It is of course necessary to know which hands beat which. A poker hand always consists of five cards. Even though in some variants you may have more than five cards to choose from, you select the five cards that make the best hand, and for the purpose of comparing hands any other cards are irrelevant.
The ranking of hands from high to low in standard poker is as follows.
Straight Flush
Five consecutive cards of the same suit. Ace can be counted as high to make the highest type of Straight Flush, which is A-K-Q-J-10 of a suit, sometimes known as a Royal Flush. Ace can be low to make (5-4-3-2-A), but not high and low at the same time (for example 2-A-K-Q-J is not valid).
Four of a Kind
Four cards of the same rank and one other card, such as 9-9-9-9-Q. Four of a kind are sometimes known as quads or in some non-English speaking countries as a poker. The odd card - the queen in the example - is called the kicker.
Full House
Three cards of the same rank plus a pair of cards of another rank, such as 5-5-5-K-K, which would be described as "fives full of kings". A full house is sometimes known as a boat.
Flush
A flush consists of five cards of the same suit (not all consecutive, otherwise it would be a straight flush).
Straight
Five cards of consecutive ranks, not all of the same suit. The highest is A-K-Q-J-10 and an Ace can instead be counted as low to make the lowest straight 5-4-3-2-A, which is sometimes called a wheel. An Ace cannot be in the interior of a straight - for example 4-3-2-A-K is not a straight.
Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank and two cards of different ranks - for example 7-7-7-10-6. This is sometimes known as a triplet or trips.
Two Pair
Two cards of one rank, two cards of a second rank and one card of a third rank (the kicker) - for example J-J-3-3-8.
Pair
Two cards of equal rank and three cards of different ranks - for example Q-Q-A-8-7.
Nothing
A hand which does not fit any of the categories above, commonly known as High Card or sometimes No Pair. That is: five cards of different ranks, not all consecutive and not all the same suit.
Any hand of a higher type beats any hand of a lower type. When comparing two hands of the same type, the ranking is determined by the ranks of the individual cards. The most numerous rank of cards in each hand (the quad, the triplet in a full house or trips, otherwise the pair if any) is compared first; if these are equal, any less numerous ranks are compared. When two ranks are equally numerous, the highest-ranking cards are compared before the others. Note that in standard poker the four suits are all equal, and that poker hands consist of five cards only. Therefore if two players can make five-card hands that are equal apart from the suits of the cards, there is a tie and if necessary they share the winnings equally.
Examples:
- 4-4-4-7-7 beats 2-2-2-K-K because 4 is higher than 2, and 4-4-4-3-2 beats 2-2-2-A-K for the same reason.
- 5-5-5-9-9 beats 5-5-5-6-6 (these two hands could appear together in a game with shared cards or wild cards).
- K-K-2-2-A beats 7-7-3-3-Q, because the higher-ranking pairs are compared first and kings beat 7's.
- 7-7-3-3-Q beats 7-7-2-2-A because the higher-ranking pairs are equal, and the 3's beat the 2's.
- A-K-8-3-2 beats A-K-7-6-5, because 8 is higher than 7, the highest two cards in each hand being equal.
- 6-5-4-3-2 beats 5-4-3-2-A, because the ace must be low to make the straight.
- games with wild cards - cards that can be used to represent a card of any suit or rank;
- low poker or lowball games, in which the lowest ranking hand wins - also in the low component of high-low games in which the highest and lowest hands share the pot;
- games with stripped decks - decks of less than 52 cards obtained by removing the lowest card.
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