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Standard Poker Hand Rankings: What Beats What

This is the standard poker hand rankings chart — every hand in order of winning, from the royal flush down to high card. Tap any rung to see a real example, how it's made and how often it hits. Learning what beats what cold is the #1 thing every new player must master.

Royal Flush

How it's made
A, K, Q, J, 10 — all the same suit.
Beats
Everything. This is the absolute nuts.
Pro tip
You may play thousands of hands before you ever see one. It cannot be beaten, so bet it for maximum value.

Chance on any 5 cards: 1 in 649,740

Why it matters

Knowing what beats what is non-negotiable

It's the one thing in poker you must know cold — every decision starts from where your hand sits on this ladder. It underpins the poker rules and hand-ranking foundations, and once the order is second nature you can pick better hands from a starting hands chart.

The alphabet of poker

You cannot make a single correct decision until you know what beats what — cold, without pausing to count on your fingers. Every fold, call and raise begins with one question: do I have the best hand, or the best draw to it? A player who hesitates on 'does a flush beat a straight?' is guessing at everything downstream — put the order to work in our which hand wins trainer until reading a showdown is reflex. Drill this ladder and the entire game slows down to a pace you can actually think at.

Rarity is the whole logic

The rankings aren't arbitrary — a hand ranks higher precisely because it's harder to make. A full house appears about once every 694 five-card hands; a flush about once every 508. That frequency is a hidden strategy lesson: because monsters are rare, a board that suddenly makes one possible should make you suspicious, not excited. Understanding how unlikely the nuts are is what lets you fold a big hand when the betting screams someone has something bigger — and it feeds directly into pricing your draws with a pot odds calculator.

Cheat sheet

The ten rankings at a glance

The whole ladder in one table — strongest to weakest, with a clean example and how rare each hand is on any five cards.

#HandExampleOdds on any 5 cards
1Royal flushA♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠1 in 649,740
2Straight flush9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥1 in 72,193
3Four of a kindQ♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 3♠1 in 4,165
4Full houseK♠ K♥ K♦ 7♣ 7♠1 in 694
5FlushA♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 2♦1 in 508
6Straight9♠ 8♥ 7♣ 6♦ 5♠1 in 254
7Three of a kind5♠ 5♥ 5♦ K♣ 2♠1 in 47
8Two pairA♠ A♥ 9♦ 9♣ 4♠1 in 21
9One pairJ♠ J♥ A♦ 8♣ 3♠1 in 2.4
10High cardA♠ Q♥ 9♦ 6♣ 3♠1 in 2

Odds shown are the chance of being dealt each hand in a random five-card deal — a feel for rarity, which is exactly why the order runs the way it does. In a seven-card game like Hold'em you make each hand more often, but the ranking never changes.

At the table

How to use the rankings in a hand

Knowing the order is step one; these five steps turn it into decisions that win chips.

  1. 01

    Memorise the order top to bottom

    Ten rungs, strongest to weakest. Drill them until you can recite the ladder without a pause — this is the one piece of poker you simply have to know by heart.

  2. 02

    Name your best hand on every street

    After the flop, turn and river, state your current best five-card hand. 'Pair of kings.' 'Nut flush draw.' Keeping it explicit stops you from drifting through a hand on feel.

  3. 03

    Compare it to the board's best possible hand

    Ask what the strongest hand the community cards allow is — the 'nuts.' Your hand's real strength is always relative to what the board makes possible, not how it looks in a vacuum.

  4. 04

    Count how many hands beat you

    Given the board and the betting, how many holdings have you crushed and how many have you beaten? A hand that was the nuts on the flop can be third-best by the river.

  5. 05

    Fold when the ranking says you're behind

    If the order tells you you're likely beaten and the price is wrong, let it go. Knowing the rankings is what gives you the confidence to fold a strong-looking hand.

Worked example

Even aces are just one pair

Your hand
Board

You look down at pocket aces — A♥ A♣, the best starting hand in poker — and the board runs out Q♠ J♠ 10♠ 4♦ 2♣. Now count carefully: your unbeatable aces are only one pair. Any two spades make a flush that beats you, A-K makes Broadway and K-9 or 9-8 also completes a straight, and two pair or a set is ahead too. Your aces went from the top of the deck to a hand that's behind a huge chunk of the range that would keep betting into this board. This is the single most expensive lesson in poker: one pair is one pair, even when it's aces — strength is always relative to the board.

Verdict — one pair on a dangerous board; strength is always relative to the community cards
Avoid these

4 hand-ranking mistakes to avoid

Thinking a flush beats a full house

Fix In standard poker it doesn't — a full house outranks a flush. (Short Deck flips this; check the ruleset before you sit.)

Misreading trips versus a straight

Fix A straight beats three of a kind in standard rules. Three of a kind only looks big until a connected board fills someone's straight.

Overvaluing an overpair

Fix One pair is one pair, even aces. On a coordinated board, a lone big pair is often behind — respect straights and flushes.

Forgetting the fifth card can break a tie

Fix Equal-ranked hands are settled by the next card down: matching two pair comes down to the fifth-card kicker, and even quads that sit entirely on the board are split by the higher fifth card.

Test yourself

Do you know what beats what?

Three quick questions on the order of hands. Answer, then check.

Question 1 / 3 Score 0

Which hand is higher: a flush or a full house?

FAQ

Hand rankings — common questions

Does a straight beat a flush?

No — a flush beats a straight. A flush (five cards of one suit) is rarer than a straight (five in sequence), so it ranks higher. This trips up a lot of new players, which is exactly why it's a favourite showdown trap.

Are the rankings the same in every poker game?

Mostly yes, with famous exceptions. Short Deck ranks a flush above a full house and three of a kind above a straight, and lowball games like Razz and Badugi invert everything so the lowest hand wins. Always confirm the ruleset before you play.

Can an ace be used as a low card?

Yes. The ace plays high (A-K-Q-J-10) or low (A-2-3-4-5, the 'wheel', the lowest possible straight). It can't do both at once — A-K-Q-2-3 isn't a straight.

What does 'the nuts' mean?

The best possible hand given the board. On a board of Q♠ J♠ 10♠ x x, the nuts is the A♠ K♠ royal flush. Reading toward the nuts — what's the best hand out there? — is how strong players value every holding.

Keep sharpening

Keep sharpening

Which Hand Wins

Put the rankings to work — read real showdowns and call the winner.

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Pot Odds Calculator

Know what beats you, then price the draws and calls correctly.

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Starting Hands Chart

Choose hands that make the top of this ladder more often.

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