Poker Cards: Deck, Suits, Card Ranks and Names (2026 Guide)

How many cards are in a poker deck

Poker uses the standard French-suited deck: 52 cards, four suits of thirteen cards each. A new deck usually comes with one or two jokers and an advertising card — they are taken out before the game. Every popular form of poker, from Texas Hold’em to Omaha, is played with these 52 cards.

36 cards in Short Deck

The exception is Short Deck (6+ Hold’em): all twos, threes, fours and fives are removed, leaving 36 cards from six to ace. With fewer cards, flushes become rarer than full houses, and the ace can form the low straight A-6-7-8-9.

How many players one deck can serve

In Hold’em each player gets 2 cards, the board takes 5 and the dealer burns 3. That leaves room for up to 22 players in theory, but real tables seat 9–10 at most. In Omaha with four cards the limit is 11, and in six-card Omaha only 7 — which is why PLO6 tables are usually 6-max.

Suits in poker: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs

There are four suits in the deck: two black — spades ♠ and clubs ♣ — and two red — hearts ♥ and diamonds ♦. Each suit has the same thirteen cards from two to ace.

Do suits matter in Hold’em?

No — in Texas Hold’em and Omaha all suits are equal. A flush in spades does not beat a flush in hearts: flushes are compared by their highest cards, and if all five cards are equal, the pot is split. Suits only matter for making a flush or a straight flush.

Card ranks in poker: from two to ace

Each suit has thirteen ranks. From lowest to highest: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace. A higher card beats a lower one when hands are compared by high card or kicker. In hand histories and apps the ten is written as T, so a hand like ace–ten of spades is “ATs”.

Card ranks decide the order inside every combination: a pair of kings beats a pair of queens, a jack-high straight beats a ten-high one. The full order of combinations — from high card to royal flush — is in our guide to poker hand rankings.

The ace in poker: high and low

The ace is the strongest card in the deck, but it has a special trick: in a straight it can play either high or low. High — in the top straight 10-J-Q-K-A (“Broadway”). Low — in the bottom straight A-2-3-4-5 (“the wheel”), where it counts as a one.

Pocket aces (A-A) are the best starting hand in Hold’em, and an ace in your hand gives you the strongest possible kicker. But an ace on its own is just a high card: “ace-rag” hands like A-4 offsuit lose a lot of money to better aces.

Card names: ace, king, queen, jack and the face cards

In English the cards from two to ten are called by their numbers (“deuce” for a two, “trey” for a three), and the top four by name. The jack, queen and king are the face cards (they show a person); together with the ace and ten they form the “Broadway” cards.

Some starting hands have their own nicknames: A-K is “Big Slick”, 7-2 offsuit is famous as the worst hand in Hold’em, and K-9 is sometimes called “the dog”. You don’t need them to play, but you will hear them at the table and in commentary.

Jokers in poker

Jokers are not used in Texas Hold’em, Omaha or stud. Two players can never both hold the same card, and a wild card would break the hand rankings and the odds. That is why the jokers that come with a deck are taken out.

Jokers do appear in a few variants:

• Draw poker with the “bug” — a single joker that can be used as an ace or to complete a straight or a flush.
• Some casino table games based on poker hands, played against the house with a 53-card deck.
• Home games with wild cards, where friends agree on their own rules — for example, “jokers wild” or “deuces wild”.

How many cards you get in each poker game

The number of hole cards is the main difference between poker games. In Hold’em and Omaha you combine hole cards with five community cards on the board; in draw and stud you play only your own cards.

More rules for each game: poker rules for beginners, Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Short Deck.

The four-colour deck: why online poker uses it

In a classic deck there are only two colours, so it’s easy to mistake a spade for a club or a heart for a diamond — and to “see” a flush that isn’t there. A four-colour deck gives every suit its own colour:

Many poker apps and rooms offer a four-colour deck in their settings, and serious players almost always turn it on: on a small phone screen and with several tables open, it noticeably cuts reading mistakes. The card images in our articles use the same scheme.

• Why players switch to four colours
• Flushes and flush draws are visible at a glance.
• Fewer misreads in Omaha, where you hold four to six cards.
• Easier to play several tables at once.
• Less eye strain in long sessions.

Playing cards for poker: size and material

Poker size vs bridge size

Cards come in two main widths. Poker size is 63.5 × 88.9 mm (2.5 × 3.5 in) — the classic shape. Bridge size is narrower, 57 × 88.9 mm (2.25 × 3.5 in). Bridge-size cards are easier to hold and hide, especially in Omaha with four or more cards, so many card rooms and tournaments use them for Hold’em and Omaha.

Pay attention to the index too — the rank and suit in the corner. A large (“jumbo”) index is easy to read across the table and when you peek at your cards without lifting them.

Plastic or paper cards

For a home game it’s worth having two decks with different back colours: one is dealt while the other is shuffled, and you can quickly tell if a card from another deck slipped in. What else goes in a home poker kit — in our guide to poker chip sets.

Card odds: pocket pairs, aces and suited hands

There are 1,326 possible two-card combinations in Hold’em, which group into 169 strategically different hands: 13 pairs, 78 suited and 78 offsuit hands. That’s enough to work out how often you’ll see each type:

Among all five-card hands there are 2,598,960 combinations, and only 4 of them are royal flushes — one in 649,740.

How to shuffle and deal poker cards

A good shuffle makes the game fair. Card rooms use a fixed procedure, and it works for home games too:

1. 1
   Wash — spread the cards face down on the table and mix them with both hands.
2. 2
   Riffle — split the deck into two halves and riffle them together. Do it at least two or three times; mathematicians showed that about seven riffles mix a deck well.
3. 3
   Strip (box) — take small packets from the top and place them in a new pile, then riffle once more.
4. 4
   Cut — split the deck once and put the bottom half on top. Use a plastic cut card so the bottom card isn’t seen.

How cards are dealt in Hold’em

• Dealing rules for a home game
• The button moves one seat clockwise after each hand.
• Deal low and keep cards face down — no card should flash.
• Burn one card before the flop, the turn and the river.
• Agree in advance what happens if a card is exposed during the deal (usually a misdeal and a redeal).
• Change decks if a card is bent or marked.

Online, there is no dealer: cards are shuffled by a random number generator, and the button, blinds and dealing are automatic. That is one reason many friends now play in private clubs online instead of meeting at a table.

Poker cards online: club apps

If you want to play rather than shuffle, club apps let you play Hold’em, Omaha, Short Deck and other games with friends or in public clubs. You get the same 52-card deck — with a four-colour option, automatic dealing and hand histories. New to the game? Start with how to learn poker.

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