This is the poker hands cheat sheet you can scan in one screen. The table below ranks every Texas Hold’em hand from royal flush down to high card, gives a real example, names the tie-break rule per category in one line, and adds a short memory hook so the order sticks. Below the table you get the tie-breaks shown with cards, the two or three places the chart misleads beginners, and a five-second scan pattern you can run while the dealer is waiting on you.
The cheat sheet
| # | Hand | Example | Tie-break in one line | About once in | Memory hook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ | Cannot be beaten; only a board royal can tie | 30,940 | Broadway, all one suit |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | Highest top card wins | 3,589 | Five in a row, one suit |
| 3 | Four of a kind | 7♣ 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ K♥ | Higher quads, then the fifth card | 594 | All four of one rank |
| 4 | Full house | Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 8♣ 8♠ | Higher trips, then higher pair | 38 | Three plus two |
| 5 | Flush | A♣ J♣ 7♣ 6♣ 2♣ | Top card down; suit never breaks | 33 | Five of one suit |
| 6 | Straight | 8♦ 7♠ 6♥ 5♣ 4♦ | Highest top card wins | 22 | Five in a row, mixed suits |
| 7 | Three of a kind | 9♥ 9♦ 9♣ Q♠ 4♥ | Higher trips, then two kickers | 21 | Three of one rank |
| 8 | Two pair | J♦ J♣ 4♥ 4♠ A♣ | High pair, low pair, then kicker | 4.3 | Two and two |
| 9 | One pair | 10♠ 10♣ K♥ 7♦ 3♠ | Pair rank, then three kickers | 2.3 | Pair plus three loners |
| 10 | High card | A♥ Q♣ 9♦ 6♠ 3♣ | Top card down to the fifth | 5.7 | Nothing made |
The order is absolute. Anything higher beats anything lower, no exceptions. A pair of aces, the strongest one-pair hand, loses to the weakest two-pair. 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 “About once in” column is rough rarity across a full seven-card deal, not your win rate, because most weak hands fold long before showdown.
How tie-breaks work in one line per category
Two players in the same row of the chart settle the pot with a card-by-card comparison. Suits never break ties; spades are not better than clubs. A sixth card never breaks a tie either, because only the best five count. Each player’s hand is the best five out of seven: their two hole cards plus the five community cards, picked freely.
- Royal flush: unbeatable; only tied when the board itself is a royal flush.
- Straight flush: higher top card wins (a queen-high straight flush beats a ten-high straight flush).
- Four of a kind: higher quads win; if both players play the same quads off the board, the kicker decides.
- Full house: the trips rank decides first; if those tie, the pair rank decides; if those tie too, you split.
- Flush: compare the top card; if those tie, the next card, then the next, all the way down. Suits never break it.
- Straight: highest top card wins (a jack-high straight beats a nine-high straight).
- Three of a kind: higher trips wins; if the trips are identical, two kickers decide in order.
- Two pair: the 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 is sitting in the community cards.
Three tie examples worth the table space
Same flush, top card decides
Hero holds K♣ T♣. Villain holds Q♣ J♣. The board runs A♣ 7♣ 4♣ 9♦ 2♥.
Both players make a flush in clubs. Hero’s best five is A-K-T-7-4, ace-high with a king kicker. Villain’s best five is A-Q-J-7-4, ace-high with a queen kicker. The aces tie, so the second card decides: king beats queen. Hero wins. Notice that neither player’s third club mattered; the seven and the four were the same on both sides because they came from the board.
Two boats, higher trips wins
Hero holds K♥ 9♣. Villain holds Q♠ 9♠. The board runs 9♥ 9♦ 2♣ K♦ Q♣.
The board pairs the nines and gives both players trip nines on the flop. The turn and the river then hand each player a different paired side. Hero’s best five is 9-9-9-K-K, nines full of kings. Villain’s best five is 9-9-9-Q-Q, nines full of queens. Same trips, so the pair half decides, and kings beat queens. Hero scoops. If both players had ended on nines full of kings, the pot would chop.
Five-card flush on the board, both players chop
Hero holds 8♣ 4♣. Villain holds K♠ 3♣. The board runs A♥ Q♥ 9♥ 7♥ 2♥.
Five hearts come down. Neither player has a heart in their hand, so neither player improves the board. Each player’s best five is the heart flush on the board: A-Q-9-7-2 in hearts. The hands are identical. They are playing the board, and the pot splits.
One detail beginners trip on: in a casino, you must say you are playing the board before you release 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.
Three places the chart trips beginners
The chart says the order. It does not say the cases where the order has to be read carefully.
The ace plays high and low. A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest straight; that is Broadway. A-2-3-4-5 is also a straight; that is the wheel, a five-high straight, not an ace-high one. 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 three of a kind comes from a pocket pair plus a matching board card, the table calls that a set. When it comes from one hole card plus a pair on the board, the table calls that trips. Same row of the cheat sheet, very different stories at the table. Sets are usually disguised; trips are obvious to everyone reading the board.
Cards speak. You cannot win a hand you do not have, and you cannot lose one you do. If you hold the nut flush and you mumble at showdown that you have a pair, the dealer reads your cards and pushes you the pot anyway. The flip side is what costs beginners money: a confident declaration with the wrong cards loses every time. Show both hole cards face up at showdown and the dealer does the rest.
A live-play scan you can run in five seconds
Read the board first. Read your hand second. Read the kicker third.
The board is the cheap part. A pair on the board, three to a flush, three to a straight, a four-flush, and a four-straight 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 one pair, two pair, or nothing. Sometimes a straight or a flush; rarely a set, full house, or quads. You only need to find the row on the cheat sheet your hand sits in, then ask whether the board allows anything higher.
Then the kicker, but only when the row you landed on is one a tie-break can swing. 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 entire conversation.
Where this fits in your decision
The cheat sheet is the answer to “what beats what.” Two questions come right after it. The first is “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. The second is the long version of every row on this table: the rarity, the showdown story, and the tie-breaks shown the slow way. The poker hand rankings chart covers that in narrative form. Bookmark the cheat sheet for the table; read the rankings chart when you want depth.
Frequently asked questions
What beats what in poker? From strongest to weakest: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. The order is absolute. Anything higher beats anything lower, no matter how unlikely the matchup looks at the table.
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 can only tie when the board itself is a royal flush. It happens about once every 30,940 seven-card deals, so most players go years between sightings.
How do tie-breakers work in Texas Hold’em? When two hands land in the same row of the cheat sheet, the dealer compares cards from the top down: the made hand first, then any kickers in descending order. Suits never decide a tie, and only five cards count. If every card matches, the pot is split.
Does a flush beat a straight? Yes. A flush is rarer than a straight in a seven-card deal, so it ranks higher. A flush is about three percent of all seven-card hands; a straight is about four-and-a-half percent. Whenever both are possible, the flush wins.
Can a flush of one suit beat a flush of another? No. Suits never break ties in poker. A king-high flush in spades and a king-high flush in clubs with the same five ranks split the pot. The way one flush beats another is by a higher card somewhere in the five, not by a higher-ranked suit.