Poker Hand Rankings
The Deck
Poker is played with a standard 52 card deck of cards, but sometimes includes a joker or two, especially in home games. (Kitchen table poker, some call it.)
The cards in a standard deck each have two qualities: a suit and a rank.
Suits
The suits are:
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hearts
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diamonds
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clubs
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spades
Normally in poker, the suits are not ranked in any particular order
Ranks
The ranks are the numbers on the cards. The cards are numbered 2 through 10. There are also face cards, jack, queen, and king. And there is also an ace, which can be considered a 1, but also can be considered as ranking higher than a king.
Since suits don't generally have any ranking, the king of spades is equal to the king of hearts, and so on.
Poker Hands
The object of poker is to win the pot. And to win the pot, you either force everyone else to fold by betting aggressively, or you show down the best hand. A poker hand is made up of five cards, no matter how many cards are involved in the game. (i.e. in a seven card stud game, you'd make the best five card hand from the seven cards you have.)
Below are the poker hands listed in order of highest-ranked hand first:
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Five of a Kind - This hand is only possible in a game with wild cards. Five of a kind is five cards with the same rank, like five kings or five aces.
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Royal Flush - The 10, J, Q, K, and A, all of the same suit. This is the best possible hand in a game with no wild cards.
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Straight Flush - Five cards of consecutive rank that are also all of the same suit. A royal flush is nothing more than the highest possible straight flush.
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Four of a Kind - Four cards with the same rank, like four aces, or four kings.
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Full House - Three cards of a rank, combined with two cards of another rank. Three aces and two eight's would be an example of a full house.
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Flush - Five cards of the same suit.
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Straight - Five cards consecutive in rank. (A, 2, 3, 4, 5).
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Three of a Kind - Three cards of the same rank and any two other cards.
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Two Pair - Two cards of the same rank, and two more cards of another rank, and any other card. Two aces, two eight's, and any other card would be an example of two pair.
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Pair - Two cards of the same rank, and three other cards.
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High Card - The highest card in a hand with no other possible hand.
High Poker
Poker is normally played where the high hand wins the pot. If two people have the same hand, the one with the highest cards in that hand win. For example, a pair of aces beats a pair of kings.
If two people have the exact same hand, the kicker determines the winner. For example, if you have a pair of kings, and I have a pair of kings, the person with the highest other card in the deck wins. That card is called a kicker.
If two people have a flush, or a straight, then the person with the highest single card in the flush or straight is the winner. If there's a tie, they would look at the next highest card. If there's no tie-breaker possible, which happens fairly regularly in shared-card games like Texas holdem, then the pot is split evenly between the two players.
Low Poker
Some poker variations either award the pot to the person with the lowest possible hand, or they split the pot between the person with the highest hand and the lowest hand. Aces count low when playing low poker games. Low poker games discussed on this site include seven card stud/8 and Omaha/8.
Understanding the hand rankings is important, but you'll also want to take a look at our series of articles about Texas holdem starting hand requirements and Omaha/8 qualifying low hands. We've even got an article where we discuss Phil Hellmuth's no limit holdem starting hand selections.
This page was last updated on January 5, 2006.
from Poker
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