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Introduction
Rules
- A single 52-card deck is used. All cards count as its poker value. Aces may be high or low.
- One player is designated as the dealer, usually with a laminated marker. This person does not have to physically deal the game. However it is important that a symbolic dealer position rotate around the table.
- The player to the dealer's left must make a 'small blind' bet. The player to the left of the small blind must make a 'big blind' bet. The amounts of both blinds should be specified in advance. The purpose of the blinds is to get the ball rolling with some money in the pot.
- Two cards shall be dealt down to each player, starting with the person to the dealer's left.
- The player to the left of the big blind must either call or raise the big blind bet. The play in turn will go around the table according to normal poker rules, which I assume the reader already knows. Table rules will specify any limits on the size or number of allowed raises.
- The small blind may also raise the big blind. If nobody raises the big blind the player making the big blind has the option to raise his own bet. The term for this is the 'big blind option.'
- Three community cards will be dealt face up in the center of the table. This is called the 'flop.'
- Another round of betting will ensue, starting with the player to the dealer's left.
- A fourth community card will be dealt face up in the center of the table. This card is called the 'turn.'
- Another round of betting will ensue, starting with the player to the dealer's left. Generally the minimum bet is double the first two rounds of betting.
- A fifth and final community card will be dealt face up in the center of the table. This card is called the 'river.'
- Another round of betting will ensue, starting with the player to the dealer's left. The minimum bet is generally the same as the previous round.
Each player still in the game at the end will determine the highest poker value among his own two cards and the five community cards. It is NOT a requirement that the player use both of his own cards. The player with the hand of highest poker value shall win. Following are the hand rankings.
- Straight flush: Five consecutive and suited cards. For example 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
- Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank, plus any fifth card. For example Q, Q, Q, Q ,4.
- Full house: Three of a kind and a pair. For example 6, 6, 6, J , J.
- Flush: Any five cards of the same suit, except for a higher ranking straight flush. For example A, Q, 8, 4 , 3.
- Straight: Five consecutive cards, except for a higher ranking straight flush. For example 8, 9, 10, J, Q.
- Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank, plus any other two cards. For example 5, 5, 5, Q ,2 .
- Two pair: Two pairs, plus any fifth card. For example 8, 8, 2, 2 ,Q .
- Pair: A pair and any other three cards. For example 7, 7, 2, 5 ,A .
- ? High: Any five cards that do not form any higher poker hand. A king high hand for example might be K, Q, 7, 5 ,4 .
- If two or more players have poker values of the same rank then the individual cards will be used to break the tie. If necessary all five cards will be considered.
- I get asked a lot whether the two unused cards in a player's hand are used to break a tie. The answer is a firm NO. The two unused cards do not matter.
- If a new player arrives at the table he should either wait for the big blind position or put up an amount equal to the big blind, amounting to a call of the big blind.
- If a bet is made after another player runs out of money, then a separate pot is created. The player that ran out of money is not eligible to win the second pot. If more than one player runs out of money then multiple separate pots can be created.
- In formal games players may not bet with cash or buy chips with cash in the middle of a hand.
- There are numerous rules of etiquette, which I won't get into.
- There house may set the betting rules. There are three main types. A 'structured' game features raises of specified amounts. For example a '3/6 game' would mean that raises after the deal and flop are $3, and after the turn and river are $6. There is usually a limit to the number of raises a player may make, typically three. A 'pot limit' game has structured minimum raises but the maximum raise may be anything up to the amount in the pot at the time the raise is made. A 'no limit' game also has structured minimum raises but there is no maximum raise.
Examples
Example 1
Board: A, 2, 4, 5, 6
Player 1: J, 6
Player 2: 7, Q
Player 1 wins. Both have an ace high flush, so the second highest card is considered. Player 1's jack beats player 2's 7. The only way to have a flush tie is if the flush is entirely on the board and no hole cards are higher than the lowest card on the board in the same suit.
