Here is a comprehensive list of poker hands in order from highest to lowest ranking. If you are new to the game of poker, learning the different poker hands is a great first step in learning how to beat your opponents with the cards you are dealt. The strongest poker hand is the royal flush. Download the Top Texas Hold’em Starting Hands Although the order of the best poker hands to start with is sometimes contested, this list will give you a rough idea of which hands are stronger than others: #1. Pocket Aces (A♠ A♥). The following is a glossary of poker terms used in the card game of poker.It supplements the glossary of card game terms.Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker slang terms. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics. Poker Hands Royal Flush Straight Flush Four of a Kind Full House Flush Straight Three of a Kind Two Pairs One Pair High Hand Winning Poker Hands in Order Rankings Poker Hierarchy Listing of Winning Hands High to Low Royal Flush AKQJ10 Of the same suit Straight Flush.
The ranking of Hands for Ultimate Texas Hold’em in order from the highest to the lowest rank, shall be: Hand Dealt Hand Requirements Royal Flush A hand that consists of an ace, king, queen, jack and 10 of the same suit. Order of winning hands in Texas Holdem Poker. Although the order of the best poker hands to start with is sometimes contested, this list will give you a rough idea of which hands are stronger than others: #1. Pocket Aces (A♠ A♥). The very best starting hand in Texas Hold'em. Slot machines are popular worldwide for their record-breaking jackpots and exciting themes. With few rules and strategies to consider, slot games are perfect for new casino players. Try some free slot games now Order Of Winning Hands Texas Holdem Poker or discover online slots to play for real money.
Play Good Cards and You Will Win. My #1 Texas Holdem tip is one of the very first lessons in poker.
Poker Hands Cheat Sheet: Best Texas Hold em Hands In case you aren't familiar with the hand strengths, and hand rankings of poker check out the printout Texas Holdem hands cheat sheet: Click here to get a high-quality printable pdf version of the Texas Holdem hands cheat sheet.
Only starting out with poker in 2020?
I remember when I started with poker, I found remembering the important parts of the game challenging.
But your journey can become easier with this printable poker cheat sheet for beginners (I wish I had this when starting out!).
Table Of Contents
Download the high-quality Poker Cheat Sheet printable (PDF) version:
The cheat sheet includes hyperlinks for further reading on any material you may not yet know.
Click here for more information on pre-flop and post-flop. We also discuss Texas Holdem bet sizing in the highlighted link.
If you like the cheat sheet, you may also enjoy these these awesome starting hand charts from upswing poker. They are a more detailed version of the starting hands section in the cheat sheet above which supplement it nicely. Amazingly they have been downloaded almost 200,000 times!
Either:
Note: If playing on a 6max table (6 players as opposed to 9), the yellow coloured hands will also be able to be played from any position.
See the image below for the numbered and colour schematic.
How to play poker preflop is a tough subject to cover in detail. There are many factors you need to take into account such as:
A brief explanation of why position is powerful and why we play fewer hands when there are more players left to act (still with a hand):
When playing on a fullring table, you will have to contend with nine players, who each have a chance of picking up a big hand. Therefore, when playing a full ring game, you will play fewer hands. You can read more on this concept at fullring vs. 6max.
The difference in player numbers is also why we play a wide range of hands from the Button, but very few hands from UTG (first position). When opening the Button, we only have two players left to act (unlikely for them to have a strong hand), whereas when playing from UTG in a full ring game, eight other players could potentially pick up a big hand.
For more in-depth details on this see Texas Holdem Strategy and Position is King!
Hopefully, this poker cheat sheet will help you ‘bring home the bacon' as they say, but there is always something more to learn in poker. Keep reading for some more cheat sheets which might be of use to you.
This cheat sheet only contains the most vital information you need so it can handily fit in your pocket. The legends have also been squeezed onto the hand chart in front of hands we always fold.
To download printable PDF which is scaled to credit card size, use the Facebook unlock button:
Get your pot odds cheat sheet below. You can use this to determine the number of outs required to continue based on the pot odds you are being offered. You can also use it to convert between percentages, required outs and ratios for all kinds of situations in poker. The pot odds cheat sheet is explained in more detail below:
Click here to get a high-quality printable pdf version of the Poker Odds Cheat Sheet.
