Of the 2,598,960 different five-card hands that can be dealt from a standard 52-card deck, exactly four are royal flushes, one in each suit. More than half of all possible hands contain no pair at all. Those two numbers explain the whole order of poker hands: each category ranks above another because it is harder to make.
The ten hands, from strongest to weakest
The table below lists every category with an example and the number of ways that category can be dealt as a five-card hand. Card values run from ace (high) down to two, and the ten is written as T.
Swipe the table
| Rank | Hand | Example | Five-card combinations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠ | 4 |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | 36 |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Q♣ Q♦ Q♥ Q♠ 7♦ | 624 |
| 4 | Full house | J♠ J♥ J♦ 4♣ 4♠ | 3,744 |
| 5 | Flush | A♦ J♦ 8♦ 6♦ 2♦ | 5,108 |
| 6 | Straight | T♣ 9♦ 8♠ 7♥ 6♣ | 10,200 |
| 7 | Three of a kind | 8♠ 8♥ 8♣ K♦ 3♠ | 54,912 |
| 8 | Two pair | A♣ A♥ 5♦ 5♠ Q♣ | 123,552 |
| 9 | One pair | K♥ K♣ 9♠ 6♦ 3♥ | 1,098,240 |
| 10 | High card | A♠ Q♦ 9♣ 6♥ 4♠ | 1,302,540 |
A royal flush is simply the highest possible straight flush, so some references list nine categories with the royal as the top of the second row. The counts here treat it separately, which is why the straight flush total is 36 and not 40.
The top three: hands you will rarely see
A straight flush is five cards in sequence, all of the same suit. When two straight flushes meet, the one with the highest top card wins. The royal flush, ace-high, cannot be beaten.
Four of a kind, often called quads, is all four cards of one rank plus any fifth card. In hold’em, when all four cards of a rank land on the board, every player still in the hand shares the quads, and the fifth card, the kicker, decides who wins.
These three categories together make up a tiny fraction of hands. You can play for years in a weekly home game without making a royal flush, and many players never do.
The middle: full house, flush, straight
A full house is three cards of one rank and two of another. It is described by the three-card part first: J-J-J-4-4 is “jacks full of fours”. Between two full houses, the higher three of a kind wins, and only if those match does the pair matter.
A flush is any five cards of the same suit. Between two flushes, compare the highest card, then the next, down to the fifth. A♦ J♦ 8♦ 6♦ 2♦ beats A♣ J♣ 8♣ 5♣ 4♣ on the fourth card.
A straight is five cards in sequence of mixed suits. The ace plays at either end, high in T-J-Q-K-A and low in A-2-3-4-5 (the wheel), but straights do not wrap around the corner.
New players most often reverse the flush and the straight.
The table settles it: there are about twice as many ways to make a straight as a flush, so the flush ranks higher.
The common hands: trips down to high card
Hold’em starting hands follow the same logic of rarity. You are dealt a pocket pair about once every 17 hands, and pocket aces once every 221 hands on average. A pocket pair improves to three of a kind on the flop roughly one time in eight or nine, which is why small pairs are played for their chance of hitting a set more than for their value as a pair.
Three of a kind in hold’em has two names. A set is a pocket pair plus one matching card on the board, while trips means one card in your hand plus a pair on the board. Both are the same rank of hand. The difference matters for strategy because trips more often share a kicker problem with an opponent who holds the same card.
Two pair and one pair are where most pots are decided. With two pair, compare the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the fifth card. With one pair, compare the pair, then up to three kickers in order.
High card is any hand with no pair, straight or flush. It wins more pots than people think, mostly when everyone else has folded or when two weak hands reach the river.
Kickers, ties and playing the board
Every poker hand is exactly five cards. In Texas Hold’em, you choose the best five from your two hole cards and the five community cards, and you can use both, one or neither of your own cards. That is why kickers matter. If the board is K-9-6-4-2 and you hold K-Q while an opponent holds K-J, both have a pair of kings, and your queen wins.
The kicker can also come from the board. On a board of A-A-K-K-7, a player holding Q-2 plays A-A-K-K-Q and beats a player holding J-10, whose best hand is A-A-K-K-J. A third player holding 6-5 uses the seven on the board as the fifth card and loses to both, even though nobody at the table has improved on the two pairs showing.
If the five board cards make the best possible hand for both players, say a straight from six to ten, both are playing the board and the pot is split. Suits never break a tie. The Texas Hold’em rules for beginners walks through a full hand, including the showdown, if you want to see the ranking applied step by step.
Variants that change the order
The order above holds across draw, stud, hold’em and Omaha. In Pineapple poker, players start with three cards and discard one, but the hand rankings stay the same.
Short deck hold’em, played regularly at Triton Poker events, removes all cards from two to five. With only 36 cards, flushes become harder to make than full houses, so a flush beats a full house. Rooms differ on whether three of a kind beats a straight in that game, and the rule is usually posted before play begins.
Lowball games turn the logic upside down. In deuce-to-seven triple draw, offered at the WSOP every summer, the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits, and straights and flushes count against you. In razz, a stud game, the best hand is A-2-3-4-5. For the vocabulary used in these games, such as “wheel”, “number one” or “badugi”, the poker terms glossary has the definitions.
One last edge case decides real pots every week: a player holds A-5 on a board of 2-3-4-K-K. The ace plays low, the wheel is made, and it beats an opponent holding a single king, who has only three of a kind.