Poker Hands Ranking: Complete Guide with Probabilities

Ten hands, from royal flush to high card. Explained one by one with examples, documented probabilities and common tiebreak mistakes.When someone starts playing poker, what trips them up the most isn't the betting, the button or the blinds: it's knowing which hand wins. There are ten possible hands and it's worth keeping them in your head the way you keep your times tables. The good news is that you don't have to memorise them as a cold list: once you understand why the order is what it is, they stick. We're going to go from strongest to weakest, with real examples and — most importantly — what almost nobody explains well: how to break ties between two hands of the same type. The basic rule everything stems from is this: in standard poker (Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, and almost any other variant), the harder a hand is to make, the more it's worth. The order isn't arbitrary: it's a direct reflection of probabilities. That's why a royal flush, which shows up once in every 650,000 hands dealt, beats a full house, which shows up roughly once every 700 hands. If you get lost with the rankings, remember the rule: rarer beats common. The exact probabilities are at the end. The ranking, highest to lowest Before we explain each one, here's the full chart for quick reference. Hands are always made of five cards; when you're playing Texas Hold'em or Omaha you pick them from what you have (your hole cards plus the community cards). In Stud they're the five best of the seven you receive. Royal flush Straight flush Four of a kind Full house Flush Straight Three of a kind Two pair One pair High card 1. Royal flush The five highest cards possible, all of the same suit: 10, J, Q, K, A. It's the hand everyone dreams of seeing and almost nobody sees in their lifetime. There are only four possible — one per suit — and the probability of being dealt one directly in a five-card hand is around 1 in 650,000. In Texas Hold'em, where you build your hand out of seven cards, the probability is a bit higher but still vanishingly rare: you'll see one a handful of times across many years of play, unless you grind online at an industrial pace. Since there are only four possible royal flushes and they're all equal, there's no tiebreaker: if two players have a royal flush, they split the pot. In Hold'em, that can only happen when 10-J-Q-K-A of a suit is sitting entirely on the board. 2. Straight flush Five consecutive cards of the same suit, short of 10-J-Q-K-A. For example, 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ 8♥ 9♥. It's the second-strongest hand and shows up about once in every 72,000 hands. When two players have a straight flush, the one ending in the highest card wins. A 5-6-7-8-9 loses to an 8-9-10-J-Q. If they both happen to end in the same card (very rare, but possible if the straight flush is made up of all five community cards in Hold'em), they split. One curious case worth knowing: the A-2-3-4-5 straight, called "the wheel", counts as a straight with the ace playing low. If it's also all one suit, it's a low straight flush, not a royal flush. And it loses to any other straight flush (because its top card is the 5, the lowest possible). It's a small but important exception: the ace can play high or low, but never in the middle. 3. Four of a kind Four cards of the same rank plus a fifth one. For example, K♦ K♥ K♠ K♣ 7♦. It's the hand that gives the game its old nickname ("poker"), although in reality it shows up rarely: about 4,165 to 1. In a normal home game night you typically see one or two quads, if any at all. To break a tie between two quads, the value of the four matching cards rules. Quad kings beats quad eights. If two players have the exact same quads — impossible with one deck, possible in Hold'em when all four of a rank are on the board — the player with the higher fifth card (the "kicker") wins. That kicker rule will pop up across many other hands: when the main combination ties, the auxiliary card decides. 4. Full house Three of one rank and two of another. For example, Q♥ Q♦ Q♠ 4♣ 4♥: "queens full of fours". Probability runs about 1 in 700, so in a good home game session you'll almost certainly see a few. It's a dangerous hand: it feels unbeatable and sometimes is, but there are hands above it that can cost you a lot of chips if you fall in love with it. Full house tiebreaks are one of the most commonly misremembered rules: the trips matter first, not the pair. A full house of "eights over twos" (888-22) beats a full house of "sevens over aces" (777-AA). Aces in the trips beats everything, regardless of the pair. Only if the trips tie does the pair decide. That's why good players care more about which trips form the boat than which pair finishes it. 5. Flush Five cards of the same suit, not in sequence. For example, 2♣ 5♣ 9♣ J♣ A♣: a clubs flush. Probability is about 1 in 510. Tiebreaks between two flushes go by the highest card in each flush. If that ties, move to the second-highest, and on down card by card. The suit never decides: two flushes of the same height tie and split, no matter if one is spades and the other hearts. There's a common myth that the spade "ranks highest" between suits in poker — that's not true and probably leaks in from games like bridge, where there is a suit hierarchy. In poker, all suits are equal. 