When your opponent bets you will be offered odds based on the size of his bet. For example, if your opponent bets half pot you will be offered odds of 3:1 on a call (call 1 to win 3). Essentially, it is your risk to reward ratio.
Pot odds will tell you whether is it correct for you to call or fold based on what size our opponent bet and how many cards that will improve our hand.
If you are interested in the learning poker math, check out our best poker books recommendation page here for some awesome books on poker math.
In this hand, our opponent bets $26 into a $41.5 pot making the total pot size $67.5. This gives us odds of 67.5: 26 (67.5 = 41.5+26). Or approximately 2.6:1. You can also see how to convert this into a percentage in our article pot odds.
We locate 2.6:1 on the chart tells us that 2.6:1 translates to 30.11% pot equity. In other words:
This is the tough part, unfortunately.
You have to estimate how often you are beaten by your opponent in order to determine if you can profitably call or not. To do this you can use a program such as equilab to plug in hands that you think your opponent may have and the hand that you currently hold. To learn more about estimating what your opponent may be holding see the article poker hand range: the comprehensive beginner guide. From the example above, we plug in some hands we think our opponent may have and see that we have 34% equity:
Since our equity is greater than our pot odds, we can profitably call the river bet. If our equity were less than the pot odds being offered, we would have to fold as we cannot c call.
Let's take a similar situation (confronted with a bet), except this time we are on the flop with KQs, and we have a flush draw with nine outs. A King and Queen which could be considered outs, but they aren't clean outs. This means even if we hit our hand we still may not win (say for example our opponent has AA).
Since we have nine clean outs, we can simply go to the number 9 on the card and then determine our equity.
This means that we need a minimum pot odds of 1.9:1 or 38% when we have nine outs on the flop with two cards still to come. Panther slots free coins slots.
Our equity is 38%, so we need pot odds of less than 38%. The lower the pot odds, the more profitable the call.
Our pot odds are 12.5/33 which is 37%, and hence we just about have the pot odds to call. However, we are also in positon (and will act last with more information) and have two overcards to the board (both a King and Queen will make top pair good kicker). So this is an easy call.
We need seven outs to continue, and we have nine outs with a flush draw. See calculating outs for more details.
For more information on how to use this poker cheat sheet see poker and pot odds.
This video will also be useful to you:
In case you aren't familiar with the hand strengths, and hand rankings of poker check out the printout Texas Holdem hands cheat sheet:
(You may also be interested in the rules of texas hold em)
There are a few important things to remember when memorising at the poker hand rankings:
In poker, it is always the best five cards wins. This means it is not only the pairs that matter if there is no clear winner (nobody has a pair), the decision will go down to high card wins.
Kickers decide the winning hand when two opponents have the same pair or three of a kind. For example, if one opponent has AQ (ace-queen) and another has AJ, the opponent with AQ would win on an A7522 board as he has the five card hand of AAQ75 whereas the second opponent has AAJ75.
Split pots occur when opponents have the same hand. For example, imagine one opponent has A4 and the other A3 on AQ752 board. Both opponents would have five card hand of AAQ75. Neither the 4 or 3 would play.
You can get more information about hand rankings on our web page here.
If you are more visually inclined, check out this video on poker hand rankings:
For more on Texas Hold'em strategy, see poker 101.
Make sure you check out the fan favourite posts:
Common poker mistakes & Texas Holdem Poker Tips
Good luck at the poker tables with your new poker cheat sheet!
The sequence of winning hands in poker is the single most important thing to know and memorise. Otherwise how will you know if you are winning the hand or on the losing end? This is important to understand if you want to make money in the casino or the reach the final table in a tournament. Sure, skill comes into it after that, and a Texas Hold’em winning poker strategy, but luck plays enough of a part that you can bypass those aspects if you recognise when you have a chance on the table. A good strategy for beginners Texas Holdem poker and part of learning how to get better at poker is to sit down and remember the types of hands below, the winning poker hands. For winning hands in Omaha poker check here.
Don’t forget that the best poker hand is made of a total five cards from any or all of the five cards on the table and the two in your hand. So the cards laid out below represent that, not just the cards on the table. So if you want to know how to be a better poker player this is the start.
Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten all of one suit, ie diamonds or hearts or clubs or spades. A rare hand, the best hand in p0ker, statistically you are only likely to see one every 650,000 hands. If you do flop, turn or river a Royal Flush, you need a good strategy to get the most chips off other players. This is where you need the best poker tournament strategy you can get. Your play depends on how the other players on the table are betting. If they are loose and call everything, you can raise or even go all in and try and get them to call you. But if they are tight you need to play it wisely and let them make the running, re-raise them if you get the chance, draw them into your winning web.
Five cards all of the same suit, in sequence.
Known as quads, four cards of the same value. If you have one or two of them you will win. If there are four of the same cards on the board, whoever has the highest card to go with them will win, ie ace, and if two people have the highest card its a split pot.
This hand consists of two cards of one value and three or another. If the three cards are kings and the two cards are sevens, its called Kings full. Whichever value cards is the most, they are the full hand. Any three / two card combination will do it.
A flush is five or more cards of one suit. If two people have a flush the one with the hightest card in the flush wins the hand. And if you have ever wondered if a flush beats three of a kind, now you know, it does.
For a straight you need five cards in sequence. They can be of any suit. 6,7,8,9,10 is an example. Any straight needs to have a five or a ten in it. Sometimes people get confused about what is better, a straight or a flush. Even though a straight seems harder to get than a flush, its the flush that wins over a straight, every tine.
Three cards all the same rank.
Any two pairs of two cards.
Two cards of the same value, such as 77 or KK.
If no one makes a hand out of all the cards that come down and the cards in their hand, then the highest card will win. The best highest card is an ace, but it could be a four depending how the hand plays out.
Do you want to know what beats what in poker? Use the official poker hands rankings chart and seem them from best to worst!
Whether you play live at your local casino or card room, you have your home game going, or you prefer the online action at websites like PokerStars, 888Poker, or partypoker, you need to learn the order of poker hands from best to worse.
Use the list of poker hands below to know what beats what in poker.
Commit this poker hands ranking list to memory today and print it if you need it (there's a button for it at the bottom). Knowing the correct poker hands rank is key to start making winning poker hands.
1. Royal Flush | 10JQKA | The best possible hand in Texas hold'em is the combination of ten, jack, queen, king, ace, all of the same suit |
2. Straight Flush | 56789 | Five cards of the same suit in sequential order |
3. Four of a kind | 3333K | Any four numerically matching cards |
4. Full house | JJJKK | Combination of three of a kind and a pair in the same hand |
5. Flush | 2459K | Five cards of the same suit, in any order |
6. Straight | A2345 | Five cards of any suit, in sequential order |
7. Three of a kind | 77745 | Any three numerically matching cards |
8. Two pair | 99KK4 | Two different pairs in the same hand |
9. One pair | 10103QK | Any two numerically matching cards |
10. High card | K248Q | The highest ranked card in your hand with an ace being the highest and two being the lowest |
Many consider poker less of a gambling game than other casino games. For that to be true, players need to improve their understanding of game play and the strategy required to be a winning player.
The first step toward learning how to play poker is to learn the poker hand rankings.
Most poker players have these rankings memorized, which allows them to think about other things at the table when deciding the best way to play their hands.
The good news is these hand rankings tend to be the same among a wide variety of poker variants, whether it is Texas Hold'em, Omaha, seven-card stud, or other games.
All of those games use the same traditional poker hand rankings that were first developed way back in the 19th century when five-card draw first started to be played.
On this page, you find a complete list of poker hand rankings going from the highest possible hand (the Royal Flush), down to the lowest hand in which there is no pair among the five cards.
Hand rankings in poker correspond to the likelihood of making such hands.
A royal flush, consisting of the cards ranked ace through ten all being the same suit, is extremely rare — in fact, some players go their entire lives without making a royal flush.
A regular straight flush with any five consecutive cards of the same suit is a little less rare, four of a kind occurs slightly more frequently, and so on.
Notice that a full house is ranked higher than a flush.
That's because a full house comes just a little less frequently than a flush, thereby making it the higher-ranked hand of the two.
Additional readings for beginners:
Players new to the game of Texas hold'em often struggle, at least at first, with what the best poker hands are.
