Poker Hands Ranking: Every Hand, Odds and Tie-Breaks

Poker hands rank, from best to worst: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. A hand ranks higher when it is rarer: of the 2,598,960 possible five-card hands, only 4 are royal flushes, while 1,302,540 (about 50.1%) contain nothing better than a high card. Suits never break a tie in standard poker; when two players hold the same type of hand, the higher cards, and then the kickers, decide the pot, and identical hands split it.

This page gives the full ranking with examples, the exact number of ways to make each hand in five and seven cards, the tie-break rules that settle close pots, and the variants where the order changes, such as short deck hold’em, Three Card Poker and lowball games. For how hands turn into decisions at the table, see our live poker guide and the poker starting hand charts.

Updated October 2026. Every count and probability below was checked against the standard 52-card combinatorics, and the variant counts were computed by full enumeration.

Poker Hand Rankings at a Glance

Card ranks run from ace (highest) down through king, queen, jack and 10 to 2. In one case the ace is also the lowest card: the straight 5-4-3-2-A, called a wheel or bicycle.

What Beats What in Poker?

Any hand higher on the list beats every hand below it, regardless of the cards involved. The lowest possible straight (5-4-3-2-A) beats the best possible three of a kind (A-A-A-K-Q), and a 7-high flush beats an ace-high straight. Players most often ask about these match-ups:

• Does a flush beat a straight? Yes. In a 52-card deck there are 5,108 flushes and 10,200 straights, so the flush is rarer and ranks higher.
• Does a full house beat a flush? Yes, in standard poker. Short deck hold’em is the main exception, covered below.
• Does three of a kind beat two pair? Yes. Three of a kind can be made 54,912 ways and two pair 123,552 ways.
• Does a straight beat three of a kind? Yes, by the same logic: 10,200 straights against 54,912 trips.
• What beats four of a kind? Only a straight flush, including the royal flush.

Poker Hand Combinations Explained: Five-Card Odds

Ranking follows probability. A standard deck can deal C(52,5) = 2,598,960 different five-card hands, and the table below shows how they divide up. These are the odds for five cards dealt straight from a shuffled deck, as in five-card draw before the draw, or in Caribbean Stud.

Each count can be worked out by hand. For four of a kind, choose the rank (13 ways) and the fifth card (48 ways): 13 x 48 = 624. Full houses come from choosing the rank of the three (13), its suits (4), the rank of the pair (12) and its suits (6): 13 x 4 x 12 x 6 = 3,744. Straights start on any of 10 ranks (ace-low to ace-high) with 4 suits for each of the five cards, giving 10 x 1,024 (four suits to the fifth power) = 10,240, minus the 40 straight flushes, leaving 10,200.

Once you ignore suits and only count hands that differ in value, there are 7,462 distinct five-card poker hands, from the royal flush down to 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits, the worst possible hand.

Seven-Card Odds: What You Make in Texas Hold’em

In Texas Hold’em and seven-card stud, you make the best five-card hand from seven cards, so strong hands appear far more often. There are C(52,7) = 133,784,560 possible seven-card combinations, and the table counts each by the best five-card hand it contains.

Two things stand out. With seven cards, one pair (43.8%) is more common than no pair (17.4%), the reverse of the five-card table. And the ranking still holds: even with seven cards, a flush (3.03%) is less likely than a straight (4.62%), and a full house (2.60%) is less likely than a flush, so the standard order works in hold’em without any changes.

These figures assume all seven cards are dealt and nobody folds. They describe how often a hand is made by the river, not how often it wins. For a sense of starting odds, you are dealt a pocket pair 1 time in 17 (5.9%) and pocket aces 1 time in 221 (0.45%).

Each Poker Hand Explained, Lowest to Highest

High Card

A high card hand has no pair, no straight and no flush, so it is valued by its highest card, then the next, and so on. A-J-8-5-2 beats A-10-9-7-6 because the second card (jack against 10) decides it. In five-card poker about half of all hands are high card hands; in hold’em you finish with nothing better 17.4% of the time.

One Pair

One pair is two cards of the same rank plus three unrelated cards. A higher pair beats a lower pair. If two players hold the same pair, the highest side card (the kicker) decides, then the second and third. For example, K-K-A-7-3 beats K-K-Q-J-10 because the ace kicker outranks the queen.

Two Pair

Two pair is two cards of one rank, two of another and a fifth card. Compare the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the fifth card. Q-Q-10-10-5 beats J-J-10-10-A, because queens up beats jacks up even though the second hand has an ace.

Three of a Kind

Three of a kind is three cards of one rank. In hold’em, players call it a set when two of the three are in your hand (a pocket pair plus one board card) and trips when one is in your hand and two are on the board. Higher trips win; if two players share the same trips via the board, the two kickers decide.

