Poker hand rankings, from best to worst

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. The rarer the hand, the higher it ranks. A royal flush is 1 in 649,740 five-card hands, while 50.1% of hands are just high card and 42.3% are one pair.

Test yourself

Every hand, in order

Hand	Possible hands	Chance
1. Royal flushA, K, Q, J and 10 of the same suit	4	0.000154%1 in 649,740
2. Straight flushFive cards in a row, all the same suit	36	0.00139%1 in 72,193
3. Four of a kindFour cards of the same rank	624	0.024%1 in 4,165
4. Full houseThree of a kind plus a pair	3,744	0.144%1 in 694
5. FlushFive cards of the same suit, not in a row	5,108	0.197%1 in 509
6. StraightFive cards in a row, in mixed suits	10,200	0.392%1 in 255
7. Three of a kindThree cards of the same rank	54,912	2.11%1 in 47
8. Two pairTwo different pairs	123,552	4.75%1 in 21
9. One pairTwo cards of the same rank	1,098,240	42.3%1 in 2
10. High cardNone of the above: the highest card counts	1,302,540	50.1%1 in 2

Out of all 2,598,960 possible five-card hands from one 52-card deck. We counted every one of them. Straight flushes exclude royals, and flushes and straights exclude straight flushes.

Which hand wins?

Tap the hand that wins.

Streak: 0

How ties break

When two players have the same kind of hand, the ranks of the cards decide.

Higher wins: a pair of kings beats a pair of queens, and a jack-high straight beats a ten-high straight.
Same pair? The side cards, called kickers, decide from the highest down. K-K-A-7-2 beats K-K-Q-J-10.
Two pair: compare the higher pair, then the lower pair, then the fifth card.
Full house: the three of a kind decides first, so 4-4-4-2-2 beats 3-3-3-A-A.
Flush or high card: compare the highest card, then the next, down to the fifth.
The ace can be high (10-J-Q-K-A) or low (A-2-3-4-5, the lowest straight), but a straight can’t wrap around, so Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight.
Suits never break a tie in standard poker. Hands with the same five ranks split the pot.

The ones people mix up

A flush beats a straight, because there are about half as many flushes.
Three of a kind beats two pair, even though two pair uses more matching cards. It’s the rarer hand.
A full house beats a flush.
In Texas Hold’em you make your best five cards out of seven. The other two don’t count.
Three-card poker is different: with only three cards, a straight is rarer than a flush, so the straight wins.

With seven cards, as in Texas Hold’em

With seven cards you keep the best five, so strong hands are far more common and one pair becomes the usual result.

Hand	5 cards	7 cards
Royal flush	0.000154%	0.00323%
Straight flush	0.00139%	0.0279%
Four of a kind	0.024%	0.168%
Full house	0.144%	2.6%
Flush	0.197%	3.03%
Straight	0.392%	4.62%
Three of a kind	2.11%	4.83%
Two pair	4.75%	23.5%
One pair	42.3%	43.8%
High card	50.1%	17.4%

Chance of each hand as the best five of seven random cards, out of all 133,784,560 possible seven-card hands.

Practice with virtual chips

These games use the same hands. All are free and no real money is involved.

Video poker: draw to the best five cards, with a trainer that checks every hold.
Hold’em vs. dealer: seven cards and a dealer to beat, no other players.
3-card vs. dealer: three cards, where a straight beats a flush.
Pai gow poker: split seven cards into a five-card hand and a two-card hand.