The poker hand rankings from best to worst are royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. Every hand uses exactly five cards, and a higher category always beats a lower one. This guide gives the full order, how ties are settled and how often each hand really appears.
The order follows the standard ranking in Pagat’s poker rules. It is the same in five-card draw, Texas Hold’em, Omaha and most other poker games, apart from a few variants such as lowball.
What are the poker hand rankings from best to worst?
From best to worst, a poker hand is a straight flush (the royal flush is its top version), four of a kind, a full house, a flush, a straight, three of a kind, two pair, a pair or high card. Rarer hands rank higher, so the list is also a list of how hard each hand is to make.
| Rank | Hand | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | Ace, king, queen, jack and 10 of one suit | A K Q J 10, all hearts |
| 2 | Straight flush | Five cards in sequence, all one suit | 9 8 7 6 5, all spades |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Four cards of one rank plus any fifth card | Q Q Q Q 4 |
| 4 | Full house | Three cards of one rank and two of another | 8 8 8 K K |
| 5 | Flush | Five cards of one suit, not in sequence | K J 9 6 3, all clubs |
| 6 | Straight | Five cards in sequence, mixed suits | 10 9 8 7 6 |
| 7 | Three of a kind | Three cards of one rank plus two unmatched cards | 7 7 7 K 2 |
| 8 | Two pair | Two different pairs plus one odd card | J J 4 4 9 |
| 9 | One pair | Two cards of one rank plus three unmatched cards | A A 8 5 2 |
| 10 | High card | Five cards that make none of the above | A J 8 5 3 |
A royal flush is not a separate category in most rulebooks. It is simply the highest possible straight flush, so a table that lists nine hand types is counting it the same way.
How do you tell which hand wins when two players have the same type?
When two hands are in the same category, compare the ranks of the cards that make the hand, then the leftover cards, called kickers. Suits never break ties. If the five cards match rank for rank, the hands are equal and the pot is split.
Pagat states the rule plainly: Poker ranks are based on five cards only, and if those cards are equal the hands are equal. The steps work like this:
- Compare the category. A flush beats a straight no matter how high the straight is.
- Compare the grouped cards. For a full house, the three of a kind decides first. For two pair, the higher pair comes first, then the lower pair.
- Compare the kickers. The highest odd card decides next, then the next, and so on.
- Split if still equal. Equal five-card hands share the pot.
Example: Player A holds A-A-K-7-3 and player B holds A-A-K-6-5. Both have a pair of aces with a king kicker. The next card decides: a 7 beats a 6, so player A wins.
How do straights and the ace work?
An ace can be high or low in a straight, but not both at once. A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest straight and 5-4-3-2-A is the lowest, often called the wheel. A run that wraps around, such as Q-K-A-2-3, is not a straight.
In a tie between two straights, the straight with the higher top card wins. The wheel counts as five-high, so 6-5-4-3-2 beats it. Flushes work differently: compare the highest card first, then the second highest, and so on down the hand.
How are poker hands ranked in Texas Hold’em?
In Texas Hold’em you make your best five-card hand from seven cards: your two hole cards and the five shared board cards, as set out in Pagat’s Texas Hold’em rules. The ranking is the same as above. You may use both hole cards, one or none, and the best five cards are the only ones that count.
This creates two situations beginners often miss:
- Playing the board: if the five shared cards are your best hand, you can use them all. If another player cannot beat them, the pot is split.
- Kickers matter more: with seven cards available, two players often share the same pair or trips, and the fifth card decides the pot.
Our guide to Texas Hold’em rules for beginners covers the betting rounds that come before the showdown.
How often does each poker hand happen?
Out of 2,598,960 possible five-card hands, only 4 are royal flushes and 1,302,540 are high card. We counted each category by enumerating every combination. The figures below are the odds of being dealt each hand in five-card poker, and they match the standard published counts.
| Hand | Number of hands | Chance | Roughly 1 in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 4 | 0.00015% | 649,740 |
| Straight flush (not royal) | 36 | 0.00139% | 72,193 |
| Four of a kind | 624 | 0.02401% | 4,165 |
| Full house | 3,744 | 0.14406% | 694 |
| Flush (not straight flush) | 5,108 | 0.19654% | 509 |
| Straight (not straight flush) | 10,200 | 0.39246% | 255 |
| Three of a kind | 54,912 | 2.11285% | 47 |
| Two pair | 123,552 | 4.75390% | 21 |
| One pair | 1,098,240 | 42.25690% | 2.4 |
| High card | 1,302,540 | 50.11774% | 2.0 |
| Total | 2,598,960 | 100% |
How the count works: a full house, for example, is 13 choices of rank for the three of a kind, 4 ways to pick its three suits, 12 remaining ranks for the pair and 6 ways to pick its two suits: 13 x 4 x 12 x 6 = 3,744. Divide by 2,598,960 to get 0.14406%. Our guide to probability and odds explains this kind of counting from scratch.
Do the odds change with seven cards?
Yes. When you choose the best five of seven cards, as in Hold’em, every strong hand is more common. We enumerated all 133,784,560 seven-card combinations and counted the best hand in each, so these figures answer “what is my best hand after seven cards?”
| Best five-card hand from seven cards | Chance | Roughly 1 in |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 0.00323% | 30,940 |
| Straight flush (not royal) | 0.02785% | 3,591 |
| Four of a kind | 0.16807% | 595 |
| Full house | 2.59610% | 38.5 |
| Flush | 3.02549% | 33 |
| Straight | 4.61938% | 21.7 |
| Three of a kind | 4.82987% | 20.7 |
| Two pair | 23.49554% | 4.3 |
| One pair | 43.82255% | 2.3 |
| High card | 17.41192% | 5.7 |
Note how the ordering changes. With seven cards, a pair is the most common hand and two pair appears nearly a quarter of the time. High card drops from about half of hands to about 17%.
Which hands do beginners mix up?
The most common mix-ups are flush against straight, full house against three of a kind, and the role of the kicker. Each comes down to remembering that the category ranks first and the rarer hand wins.
- Flush beats straight. A flush is rarer in five-card poker, about 1 in 509 against 1 in 255, so it ranks higher.
- Full house beats flush. This surprises people who expect five suited cards to be unbeatable. A full house is rarer, so it ranks above a flush.
- Two pair beats one pair, whatever the ranks. A pair of aces loses to the lowest two pair.
- Suits do not break ties. Hearts are no better than clubs. Equal hands split the pot.
- Wild cards change the ranking. With wild cards, five of a kind can appear and beats a royal flush, as Pagat notes. Agree house rules before you deal.
What does it cost to play poker?
Poker played for money is a game between players, not against a house, so you win or lose to the other people at the table. Anyone who plays for stakes can lose them, and knowing the hand rankings does not change that. Set a limit before you sit down and treat it as the price of the entertainment.
If you want to put a limit in place, see how to set a gambling budget and time limit. If gambling is causing you trouble, the Get help page lists where to go, and the Safer play toolkit has practical tools.
What should you try next?
Print or write the ranking table and deal out practice hands with friends, calling the category before comparing kickers. Once the order is automatic, move on to the betting rules in our guide to how to play poker, then to Texas Hold’em.
For the maths behind the tables, start with our explainer on house edge, which shows why games between players differ from games against a casino.