Every hand from royal flush down to high card, with visual examples, real frequencies, and tiebreaker rules. The chart you'll keep coming back to.
Top to bottom — best to worst. Tap any hand to jump to details.
Probabilities shown are for 7-card games (Texas Hold'em). 5-card draw frequencies are different — see the comparison table further down.
A.k.a. "the royal," "Broadway suited," "the unbeatable hand"
Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace — all of the same suit. Technically just the highest possible straight flush (T-J-Q-K-A suited), but every poker player calls it out by name because it's the rarest naturally-made hand and an unbeatable showdown.
There are exactly four royal flushes in the deck — one per suit. You cannot tie a royal flush; you can only chop with another player who somehow also made one (statistically improbable to the point of "wait, is the dealer cheating?" levels).
Five cards in sequence, all of the same suit (excluding royals)
Five consecutive cards of the same suit. The example above (5♥-9♥) is a 9-high straight flush. The lowest possible is the "steel wheel" — A♣-2♣-3♣-4♣-5♣ — where the ace plays low. The highest non-royal is K♥-Q♥-J♥-T♥-9♥ (king-high straight flush).
When two straight flushes meet, the higher top card wins. Steel wheel loses to a 6-high straight flush; both lose to a royal. Aces can play high or low but never wrap (Q-K-A-2-3 is NOT a straight).
A.k.a. "quads"
Four cards of the same rank, plus any fifth card (the kicker). Higher quads beat lower quads — quad aces beats quad kings. When two players somehow both have the same quads (only possible with shared community cards), the higher kicker wins.
In Texas Hold'em, quads usually come from holding a pocket pair and hitting the third and fourth on the board, or from "quads on the board" plus the highest card in either hand. Either way, quads are nearly always the winning hand.
A.k.a. "boat," "full boat"
Three of a kind plus a pair. Described "trips over pair" — the example above is "Kings full of Threes." When two players both have full houses, compare the trips first, then the pair. Kings full of threes beats Threes full of Kings (the trip kings outrank the trip threes).
Full houses are where most big pots are won and lost. They show up often enough in Hold'em (about 2.6% of hands) that you'll face them regularly, but they're strong enough to bet for value almost every time.
Five cards of the same suit, not in sequence
Five cards of the same suit. The example above is an "Ace-high flush." When two players both have flushes, the highest card wins; if those tie, the second highest, and so on through all five cards. Suits do NOT break ties in standard poker — there's no "spades beats hearts" rule.
The "nut flush" is the ace-high flush of a particular suit — when you hold the ace, you can't be beaten by another flush of that suit. Holding lower flushes on flush-heavy boards is one of the trickiest spots in poker because of the dominated-flush risk.
Five cards in sequence, mixed suits
Five consecutive cards of mixed suits. The example above is a "Jack-high straight." Higher straights beat lower straights — Jack-high straight beats Ten-high straight.
The Ace can play either as the high card in T-J-Q-K-A ("Broadway," the highest straight) or as the low card in A-2-3-4-5 ("the wheel," the lowest straight). It cannot wrap around: Q-K-A-2-3 is NOT a straight.
A.k.a. "trips" or "set" — three cards of the same rank
Three cards of the same rank, plus two unrelated cards (kickers). Higher trips beat lower trips. When trips are tied (only possible in shared-card games like Hold'em), the higher kickers break the tie.
In Hold'em, players distinguish between two types: a "set" is when you have a pocket pair and one matching card hits the board (like holding 9♠9♣ with a 9♥ on the flop). "Trips" is when one of your hole cards pairs with two on the board (like holding A♠9♣ on a 9♥9♦7♠ board). Sets are usually more profitable because they're better disguised — opponents can't see your trips coming.
Two pairs of different ranks, plus a kicker
Two pairs of different ranks, plus a fifth card (the kicker). Read "high pair over low pair" — the example above is "Aces and Eights, three kicker." When comparing two two-pair hands, the higher of the two pairs wins; if tied, the lower pair; if also tied, the kicker.
Aces and Eights is famously known as the "dead man's hand" — supposedly the cards Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot in 1876. We're not superstitious. But we won't hold it either.
Two cards of the same rank, plus three kickers
Two cards of the same rank, plus three unrelated cards. The example is "Pair of Jacks, Ace kicker." When two players have the same pair (e.g., both pair an Ace on the board), the higher kicker wins — and if the first kicker is the same, you compare the second, then the third.
One pair is the most common winning hand in Texas Hold'em — about 44% of hands at showdown end up being a single pair. Knowing how strong YOUR specific pair is in the context of the board, position, and opponent matters more than the raw category.
A.k.a. "no pair," "nothing"
Five cards that don't form any of the above categories — no pair, no straight, no flush. The hand is named by its highest card. The example is an "Ace-high" hand, with kickers J, 8, 5, 3.
When two players both end with a high-card hand, you compare the highest card, then the next, and so on through all five cards. Suits don't break ties; if all five rank cards are identical, it's a chopped pot.
