In Texas Hold’em, the ten hand categories rank from royal flush at the top down to high card at the bottom. The chart below puts every hand in order, with example cards and the rough odds of finishing with each one. Then the rest of this article does what a chart cannot — it walks the tie-breaks, the worked showdowns, and the spots where the chart on paper trips up a beginner at a real table.
The poker hand rankings chart
| # | Hand | What it is | Example | Probability | About one in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A-K-Q-J-10, all the same suit | A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ | 0.0032% | 30,940 |
| 2 | Straight flush | Five consecutive cards, same suit | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | 0.028% | 3,589 |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Four cards of one rank, plus a kicker | 7♣ 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ K♥ | 0.17% | 594 |
| 4 | Full house | Three of a kind plus a pair | Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 8♣ 8♠ | 2.6% | 38 |
| 5 | Flush | Five cards of one suit, not in sequence | A♣ J♣ 7♣ 6♣ 2♣ | 3.0% | 33 |
| 6 | Straight | Five consecutive cards, mixed suits | 8♦ 7♠ 6♥ 5♣ 4♦ | 4.6% | 22 |
| 7 | Three of a kind | Three cards of one rank, two unrelated | 9♥ 9♦ 9♣ Q♠ 4♥ | 4.8% | 21 |
| 8 | Two pair | Two of one rank, two of another, plus a kicker | J♦ J♣ 4♥ 4♠ A♣ | 23.5% | 4.3 |
| 9 | One pair | Two cards of one rank, three unrelated | 10♠ 10♣ K♥ 7♦ 3♠ | 43.8% | 2.3 |
| 10 | High card | No pair, no straight, no flush | A♥ Q♣ 9♦ 6♠ 3♣ | 17.4% | 5.7 |
The chart is the ranking, full stop. Anything higher beats anything lower at showdown. A pair of aces, the strongest one-pair hand in the deck, loses to the weakest two-pair hand. A flush always beats a straight, even when the flush is two-three-four-six-eight of clubs and the straight is jack-high. The categories are a hierarchy, and inside each category there are tie-break rules that decide who wins when both players land in the same row.
How to read the probabilities
The percentages are the chance that a random seven-card deal — your two hole cards plus the five community cards — finishes with that hand category at the top. They sum to almost exactly 100% because every seven-card deal lands somewhere on the chart. They are not the rate at which a hand wins pots, because most high-card and weak-pair hands get folded before showdown. Treat the column as a rough rarity gauge, not a winning-frequency table.
How tie-breaks work at showdown
When two players land in the same hand category, the tie is broken card by card from the top down. Suits never break ties: a flush in spades and a flush in clubs of the same five ranks would split. A sixth card never breaks ties either, because only the best five count.
The rule per category, in one sentence each:
- Straight flush, straight, flush: highest card in the made hand wins. For flushes, if the top cards tie, compare the second card, then the third, and so on.
- Four of a kind: higher quads win; if both players play the same quads off the board, the kicker decides.
- Full house: the rank of the three of a kind decides first. Aces full of twos beats kings full of queens.
- Three of a kind: higher trips wins; if the trips are identical, the two kickers decide in order.
- Two pair: higher pair, then the lower pair, then the kicker.
- One pair: the pair rank, then the three kickers in order.
- High card: highest card, then the next, all the way down to the fifth.
If after applying the rule the hands are still identical, the pot is split. That is more common than beginners expect, especially on boards where most of the made hand comes from the community cards.
Three worked showdowns
Both players make a straight; the higher card wins
Hero holds J♣ 10♣. Villain holds 6♥ 5♥. The board runs 9♠ 8♦ 7♥ 4♣ 2♠.
Hero’s best five is J-10-9-8-7, a jack-high straight. Villain’s best five is 9-8-7-6-5, a nine-high straight. Both players have a straight, so the showdown comes down to the top card. Jack beats nine. Hero wins.
Two pair, two pair, kicker decides
Hero holds T♣ K♥. Villain holds T♦ Q♠. The board runs T♥ 5♦ 5♣ 9♠ 2♣.
