Poker Hands: Play Your Best Hand

Whether you’re shuffling cards at home, placing bets in a lively casino, or clicking away in an online Poker room, understanding Poker hand rankings is essential. From the unbeatable Royal Flush to the humble High Card, knowing which hand trumps which, can be the difference between winning big or folding early.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the Poker hand rankings from best to worst. And we’ll also introduce you to some top-notch online Poker sites, complete with their welcome offers and loyalty schemes. Ready to play your best hand?

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Poker Hands and Ranks: High to Low

Royal Flush

Royal Flush got its name because it’s royalty amongst all other hands in Poker! As the absolute highest ranking, no other hand can beat it. It’s made of an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and ten (A-K-Q-J-10). The catch is that these cards have to be of the same suit.

Straight Flush

If you have a Straight Flush, that means you’ve got five cards of the same suit in consecutive order. This could be four, five, six, seven and eight of hearts, for example, or several other combinations. A Straight Flush is the second strongest hand you can have and beats all others except the Royal Flush.

Four of a Kind

This one is kind of self-explanatory— you need four cards of the same value. It doesn’t matter what your fifth card is or what suit all your cards are. This is often the hand that wins the game since getting a Straight or Royal Flush is very hard.

So what happens if you and another player both have a Four-of-a-Kind? Well, the one with the higher rank of the four cards wins. Let’s say you’ve got a Q-Q-Q-Q-3 and your opponent has a 5-5-5-5-J. Your hand outranks theirs— congrats, you won!

Full House

To form a Full House, you’ll need three cards of the same value and one pair. This is also a rather high-ranking hand and only three others can beat it. If two players have a Full House, the one with the higher rank of the three cards wins.

If the three cards happen to be the same, then the person with a higher pair wins. For example, your hand may be J-J-J-6-6 and your opponent’s 7-7-7-3-3. Since J is higher than 7, you win. Or, if you have Q-Q-Q-8-8, but the other person has Q-Q-Q-K-K, then they win since their high pair beats yours.

Flush

A Flush is similar to the Straight Flush in the sense that you need five cards of the same suit. But, here, you don’t need those cards to be in consecutive order. A Q-3-9-A-10 of clubs would count as a Flush. If you and another player both have a Flush, the one with the highest card in the hand wins.

Straight

Having a Straight means you’re holding five cards in consecutive order. The suit here doesn’t matter, just the values on the cards. The best possible Straight you can have is A-K-Q-J-10!

Three of a Kind

Three-of-a-Kind is similar to Full House in the sense that you need three cards of the same value. But, the other two cards don’t need to be a pair in Three-of-a-Kind. For example, having a 4-4-4-2-10 means you’ve got this hand.

Two Pair

This is one of the lower-ranking hands in Poker, but it still beats One Pair and High Card. It’s made of two different pairs of cards like 10-10-J-J-3, for instance. You don’t have to pay attention to the suit, just the value.

Pair

Having One Pair means you’ve got two cards of the same value in your hand (such as a pair of Queens). Though this is one of the weakest hands in Poker, it’s where your bluffing skills come in handy, as this could still be a winning hand if you convince your opponents it is! And if you and another player both have One Pair, then the one with the higher rank wins.

High Card

If you don’t manage to form any of the above-mentioned combos, then all you can play is a High Card. There is the possibility that your opponents don’t have anything better than a High Card either. In this case, the highest-ranked card wins (the Ace is the highest and two is the lowest).

Three-Card Poker Hands and Ranks: High to Low

Three-card poker is a game you play against the dealer and not other players and has different hand rankings to five-card Poker games. For one, there are six hands instead of 10. You’ll also notice that the Straight beats the Flush instead of the other way around.

Straight Flush: You need three cards of the same suit in consecutive order to form a Straight Flush. For example, A-10-9 of hearts.
Three-of-a-Kind: Here, you’ll need three cards of the same value but the suit doesn’t matter (9-9-9).
Straight: A Straight in Three-Card Poker is when you have three cards in consecutive order (such as 4-5-6).
Flush: This is when you have three cards of the same suit, like J-2-5 of clubs.
One Pair: Two cards of the same value plus a third card. For example, Q-Q-3.

High Card: No combinations, just three different cards. The value of the highest of the three cards counts. The values are the same as in standard Poker games, meaning that A is the highest and 2 the lowest.

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Poker Hands FAQ

Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind and Full House are the four strongest hands in Poker. While it’s hard to get a Royal or Straight Flush, getting a Four-of-a-Kind and Full House is much more likely, so these hands usually help you win.

In standard Poker games, there are 10 possible hands. In other variations like three-card Poker, there are six hands.

In most Poker games, all the suits will have the same value. However, suits can have different values in some US Poker games, or break ties in some cases. When this is the case, the suits are ranked from strongest to weakest as follows: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs.

The winning hand in Poker is the best one at the table. The absolute winner is the Royal Flush, but you can even win with a Flush if no one has a stronger hand than you.

A Full House has a higher ranking than a Flush, so yes, it does. A Full House is made up of three cards of the same value plus a pair of the same cards, while a Flush is five cards of the same suit.

This is the order of Poker hands from highest to lowest: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card.

If we follow the Poker hand hierarchy from highest to lowest, we will see that each hand beats all the ones that rank lower than it. For example, a Two Pair beats a One Pair and High Card, a Straight Flush beats everything other than the Royal Flush, and the Royal Flush is unbeatable.

What hands you play depends on the game you’re playing, the action at the table, and other factors like your position in the hand. There are many Poker strategies available, and the more you play, the easier it will be to determine what hands to play in each game.