Poker Hand Rankings: Chart With Pictures, From Best to Worst (2026)

Poker hands in order: from best to worst

This is the full ranking, strongest first. Any hand higher on the list beats any hand lower on it — a weak flush still beats the best possible straight.

Poker hand rankings chart

Here is the same ladder as a table you can keep open next to the game, with how often each hand appears in a random five-card deal.

Reading it bottom-up gives you the hands from weakest to strongest: high card, pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, royal flush.

The strongest hands: royal flush, straight flush, quads

Royal flush

Ace, king, queen, jack and ten of the same suit. It is simply the highest straight flush, but it has its own name because it can’t be beaten. There are only four royal flushes in the deck — one per suit — and since suits don’t rank, two royal flushes can only happen if the royal is on the board, and then the pot is split.

Straight flush

Any five consecutive cards of one suit, such as 9-8-7-6-5 of hearts. Two straight flushes are compared by the top card: a 10-high straight flush beats a 9-high one. The lowest is 5-4-3-2-A of one suit (the “steel wheel”).

Four of a kind (quads)

Four cards of one rank plus any fifth card. Higher quads beat lower ones: four kings beat four queens. If the four of a kind is on the board and everyone shares it, the fifth card — the kicker — decides the pot.

Full house, flush and straight

Full house

Three cards of one rank and two of another, like K-K-K-4-4 — “kings full of fours”. When two players have a full house, the three of a kind decides first: K-K-K-2-2 beats Q-Q-Q-A-A. Only if the trips are equal (possible with a pair on the board) does the pair decide.

Flush

Any five cards of one suit that are not in sequence. Flushes are compared by the highest card, then the second, and so on down to the fifth: A-J-8-6-3 beats A-J-8-5-4. The suit itself never matters — a spade flush is not better than a heart flush.

Straight

Five consecutive cards of mixed suits. The top card decides: 10-9-8-7-6 beats 9-8-7-6-5. The highest straight is A-K-Q-J-10 (“Broadway”), the lowest is 5-4-3-2-A (“the wheel”). Straights don’t wrap around: Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight.

Three of a kind, two pair, pair and high card

Three of a kind: set and trips

Three cards of one rank. In Hold’em players use two names for it: a set is a pocket pair plus one matching card on the board, trips is one card in hand plus a pair on the board. Both are the same hand rank; a set is just better disguised. Higher three of a kind wins; equal ones go to the kickers.

Two pair

Two pairs of different ranks plus a fifth card. Compare the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the kicker: J-J-5-5-A beats 10-10-9-9-K, and J-J-5-5-A beats J-J-5-5-K.

One pair

Two cards of one rank. The higher pair wins; with equal pairs the three side cards are compared one by one. A pocket pair is a pair in your two hole cards (like 9-9); an “overpair” is a pocket pair higher than any card on the board.

High card

No pair, no straight, no flush. The hand is named after its top card — “ace-high”, “king-high” — and compared card by card, all five if needed. High card wins at showdown more often than beginners think, especially heads-up.

Kicker: the card that breaks ties

When two players have the same hand type and the same main cards, the remaining cards decide. These are the kickers. Only five cards ever count, so a kicker matters only if it makes it into the best five.

Ties and split pots: when the board plays

If the best five cards of two players are identical in rank, the hand is a tie and the pot is split equally — a split pot or “chop”. Suits are never used to break a tie in standard poker. The most common case is when the five board cards are better than anything players can make: then everyone left in the hand “plays the board”.

If chips can’t be divided evenly, the leftover chip usually goes to the first winning player to the left of the button. Apps do this automatically.

Probability of poker hands

Hand ranks follow rarity: the less often a hand appears, the higher it ranks. The classic numbers are for a random five-card deal from a 52-card deck (2,598,960 possible hands).

In Texas Hold’em you choose the best five out of seven cards (two hole cards plus five on the board), so strong hands come up far more often. These are the odds of the final best hand if you see all seven cards (133,784,560 combinations):

Common confusions and tricky spots

Flush and straight on the same board

Two pairs on the board

Counterfeiting

How to read your hand in Texas Hold’em

In Hold’em you have two private cards and share five with everyone. You can use both hole cards, one, or none — whatever makes the strongest five. A quick routine helps at the table:

1. 1
   Look at the board first: is there a pair (full house or quads possible), three or more of one suit (flush possible), or cards close in rank (straight possible)?
2. 2
   Add your two cards and look for the highest hand type you can make — start from the top of the ladder.
3. 3
   Pick exactly five cards. Ignore the other two — they don’t act as kickers.
4. 4
   Ask what the best possible hand on this board is (the “nuts”) and whether an opponent could have it.

The full rules of a Hold’em hand — blinds, betting rounds and showdown — are in our guide to poker rules for beginners, and strategy basics are in Texas Hold’em for beginners. To check who is ahead in a specific spot, use the equity calculator.

Hand rankings in Omaha, Short Deck and other games

Omaha is where beginners misread hands most: four hearts on the board and one heart in your hand is not a flush. Details and examples are in our Omaha rules guide.

How to memorise poker hands fast

• Rarer = stronger. If you remember that a flush is harder to make than a straight, you’ll never mix them up.
• Think in pairs-based and pattern-based hands: pair → two pair → three of a kind, then straight → flush → full house → four of a kind.
• “Full house” sounds bigger than “flush” — and it is.
• Straight flush and royal flush are just a straight and a flush at the same time.
• Play a few free hands with play chips and say your hand out loud each time — see where to play poker free.

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