Poker hand rankings run, from best to worst: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. A hand higher on the list beats any hand lower on it, and the order holds because each step up is rarer than the one below it.
That is the short version. The rest of this note gives the chart, the exact math behind it, and the tie-breaking rules that settle most of the arguments a home-game host will ever have to referee.
The chart, best to worst
The order below follows Pennsylvania’s poker regulation, 58 Pa. Code § 637a.6, which licensed poker rooms in that state must follow. The same order appears in nearly every high-hand poker game, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha and seven-card stud.
| Rank | Hand | Example | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ | Ace-high straight, all one suit |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | Five in sequence, all one suit |
| 3 | Four of a kind | 7♣ 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ K♦ | Four cards of one rank |
| 4 | Full house | Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 4♣ 4♠ | Three of one rank plus a pair |
| 5 | Flush | A♦ J♦ 8♦ 6♦ 2♦ | Five of one suit, not in sequence |
| 6 | Straight | 10♣ 9♦ 8♠ 7♥ 6♣ | Five in sequence, mixed suits |
| 7 | Three of a kind | 5♠ 5♥ 5♦ K♣ 9♠ | Three of one rank |
| 8 | Two pair | J♥ J♣ 3♠ 3♦ A♣ | Two different pairs |
| 9 | One pair | 10♥ 10♠ K♦ 7♣ 4♥ | Two cards of one rank |
| 10 | High card | A♣ Q♦ 9♠ 6♥ 3♣ | None of the above |
Two details from the Pennsylvania text are worth memorizing. The ace plays high (A-K-Q-J-10) or low (5-4-3-2-A), but a straight cannot “wrap around” the corner, so Q-K-A-2-3 is just ace-high. And “all suits shall be considered equal in rank,” so a spade flush does not beat a heart flush.
Why the order is the order: the exact odds
The ranking is a frequency table in disguise. There are 2,598,960 possible five-card hands from a 52-card deck (52 choose 5). Counting how many of those fall into each category gives the table below. The counts were computed by enumerating every hand and cross-checked against the standard combinatorial formulas; for example, a full house is 13 × 4 × 12 × 6 = 3,744 ways (pick the rank of the trips, three of its four suits, the rank of the pair, two of its four suits).
| Hand | Ways (5 cards) | Probability | About 1 in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 4 | 0.000154% | 649,740 |
| Straight flush (not royal) | 36 | 0.00139% | 72,193 |
| Four of a kind | 624 | 0.0240% | 4,165 |
| Full house | 3,744 | 0.144% | 694 |
| Flush (not straight) | 5,108 | 0.197% | 509 |
| Straight (not flush) | 10,200 | 0.392% | 255 |
| Three of a kind | 54,912 | 2.11% | 47.3 |
| Two pair | 123,552 | 4.75% | 21.0 |
| One pair | 1,098,240 | 42.3% | 2.4 |
| High card | 1,302,540 | 50.1% | 2.0 |
A student who learns the table once never has to memorize the order again: rarer beats commoner, every time.
The seven-card version (Hold’em and stud)
Hold’em players build their best five from seven cards (two hole cards plus five on the board), and that changes the frequencies a lot. Out of 133,784,560 possible seven-card sets, here is how often each one is the best available hand:
| Best hand from 7 cards | Ways | Probability | About 1 in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 4,324 | 0.0032% | 30,940 |
| Straight flush (not royal) | 37,260 | 0.0279% | 3,591 |
| Four of a kind | 224,848 | 0.168% | 595 |
| Full house | 3,473,184 | 2.60% | 38.5 |
| Flush | 4,047,644 | 3.03% | 33.1 |
| Straight | 6,180,020 | 4.62% | 21.6 |
| Three of a kind | 6,461,620 | 4.83% | 20.7 |
| Two pair | 31,433,400 | 23.5% | 4.3 |
| One pair | 58,627,800 | 43.8% | 2.3 |
| High card | 23,294,460 | 17.4% | 5.7 |
Two things jump out. With seven cards, two pair shows up nearly a quarter of the time, so “two pair is a monster” is a five-card-draw instinct that costs Hold’em players money. And with seven cards a player is more likely to end up with one pair or two pair than with nothing at all. The order of the hands does not change, though: rules rank the five-card hand, not the seven-card frequency.
Breaking ties: kickers and the best five cards
Most disputes at the table are not about whether a flush beats a straight. They are about two hands of the same type. The rule is simple once it clicks: compare only the best five cards, from the top down.
Pennsylvania’s regulation puts it as a comparison of the highest card one hand holds that the other lacks, and if nothing separates them, the pot is split equally. In practice that means:
- Same category, compare the defining cards first. Kings full of fours beats queens full of aces, because the three of a kind decides a full house. Two pair compares the top pair, then the second pair, then the fifth card.
- Then the kickers. The unpaired side cards break the tie, highest first.
- Only five cards play. A sixth or seventh card never counts, even if it is an ace.
