Texas Hold'em
Best to worst, the ten poker hands are: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair and high card. Every one of them is made of five cards, and the order is the same in Texas Hold'em as in any other variant.
Nobody chose that order for the sound of it: each hand beats the one below because it comes up less often. Here are the ten with a real example, how often each turns up, and what happens when two players arrive with the same hand.
A hand is five cards, no more and no less. In Texas Hold'em you pick those five out of seven: your two cards and the five in the middle. The frequencies below are counted over those seven.
Ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all spades.
The five highest cards of one suit: ace, king, queen, jack and ten. It is the highest straight flush there can be, so nothing sits above it.
How often
One hand in 31,000
Nine down to five, all hearts.
Five cards in a row, all of the same suit. Both conditions at once, which is what makes it so rare.
How often
One hand in 3,600
All four queens, with a seven alongside.
All four cards of one rank. The fifth card tags along and almost never decides anything.
How often
One hand in 595
Three eights over a pair of threes.
Three of a kind and a pair in the same hand. When two players have one, the three of a kind decides, never the pair.
How often
One hand in 39
Five diamonds. The ace leads, the order is irrelevant.
Five cards of the same suit, in any order. They do not need to run in sequence, and the suit itself changes nothing.
How often
One hand in 33
Ten down to six, in four different suits.
Five ranks in a row with mixed suits. The ace works at the top and at the bottom, but the run never wraps around.
How often
One hand in 22
Three fives, with a king and a nine alongside.
Three cards of one rank, plus the two highest cards you have left.
How often
One hand in 21
Jacks and fours, with an ace alongside.
Two different pairs and a fifth card. The higher pair is compared first, then the lower one, and only then that fifth card.
How often
One hand in 4
A pair of aces, and three cards that make nothing.
Two cards of the same rank. The other three are only there to break ties, and they break plenty.
How often
Almost one hand in two
No pair, no flush, no straight. The king leads.
None of the above. Your highest card counts, and if that ties you keep comparing downwards.
How often
One hand in 6
Because each hand beats the one below it by how seldom it shows up, and by nothing else. Deal five cards at random a thousand times: you will see a pair about four hundred times, a flush twice, and a straight flush not once. The poker ranking is a list of rarities written the right way up. That is why it does not have to be memorised: understanding it once is enough.
Pots are almost never split. When both of you make the same hand, the five cards are compared one at a time from the top, and the first difference decides. Only when all five match does the pot get shared.
The five in the middle
You
The two cards
Their best five
Wins the pot
The other player
The two cards
Their best five
You both hold a pair of kings, so the pair settles nothing and the next card has to be read. Yours is an ace, theirs a queen: the pot is yours. That card, deciding without being part of the pair, is the kicker, and it settles more pots than anything else in the game.
The five in the middle
You
The two cards
Their best five
Wins the pot
The other player
The two cards
Their best five
The suit never breaks a tie, not here and not anywhere else. You both have a heart flush, so the five cards get compared: both of you start with the ace, and on the second card you hold a king and they hold a jack. The comparison ends right there.
The five in the middle
You
The two cards
Their best five
Split pot
The other player
The two cards
Their best five
Split pot
The five community cards already make a straight to the ace, and neither player improves on it. Both of you play exactly the same five cards, so the pot is split down the middle. It is rare, and it has nothing to do with who held the better cards.
The game is the same everywhere, but the words are not. A royal flush is also a royal straight flush; four of a kind is quads; a full house is a boat; three of a kind is trips when two of the cards come off the board and a set when the pair is in your hand. None of it changes the order.
Yes. A flush sits directly above a straight, and the reason is that it comes up less: one hand in 33 against one in 22. It is the most commonly missed pair on the ladder, because a straight looks harder to make than it is.
No. Three of a kind beats two pair, even though you have four cards paired up and they only have three of a kind. Cards are not counted: the whole five-card hand is compared, and three of a kind turns up five times less often than two pair.
Yes. The ace works at the top, as in ace, king, queen, jack, ten, and at the bottom, as in five, four, three, two, ace. That second one is the lowest straight there is and loses to every other. What never counts is wrapping around: queen, king, ace, two, three is nothing.
No. The four suits are worth exactly the same and never break a tie. A suit is only good for two things: making a flush and making a straight flush.
No. You make your hand from the best five of the seven you can see: your two cards and the five in the middle. You can use both, one or neither. When you use neither, the five in the middle play by themselves and the pot usually gets split.
The royal flush: ace, king, queen, jack and ten of one suit. It shows up about once in thirty thousand hands, so there are players with years at the table who have never seen one. Nothing beats it, and two royal flushes split the pot.
All ten hands fit on one sheet. The cheat sheet is built to be read on a phone in the middle of a hand, or printed out and left on the table where everyone can see it.
Knowing what beats what is no use if you do not know when each card is dealt or when it is your turn to act. That is covered separately, with one hand played all the way through.
The order takes an afternoon to learn. What takes work is looking at the table and seeing what the other player might hold, and that is not read: it is decided, many times over, until it comes out on its own.
A course from zero, no money and no casino.
