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 is ordered from worst (at the top) to best (at the bottom).

• Nothing
• Pair
• Two Pair
• Three of a Kind
• Straight
• Flush
• Full House
• Four of a Kind
• Straight Flush

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.