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The deck

How many cards are in a poker deck?

By José · Updated October 10, 2026

A poker deck has 52 cards: four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) of thirteen cards each, from the two up to the ace. Most decks also come with two jokers, but poker doesn't use them. Texas Hold'em is played with the 52, and the jokers stay in the box.

Below, all 52 drawn out, what each one is, how the deck compares with the Spanish deck, and how many cards come out in a single hand.

First lesson · 6 min The cards All 52 cards How many are dealt FAQ

All 52 cards

The four suits and, in each, the thirteen ranks from highest to lowest: the ace, the three face cards and the ten down to the two. It's the same standard deck you'd use for any card game.

Spades 13 cards

  1. A
  2. K
  3. Q
  4. J
  5. 10
  6. 9
  7. 8
  8. 7
  9. 6
  10. 5
  11. 4
  12. 3
  13. 2

Hearts 13 cards

  1. A
  2. K
  3. Q
  4. J
  5. 10
  6. 9
  7. 8
  8. 7
  9. 6
  10. 5
  11. 4
  12. 3
  13. 2

Diamonds 13 cards

  1. A
  2. K
  3. Q
  4. J
  5. 10
  6. 9
  7. 8
  8. 7
  9. 6
  10. 5
  11. 4
  12. 3
  13. 2

Clubs 13 cards

  1. A
  2. K
  3. Q
  4. J
  5. 10
  6. 9
  7. 8
  8. 7
  9. 6
  10. 5
  11. 4
  12. 3
  13. 2
  • The ace: the highest card
  • Face cards: jack, queen and king
  • Ten down to two: worth their number
cards
52
suits
4
ranks per suit
13
face cards
12
The poker deck, suit by suit
Suit Cards, highest to lowest Face cards Color
Spades A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 J, Q and K Black
Hearts A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 J, Q and K Red
Diamonds A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 J, Q and K Red
Clubs A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 J, Q and K Black
Total 52 cards 12 face cards 26 red and 26 black

Suits, ranks and face cards

Four things worth having straight before the first hand. Almost everyone gets the third one wrong.

  • Four suits, and none outranks another

    Spades and clubs are black; hearts and diamonds are red. No suit is worth more than another: two identical hands in different suits tie, and the pot is split. A suit only matters one way, when you have five of the same, which is a flush.

  • 2 7 10 A

    Thirteen ranks, two to ace

    From lowest to highest: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace. Cards have no point values and nothing gets added up. They're compared, and the higher one wins.

  • J Q K A

    Three face cards, and the ace isn't one

    The face cards are the jack (J), queen (Q) and king (K): three per suit, twelve in the deck. The ace is not a face card, even though it's the highest card. It's a rank of its own.

  • Two jokers you won't need

    They come in the box for other games. Texas Hold'em doesn't use them, and if one turns up in the middle of a hand it's worth nothing: it's set aside and the next card takes its place.

The ace: always high, low exactly once

The ace is the highest card, so a pair of aces beats a pair of kings. It plays as a one in a single case: the lowest straight, 5‑4‑3‑2‑A, known as the wheel. What it never does is wrap around to join a king to a two.

  • A K Q J 10
    Straight

    The highest straight

  • 5 4 3 2 A
    Straight

    The lowest, with the ace at the bottom

  • 3 2 A K Q
    Not a straight

    The ace doesn't join a king to a two

There are ten possible straights, from 5‑4‑3‑2‑A to A‑K‑Q‑J‑10. In the wheel the ace counts below the two, so 6‑5‑4‑3‑2 beats it.

Poker deck vs. Spanish deck

In Spain and much of Latin America, the everyday deck is the Spanish one, with 40 or 48 cards. It isn't just a smaller poker deck: the face cards are different, ranks are missing, and with fewer cards the hand rankings stop making sense.

