How Poker Hand Rankings Work
All poker games where the goal is to make the best 5-card hand — Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, 5-Card Draw — use the same 10-tier ranking system. The ranking is fixed: it’s based on the mathematical rarity of each hand type in a 52-card deck. The rarer the hand, the higher it ranks, and the more it wins at showdown.
The only common exception is Short Deck Hold’em(also called 6+ Hold’em), which removes the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s — leaving a 36-card deck. With fewer cards, flushes become rarer than full houses, so Short Deck swaps the ranking: Flush beats Full House in that variant. Every other major poker game uses the standard rankings on this page.
Memorising the Rankings
New players often try to memorise all 10 hand types at once. Don’t. The bottom four hands (Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card) are intuitive — most people who’ve played any card game understand them. The top six are what actually need conscious memorisation, and the mnemonic that works for most people is the rank order grouped by the kind of cards involved:
- Royal Flush — the famous one: A-K-Q-J-10 same suit. Unbeatable.
- Straight Flush — five in a row, same suit (anything below A-high).
- Four of a Kind — four matching ranks.
- Full House — three matching + two matching (different ranks).
- Flush — five same suit, any order.
- Straight — five in a row, mixed suits.
Common Hand-Ranking Confusions
“Does a flush beat a straight?”
Yes. A flush (5 cards same suit) is rarer than a straight (5 in sequence). Flush is rank 6; Straight is rank 5. Flush beats straight in standard poker.The exception is Short Deck Hold’em where flush also beats full house — see above.
“Is a straight A-K-Q-J-10 or A-2-3-4-5?”
Both are valid straights. A-K-Q-J-10 is called “Broadway” and is the highest possible straight. A-2-3-4-5 is called the “wheel” and is the lowest possible straight (the Ace plays low). Note that A-2-3-4-5 cannot wrap around into a higher straight — Q-K-A-2-3 is NOT a straight in standard rules.
“What’s the difference between trips and a set?”
Both are Three of a Kind, but how they’re made matters strategically. A set is when you have a pocket pair in your hole cards and one matching card on the board (e.g., you have 7♠7♥, the board comes 7♦-K-2). Tripsis when you have one matching card in your hole cards and two on the board (e.g., you have 7♠-K, the board comes 7♥-7♦-2). Sets are stronger because opponents can’t see them coming; trips are obvious because the pair is on the board.
“If two players have the same hand, who wins?”
See the “Kicker Rules” table above for the full breakdown. The short version: compare the 5-card hands one card at a time, from highest to lowest. If the 5 cards are identical, it’s a tie and the pot is split (called a “chop”). Suits never break ties — the suits of the cards are irrelevant in standard hand comparisons.
Probability and Strategy
The probability column above shows your chance of being dealt that hand as your final 5-card hand in 5-card draw poker (one shuffle of a 52-card deck, dealt 5 cards). In Texas Hold’em the probabilities are different because you have 7 cards to choose your best 5 from, so the typical “best 5” is stronger than 5-card draw — a flush hits ~3% of Hold’em hands vs. 0.2% in straight draw.
For practical poker strategy: the hand-rankings table above tells you what hand strength to aim for; it doesn’t tell you what hand is good enough to win the pot. In Hold’em, top pair with a good kicker wins a huge percentage of pots; you don’t need a full house to scoop. Trust the hand-strength relative to the board and your opponents, not the absolute ranking.
FAQ
- Does a flush beat a full house?
- No (in standard poker). Full house is rank 7, flush is rank 6 — full house wins. The one exception is Short Deck Hold'em where flushes are rarer than full houses, so the ranking is swapped for that variant only.
- What is the highest card in a flush?
- The Ace, if you have one. Otherwise the highest card in your flush plays. Flushes are compared one card at a time from the highest: A-K-Q-J-9 (no straight flush) beats A-K-Q-J-8.
- Can you have a tie at showdown?
- Yes — chops happen often, especially when the board makes the best 5-card hand on its own (e.g., a Broadway straight on the board means everyone who didn't fold has Broadway). When tied, the pot is split evenly.
- Are suits ranked differently?
- No, not in standard poker. Spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are equal in value. The "spades are highest" rule applies to bridge and some other card games — not poker.
- What's the worst starting hand in Texas Hold'em?
- 7-2 offsuit, by the math. It has no straight potential (the 7 and the 2 are too far apart), no flush potential (offsuit), and the high card is only a 7. Famously bad enough that some home games make players show 7-2 wins as a meme.
- Why doesn't the dealer have an advantage?
- The dealer position rotates each hand, so the same player isn't always dealer. The button position (dealer) is the most profitable seat post-flop because you act last with maximum information, but it's also the position that posts no blind — the small blind and big blind pay first. Over a full orbit, each position is played once.
Memorising the rankings is step 1. Step 2 is reading the board fast at the table. Drill at our free Texas Hold’em table — every showdown shows the winning hand description so you learn by repetition. Pair with our Odds Calculator to verify equity for specific holdings.