What beats what? Awalkthrough of the different hands in poker, as well as how to settle ties and unique situations.
Poker Hands Ranked
Use our handy Poker Hand Rankings chart for a quick visual on what beats what in poker. For more detail on each hand, as well as ties and unique situations, check out the information below the poker cheat sheet.
Lowest to Highest Value Hands
High Card (Lowest Value) One Pair Two Pair Three-of-a-Kind Straight Flush
When you have no card combinations, the highest card value in your hand. Aces are high in Poker.
Two cards of the same value.
Two pairs of different card values.
Three cards of the same value.
Five cards in order, such as 6♠-7♡-8♢-9♠-10♣. The suits do not match.
Five cards of the same suite. The value of the Flush is determined by the highest card in it. For example, a Flush with a King as the highest value card would beat a Flush with a Queen as the highest value card.
Full House
Three cards of one value, and two cards of another value. Full houses are consider "____ full of ____" where the first blank is the set of three and the second blank is the pair. For example, a full house 9♡-9♣-9♠-5♡-5♢ would be called "nines full of fives".
The best full house that is possible is A♡-A♢-A♣-K♠-K♡. Suits do not matter.
When comparing a full house to another full house, the set of three is compared first. If both players have the same set of three, then the pairs are compared. If the pairs match as well, then it is a tie.
Four-of-a-kind
Four cards of the same value.
Straight Flush
A straight flush is when a straight is made up of cards of the same suit, such as 6♡-7♡-8♡-9♡-10♡.
Royal Flush
A royal flush is actually just a straight flush of the cards 10♢-J♢-Q♢-K♢-A♢. Suit does not matter.
Five-of-a-Kind (Highest Value)
A five-of-a-kind is only possible when playing with wild cards. It is five cards of the same value and it beats a royal flush.
Unique Cases and Fun Facts
Hand Strength The value of the cards does not matter when comparing different hands though. For example, the strongest four-of-a-kind, four aces, would lose to the weakest straight flush, 2♠-3♠-4♠-5♠-6♠. Suit does not matter.
The strength of a hand when compared to other hands of the same type is determined by the highest value card that makes up the hand. For example, a straight with a jack as the highest value outranks a straight with a 10 as the highest value.
Settling Ties Suit does not matter.
If two players have the same hand, then they compare their high cards to determine the winner. If their high card is the same, they compare their next highest card. They keep doing this until a winner is decided. If both players have identical hands it is a tie.
Settling Ties Between Flushes If both players manage to have identical flushes, it is a tie regardless of suit.
The suit of a flush does not affect the value. If two players have a flush, they compare the largest value card in the flush to determine the winner. If the highest value card is the same, they compare their next highest cards. Just like a regular tie, they keep doing this until a winner is decided.
Full House Combinations
Fun fact, there are 156 different kinds of full houses in a standard 52-card deck. There are also 3,744 different full house card combinations.
