Ranking of Poker Hands

The rank of poker hands consist of 52 cards which rank from highest to lowest being the Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2. In online poker, there is no rank between the suits meaning that the Ace of hearts is equal to the Ace of clubs. All poker hand rankings will consist of at least five cards with the higher hand rank beating the lower hand rank. In other poker games where players have more than five cards to form a poker hand, the remaining cards do not count towards a poker hand ranking.

Ranking of poker hands are only played with five card combinations.

Royal Flush

A Royal flush is a poker hand rank that contains the five highest cards in the deck which are all in sequence and of the same suit, such as A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠. A Royal Flush poker hand combination ranks as the highest in any poker game.

Straight Flush

A Straight flush is a poker hand ranking that contains five cards including the community, in sequence and of the entire suit such as 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ 4♥. If two players contain a straight flush, the highest ranking straight wins.

Four of a Kind

Four of a kind is also known as quads, is a poker hand such as Q♠ Q♦ Q♥ Q♠ 9♥. To have a Four of a kind, you must be holding four cards of one rank with the community, the suit does not matter. Higher ranking quads defeat lower ranking ones.

Full House

A full house also known as a full boat is any three cards of the same rank with two cards of another rank such as A♥ A♦ A♠ 5♠ 5♥. This shows a full house with "Aces full of Fives". The highest ranking full house wins when playing most poker games.

Flush

A flush consists of any five cards that are the same suit but do not need to be in consecutive order such as K♥ J♥ 8♥ 5♥ 2♥. If there is more than one flush in play, the player with the highest ranking flush wins.

Straight

A straight consists of any five consecutive cards which can be of different suits like 9♠ 8♣ 7♥ 6♥ 5♠. An ace can count as either a high or a low card when playing a straight. If there are two straights in play, the highest ranking straight wins.

Three of a Kind

A three of a kind poker hand consists of any three cards of the same rank which can be different suits such as 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ 10♣ 9♠. This poker hand example shows a three of a kind seven with a kicker card of ten.

Two Pair

In this poker hand example for two pair you will see J♥ J♠ 9♠ 9♥ 3♠. When you have two pair, this means that your poker hand consists of two cards of the same rank and another two cards of the same rank.

One Pair

In poker, having one pair is not a very strong hand and means that the best ranking hand a player is holding is one card paired with another. In this example the player has one pair of Queens, Q♣ Q♦ 8♥ 6♣ 3♠ with an eight kicker.

High Card

Having only a high card means that a player hand does not make up any of the above mentioned hands. Our example shows a high card K♠ J♥ 9♠ 6♥ 2♥ K with a J kicker. This is usually not a betting hand and should be played very carefully.