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:
-
hearts
-
diamonds
-
clubs
-
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:
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Four of a Kind - Four cards with the same
rank, like four aces, or four kings.
-
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.
-
Flush - Five cards of the same suit.
-
Straight - Five cards consecutive in
rank. (A, 2, 3, 4, 5).
-
Three of a Kind - Three cards of the same
rank and any two other cards.
-
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.
-
Pair - Two cards of the same rank, and
three other cards.
-
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. |