Poker Hand Rankings

There are many, many variations of the game called poker. The game we discuss, “Texas Hold ‘Em” is just one of the many variations of poker. All variations of poker rely on the same set of “hand rankings” to determine who wins.

A “poker hand” consists of exactly 5 cards. Even though some games (like Texas Hold ‘Em) involve players controlling more than 5 cards, the poker hands themselves are always exactly 5 cards. The names of the different hand rankings appear below.

This list of hand ranks is ordered from best to worst, with examples in a five card hand:

  • Royal flush (the best possible straight flush) – Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the same suit
  • Straight Flush – consecutive suited straight cards, e.g. Ace, 2 , 3 ,4 ,5 of Spades
  • Four of a Kind (AKA “Quads”): e.g. Kh,Kc,Kd,Ks
  • Full House: three of a kind and two of a kind: e.g. J,J,J,Q,Q
  • Flush: Five cards of the same suit, e.g. 2s,3s,5s,9s,Ks
  • Straight: five running non-suited cards, e.g. A,2,3,4,5
  • Three of a Kind: e.g. 3,3,3,A,K
  • Two Pair: e.g. 2,2,4,4,A
  • Pair: e.g. 2,Q,Q,5,6
  • Nothing: no pair, e.g. 2,3,6,7,K

Games With More Than Five Cards

In a poker game where each player controls more than 5 cards, the “hand ranking” for a player is found by considering all 5-card subsets of the cards he controls — you evaluate his hand by determining which 5-card subset has the highest rank.

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