- Suits never break a tie for the pot. Robert’s Rules of Poker, a rulebook many cardrooms have drawn on, says so directly (more on it under Sources).
Worked example 1: the kicker decides it
Six-handed $1/$2 game, 100 big blinds deep. The hero is in the cutoff with A♠ J♦ and gets called by the big blind, who holds A♣ 9♣. The board runs A♥ 8♠ 5♦ 3♣ 2♥.
- Hero’s best five: A♠ A♥ J♦ 8♠ 5♦ (pair of aces, jack kicker)
- Big blind’s best five: A♣ A♥ 9♣ 8♠ 5♦ (pair of aces, nine kicker)
Both have one pair of aces, both share the 8 and 5 from the board, and the jack beats the nine. The hero takes the pot. (A careful reader will notice the 2 and 3 on board: 5-3-2-A is four to a wheel, but nobody holds the 4, so no straight.)
Worked example 2: playing the board
Same game. The hero holds K♦ 10♣ and the villain holds Q♠ Q♥. The board: A♠ A♦ J♣ J♥ A♣.
- The board alone is aces full of jacks (A-A-A-J-J).
- The villain’s queens cannot improve that: A-A-A-Q-Q beats A-A-A-J-J. The villain wins with aces full of queens.
Change the villain’s hand to 7♠ 6♠ and both players’ best five cards are the board itself. Neither hole card plays, so the pot is chopped. Pennsylvania’s Hold’em section, § 637a.11, spells this out: a player whose best hand is all community cards shares the pot with others holding the same board-only hand.
Worked example 3: the counterfeit
The hero holds 4♥ 4♣ against the villain’s A♦ K♠ on a board of J♠ J♦ 9♣ 9♥ 2♠. The hero thinks “two pair, fours and…” Not quite. The best five for the hero is J-J-9-9 with the 4 as the fifth card, which loses to J-J-9-9-A. The fours were counterfeited by the board’s two pairs. The table humor on this one writes itself, usually in the form of a long silence.
Common mix-ups at the table
| Claim | Ruling |
|---|---|
| “A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest straight, so it loses to 2-3-4-5-6” | Correct. The wheel is the lowest straight. |
| “Q-K-A-2-3 is a straight” | No. Straights do not wrap around. |
| “My spade flush beats his heart flush of the same ranks” | No. Suits are equal; it is a split. |
| “I have three pair, so I win” | Only the best two pair plus a kicker play. |
| “I said I had a flush, so I win” | Hands are ranked by the cards, not by what a player calls them. |
That last line is in the Pennsylvania regulation in so many words: a hand is ranked by the cards actually held, not by the player’s statement of its value. Online room software settles all of this automatically, which is one quiet advantage of playing in a state-licensed online poker room.
Where the rules change
The chart above is for high-hand games. Other variants keep the cards but change the scoring:
- Omaha. Same ranking, but each player must use exactly two hole cards and three board cards. A player holding four hearts with one heart on board does not have a flush. The pot-limit Omaha rules note covers this in detail.
- Low and split games. In Pennsylvania’s regulation the low ranking is the inverse of the high one, and straights and flushes do not count against a low hand (so 5-4-3-2-A is the best low), except in deuce-to-seven triple draw, where they do count and the ace is high. In Omaha eight-or-better, a qualifying low cannot hold a pair or any card above an 8.
- Short-deck games. With the 2s through 5s removed, the frequencies flip. From a 36-card deck there are 1,728 full houses but fewer than 500 flushes (126 five-rank combinations × 4 suits = 504, minus the straight flushes: 480 or 484, depending on whether the rules count A-6-7-8-9 as a straight), so a flush is the rarer hand. Short-deck rule sets that reorder the hands do it for that reason; the house rules should state which order is in use.
- Home games with house rules. Hosts sometimes add wild cards or “suits break ties.” Both are legal in a private game, but they should be announced before the first hand, not after the first argument.
A quick drill for new players
Shuffle a deck and deal seven cards face up. Name the best five-card hand in under five seconds, then check it against the chart. After a hundred deals most students stop missing the counterfeits and the “only five cards play” cases. The poker odds chart is the natural next step once reading the hands is automatic, followed by the poker terms glossary for the vocabulary that comes with them.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board regulation, 58 Pa. Code § 637a.6, “Poker rankings”, via Cornell LII, checked Nov 6, 2026.
- 58 Pa. Code § 637a.11, Hold’em Poker procedures, checked Nov 6, 2026.
- Bob Ciaffone, Robert’s Rules of Poker, private-game edition (hosted by Pagat), section on ties, checked Nov 6, 2026.
- Frequencies: computed for this note by full enumeration of all 2,598,960 five-card and 133,784,560 seven-card combinations.
Real-money poker is for adults only: 21+, or 18+ where state law allows. Anyone who feels the game has stopped being fun can call or text 1-800-MY-RESET, and the responsible gambling page lists more free help.