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It is crucial that you do your homework and get your head around poker hand ranking before participating in a game. Poker games move very quickly and you will find yourself timing out if you keep having to look up what is a good combination or not. More experienced players will notice your deliberation even online and take you to the cleaners, if you haven’t taken yourself half way there already! By knowing your hand rankings inside out you can develop your own in-game strategy for your best possible outcome. You can also play with probabilities i.e. if you have X, it could be that your opponent has Y and so on. You will understand better how another player is betting and be able to second guess what hand they may possess based on what’s on the table and in your hand for example. This is one part of poker that it is not wise to try and learn on the job. If you must dive straight in, print yourself a hand ranking card that you can look at easily for sanity checking until you get used to what everything represents.

Texas Hold ‘Em Winning Hands

As Texas Hold ‘Em is the most commonly played poker variant, we’ve concentrated on the winning hands of Hold ‘Em here. All variants will have different hand rankings so ensure you are revising the correct rules for that game before you start.

Texas Hold ‘Em hands are made out of five cards; two pocket cards as dealt to each player at the start by the dealer, and five community cards as dealt to the board in the flop, turn and river. Of the seven cards available, you need to find the highest five card combination. This can be achieved in several ways.

Let’s familiarize ourselves with the different hands and define each of them with examples. The list as follows, starts from the highest down to the weakest hand rank:

Royal Flush: This is a five card hand with an ace to ten in the same suit. For example: A – K – Q – J – 10 (the same suit). It doesn’t matter whether it’s in spades or hearts as long as they are in the same suit. Obviously, the ‘royal’ descriptor makes it easy to remember that it is the picture cards including the ace and 10 that make up this kind of flush.

Straight Flush: This is a five card hand in consecutive order in the same suit. For example: 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 or 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10. The value of the hand is determined on the highest end of the straight i.e. the straight ending in 10 would beat the straight ending in 6.

Four of a Kind: As we all know, all four cards are of the same index or characters. For example: A – A – A – A or K – K – K – K. The fifth card not being used in this instance is known as a kicker. Usually if there is a tie, the highest kicker will determine the winner (i.e. if in your hole cards).

Full House: This is a five card hand with three cards of the same value and a pair. For example: K – K – K – 4 – 4 or K – K – K – 3 – 3. If two players will show down their hands with three of a kind of the same value, the card with the highest pair wins the pot. As for the example above, Kings of 4’s wins.

Flush: This is a five card hand of the same suit but not in numerical order. For example: 2 – 5 – 8 – 10 – Q of spades is a queen high spade flush. Q – 10 – 8 – 6 – 3 of hearts is a queen high heart flush. If two players show down their hands of flushes, top cards are to be compared to determine the winner. If top cards are equal, the next highest must be compared and so on. As for the example above, queen high heart flush is the winner since 6 is higher than 5.

Straight: This is a five card hand of any suit in sequential order e.g. 3H – 4D – 5S – 6S – 7C. If there are two straights competing for the pot, the highest ending straight wins. For example, the 7 high straight demonstrated above would lose to a King high straight.

Three of a kind: Also known as ‘trips’, this hand is made up of three cards of the same rank, plus two unmatched cards i.e. Q – Q – Q – 10 – 8. The highest trips win and in the case that the cards of of the same value, the unmatched cards or kickers will determine the winner, with the highest kicker controlling the pot.

Two pair: A two pair hand consists of two lots of two cards that match each other yet the pairs don’t match i.e. 4 – 4 – J – J – 10. In the instance of a two pair stand off, the highest pair wins. If the highest pair is of the same value, the second pair is assessed. In the even that both pairs are the same in yours and your competitor’s hand, the highest kicker will determine the winner.

Pair: This hand is quite simple a pair of matching value cards plus three unmatched cards i.e. Q – Q -10 – 9 – 5. The highest pair will win and in the event of a tie, the subsequent unmatched cards will determine the winner in descending order from highest to lowest.

High card: Otherwise known as a ‘garbage’ hand as the player has nothing to make. In instances where all players have no pairs or better, the high card will win i.e A -10 – 9 – 4 – 2 would beat K – Q – 10 – 8 – 7. It is rare that a player would bet actively with just a high card and more likely that a high card will steal the pot if other players have folded or a player bets in a late position following no other bets. High cards are generally just used to determine the winner of a made hand i.e. as a kicker.