Poker Hands

Before you can know whether a given card makes your hand “better” in some sense, you have to know what the hands are worth to start with. Having a clear understanding of the hierarchy of winning hands is “job one” in learning to play poker. The ranking of winning poker hands is consistent across all poker games with the exception of certain low-hand games that ignore a couple of the patterns (like the straight).

Poker Hands are usually displayed from the highest to the lowest, as above. Suit priorities are, in descending order: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. Ranks, in descending order are: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten through Deuce. It is a good idea to become accustomed to referring to the numerical value of a card as its "rank," which is the correct terminology.

The very highest hands are extremely rare, occurring maybe once or twice in the life-time of an occasional player. The Royal Flush, poker's highest hand, is simply a special occurrence of a straight flush, where the high card is an ace.

The most practical points to remember from the table are: (1) A straight beats three of a kind; (2) a flush beats a straight; (3) a full house beats a flush. The rest is pretty intuitive.

Sometimes more than one player in a game can have hands at the same level in the hierarchy. In such cases, there are rules for resolving ties. If after two tiebreakers there is still a tie (which can hardly ever happen), the pot is split. This table gives the official definitions of the hands and the tie breaking rules:

High hands, in descending order, left to right.	Low hands, in descending order, left to right.

Read more about the ranking and frequency of poker hands.