Poker is a well known game using 52 playing cards. But it’s not always clear to me which poker hands are the strongest. Therefore I’ve made this guide to mainly help myself and maybe you.
- Highest To Lowest Hands In Poker
- Hands In Poker Highest To Lowest
- Best Hands In Poker Highest To Lowest
The cards are divided into 4 suits of 13 ranks each. The four suits are Clubs, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds. Traditionally, clubs are listed as the highest of the suits, but officially they all have the same rank in poker.
Compare hands by looking at their highest card. Two identical straight flushes tie since suits have no value. Q♣ J♣ 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ Royal Flush. The highest poker hand, containing an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and a 10, all of the same suit. 10♥ J♥ Q♥ K♥ A♥. The standard ranking of poker hands is below, listed from highest to lowest. All standard poker hands are made up of exactly five cards (no more, no less). The top five cards in a single suit: 10, J, Q, K, A all of the same suit. Really, a Royal Flush is just the best possible straight flush. There can be no ties in a hand with royal flush, as there is only one card of a number and same suit. The is the best possible hand you can get in standard five-card Poker is called a royal flush. This hand consists of an: ace, king, queen, jack and 10, all of the same suit. If you have a royal flush, you'll want to bet higher because this is a hard hand to beat. Liliboas / Getty Images. Poker hands from highest to lowest 1. Royal flush A, K, Q, J, 10, all the same suit. Straight flush Five cards in a sequence, all in the same suit. The hands rank in almost the same order as in standard poker, with straights and flushes counting and the lowest hand wins. The difference from normal poker is that Aces are always high, so that A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, but ranks between K-Q-J-10-8 and A-6-4-3-2.
Poker ranks from highest to lowest
When playing a game of poker, the highest card is Ace (A). The lowest card is Deuce (which is the card with the number 2 on it). Here is the full list of the 13 ranks listed from highest to lowest.
Poker Hands Strength (Highest to Lowest)
I have listed the strongest hands from the highest Royal Flush to the high card standard. But remember; you never play the hand, you play the man.
1. Royal Flush
Royal flush is hands down (no pun intended) the ultimate poker hand. It contains the cards A, K, Q, J and 10, all of the same suit. But don’t get your hopes up. The odds of you getting a Royal Flush is 649,739 to 1. That’s the same as a probability of 0.000154%.
2. Straight flush
The Straight Flush is like the Royal Flush, except that it doesn’t have to contain the 5 highest ranking cards. That means that the odds of you getting a Straight Flush is simply 72,192.33 to 1. Easy.
3. Four of a Kind
Four of a kind is a pretty good hand. Maybe that’s why it’s ranked as the third best hand in poker? It must be. The hand consists of four of the same cards. Oh, like a book in “Go fish”? Now I get it.
4. Full House
I know what you’re thinking. But a Full House has nothing to do with the classic TV series with the amazing Olsen twins. Been there, done that. A Full House is a poker term that means you have a pair and three of a kind, at the same time. Pretty crazy actually.
5. Flush
Even though this poker hand is given the name of a visit to the toilet, the flush has nothing to do with shit excrements. The flush consists of 5 cards of the same suits.
6. Straight
(Insert gay joke here). A Straight is five cards of sequential ranks like 2-6, 7-J or 10-A. Be aware that Aces (A) can be both the highest and lowest card in a Straight.
7. Three of a Kind
Andy Warhol once said “One’s company, two’s a crowd, and three’s a party”. I’m not sure he was talking about poker, but damn, he was right. The Three of a Kind poker hand consists of three cards of equal rank. The chances of you having a Three of a Kind poker hand is 46.3 to 1. So it’s definitely not impossible to land this dreamy threesome.
8. Two Pair
You know that awkward double date where your girlfriend wants you to be best friends with her girlfriends boyfriend? That sucks, especially because her boyfriend has that weird thing or don’t play poker. Luckily, Two Pairs in poker is awesome. The hand consists (funny enough) of two cards of the same rank, plus two other cards of the same rank.