Once they have read this easy-to-digest guide that will no longer be the case.
The aim of Texas hold'em is to make the best five-card poker hand at showdown.
You can win without having to show your cards if you force someone to fold before the river. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this article, we'll pretend that we've gone to showdown and need to know what beats what in poker.
First up is the weakest possible holding you can make in poker, a hand that can still win you the pot, although the likelihood of that happening decreases in a pot involving multiple players.
We are of course talking about high card.
As the name suggests, you don't even hold a pair here and instead are using the highest card among the five you are playing.
Example:
You have and the board has come .
Your best five-card hand would be where you would hold queen-high.
Next up is one pair, one of the more common Texas hold'em hands and one that will win you plenty of pots.
Example:
You have and the board comes .
Your five-card hand is — you have a pair of aces. Nice poker hand!
One place higher up on the poker hands chart is two pair.
Example:
You have and the five community cards are .
Your best five-card hand at showdown is or two pair, tens and nines.
One note of warning on this specific poker hand: if you are verbally declaring your hand, try to announce the higher pair first as to help avoid confusion.
Now we're getting into the realm of the best poker hands because once you make three-of-a-kind (sometimes called a set or trips), you are much more likely to win the pot than with any of the previously mentioned hands.
Example:
Your five-card poker hand is — you have three-of-a-kind kings, often a very powerful hand in hold'em.
To beat three-of-a-kind you're going to need at least a straight.
A straight is five consecutive cards where at least one of them is a different suit from the others.
Example:
Should your hand read you would hold a six-high straight.
If someone held a seven-high straight, then that player would win the hand.
There are two straights that have nicknames that are worth remembering.
A wheel is a straight that runs from ace-to-five, and a Broadway straight — the strongest straight — runs from ten-to-ace.
A flush is one of the most powerful Texas hold'em hands because it is only beaten by a handful of others.
Any hand that that has five cards of the same suit is a flush.
Aces are always high when it comes to flushes, which means a hand such as beats .
There are few hands that can beat a flush — one that does is a full house. Also called a 'boat,' a full house is when your five-card hand is made up of three of a kind plus a pair.
Example:
With you have kings full of deuces, while is fives full of queens.
When it comes to full houses, the higher three of a kind determines which hand wins, so in this case 'kings full' would beat 'fives full.'
The next three holdings are so rare that if you hold them, you can almost guarantee that they are winning poker hands.
Four of a kind is the minimum holding you'll need to beat someone with a full house.
Again, as the name suggests, four of a kind means having four cards of the same rank.
Example:
is four-of-a-kind tens and an extremely powerful holding.
Your only way to beat four of a kind, or 'quads' as they are often called, is to hold either a straight flush or a Royal Flush.
The former is five consecutive cards all of the same suit, so would be an eight-high straight flush and practically unbeatable.
If you manage to make (or the same holding in any of the other three suits), you have a Royal Flush and the only way to lose the hand would be to fold by accident!
If you are into numbers (most poker players are), you might be wondering about the probability of poker hands.
We said that she platers might go entire lives without ever getting the highest hand in poker but, looking at the numbers, what are the odds of a Royal Flush?
In this section of our complete analysis of the poker hand ranking and what beats what in poker, you get a clear overview of the probability of poker hands.
How to calculate the probability of poker hands?
When you know that there are 52 cards in play and 2,598,960 possible combinations, the calculation is easy.
You just need to divide the number of possibilities to build a specific poker hand by the number of total poker hands.
Let's run a few examples:
What are the odds of a Royal Flush? 0.000,001,539
(4/2,598,960)
What are the odds of a Straight Flush? 0.000,015,39
(40/2,598,960)
Use the table below to calculate the probabilities of all poker hands.
Poker Hand | No. Ways | Probability |
---|---|---|
Royal Flush | 4 | 0.000,001,539 |
Straight Flush | 40 | 0.000,015,39 |
Four-of-a-Kind | 624 | 0.000,240,1 |
Full House | 3,744 | 0.001,440,58 |
Flush | 5,108 | 0.001,965,4 |
Straight | 10,200 | 0.003,924,65 |
Three-of-a-Kind | 54,912 | 0.021,128,45 |
Two Pairs | 123,552 | 0,047,539,02 |
One Pair | 1,098,240 | 0,422.569.03 |
It should be noted also that while poker hand rankings never change, sometimes circumstances can make a good hand less valuable and a poor hand more valuable.