Straight

A straight is five cards in consecutive rank with mixed suits. The ace can play high (A-K-Q-J-10, called Broadway) or low (5-4-3-2-A, the wheel), but it cannot wrap around: Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight. Straights are ranked by their top card, so 9-8-7-6-5 beats 6-5-4-3-2, and two straights with the same top card split the pot whatever the suits.

Flush

A flush is five cards of the same suit that are not in sequence. Compare flushes card by card from the top: K-J-9-6-3 of hearts beats K-J-8-7-4 of spades on the third card. Suits themselves never matter, so a spade flush does not beat a heart flush of the same ranks.

Full House

A full house is three of a kind plus a pair, written as “threes full of twos” style: Q-Q-Q-10-10 is queens full of tens. The three-card part is compared first. If it ties, which can only happen when the trips are shared on a community board, the pair decides. So 8-8-8-2-2 beats 7-7-7-A-A.

Four of a Kind

Four of a kind, also called quads, is four cards of one rank plus a kicker. Higher quads win. In community-card games two players can share quads on the board, and then the fifth card decides: with four jacks on the board, a player holding an ace beats a player holding a king.

Straight Flush

A straight flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 9-8-7-6-5 of hearts. It ranks by its top card, with 5-4-3-2-A suited the lowest. There are 36 straight flushes below the royal in a 52-card deck, so the odds against being dealt one in five cards are about 72,192 to 1.

Royal Flush

A royal flush is A-K-Q-J-10 of one suit, the highest possible straight flush. Exactly four exist, one per suit, which makes the odds of being dealt one in five cards 649,739 to 1. Two royal flushes can only tie (for example when one is on the board in hold’em), and then the pot is split; no suit beats another.

Tie-Breaks: Kickers, Split Pots and Suits

Most close pots are decided by four rules:

1. Only five cards play. In hold’em you use your best five of seven cards. A sixth or seventh card never breaks a tie.
2. Compare the main part of the hand first. Pair against pair, the higher pair wins; trips against trips, the higher trips win; and so on.
3. Then compare the kickers in order. Side cards not part of the pair, trips or quads are compared from the highest down.
4. Identical five-card hands split the pot. Suits never rank in standard poker.

A hold’em example shows how this works. The board is K♠ K♦ 9♣ 7♥ 2♠. Player A holds A♣ 4♦ and Player B holds Q♥ J♥. Both have a pair of kings. Player A’s best five are K-K-A-9-7 and Player B’s are K-K-Q-J-9, so the ace kicker wins. If Player B had held A♥ 3♣ instead, both would play K-K-A-9-7 and split the pot, because the 4 and the 3 do not make the best five.

When the five community cards make a better hand than either player can, both “play the board” and split. With a board of 10-J-Q-K-A in mixed suits, every remaining player has the same Broadway straight, unless someone can make a flush or better.

Suits do matter in a few non-ranking situations. Some cardrooms use suit order, often in reverse alphabetical order of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, to decide who gets the dealer button or who brings in the betting in stud games. That is a house procedure, not part of hand ranking.

How to Find Your Best Hand in Hold’em

Reading a seven-card hand quickly is a skill worth drilling. Work down the ranking and stop at the first hand you can make:

1. Check for a flush first. Count suits: five or more of one suit means a flush, and if those suited cards are also consecutive you have a straight flush.
2. Look for paired ranks. Four of one rank is quads; three plus another pair (or two sets of three) is a full house.
3. Scan for five in a row. Remember the ace can complete 5-4-3-2-A at the bottom.
4. Settle for trips, two pair or a pair. With three pairs among seven cards, only the top two count, and the best remaining card becomes the kicker.
5. Fill in the kickers. Add the highest unused cards until you have exactly five.

Live dealer tables and online rooms announce the winning hand automatically, but knowing how to read it lets you check every result yourself.

Variants With Different Hand Rankings

The standard order applies to Texas Hold’em, Omaha, seven-card stud, five-card draw and the house-banked casino games such as Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Caribbean Stud Poker. A few popular games change it.

Short deck (six-plus) hold’em: flush beats full house

Short deck hold’em removes the 2s through 5s, leaving 36 cards. With fewer ranks, full houses become easier and flushes harder. Enumerating all 376,992 five-card hands from a 36-card deck gives 1,728 full houses but only 480 flushes (not counting straight flushes), so a flush ranks above a full house. The lowest straight becomes A-6-7-8-9, with the ace playing low in place of the missing 5.

Three of a kind against a straight is where rule sets differ. In five cards from a short deck, straights (6,120) are rarer than three of a kind (16,128), which supports ranking the straight higher, and many games do. Some games rank three of a kind above a straight instead, because the seven-card picture is different. Always check the house rules before playing.