9. One Pair
One pair is pretty simple. You just have to have two cards of the same rank. Even my three legged blind dog can pull that off.
10. High Card
Are your poker hand so weak that it didn’t meet any of the above requirements? Then I would probably just kill myself. Or you can use the High Card rule. Simply just pick out the person with the highest card in the rank from Deuce (2) to Ace (A). And there’s your winner.
Face to face poker on the go?
Poker is a fantastic game. And now you know pretty much everything there is to know about the poker hands you can play! So why not do a field test?
We’ve created an awesome and free poker app that lets you play face to face poker with your friends anywhere, anytime!
So, we all know and love how poker was originally meant to be played. With friends and foes, face to face, at a table full of crisp cards and booming piles of chips. And we love to do that whenever we can.
But what if you just want to play a spontaneous game of poker with your friends on the go? Say at boring social events, on a long train ride, at the office or in line for a concert? No one cool walks around with a full poker set on them at all times. You may be able to gather half a deck of playing cards – but poker chips? Come on, man.
This is when you make desperate decisions and start using anything from broken matches to rolled up paper as chips. Stop. Right. Now.
We’ve got you.
Unlike other poker apps out there, EasyPoker mimics a real life game of face to face poker. With our app, you play against friends in the same room – not shady avatars from strange countries like “Asabajadar” – whatever that is.
Do you need to connect a credit card? No. A real life poker set doesn’t come with a credit card solution, so neither does EasyPoker.
EasyPoker really is the easiest way to play a game of face to face poker – anywhere, anytime.
The poker app you and your friends have been waiting for – and we think you deserve.
Click here to download the free app from the App Store or Google Play Store!
Highfive.
With few exceptions, all poker games place hands on the same
scale from high- to low-value. Poker hands are ranked depending
on their likelihood. The least-likely hands are the
highest-ranked; the most common hands are the lowest-ranked.
Identical poker hands are ranked by which hands holds cards of
the highest value.
Poker Hand Rank
Here is the standard hand rank, from highest to lowest:
A royal flush is a hand where all the cards are of the same suit and the 5 highest cards in consecutive order (10, J, Q, K, A). This hand is the best hand that you can get in the game of Texas Hold’em.
A straight flush is a hand where all the cards are of the same suit and are in consecutive order. For example, a 23456, all of hearts, is a straight flush. In the event of a tie, the straight flush with the highest card wins.
A 4 of a kind is a hand where 4 of the 5 cards are of the same ranking. An example of a hand with a 4 of a kind might have KKKK2. That would be the 2 in every suit–clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. In the event of a tie, the 4 of a kind with the highest hand ranking wins.
A full house is a hand that consists of 3 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank. An example of a full house might look like this: KKKQQ. In the event of a tie, the hand with the higher cards in the 3 cards is the winner.
A flush is a hand that consists of 5 cards of the same suit—clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades. In the event of a tie, the flush with the highest card is the winner.
A straight is a hand where all 5 cards of consecutive ranks. 23456 is an example of a straight. In the event of a tie, the straight with the highest card is the winner.
2 pairs is a hand where you have 2 cards of one rank and 2 cards of another rank along with a final card of another rank. An example of 2 pairs might look like this: AAKK7.In the event of a tie, the hand with the highest pair wins.
1 pair is a hand where you 2 cards of one rank and 3 cards with different ranks. An example of a pair might look like this: JJ278. In the event of a tie, the higher ranked pair wins.
High card means a hand where none of the other hand rankings apply. If no one still in the hand can make a pair or better, the player with the highest card in his hand wins the pot.
Playing a live game of poker requires that you know this
hierarchy. For new players, this may seem a little daunting.
After all, here you have nine pieces of complex information to
remember in precise order.
A Word About Mnemonic Devices
I learned the order of poker hands using a mnemonic. I think
anyone can use this simple method to learn the hierarchy in a
matter of minutes. Mnemonics are popular memory devices used by
students, teachers, and people of all stripes for hundreds of
years in order to remember complex information.