In other words, when it comes to poker hands there's a difference between absolute value (reflected in the list of poker hands above) and relative value.
For instance, in a game of Texas hold'em, if you have two pair that might seem like a good hand.
But if your opponent keeps betting into you and it's possible he could have a straight or flush, your two pair is no longer looking so good.
Meanwhile, if you have just one pair but your opponent keeps checking to give you a free play at the pot, you might well have the strongest hand and should bet your hand.
The 'absolute' value of your hand may not be great, but in that case the 'relative' value very well could be.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that in some games like razz, deuce-to-seven triple draw, Badugi, and others you might encounter when playing online poker, the hand rankings listed below do not apply.
These hand rankings are for regular or 'high-card' games, not 'lowball' games with alternate hand rankings.
What is the order of poker hands?
As shown in the poker hand rankings chart, the order of poker rankings (from the highest to the lowest) is: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card.
What is the best hand in poker?
The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker. To have a Royal Flush, you need an Ace, a King, a Queen, a Jack, and a 10. All the cards that compose the hand need to be of the same suit.
What beats what in poker?
As you can see in our poker hand rankings chart, the hands in poker follow a clear hierarchy.
In a game of poker, the hand rankings work as follows:
The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker, so no one other hands beat this one.
What is a straight in poker?
You have a straight when all the five cards that compose your poker hand are consecutive ones. E.g. 5-6-7-8-9.
If the cards are of the same suit, you have a straight flush, which is a considerably stronger hand compare d to the simple straight.
What beats a straight in poker?
Although many see the straight as a stronger hand, there are many other poker hands that beat it.
The list of hands that beat a straight includes:
What beats a flush in poker?
The list of hands that beat a flush includes:
What beats a full house in poker?
The list of hands that beat a full house includes:
What is the highest suit in poker?
All the suits in poker have the same value. In some games, different suits can be assigned different values.
When that happens, the value is as follow (from the lowest to the highest): clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. In that case, spades is the highest suit.
How many poker hands are there?
The total number of poker hands in a game of poker is 2,598,960. Since a game of poker uses a 52-card deck of French cards, there are 2,598,960 different possible combinations (aka. poker hands).
What hands to play in poker?
The type of hands to play in a poker game depends on the game you play and other factors like your position in the hand, your stack, and the action at the table.
In a famous poker strategy article, professional player Jonathan Little shared which hands to play in poker and how to play marginal hands.
Can you make three pairs?
Although it is possible to hold a pair in your hand and then have another two pair appear among the five community cards, you can only use a total of five cards to make your poker hand, so you don't win anything for three pairs.
Which is better, a set or trips?
They are both essentially the same hand because they are both three of a kind.
The terminology 'set' is used when you have a pair as your hole cards and then catch another one of those cards on the board.
'Trips' is when there is a pair on the board and you have another of those cards as one of your hole cards.
Sets are easier to disguise than trips so many consider them to be a better hand, although they both rank the same.
What is a chopped or split pot?
If you and an opponent have the same five-card poker hand, then the pot is divided equally between you.
Say you have and your opponent has , and the board comes .
You both would be playing the same five-card hands in terms of their value (A-J-T-8-3), and so would split the pot.
If there is four of a kind on the board, who wins?
Because the aim is to make a five-card poker hand, whoever has the highest fifth card in this case wins.
If the board reads and you have in your hand and your opponent has , then you win because you hand is 7-7-7-7-A and your opponent's is 7-7-7-7-K.
You would also win even if your opponent holding was in this example.
Are the suits ranked in Texas hold'em?
No, they are not. Some poker variants have different ranks for suits, but hold'em is not one of them.
Why did my 4-4-4-T-T lose to my opponent's 7-7-7-8-8?
As mentioned earlier, it is the three-of-a-kind element of a full house that dictates the winner.
If you're new to the game and want a reference of all of Texas hold'em hands, you can keep this page open or you could always download and print our poker hands ranking chart and keep it next to you while you're playing poker.
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