Poker hands and their rankings are explained in detail

Posted by avnitshirke on May 13th, 2021

Poker is a fun game to play. You can play poker with your friends and family to make your evening interesting. You can also play online poker games to get entertained.

There are many types of poker games available online. Popular variants of poker are:

• Texas Hold’em Poker
• Omaha Poker
• Omaha Hi-Lo
• 5 Card Poker
• 7 Card Stud
• Chinese Poker

Dealing of cards

The rules for every poker variant are different. I will tell you more about poker regarding the two most popular poker variants. They are Texas Hold’em Poker and Omaha Poker.

A certain number of private and community cards are given to players. They use these cards to make a five-card poker hand. The player with the highest-ranking poker hand wins the showdown.

Poker hands

There are ten poker hands. The highest to lowest rankings are listed below.

1. Royal Flush
2. Straight Flush
3. Four of a Kind
4. Full House
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Three of a Kind
8. Two Pairs
9. One Pair
10. High Cards

Let us understand the poker hand rankings in detail.

Royal Flush: Ace, (A), King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), 10 are the cards that make a royal flush. They have to be of the same suit. For example, the five cards ♡A ♡K♡ Q ♡J ♡10 is a royal flush.

Straight Flush: A sequence of any five cards of the same suits is a straight flush. ♡5, ♡6, ♡7, ♡8, ♡9 is an example of a straight flush.

Four of a Kind: Four cards of an equal rank and one other card make four of a kind. J-J-J-J is an example of four of a kind.

Full House: Three cards of an equal rank and two other cards of equal rank make a full house. 5-5-5-J-J is an example of a full house.

Flush: If all the five cards in a poker hand have the same suit, you get a flush. These cards can be of any rankings, but their suits must be the same. ♡2 ♡4 ♡7 ♡10 ♡ Q is an example of flush.

Straight: A sequence of any five cards is called a straight. Their suits can be different. For example, if ♡5, ♡6, ♡7, ♡8, ♡9 was an example of ‘straight flush’, but the example of just a ‘straight’ is ♡5, ♤6, ♧7, ♢8, ♧9. The suits can be in a plain ‘straight’.

Three of a Kind: Three cards of equal rank form a three of a kind. In this poker hand, only three cards need to be of equal rank and the remaining two cards can be of any other ranks. An example of a three-of-a-kind is 5-5-5-7-8. The suits of these cards can be any.

Two Pairs: As the name suggests, poker hands with two pairs such as 5-5-6-6-J are called two pairs. The fifth card in two pairs can be any random card.

One Pair: In this poker hand, there must only one pair of cards with equal rankings. The remaining three cards can be anything. For example, 4-4-9-J-K is an example of one pair.

High Cards: Poker hands that do not follow any of the rules mentioned above are known as high cards. The player who has the strongest five cards is declared as the winner of the game.

By heart the poker hand rankings that are given above. Also, keep this sheet handy the next time you play poker. Knowing the ranking of poker hands can help you make better decisions while playing the game. All the best!