Both players make tens and fives. The board pairs the fives, and each player pairs the ten on the board with a ten in their hand. Their best fives are T-T-5-5-K and T-T-5-5-Q. Same two pair, different kicker. King beats queen. Hero wins.
Playing the board, both players chop
Hero holds 7♥ 2♣. Villain holds 8♣ 3♦. The board runs A♥ K♥ Q♣ J♠ 10♦.
Neither hole card improves the board. The five community cards already form A-K-Q-J-10, which is Broadway, the highest possible straight. Each player’s best five is the board itself. They are playing the board, and their hands are identical. The pot splits.
One detail beginners trip on: in a casino, you must say you are playing the board before you fold or muck your hole cards. Toss your cards face down without claiming the showdown and the dealer can rule you out of the pot even though you would have chopped.
Where the chart lies to you
The chart says the order. It does not say the cases where the order needs reading carefully.
Aces are the highest card and also the lowest. A-K-Q-J-10 is the best straight; that is Broadway. A-2-3-4-5 is also a straight; that is the wheel. The wheel is a five-high straight, not an ace-high straight. The two ways the ace plays are mutually exclusive on a single hand — the ace is high, or the ace is low, never both. That is why straights cannot wrap around the king. Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight; it just plays as an ace-high hand.
“Three of a kind” has two names. When your trips include both your hole cards as a pocket pair plus a third matching card on the board, the standard name is a set. When your trips use one hole card and a pair on the board, the standard name is trips. Same row on the chart, very different stories at the table. Sets are usually disguised, trips are usually obvious to everyone watching.
Cards speak. You cannot beat your own cards by misreading them. If you hold the nut flush and you say at showdown “I have a pair,” the dealer will read your cards correctly and award you the pot anyway. The flip side: you cannot win a hand you do not have, no matter how confident your declaration. Show both cards to claim the pot.
A live-play pattern you can run in two seconds
Read the board first. Read your hand second. Read the kicker third.
The board is the cheap part. Three to a flush, three to a straight, a pair on the board, a four-flush, a four-straight — these are public facts visible to everyone at the table. They tell you the ceiling and the floor of what anyone can have.
Your hand is what you add on top of the board. Most of the time it is a pair, two pair, or nothing. Sometimes it is a straight or a flush; rarely it is a set, full house, or quads. You only need to find the row on the chart your hand sits in, then ask whether the board allows anything higher.
Then the kicker, but only when your hand category is one a tie-break could land on. If you have one pair and the board makes a straight, the kicker is irrelevant. If you have one pair on a dry board, the kicker is the whole conversation.
Where this fits in your decision
The chart is the answer to “what beats what.” The two questions that come right after it are “how do I make my best five from the seven cards I can see,” which the best-five-card-hand rule walks through with worked examples, and “how often will my draw get there,” which the rule of 2 and 4 handles in your head at the table. With those three pieces, you can read any showdown and any drawing decision without doing real arithmetic.
Frequently asked questions
Does a flush beat a straight? Yes. A flush is rarer than a straight in a seven-card deal, so it ranks higher on the chart. A flush is about 3% of seven-card hands; a straight is about 4.6%. Whenever both are possible, the flush wins.
What is the highest hand in poker? The royal flush — A-K-Q-J-10 of one suit. It is the highest possible straight flush and cannot be beaten. It happens about once every 30,940 hands of Hold’em, so most players go years between sightings.
How does a kicker work in a tie? A kicker is an unpaired card outside the made part of your hand. When two players have the same pair, two pair, or three of a kind, the dealer compares the kickers in descending order until one player has a higher card. If every kicker matches, the pot is split.
Is A-2-3-4-5 a straight? Yes. It is called the wheel. The ace plays low, so the straight is five-high, not ace-high. The wheel is the only Hold’em hand where the ace is below the two. It loses to a six-high straight (6-5-4-3-2) and to every higher straight.