Example 2
Board: J, A, 7, 5, 6
Player 1: 2, J
Player 2: 10, J
Player 2 wins. Both have a pair of jacks so the singletons are considered. High highet singleton in both hands is an ace so the second highest singleton is considered. Player 1's second highest singleton is a 7, compared to player 2's 10. A 10 beats a 7 so player 2 wins.
Example 3
Board: A, A, K, Q, J
Player 1: Q, J
Player 2: Q, 2
Tie. Both have a two pair of aces and queens, with a king singleton. Some people incorrectly believe that in such cases the unused cards are considered, in this case player 1's pair of jacks beating player 2's jack/2. Only the top five cards matter. The jacks and deuce are irrelevant.
One of the most important aspects of Texas Hold'em is the value of each two-card hand before the flop. The decision of how to play your first two cards is something you face every hand, and the value of your first two cards is highly correlated to your probability of winning.
The following table shows my power rating for each initial 2-card hand in a 10-player game. The numbers are on a 0 to 40 scale. Basically, you should only play hands that are dark green, blue, or purple. Of course you should be more be more liberal in late position and picky in early position. If forced I would say you should need 10 points in late position and 19 points in early position to call the big blind. If your table is loose, as if often the case online, you can play a bit looser yourself.
Use the top table if you have a pair, the middle table if your cards are suited, and the bottom table if your cards are unsuited. Except for a pair,look up your high card along the left and your low card along the top.
Following are the links to my tables of the value of each intial hand according to the number of players. The 10-player section explains the methodology for creating the table table.
Pot Odds
The following table shows the probability of making various hands after the flop and the correct 'pot odds.' The pot odds are the breakeven ratio of money in the pot to the amount you have to bet for the player to be indifferent about calling, assuming the player would definitely win if he makes the hand (a big if) and there are no additional bets (another big if). This table is a good starting point the player should make mental adjustments for the probability of winning without making the hand, losing with making the hand, and expected future bets. The odds of a two pair improving to a full house are the same as those for four to an inside straight.
Pot Odds — After Flop
Hand | Probability of Making Hand | Pot Odds |
---|---|---|
Four to a flush | 34.97% | 1.86 |
Four to an outside straight | 31.45% | 2.18 |
Four to an inside straight | 16.47% | 5.07 |
The next table shows the pot odds after the turn.
Pot Odds — After Turn
Hand | Probability of Making Hand | Pot Odds |
---|---|---|
4 to a flush | 19.57% | 4.11 |
4 to an outside straight | 17.39% | 4.75 |
4 to an inside straight | 8.70% | 10.50 |
Hand Strength Calculator
I'm proud to present my new and improved Poker Odds Calculator. Enter any situation in Texas Hold 'Em, and it will tell you the probability of each possible outcome.
Poker Tournament Calculator
My Poker Tournament Calculator will determine each player's probability, for up to nine players, of finishing in each place, and his expected share of any prize pool, assuming equal skill among all players. It produces the same results as what is known as the Independent Chip Model.
Internal Links
- Pinapple — Strategy and analysis of which card to discard before the flop.
- Bad Beat Jackpots: What is the Probability of Hitting one?
- Texas Hold 'Em Dominated Hand Probabilities: What is the probability one of your opponents has similar, and better, hole cards than yours?
Table Of Contents
Do you want to know what beats what in poker? Use the official poker hands rankings chart and seem them from best to worst!
Whether you play live at your local casino or card room, you have your home game going, or you prefer the online action at websites like PokerStars, 888Poker, or partypoker, you need to learn the order of poker hands from best to worse.
Use the list of poker hands below to know beats what in poker.
Commit this poker hands ranking list to memory today and print it if you need it (there's a button for it at the bottom). Knowing the correct poker hands rank is key to start making winning poker hands.
