Poker Hands

Rankings of poker hands for Holdem and standard five card poker games are shown below, ranked from the best to the worst poker hand. This page also contains many new strategy articles from our team of authors, with photos of our favorite poker babe. You can also brush up on your game rules, tells & terms on our reference pages.

Starting Poker Hand Analysis

Here is the start of Dead Money's analysis of starting poker hands where he dissects each hand to uncover juicy tips and techniques.

♣ The Best Poker Hand: AA ♣ Poker Hands: Big Slick (AK) ♣ A Good Opening Hand: AQ ♣ Starting Hand Analysis: A2s ♣ Hold'em Hands: AX (Ace-Any) ♣ How to Play the Hand: KQs ♣ Playing Trap Hands: KJ ♣ Poker Hand Analysis: QQ ♣ Poker Starting Hands: JJ ♣ Poker Drawing Hand: JTs ♣ Starting Poker Hands: 33 ♣ The Worst Poker Hand: 72o ♣ Practice Hand Example #1 ♣ The Rock/Scissors/Paper Effect

Poker Math for Hands, Odds and Outs

Dead Money has written a series of articles called Poker Math, with information for calculating odds, counting outs and analyzing hands. ♣ Poker Math 101: Pot Odds and Counting Outs ♣ Poker Math 201: Drawing Hands vs. Made Hands ♣ Poker Math 301: Starting Hand Odds ♣ Poker Math 401: Application of Knowledge ♣ Poker Math 501: End Game Mathematics

♣ PokerHo also explains how to calculate outs, pot odds & implied odds.

Poker Hand Rankings

Royal Flush: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10, all of the same suit.

Straight Flush: Any five card sequence of the same suit.
Example: 7, 8, 9, 10, and Jack of ♣.

Four of a Kind: A poker hand with four cards of the same value (rank).
Example: 7, 7, 7, 7 (and any other card).

Full House: Three of a Kind combined with a Pair (see below).
Example: Queen, Queen, Queen with 6, 6.

Flush: Any five cards of the same suit.
Example: 2 of ♣, 4 of ♣, 7 of ♣, 9 of ♣,and King of ♣.

Straight: Five cards in sequence, but not of the same suit.
Example: 3 of ♣, 5 of ♥, 9 of ♠, 10 of ♥, Jack of ♣.

Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same value (rank).
Example: 8, 8, 8 (and any other two cards).

Two Pair: Two separate Pairs (see below).
Example: Jack, Jack with 5, 5 (and any other card). Also see Note (1) below.

Pair: Two cards of the same value (rank).
Example: 9, 9 (and any other three cards). Also see Note (2) below.

High Card: Poker hands that do not contain any of the above combinations are ranked by the highest card in the hand. (Ace is high, 2 is low).

Notes on Poker Hands with the Same Rank

NOTE 1: If two players have Two Pair, the poker hand with the highest Pair wins. If they have the same high Pair, whoever has the second highest Pair in their hand wins. If they have the same Two Pairs, then whoever has the highest fifth card wins the hand.

NOTE 2: If two players have the same value Pair, the highest card(s) outside of their Pair wins the hand.