Poker Hand Rankings | How Poker Hands Rank in Order

The first and the most basic thing to learn about poker is poker hand rankings.

This is a list of poker hands in the highest to lowest order.

These are the types of hands you’ll be dealt when playing poker, and hence you must know how they rank in the list.

This will be your guide to deciding whether to play high or low bets or fold on a particular hand.

You can also refer to this list to understand what hands your opponents could be holding if they are playing confidently or meekly.

However, some players even bluff and make it difficult to guess the hands they could be holding, but I will cover bluffing in a different article.

Here I cover your answer to the question, ‘how do poker hands rank?’

5-card Poker hand order from highest to lowest

What are the best Poker hands? The top six hands in the following list are generally considered the best poker hands.

1. ROYAL FLUSH

This hand is called royal for a reason. It tops the rest of the hands.

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

For example, if you have AKQJ10 of heart, then you have a royal flush.

They are not easy to get. There is only 0.000154% probability of a player getting this hand in a game. Hence with these cards, you can play whatever bet you wish to.

2. STRAIGHT FLUSH

These cards are again rare to get. A Straight Flush comprises of any five cards in a sequence and belonging to the same suit.

For example, 56789 of hearts or A2345 of clubs. There is only 0.00139% probability of getting a straight flush.

3. FOUR OF A KIND

Four of a kind is a hand with four out of five cards of the same rank. For example, AAAA7.

The probability of you getting Four of a Kind is 0.0240%. These are great cards to play with. Only once in 4,165 times does one get this hand.

4. FULL HOUSE

A full house comprises three cards of a kind and a pair of another kind. For example, 55577 or KKK44.

There is 0.1441% probability or one in 693 chance of getting this hand, making it a much-coveted hand.

5. FLUSH

You have a flush if you have any five cards of the same suit, while the cards are not in a sequence.

There is a 0.1965% probability of getting this hand, i.e. one in 508 chance.

6. STRAIGHT

A Straight hand comprises five cards in a sequence, while the cards are not of the same suit. For example, 45678 of not the same suit.

There is a 0.3925% probability of getting Straight.

7. THREE OF A KIND

A Three of a Kind hand comprises of five cards, out of which three are of a kind. For example, 555A8.

There is 2.1128% probability of getting this hand. Which means, there is one in 46.3 chance that you may get three of a kind.

8. TWO PAIRS

A hand with two pairs of different ranks is called Two Pairs. There is 4.7539% probability or one in 20 chance of getting this hand.

9. ONE PAIR

This has two cards of the same rank out of the five cards in a hand.

There is 42.2569% probability of getting this hand. Which means you can get this hand every 1.37 times, and so can your opponents.

10. HIGH CARD

In case you do not hold any of the above hands, then you can play with the highest card that you have.

The cards are ranked from the highest to the lowest ranks like this: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. For example, in the following image, the highest card is A.

There is a probability of 50.1177% of getting this hand.

I hope this guide is useful for beginners.