You probably used a mnemonic device to remember the order of
the planets in our solar system. I remember learning the
sentence: “My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas.”
The first letter of each of the words in that sentence will help
you remember that the planets go in this order – Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. I’ll
probably never forget that fact, thanks to the mnemonic device I
was taught.
The trouble is, it’s hard to convert hand rankings into
words. Besides that, I don’t think you learn much about poker by
simply memorizing the order of hands. You should use the
opportunity of needing to learn proper hand hierarchy to improve
your understanding of poker strategy.
The tips below will help you understand the proper order of
poker hands better and introduce you to some basic poker
concepts to help you improve your overall game.
Low-Value Poker Hands
To remember the order of the four lowest-value hands, just
remember the number series “0, 1, 2, 3.”
- 0 means “high card.” Having nothing in your hand means
the value of your hand depends on the value of your highest
card. Remember – in poker, aces rank high, while 2’s rank
low. - 1 means “one pair.” Any hand that contains just a single
pair of cards and nothing else valuable is a 1. - 2 means “two pair.” This is a hand that contains two
pairs of cards. - 3 means “three-of-a-kind.” It’s the most valuable of the
low-value hands.
High-Value Poker Hands
For the purpose of this post, I’m calling every hand above a
three-of-a-kind a “high-value hand,” but lots of poker
strategists would consider a straight to be a low-value hand.
This is really a difference in philosophy and a language issue
more than anything else.
Highest To Lowest Hands In Poker
For that reason, and for simplicity’s sake, I like to think
of straight as a “/” symbol in my mnemonic. That means our
current mnemonic string goes: “0, 1, 2, 3, /.”
It’s easier to memorize the order of the other high-ranking
hands if you count the number of letters in the hand’s name.
It’s made all the easier to remember by the fact that the number
of letters increases as you move up the scale.
Here’s how I break it down:
- 5 – The word flush contains five letters.
- 9 – The words full house contain nine letters.
- 11 – The words four of a kind contain eleven letters.
- 13 – The words straight flush contain thirteen letters.
- 18 – The words royal straight flush contain eighteen
letters.
Putting them all together, our mnemonic is: “0 – 1 – 2 – 3 /
5 – 9 – 11 – 13 – 18.”
Other Ways to Memorize Hand Hierarchy
I’m not going to pretend that the method I used to learn hand
hierarchy is the only one that will work. The three ideas below
are the most popular tactics on the Web besides the use of
mnemonics, based on my research. You can use any of the four
methods described on this post to keep track of what hand beats
what other hand. That way, you’ll be able to plan your tactics
ahead of time and make smart bidding decisions.
Rote Memorization
Some people learn best by repeated drilling of the material
to be memorized. I’ve heard of actors reading their scripts over
and over, playing tapes of the script in their sleep, and
learning their lines by rote. I can’t think of any reason why
you shouldn’t try this method.
Hand Evaluation Diagrams
Various poker trainer programs and strategy gurus have put
together diagrams to help you analyze your hand. You can use
these in poker rooms, and obviously you can use them online, so
long as you don’t care about the other guys at the table making
fun of you. They’re available for free with a simple Google
search.
Frequent Exposure
The more rounds of poker you play, the more you’ll become
familiar with all the rules, including the rules of hand
ranking. You may lose a bunch on the way there, because of your
lack of familiarity with hand ranks, but, by God, you’ll get it
eventually.
Conclusion
Hands In Poker Highest To Lowest
Remember that some poker variations assign different values
to cards and hands. Some games are totally reversed, rewarding
the lowest-value hand instead of the highest-value one. Other
games may consider an Ace to be low, or use Jokers, which throws
off the hierarchy and strategy a bit.
Best Hands In Poker Highest To Lowest
I hope that this page helped you learn about the value of the
cards you’re dealt. I believe the best way to practice your
newfound understanding of hand hierarchy is to get out there and
play a bunch of poker. If you’re still new to the game and not
yet comfortable with your understanding of hand rankings, you
can always play in free-to-play apps or use play-money at your
favorite online poker room.