 hands, 4.75%, about 1 in 21
• One pair: 1,098,240 hands, 42.26%, about 1 in 2.4
• High card: 1,302,540 hands, 50.12%, about 1 in 2

In seven-card games such as Texas hold'em the chances of finishing with a strong hand are much higher, because each player picks the best five of seven cards. The order of the hands stays the same.

How ties are broken

When two players hold the same type of hand, the higher-ranked cards win. The detail depends on the hand.

• Straights and straight flushes: the hand with the higher top card wins, so 9-8-7-6-5 beats 8-7-6-5-4.
• Four of a kind and full houses: compare the four or the three first. A full house of K-K-K-2-2 beats Q-Q-Q-A-A.
• Flushes and high-card hands: compare the highest card, then the next highest, and so on through all five.
• Three of a kind, two pair and one pair: compare the sets or pairs first, starting with the higher pair in two pair, then the remaining cards, known as kickers, in descending order.
• Identical hands: if all five cards match in rank, the pot is split equally.

Kickers often decide hold'em pots. If two players both have a pair of aces, one holding A-K and the other A-Q with no help from the board, the player with the king kicker wins. Only five cards ever count, though, so a sixth or seventh card can never break a tie.

Suits do not rank in standard poker. A spade flush is not better than a heart flush with the same card values; the pot is shared. Robert's Rules of Poker, a widely used cardroom rulebook, states that suits never break a tie for winning a pot, although it does set a suit order of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs for settling ties between single cards of the same rank, for example when cards are dealt to decide seating.

Common mistakes

• Thinking a flush beats a full house in a standard game. It does not; that only applies in short deck.
• Counting six or seven cards. Only your best five cards play, so a sixth or seventh card can never win you the pot.
• Treating the ace as both high and low, as in Q-K-A-2-3. Wraparound straights do not exist.
• Forgetting the board can play. In hold'em, if the five community cards make the best hand for everyone still in, all of them split the pot.
• Assuming suits break ties. In standard poker identical hands split the pot.

How rankings change in short deck and lowball

Short deck hold'em, also called six-plus hold'em, uses a 36-card deck with all the twos, threes, fours and fives removed, according to Upswing Poker. With only nine cards in each suit, flushes become harder to make than full houses, so a flush beats a full house. Some versions also rank three of a kind above a straight, so it is worth checking the house rules before play. The ace can still play low, which makes A-6-7-8-9 the lowest straight.

Lowball games turn the ranking upside down, so the lowest hand wins. In ace-to-five lowball, used in razz, aces are always low and straights and flushes do not count against you, so the best possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A. In deuce-to-seven lowball, aces are high and straights and flushes do count, so the best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2 of at least two different suits. Split-pot games such as Omaha hi-lo award half the pot to the best high hand and half to the best qualifying low hand.