In order, best to worst
Poker hand rankings
By All In Central · Updated 3 July 2026
The ten poker hands in order, from strongest to weakest — the backbone of every game. The rarer the hand, the stronger it is. Odds shown are for being dealt the hand in five cards.
🖨 Printable chart / PDF →Wondering how two hands stack up before the showdown? Deal them into the odds & equity calculator and watch the percentages shift street by street.
- 1A♠K♠Q♠J♠10♠
Royal Flush
1 in 649,740A-K-Q-J-10 all in one suit. It's the best hand in poker, and any of the four suits is equally good — spades is not worth more than hearts. Because suits are never ranked, two royal flushes tie and split the pot.
What beats it → - 29♥8♥7♥6♥5♥
Straight Flush
1 in 72,193Five cards in a row, all the same suit — like 9-8-7-6-5 of hearts. The higher top card wins; the ace can play low for 5-4-3-2-A (the 'steel wheel'), which is the lowest straight flush.
What beats it → - 3Q♠Q♥Q♦Q♣K♠
Four of a Kind
1 in 4,165All four cards of one rank, plus a fifth 'kicker' card — also called quads. Higher quads win; if two players share the same quads, the higher kicker takes it.
What beats it → - 4J♠J♥J♦9♣9♠
Full House
1 in 694Three of a kind plus a pair — for example three jacks and two nines ('jacks full of nines'). The three-of-a-kind is compared first, then the pair.
What beats it → - 5A♦J♦8♦5♦2♦
Flush
1 in 508Five cards of the same suit, not in sequence. The highest card wins; if that ties, compare the next card down, and so on. The suit itself never decides it.
What beats it → - 69♠8♥7♠6♦5♣
Straight
1 in 255Five cards in a row of mixed suits. The ace plays high (10-J-Q-K-A) or low (5-4-3-2-A) but never wraps around; the higher top card wins.
What beats it → - 78♠8♥8♦K♣4♠
Three of a Kind
1 in 47Three cards of the same rank — also called trips or a set. Higher trips win, and the two remaining kickers break any tie.
What beats it → - 8A♠A♥7♦7♣K♠
Two Pair
1 in 21Two cards of one rank and two of another, plus a kicker. Compare the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the kicker.
What beats it → - 910♠10♥A♦7♣3♠
One Pair
1 in 2.4One pair plus three kickers. The higher pair wins; if the pairs match, the highest kicker decides, then the next.
What beats it → - 10A♠J♥9♦5♣3♠
High Card
1 in 2No pair or better — your highest card plays, then the next one down the line. Suits don't count.
What beats it →
How ties are broken. When two players hold the same type of hand, the higher-ranked cards win. If those are equal, the next-highest unmatched card — the kicker — decides, and so on down to the fifth card.
Suits are never ranked. No suit beats another in poker. Suits only matter for making a flush — they can never break a tie, so genuinely identical five-card hands split the pot evenly.
Common questions
- What is the best hand in poker?
- The royal flush — A-K-Q-J-10 all in one suit, such as the A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠. It is really just the top of the straight-flush category, so rare it gets its own name. No hand in Texas Hold'em can beat it, and it cannot be outdrawn on a later street, which is not true of any other hand. Because all four suits rank equally in poker, a royal flush in spades is worth exactly the same as one in hearts. The one way to split the pot with it is if the royal flush lands entirely on the community board, since every player left in the hand then plays the same five cards. In a straight 5-card deal the odds are 1 in 649,740, but in Texas Hold'em — where you make your best hand from 7 cards, your 2 hole cards plus the 5-card board — that improves to roughly 1 in 30,940, making it the rarest hand you can hold either way.
- Does a flush beat a straight?
- Yes, a flush always beats a straight. The reason comes down to math, not tradition: there are 5,108 possible flushes in a standard deck but 10,200 possible straights, so a flush is harder to make and ranks higher. A common mix-up: a hand with four cards of one suit plus a fifth off-suit card isn't a flush at all — it's just an unmade draw (a 'four-flush') — and if those four happen to run in sequence, the best you actually have is a straight, not a flush or a straight flush. The full order from strongest to weakest is: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. So if you hold a flush like 9-7-5-3-2 of clubs against an opponent's straight, say 10-9-8-7-6 of mixed suits, your flush wins even though their straight looks like the more 'complete' sequence.
- Does a full house beat a flush?
- Yes, a full house always beats a flush. A full house is three of a kind plus a pair, for example K-K-K-4-4, and it ranks above a flush because it is statistically rarer: there are 3,744 possible full houses compared with 5,108 possible flushes. This one trips up newer players because a flush feels more impressive with five matching suits on display, but rarity is what sets the ranking, not appearance. When two players both hold a full house, the three-of-a-kind portion decides the winner first — K-K-K-4-4 beats Q-Q-Q-A-A even though the second hand has a higher pair. Only four of a kind, a straight flush, or the royal flush outrank a full house, which is why it is nicknamed a 'boat' and often wins big pots when players overvalue their flush.
- How are tied poker hands broken?
- Ties are broken by comparing the cards that make each hand, from highest-ranked down. If both players have two pair, say 10-10-6-6 versus 10-10-5-5, the tens cancel out and the sixes beat the fives. When the made hand is completely identical, the next-highest card not already used, called the kicker, decides it — so A-A-9 beats A-A-7 if both players pair aces. This keeps going card by card until either someone pulls ahead or all five cards match exactly. Suits never break ties in poker, no matter what house rules some casual games invent, so a flush in spades is worth precisely the same as a flush in clubs. When two hands are truly identical rank-for-rank, the pot is split evenly between the players — this happens occasionally in Hold'em when the board itself makes the best five-card hand for everyone still in.