Understanding how poker hand rankings work is an essential lesson for new players. Every poker hand has its place on the rankings table. Before you dive into the exciting and tense gameplay that poker is famous for, it’s essential to learn hand hierarchy so you can make the most of the cards dealt your way.
Poker Hands Ranked
All five-card poker variations follow standard rules for hand rankings, whether it’s high-stakes poker tournaments or casual games with friends. With that in mind, are you ready to learn why straights and flushes can’t compete with four of a kind in poker? Here’s a concise breakdown of all hand rankings to get you off to a solid start, listed from lowest to highest strength.
High Card
A high card is the strongest single card you’re able to play, with ace being the highest and two being the lowest. There’s a low chance of winning if you only have a high card to bet on, but a high card can also be the deciding difference when players are at a stalemate.
Pair
A pair refers to any two matching cards from your hand or on the table. Higher pairs beat lower pairs. The odds of landing a pair are relatively high compared to stronger hands.
Two Pair
Two pair consists of two separate value pairs. Every hand is made by using all five cards available to you by the end of the round, so you would essentially have two-pair and a high card if you make it to the showdown round.
Three of a Kind
Three of any matching cards is known as three of a kind or “trips.” This is a fairly strong hand if you can get it on the flop as there might be a chance for you to acquire a full house with your two remaining cards.
Straight
A straight is regarded as the first strong hand in five-card combinations. To make a straight, you need five cards of any suit in consecutive order, such as ace, 2, 3, 4 and 5, for example.
Flush
A flush is five cards of the same suit. The order of number values or face cards doesn’t matter as long as colors and symbols match.
Full House
Three of a kind plus a pair makes a full house. The high potential for non-sequential combos makes this one of the most common strong hands players bet on.
Four of a Kind
Four of a kind, or “quads,” is any four cards of matching value, regardless of suit or order. There are 156 different ways to make four of a kind in poker with a standard deck of 52 cards.
Straight Flush
A straight flush contains five cards of the same suit in numerical order. It’s the upgrade combo of a straight and a flush and the second-strongest hand in poker.
Royal Flush
To land a royal flush you need a 10, a jack, a queen and a king all in the same suit. Whether you’re playing Texas Hold’em, Omaha or any other variation, the odds of getting a royal flush are incredibly low, with exact odds of +666,667.
The Math Behind the Magic
No matter which poker variation is your favorite or how many players you’re up against, the odds of strong hands showing up are always going to be low. Still, the whole reason that poker hands are ranked is that the strength of hands matches the order of hand rarity.
So, how do you know what beats a straight and what beats a flush? The easiest way to bet strategically is to consider the odds of any given combo showing up. Hands with a higher probability of appearing are considered weaker than rare hands (which are stronger due to their scarcity.) The harder it is to acquire a certain hand, the stronger it is and the better your chances of winning are.
It’s worth noting, though, that a strong hand doesn’t automatically lead to a win. There are combos and blockers to keep in mind, bluffing tactics to consider and the possibility that opponents hold stronger hands than yours.
With a standard deck, there are 10,200 possible ways to make a straight, 5,108 to make a flush and only 624 to make four of a kind. In total, there are 2,598,960 hand combinations with 52 cards.
Statistically, the odds of getting four of a kind in poker is +416,567. Compare that to a straight and a flush, sitting at +25,541 and +52,532, respectively. You’re seven times more likely to get a flush and it jumps to 16 times more likely with a straight. The odds for all three are low but there’s a clear order of rarity that places four of a kind above any straight or flush.
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Now that you’re familiar with hand rankings and understand how scarcity comes into play, you can see why it takes skillful analysis of probability to become a great poker player. But that’s not all you need to succeed; between bluffs, blockers, true values and total values, there’s a lot more to the game than meets the eye.
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