Three Card Poker and Teen Patti: straight beats flush

With only three cards, the order changes again. Of the 22,100 three-card hands, there are 48 straight flushes, 52 three of a kinds, 720 straights, 1,096 flushes, 3,744 pairs and 16,440 high card hands. Straight flushes (48) are slightly rarer than three of a kind (52), so the straight flush ranks first and three of a kind second; below them, a straight beats a flush because it is rarer. Our Three Card Poker guide covers the full pay tables, and the Indian game Teen Patti uses the same three-card logic (trail, pure sequence, sequence, color, pair, high card); see our Teen Patti rules.

Lowball games: the worst hand wins

In lowball the lowest hand takes the pot, and there are two main systems:

• Ace-to-five. Razz and the low half of Omaha Hi-Lo use this system: aces are low and straights and flushes do not count against you, so the best hand is 5-4-3-2-A. In 8-or-better split games, a low hand needs five different cards of 8 or lower to qualify.
• Deuce-to-seven. Played in 2-7 triple draw and single draw, it treats aces as high, and straights and flushes count against you, so the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 in at least two suits.

Low hands are read from the highest card down: 7-6-4-3-2 beats 7-6-5-3-2 in ace-to-five, because the third card (4 against 5) is lower.

High-low split games

In Omaha Hi-Lo and stud eight-or-better, half the pot goes to the best standard high hand and half to the best qualifying low hand. The same player can win both halves (“scoop”), and if no hand qualifies for low, the high hand takes the whole pot.

Common Mistakes When Reading Hands

• Thinking suits break ties. They never do in standard poker.
• Counting a wraparound straight. K-A-2-3-4 is ace-high nothing, not a straight.
• Using more than five cards. A pair of aces with a king, queen, jack and ten in seven cards still plays only the best five.
• Forgetting the board. In hold’em, your two hole cards do not have to play; you can use all five community cards.
• Misreading Omaha hands. In Omaha you must use exactly two of your four hole cards and three board cards. Four hearts on the board plus one heart in your hand is not a flush.
• Applying standard ranks to every game. Short deck, Three Card Poker and lowball all change the order.

Where Hand Rankings Are Used in Live Casino Games

House-banked live dealer games use standard rankings to settle your hand against the dealer and to set bonus payouts. In Ultimate Texas Hold’em the Blind bet pays only on a straight or better, from even money for a straight to 500 to 1 for a royal flush. Caribbean Stud requires the dealer to qualify with ace-king or better and pays raises from even money for a pair up to 100 to 1 for a royal flush. These games carry a fixed house edge, unlike poker against other players; our poker hub compares them.

If you want to play real-money poker against other people in the US, it is state-licensed in six states as of October 2026: Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia, all members of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. Our real-money poker apps guide covers the licensed options. If gambling stops being fun, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), the National Problem Gambling Helpline run by the National Council on Problem Gambling.

FAQ

What is the best hand in poker?

The royal flush, A-K-Q-J-10 all of one suit. There are only four in a 52-card deck, so the odds against being dealt one in five cards are 649,739 to 1. Two royal flushes split the pot because suits do not rank.

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes. A flush beats a straight in standard poker because it is rarer: 5,108 of the 2,598,960 five-card hands are flushes against 10,200 straights. In Three Card Poker the order is reversed and a straight beats a flush.

What is better than four of a kind?

Only a straight flush, and the royal flush, which is the highest straight flush. Four of a kind is the third-best hand in standard poker.

Do suits matter in poker?

Not for ranking hands. A heart flush and a spade flush with the same cards tie and split the pot. Some cardrooms use a suit order only for procedures such as assigning the dealer button or the stud bring-in.

What happens if two players have the same hand?

Compare the main part of the hand, then the kickers from highest down, using only the best five cards. If the five-card hands are identical, the pot is split equally.

Is an ace high or low in poker?

Both. The ace is the highest card and makes the top straight A-K-Q-J-10, but it can also play low in the 5-4-3-2-A straight. It cannot be in the middle of a straight, so K-A-2-3-4 is not a straight.

Does a full house beat a flush?

Yes, in standard poker, because there are 3,744 full houses against 5,108 flushes in five-card hands. In short deck hold’em, which removes the 2s to 5s, a flush beats a full house.

What hands to stay away from in poker?

In Texas Hold’em, fold weak unconnected starting hands: 7-2 offsuit is usually called the worst, and hands such as 8-3, 9-4 or J-3 of different suits rarely make anything strong. Be careful too with dominated hands such as K-7 or Q-5 offsuit, which pair up and then lose to a better kicker. Position changes the picture, so some hands you fold early can be played from the button; our poker charts show starting ranges by seat.