Poker Hands From Best To Worst
Poker Hands From Best To Worst
1. Royal Flush | 10JQKA | The best possible hand in Texas hold'em is the combination of ten, jack, queen, king, ace, all of the same suit |
2. Straight Flush | 56789 | Five cards of the same suit in sequential order |
3. Four-Of-A-Kind | 3333K | Any four numerically matching cards |
4. Full House | JJJKK | Combination of three of a kind and a pair in the same hand |
5. Flush | 2459K | Five cards of the same suit, in any order |
6. Straight | A2345 | Five cards of any suit, in sequential order |
7. Three-Of-A-Kind | 77745 | Any three numerically matching cards |
8. Two Pair | 99KK4 | Two different pairs in the same hand |
9. One Pair | 10103QK | Any two numerically matching cards |
10. High Card | K248Q | The highest ranked card in your hand with an ace being the highest and two being the lowest |
Not Sure What Beats What in Poker?
Many consider poker less of a gambling game than other casino games. For that to be true, players need to improve their understanding of game play and the strategy required to be a winning player.
The first step toward learning how to play poker is to learn the poker hand rankings.
Most poker players have these rankings memorized, which allows them to think about other things at the table when deciding the best way to play their hands.
The good news is these hand rankings tend to be the same among a wide variety of poker variants, whether it is Texas Hold'em, Omaha, seven-card stud, or other games.
All of those games use the same traditional poker hand rankings that were first developed way back in the 19th century when five-card draw first started to be played.
On this page, you find a complete list of poker hand rankings going from the highest possible hand (the Royal Flush), down to the lowest hand in which there is no pair among the five cards.
Hand rankings in poker correspond to the likelihood of making such hands.
A royal flush, consisting of the cards ranked ace through ten all being the same suit, is extremely rare — in fact, some players go their entire lives without making a royal flush.
A regular straight flush with any five consecutive cards of the same suit is a little less rare, four of a kind occurs slightly more frequently, and so on.
Notice that a full house is ranked higher than a flush.
That's because a full house comes just a little less frequently than a flush, thereby making it the higher-ranked hand of the two.
Additional readings for beginners:
- Poker Tips: A collection of tips 'to bring your game from 'meh' to amazing' created to help beginners become better players.
- Texas Hold'em Strategy: a complete manual to read as soon as you start to remember what beats what in poker.
- Poker starting hands chart: the only article you need to read to learn how to use your cards to the fullest.
Understanding Winning Poker Hands
Players new to the game of Texas hold'em often struggle, at least at first, with what the best poker hands are.
Once they have read this easy-to-digest guide that will no longer be the case.
The aim of Texas hold'em is to make the best five-card poker hand at showdown.
You can win without having to show your cards if you force someone to fold before the river. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this article, we'll pretend that we've gone to showdown and need to know what beats what in poker.
Winning Poker Hands: What Are The Best Hands In Poker?
First up is the weakest possible holding you can make in poker, a hand that can still win you the pot, although the likelihood of that happening decreases in a pot involving multiple players.
We are of course talking about high card.
As the name suggests, you don't even hold a pair here and instead are using the highest card among the five you are playing.
Example:
You have and the board has come .
Your best five-card hand would be where you would hold queen-high.
Next up is one pair, one of the more common Texas hold'em hands and one that will win you plenty of pots.
Example:
You have and the board comes .
Your five-card hand is — you have a pair of aces. Nice poker hand!
One place higher up on the poker hands chart is two pair.
Example:
You have and the five community cards are .
Your best five-card hand at showdown is or two pair, tens and nines.
One note of warning on this specific poker hand: if you are verbally declaring your hand, try to announce the higher pair first as to help avoid confusion.
Good Poker Hands
Now we're getting into the realm of the best poker hands because once you make three-of-a-kind (sometimes called a set or trips), you are much more likely to win the pot than with any of the previously mentioned hands.
Example:
Your five-card poker hand is — you have three-of-a-kind kings, often a very powerful hand in hold'em.
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To beat three-of-a-kind you're going to need at least a straight.
A straight is five consecutive cards where at least one of them is a different suit from the others.
Example:
Should your hand read you would hold a six-high straight.