Deck Cards Ranks per suit Face cards Suits
Poker deck (French suits) 52, plus 2 jokers 2 through 10, J, Q, K and A Jack, queen and king Spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs
Spanish deck, 48 cards 48 1 through 9, sota, caballo and rey Sota (jack), caballo (knight) and rey (king) Coins, cups, swords and clubs
Spanish deck, 40 cards 40 1 through 7, sota, caballo and rey Sota (jack), caballo (knight) and rey (king) Coins, cups, swords and clubs

You can play poker with a Spanish deck, but the rankings no longer hold. With 40 cards there are 980 ways to make a flush and 2,160 ways to make a full house, so the flush becomes the rarer hand and ought to beat it. With 48 cards the same happens, narrowly. That's why poker uses 52.

If you grew up on the Spanish deck

How many cards are dealt in Texas Hold'em

Two to each player, face down, and five face up on the board, shared by everyone: three on the flop, one on the turn and one on the river. Before each batch of board cards the dealer burns one, setting it aside face down so nobody sees it.

The board, shared 5

K 9 4
Flop
J
Turn
4
River

To each player 2

Burned 3

Cards used in one hand

2 per player, 5 on the board and 3 burned

Players Cards
2 12 / 52
4 16 / 52
6 20 / 52
9 26 / 52

At a nine-handed table, 26 come out: exactly half the deck. The other 26 are never seen.

How to deal it, step by step

How many two-card starting hands there are

A 52-card deck makes 1,326 different two-card combinations. Many of them are the same hand in other suits, which is why players talk about 169 distinct starting hands: 13 pairs, 78 suited and 78 offsuit.

  • Pairs

    13 × 6 = 78

    • A A
    • A A
    • A A
    • A A
    • A A
    • A A

    Every pair can be made 6 ways, one for each two suits. These are all six ways to hold pocket aces.

  • Suited

    78 × 4 = 312

    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K

    Two different ranks of the same suit: 4 ways, one per suit. Here, every suited ace-king.

  • Offsuit

    78 × 12 = 936

    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K
    • A K

    The same two ranks in different suits: 12 ways. Ace-king again, and this is how most hands arrive.

78 + 312 + 936 = 1,326

That's why you're dealt a pocket pair once every 17 hands, and pocket aces once every 221.

Poker deck FAQ

How many cards are in a poker deck with jokers?

54: the usual 52 plus two jokers. Texas Hold'em doesn't use the jokers. Only some home games of other variants add them as wild cards, which count as whatever the player holding them wants.

How many face cards are in a deck?

Twelve: the jack, queen and king of each of the four suits. The ace is not a face card, even though it's the highest card in poker.

How many red and black cards are in a deck?

26 red (hearts and diamonds) and 26 black (spades and clubs). In poker the color of a card doesn't matter at all. The only thing a suit does is make a flush, five cards of the same suit.

Is a poker deck different from a regular deck of cards?

No: it's the same 52 cards. A deck sold as a poker deck is usually plastic and a little wider. Poker size is 2.5 by 3.5 inches; bridge size is 2.25 by 3.5.

How many cards are dealt in Texas Hold'em?

Two face down to each player, the hole cards, and five face up on the board that everyone shares. Three more are burned: one before the flop, one before the turn and one before the river.

How many different five-card poker hands are there?

2,598,960, the number of ways to pick five cards out of 52. The hand rankings come from that count: a royal flush shows up in 4 of them and high card in 1,302,540.

Keep going

The ranking Poker hand rankings All ten hands, how often each one comes up and how ties are broken. Dealing How to deal poker Shuffle, cut, burn and turn, and what to do when a card flips over. If you grew up on the Spanish deck From the Spanish deck to poker What carries over from the 40-card deck and what will trip you up.

Read the cards at speed

Reading a card seems obvious until there are seven in front of you and someone is waiting on your decision. The first lesson of the course is exactly that: rank and suit, and which of the two decides which card is worth more.

First lesson · 6 min The cards Every card has two facts: rank and suit. You'll learn to read both, and which one says which card is worth more. Play now

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