When two players reach showdown with the same category of hand, here's how the tie is broken — every time, no exceptions:
Why 7-card frequencies differ: you get more chances to make a hand from 7 cards, so rare hands become less rare and "high card" becomes less common.
| Hand | Description | 5-card draw | 7-card (Hold'em) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | T-J-Q-K-A suited | 0.000154% | 0.0032% |
| Straight Flush | 5 in sequence, suited | 0.00139% | 0.028% |
| Four of a Kind | Quads | 0.024% | 0.168% |
| Full House | Trips + pair | 0.144% | 2.60% |
| Flush | 5 same suit | 0.197% | 3.03% |
| Straight | 5 in sequence | 0.392% | 4.62% |
| Three of a Kind | Trips/set | 2.11% | 4.83% |
| Two Pair | Two pairs | 4.75% | 23.5% |
| One Pair | Two same rank | 42.26% | 43.8% |
| High Card | Nothing | 50.12% | 17.4% |
Frequencies sourced from Wikipedia's Poker probability article — exact enumerations from Brian Alspach's mathematical work and Bill Butler's computer programs.
The hand rankings are determined by rarity. Hands that are harder to make rank higher because, statistically, you'll see them less often. Royal flush is at the top because there are only 4 of them in a 52-card deck; high card is at the bottom because more than half of all 5-card poker hands are unpaired.
The key insight: in 7-card games like Texas Hold'em, the rankings stay the same but the frequencies change drastically. With 7 cards to choose from, you'll make pairs much more often, two pair becomes very common, and "high card" actually becomes rarer than two pair. The relative ordering of hand strengths doesn't change — but the math behind why a flush beats a straight or a full house beats a flush remains true even though both happen more often than they would in a 5-card draw.
Does flush beat straight? Yes. Flush = 0.197% in 5-card draw. Straight = 0.392%. Straight is twice as common, so flush ranks higher.
Does full house beat flush? Yes — except in Short Deck (Six-Plus) Hold'em, where the rankings flip because flushes become rarer than full houses with the smaller deck.
Does three of a kind beat two pair? Yes, and the math actually backs it up: trips are about half as common as two pair in 5-card draw (2.11% vs 4.75%), so trips ranks higher.
Can you tie a royal flush? Only if both players play exactly the same five board cards (impossible in regular Hold'em — each player has different hole cards) or if the entire royal flush appears on the board itself, in which case both players' hole cards add nothing and they chop. In practice: the royal is functionally unbeatable.
Now that you know what beats what, the next step is knowing when to bet, raise, or fold. Try the pot odds calculator to see when calling is mathematically correct, the equity calculator to compare specific hands and ranges, and the full toolbox for everything else we have on offer.
The questions players ask most often about poker hand rankings.
The royal flush is the highest hand in poker — Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace all of the same suit. It's actually a special case of the straight flush (the highest possible straight flush).
There are exactly four possible royal flushes in a 52-card deck (one per suit). In Texas Hold'em, you'll make a royal flush about once every 30,940 hands.
Yes — a flush beats a straight. The order from highest to lowest is: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card.
A flush is rarer than a straight in 5-card poker (about 0.20% vs 0.39%), which is why it's ranked higher.
Yes — a full house beats a flush. A full house (three of a kind plus a pair) is rarer than a flush, so it ranks higher.
Note: in Short Deck (six-plus) Hold'em, this ranking is reversed because flushes become rarer than full houses when the 2s through 5s are removed from the deck.
Three of a kind beats two pair. The full ranking from worst to best at the bottom of the chart goes: high card, one pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, royal flush.
So everything from three of a kind upward beats two pair.
Both. The ace can play high in T-J-Q-K-A (Broadway, the highest straight) or low in A-2-3-4-5 (the wheel, the lowest straight).
It cannot "wrap around" — Q-K-A-2-3 is NOT a straight. Same rule applies to straight flushes: a wheel straight flush (A-2-3-4-5 suited) is the lowest straight flush, and Broadway suited (T-J-Q-K-A) is the royal flush, the highest.
A kicker is a card that doesn't form part of your made hand but breaks ties. Example: you have AK, opponent has AQ, and the board is A-7-2-9-4. Both of you have a pair of aces. Your kicker is the King; theirs is the Queen. Your better kicker wins.
Kickers matter most in pair vs pair situations and high-card showdowns.
About 1 in 30,940 hands in Texas Hold'em — meaning if you played 100 hands a night, you'd see one roughly every 11 months.
The 5-card draw probability is much lower at 1 in 649,740 because you don't get extra cards to combine with. Either way, when you make one, you'll remember it forever.
When two players both have a flush, the player with the highest top card wins. If the highest cards tie, you compare second-highest, third-highest, and so on through all five cards.
Suits are NOT used to break ties in standard poker — there is no "spades beats hearts" rule. If all five cards match in rank, the pot is split.