If someone held a seven-high straight, then that player would win the hand.
There are two straights that have nicknames that are worth remembering.
A wheel is a straight that runs from ace-to-five, and a Broadway straight — the strongest straight — runs from ten-to-ace.
A flush is one of the most powerful Texas hold'em hands because it is only beaten by a handful of others.
Any hand that that has five cards of the same suit is a flush.
Aces are always high when it comes to flushes, which means a hand such as beats .
There are few hands that can beat a flush — one that does is a full house. Also called a 'boat,' a full house is when your five-card hand is made up of three of a kind plus a pair.
Example:
With you have kings full of deuces, while is fives full of queens.
When it comes to full houses, the higher three of a kind determines which hand wins, so in this case 'kings full' would beat 'fives full.'
The Stronger Hands in Poker
The next three holdings are so rare that if you hold them, you can almost guarantee that they are winning poker hands.
Four of a kind is the minimum holding you'll need to beat someone with a full house.
Again, as the name suggests, four of a kind means having four cards of the same rank.
Example:
is four-of-a-kind tens and an extremely powerful holding.
Your only way to beat four of a kind, or 'quads' as they are often called, is to hold either a straight flush or a Royal Flush.
The former is five consecutive cards all of the same suit, so would be an eight-high straight flush and practically unbeatable.
If you manage to make (or the same holding in any of the other three suits), you have a Royal Flush and the only way to lose the hand would be to fold by accident!
Poker Hands Probability
If you are into numbers (most poker players are), you might be wondering about the probability of poker hands.
We said that she platers might go entire lives without ever getting the highest hand in poker but, looking at the numbers, what are the odds of a Royal Flush?
In this section of our complete analysis of the poker hand ranking and what beats what in poker, you get a clear overview of the probability of poker hands.
How to calculate the probability of poker hands?
When you know that there are 52 cards in play and 2,598,960 possible combinations, the calculation is easy.
You just need to divide the number of possibilities to build a specific poker hand by the number of total poker hands.
Let's run a few examples:
What are the odds of a Royal Flush? 0.000,001,539
(4/2,598,960)
What are the odds of a Straight Flush? 0.000,015,39
(40/2,598,960)
Use the table below to calculate the probabilities of all poker hands.
Poker Hand | No. Ways | Probability |
---|---|---|
Royal Flush | 4 | 0.000,001,539 |
Straight Flush | 40 | 0.000,015,39 |
Four-of-a-Kind | 624 | 0.000,240,1 |
Full House | 3,744 | 0.001,440,58 |
Flush | 5,108 | 0.001,965,4 |
Straight | 10,200 | 0.003,924,65 |
Three-of-a-Kind | 54,912 | 0.021,128,45 |
Two Pairs | 123,552 | 0,047,539,02 |
One Pair | 1,098,240 | 0,422.569.03 |
Absolute Value vs. Relative Value of Poker Hands
It should be noted also that while poker hand rankings never change, sometimes circumstances can make a good hand less valuable and a poor hand more valuable.
In other words, when it comes to poker hands there's a difference between absolute value (reflected in the list of poker hands above) and relative value.
For instance, in a game of Texas hold'em, if you have two pair that might seem like a good hand.
But if your opponent keeps betting into you and it's possible he could have a straight or flush, your two pair is no longer looking so good.
Meanwhile, if you have just one pair but your opponent keeps checking to give you a free play at the pot, you might well have the strongest hand and should bet your hand.
The 'absolute' value of your hand may not be great, but in that case the 'relative' value very well could be.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that in some games like razz, deuce-to-seven triple draw, Badugi, and others you might encounter when playing online poker, the hand rankings listed below do not apply.
These hand rankings are for regular or 'high-card' games, not 'lowball' games with alternate hand rankings.
Poker Hand Rankings F.A.Q.
What is the order of poker hands?
As shown in the poker hand rankings chart, the order of poker rankings (from the highest to the lowest) is: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card.
What is the best hand in poker?