6. Straight Five consecutive cards of mixed suits. For example, 4♠ 5♣ 6♦ 7♣ 8♥. About 1 in 254 hands: in a long session you'll see several. Same principle as the straight flush: the one ending in the higher card wins. The famous wheel A-2-3-4-5 still counts as a straight with the ace low, and loses to any higher straight. The highest possible straight (not a flush) is 10-J-Q-K-A, called "broadway". 7. Three of a kind Three cards of the same rank plus two different cards. Example: 9♠ 9♥ 9♦ K♣ 4♠. There's a small piece of jargon worth knowing: If the three matching cards come from your pocket pair plus one on the board, it's called a set. Sets are the strongest trips in Texas Hold'em because they're "hidden": the opponent can't suspect them by looking at the community cards. If one of the three matching cards is yours and two are on the board, it's called trips. Visible: anyone can see the pair in the middle and worry about three of a kind. Tiebreaks go by the rank of the trips first, then by kickers from highest to lowest. So trip jacks with A-3 beats trip jacks with K-Q because the first kicker (ace vs. king) decides. 8. Two pair Two pairs of different ranks plus a fifth card. Example: A♣ A♥ 8♠ 8♦ 3♥. About 1 in 21 hands. Two-pair tiebreaks are where beginners get stuck. The rule is: Highest pair rules first. Aces-and-eights beats kings-and-queens because your higher pair (aces) is higher than theirs (kings). If the higher pairs tie, the second pair decides. Aces-and-eights beats aces-and-sevens. If both pairs tie, the kicker (fifth card) decides. Watch out for a common Hold'em case: if both of the higher pairs are on the board, every player "has" those two pairs, and the kicker decides. Whoever holds the loose ace or king in hand wins. 9. One pair Two cards of the same rank and three different ones. Example: J♦ J♣ 9♠ 6♥ 2♣. It's the hand you'll see in just over 42% of hands: about one in every two. At a Hold'em table, pairs win way more hands than people imagine because most players don't reach showdown with anything better. Tiebreaks go, in order: pair rank, then first kicker, then second kicker, then third kicker. In Hold'em it's very common for two players to make "pair of kings with the board": there, the kicker decides the hand, and that's why the strength of your second hole card matters so much. 10. High card When you don't even have a pair, your hand is worth as much as your highest card. Example: A♦ J♥ 9♠ 6♣ 3♦: "ace-high". About half of all hands dealt look like this, but it rarely wins a hand in a multi-way table: if you reach showdown with only a high card, you usually lose. Tiebreaks are card by card, highest to lowest: the first one that differs decides. The suit doesn't break the tie. If all five cards match in rank across two players — which can happen in Hold'em with all five board cards being played — the pot is split. Exact probabilities for each hand These are the probabilities of being dealt each hand directly in a five-card hand, per classic combinatorics (the same numbers you'll find on Wikipedia and in any serious probability text). I leave them here so you can see why the ranking order is exactly what it is: nobody arbitrarily decided that a full house beats a flush; full houses just appear less. HandPossible combinationsProbabilityOnce every… Royal flush40.000154%649,740 hands Straight flush360.00139%72,193 hands Four of a kind6240.0240%4,165 hands Full house3,7440.144%694 hands Flush5,1080.197%509 hands Straight10,2000.392%255 hands Three of a kind54,9122.11%47 hands Two pair123,5524.75%21 hands One pair1,098,24042.26%2.4 hands High card1,302,54050.12%2 hands Total five-card hands possible with a 52-card deck: 2,598,960. If you add the combinations column, you get exactly that. It's not a coincidence or a rounding error: it's pure combinatorial math. In Texas Hold'em the probabilities change because each player builds their final hand from seven cards (the two hole cards plus the five community), not from five. The chance of making one pair, for instance, is higher than in a pure five-card deal. The important thing is to grasp that the order of the ranking stays the same across any standard poker variant. Five common mistakes when reading hands 1. Thinking suits decide between flushes They don't. Two flushes of the same height tie and split. It's a beginner mistake especially common because some other card games (bridge, hearts) do have suit hierarchy. 2. Thinking aces only play high The ace can form the low straight A-2-3-4-5 (the "wheel") playing low. But it cannot sit in the middle: a "straight" Q-K-A-2-3 doesn't exist. 3. Mixing up the full house tiebreak order Trips matter first, not pair. Almost every beginner gets this backwards at first. Reminder: the trips weighs more than the pair because they're rarer (you're matching three cards, not two). 