Poker: Ranking of Hands

Essentially, poker is a card game in which each player gets a hand made up of 5 cards, and everyone takes turns betting based on how powerful they think their cards are in comparison to the other players’ cards. The person who has the best cards at the end of the betting wins that round, and takes all of the money in the pot. The pot is just the term used to describe the money consisting of all the bets from that round. The rankings of hands and cards are as follows:

Two is the lowest card, followed by three, up to ten, respectively. Jacks are higher than tens, queens higher than jacks, kings higher than queens, and aces are the highest cards. There is no ranking of suits.

The lowest hand you can have is a high card. If your five cards make no hand, then your highest card is your hand. For example, you might have a “queen high.”

The next lowest hand is a pair. A pair is when you have two of the same card. For example, if you have a four of hearts and a four of clubs, then you have a pair of fours.

One step up from a pair is two pairs, which is when you have in your hand two of one card, and two of another. For example, if you have two queens and two threes, then you have a two-pair of queens and threes.

Better than two pairs is three-of-a-kind. This is when you have three of the same card. For example, a nine of spades, a nine of clubs, and a nine of diamonds in your hand is a three-of-a-kind of nines.

Next is a straight. A straight is when your hand consists of 5 consecutive cards. For example, if you have a seven, eight, nine, ten, and a jack, then you have a jack-high straight.

Beating a straight is a Flush. A flush consists of 5 cards, all of the same suit. They do not have to be in any particular order, as long as they have the same suit. For example, a nine of clubs, a three of clubs, a four of clubs, a seven of clubs, and a king of clubs would give you a king-high flush.

Above a flush is a full house. A full house is a combination of a pair and a three-of-a-kind. For example, if you have two sixes and three aces, you have a full house of aces over sixes. Any hand better than a full house is very rare.

A four-of-a-kind is when you have all four of any card from the deck. For example, if you have a queen of spades, a queen of hearts, a queen of diamonds, and a queen of clubs, you have all four queens, a very good hand.

The only hand to beat four-of-a-kind is a straight flush. You have a straight flush if you have 5 consecutive cards, all of the same suit. For example, if you have a ten of spades, jack of spades, queen of spades, king of spades, and ace of spades, you have a straight flush. You also win the hand no matter what, because this particular straight flush is called the royal flush and there is absolutely no other hand that can beat it.

If two players who remain in the hand until the end have the same hand, the winner is determined by their “kicker.” Your kicker is your highest card that isn’t part of a pair, straight, flush, etc., but is just in your hand. For example, suppose two people have a two-pair of fours and threes, but one person has a king for their 5th card and the other person has a nine for their 5th card. The person with the king would win the pot, because the king kicker is higher than the nine kicker. Finally, if two people have completely identical hands, including their kickers, they split the pot, each person taking half of the money (assuming that no one else has a better hand).

For the most part, when playing poker, you only have to worry about seeing hands from a high card to a full house. A three-of-a-kind is usually considered a very good hand, and four-of-a-kind and straight flush are seen only once every handful of games. There are different kinds of poker, and there are different scenarios for how good you should consider your hand to be in each game.