The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker. To have a Royal Flush, you need an Ace, a King, a Queen, a Jack, and a 10. All the cards that compose the hand need to be of the same suit.
What beats what in poker?
As you can see in our poker hand rankings chart, the hands in poker follow a clear hierarchy.
In a game of poker, the hand rankings work as follows:
- a pair beats a high card;
- a two pair beats a one pair;
- a three-of-a-kind beats a two pair;
- a straight beats a three-of-a-kind;
- a flush beats a straight;
- a full house beats a flush;
- a four-of-a-kind beats a full house;
- a straight flush beats a four-of-a-kind;
- a Royal Flush beats a straight flush.
The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker, so no one other hands beat this one.
What is a straight in poker?
You have a straight when all the five cards that compose your poker hand are consecutive ones. E.g. 5-6-7-8-9.
If the cards are of the same suit, you have a straight flush, which is a considerably stronger hand compare d to the simple straight.
What beats a straight in poker?
Although many see the straight as a stronger hand, there are many other poker hands that beat it.
The list of hands that beat a straight includes:
- a flush;
- a full house;
- a four-of-a-kind;
- a straight flush;
- a Royal Flush.
What beats a flush in poker?
The list of hands that beat a flush includes:
- a full house;
- a four-of-a-kind;
- a straight flush;
- a Royal Flush.
What beats a full house in poker?
The list of hands that beat a full house includes:
- a four-of-a-kind;
- a straight flush;
- a Royal Flush.
What is the highest suit in poker?
All the suits in poker have the same value. In some games, different suits can be assigned different values.
When that happens, the value is as follow (from the lowest to the highest): clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. In that case, spades is the highest suit.
How many poker hands are there?
The total number of poker hands in a game of poker is 2,598,960. Since a game of poker uses a 52-card deck of French cards, there are 2,598,960 different possible combinations (aka. poker hands).
What hands to play in poker?
The type of hands to play in a poker game depends on the game you play and other factors like your position in the hand, your stack, and the action at the table.
In a famous poker strategy article, professional player Jonathan Little shared which hands to play in poker and how to play marginal hands.
Can you make three pairs?
Although it is possible to hold a pair in your hand and then have another two pair appear among the five community cards, you can only use a total of five cards to make your poker hand, so you don't win anything for three pairs.
Which is better, a set or trips?
They are both essentially the same hand because they are both three of a kind.
The terminology 'set' is used when you have a pair as your hole cards and then catch another one of those cards on the board.
'Trips' is when there is a pair on the board and you have another of those cards as one of your hole cards.
Sets are easier to disguise than trips so many consider them to be a better hand, although they both rank the same.
What is a chopped or split pot?
If you and an opponent have the same five-card poker hand, then the pot is divided equally between you.
Say you have and your opponent has , and the board comes .
You both would be playing the same five-card hands in terms of their value (A-J-T-8-3), and so would split the pot.
Texas Holdem Poker Rules
If there is four of a kind on the board, who wins?
Because the aim is to make a five-card poker hand, whoever has the highest fifth card in this case wins.
If the board reads and you have in your hand and your opponent has , then you win because you hand is 7-7-7-7-A and your opponent's is 7-7-7-7-K.
You would also win even if your opponent holding was in this example.
Are the suits ranked in Texas hold'em?
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No, they are not. Some poker variants have different ranks for suits, but hold'em is not one of them.
Why did my 4-4-4-T-T lose to my opponent's 7-7-7-8-8?
As mentioned earlier, it is the three-of-a-kind element of a full house that dictates the winner.
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If you're new to the game and want a reference of all of Texas hold'em hands, you can keep this page open or you could always download and print our poker hands ranking chart and keep it next to you while you're playing poker.
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- Poker Odds Calculator: Add your cards to the calculator to discover your chances to win the hand.
- How to use PokerStars Tools to Your Advantage: As a beginner, this article can save your life! Let us show you how you can use all the tools available on the PokerStars client to become an outstanding poker player!