Poker Hand Rankings

The ten hands, best to worst

The table shows each hand with an example and the probability of being dealt it in five cards from a full deck. The rarer a hand, the higher it ranks.

A royal flush is simply the highest possible straight flush. In a straight the ace can play high (A-K-Q-J-10) or low (5-4-3-2-A, the lowest straight), but it cannot wrap around, so Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight.

Breaking ties with kickers

When two players have hands of the same rank, the tie-break depends on the type of hand:

• Straight or straight flush: the hand with the highest top card wins.
• Four of a kind: the higher four wins; if both share the same four (possible with community cards), the fifth card, or kicker, decides.
• Full house: the three of a kind is compared first, then the pair.
• Flush: the highest card is compared first, then the next highest, and so on down all five cards. If all five match in rank, the pot is split.
• Three of a kind: the three are compared first, then the two kickers, higher one first.
• Two pair: the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the fifth card.
• One pair and high card: the pair first, if any, then the remaining cards from highest to lowest.

Texas Hold'em and the best five cards

Texas Hold'em is a community card game in which each player is dealt two hole cards and shares five board cards. At the showdown, each player's best five-card hand from those seven cards is compared. You may use both hole cards, one, or none, and only five cards ever count, so a sixth or seventh card can never act as a kicker.

This is where many ties are settled. If the board is A♠ K♦ 9♣ 6♥ 2♠ and two players each hold a king, both have a pair of kings; the player whose other hole card is a queen beats one holding a jack, because the queen is the highest kicker. If the best five cards for both players come entirely from the board, the board plays and the pot is split. With a flush on the board, a player needs a higher card of that suit to improve on it.

Knowing the order of hands and how kickers work is the foundation of the game, but it does not change the odds of the cards. Online poker played for money is treated as an online money game under India's Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which prohibits offering, facilitating, advertising and processing payments for such games.