4. Forgetting the kicker When the main hand ties, the next highest card decides. In Hold'em, A-K is better than A-7 not because the ace is different, but because when you both make a pair of aces, your king kicker beats their seven and you take the pot. 5. Confusing "set" and "trips" Not a hand-reading error, but a communication one. A set (your pair + one on the board) and trips (your one card + a pair on the board) are the same in value but play very differently, because the second is visible and the first is hidden. How two hands compare in a real spot To see how it all clicks, a Hold'em example. The five board cards are: K♣ 8♣ 8♥ 4♦ 2♠. Player A: holds K♥ Q♥. Best five-card hand: K-K-8-8-Q. Two pair, kings and eights, queen kicker. Player B: holds 8♠ 7♣. Best hand: 8-8-8-K-7. Three of a kind eights with king kicker. Player B wins because three of a kind beats two pair, even though A's two pair includes kings and eights. A holding the king in hand doesn't matter: trips beat any two pair. Another example, same board K♣ 8♣ 8♥ 4♦ 2♠: Player A: A♣ K♦. Best hand: K-K-8-8-A. Two pair, ace kicker. Player B: K♥ J♣. Best hand: K-K-8-8-J. Two pair, jack kicker. Both have the same two pair, "kings and eights". The kicker decides: A's ace vs. B's jack. A wins. That's exactly why playing high-kicker hands (A-K, K-Q) in Hold'em tends to be more profitable than K-7 or K-3: when the king pairs on the board, your second hole card decides plenty of pots. A note on "low" variants Everything above applies to standard high poker. There are variants — Razz, California lowball, the Hi-Lo splits of Omaha and Stud — where the lowest hand wins. In those games the rankings flip and quirky rules pop up about whether straights and flushes count toward the low. When I explain those variants in poker variants, I go into the detail. For now, everything in this article is for "high" poker. Frequently asked questions What's the highest hand in poker? The royal flush: 10-J-Q-K-A of the same suit. Shows up about once in every 650,000 hands dealt. If two players have it, they split the pot: there's no suit hierarchy to break it. Does a straight beat a flush? No: the flush (five same-suit cards) outranks the straight (five consecutive mixed-suit cards). The reason is probabilistic: more straight combinations exist than flush combinations, so they appear more often and rank lower. Does a full house beat a flush? Yes, full house beats flush. It's one of the most commonly misunderstood spots. A full house appears once in every 700 hands, while a flush appears once in every 500: rarer = stronger. What happens if two players have exactly the same hand? The pot is split equally. If the chips don't divide evenly, in professional play the "odd chip" goes to the player closest to the dealer button. In home games it's usually decided by a coin flip. Is the ace worth 1 or worth 14? Both, depending on the hand. When playing high (in the straight 10-J-Q-K-A or as the highest card), it counts as the highest card. When playing low (in the wheel A-2-3-4-5), it counts as 1. But it can't sit in the middle: a "straight" K-A-2-3-4 doesn't exist. Do suits matter for anything? Only for making flushes or straight flushes. Once you have the hand, suits aren't compared against each other in standard poker. That's different from bridge or trick-taking games, where suits do have hierarchy. In poker, all suits are equal. Why does one pair win so many hands if it sounds weak? Because in a multi-way table, most players reach showdown with very little. One pair shows up in 42% of five-card hands dealt and even more often in Hold'em (where you build from seven cards). A high pair with a good kicker is perfectly capable of taking down most small and medium pots. Putting it into play Knowing the hand ranking doesn't make you a good player, but not knowing it stops you from playing. It's the very first thing you'll use every hand of your life, so it pays to make it second nature. If you're just starting out, reviewing this order while you play a couple of nights with friends is enough: in a few sessions you'll have it cold. And if you haven't started yet, the basic rules are in how to play Texas Hold'em. For a decent poker night, you want a deck that feels right when dealing and holds up across many hands without marking. Bicycle, Tally-Ho and Bee are the three classic playing-deck references, and all of them pass through our hands before they enter the catalogue. Have a look at our poker decks and, if you want to understand what separates a "playing" deck from a "magic" or "cardistry" deck, it's all in which poker deck to buy. If you want to keep going from here, you have options based on where your curiosity pulls: poker variants (Omaha, Stud, Razz), table positions and why acting last is worth money, or the poker terms glossary so you don't get lost when someone calls a "check-raise" or talks about "pot-committed".

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	xxs	xs	s	m	l	xl	2xl
US Size	0-0	2-4	4-6	8-10	12-14	16-18	20-22
Bust (in)	30-32	32-34	34-36	36-38	38-40	40-42.5	42.5-45.5
Under Bust (in)	25-26	27-28	28-29	30-31.5	32-33.5	34-36	36-38
Waist (in)	23.5-24.5	25-26.5	27-28.5	29-30.5	31-33.5	34-36.5	37-40

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Poker Hands Ranking: Complete Guide with Probabilities

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