Ten hands. Five minutes to memorise.
What costs beginners money is never the order, though. It is getting the comparison wrong at showdown — two flushes, who wins? Two players with a pair of aces, who wins? The board itself makes a straight, so what is there left to compare?
The first half of this post lists all ten hands. The second half is the real content: the five showdowns that go wrong most often at a real table. If you are still unsure how hole cards and community cards are dealt, read what Texas Hold’em is first and come back.
The conclusion first, because it is the one line worth carrying out of here: full house > flush > straight. That is the one stretch of the order almost every beginner has backwards.
1. Before Anything Else: Suits Have No Rank
This one comes first because it is the instinct players carry in from other card games.
In Big Two, suits are strictly ranked — spades > hearts > diamonds > clubs — so with the same ace, the ace of spades beats the ace of hearts.
Hold’em has nothing of the kind. ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ are completely equal. None of them is bigger than another.
So if two players end up with the same five card ranks, it is a tie and they split the pot. Holding the spade does not win it for you.
An example: at showdown player A’s best five are A-K-Q-J-9 and player B’s best five are also A-K-Q-J-9, just in different suits — split, no matter whose ace is which suit.
Suits do exactly one job in Hold’em: making a flush. Beyond that they take no part in any comparison.
2. Thirty-Second Recap: Best Five Out of Seven
Each player holds two hole cards only they can see, and five community cards sit face up in the middle for everyone.
At showdown you take the best five of those seven. The other two simply do not count.
Say your hole cards are ♠A ♦A and the board runs ♥A ♣7 ♠4 ♥2 ♦9. Your best five are A-A-A-9-7, three of a kind. The two community cards that did not make the cut (♠4 ♥2) may as well not exist as far as you are concerned.
“The best five” comes with no fine print — it does not require you to use your hole cards at all. Situation four in section 4 is entirely about that.
3. The Ten Hands, Strongest First
| Rank | Hand | What it is | Chance of making it in seven cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A-K-Q-J-10 in one suit | 0.0032% |
| 2 | Straight flush | Five in a row in one suit | 0.0279% |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Four cards of the same rank | 0.168% |
| 4 | Full house | Three of a kind + a pair | 2.60% |
| 5 | Flush | Five cards of one suit | 3.03% |
| 6 | Straight | Five in a row | 4.62% |
| 7 | Three of a kind | Three cards of the same rank | 4.83% |
| 8 | Two pair | Two pairs | 23.5% |
| 9 | One pair | Two cards of the same rank | 43.8% |
| 10 | High card | Nothing at all | 17.4% |
The right-hand column is how often seven cards played to the end come out as that hand — the frequency you actually meet sitting at a table. One at a time below.
1. Royal Flush
A-K-Q-J-10 all in one suit, for instance ♠A ♠K ♠Q ♠J ♠10.
The best hand in poker; it cannot be beaten. It shows up about once in thirty thousand hands, so never having seen one is completely normal.
2. Straight Flush
Five in a row all in one suit, for instance ♥5 ♥6 ♥7 ♥8 ♥9.
Nothing but a royal flush beats it. Hit one and you get to tell the story for a decade.
3. Four of a Kind
Four cards of the same rank, for instance ♠K ♥K ♦K ♣K plus any fifth card.
In practice it is unbeatable. Losing with quads usually means the other player has a straight flush, and there was nothing to be done about that hand.
4. Full House
Three of a kind plus a pair, for instance ♠9 ♥9 ♦9 ♣4 ♠4.
This is the row to keep an eye on. The moment the board pairs, a full house is possible, and your flush or straight is worth nothing against it. As section 4 gets into, the most expensive way beginners lose is running two pair or a flush into a full house.
5. Flush
Five cards of one suit, ranks irrelevant, for instance ♦2 ♦6 ♦9 ♦J ♦A.
Three cards of one suit on the board is a warning sign — it means anybody holding two of that suit already has a flush.
6. Straight
Five cards in a row, suits irrelevant, for instance ♠5 ♥6 ♦7 ♣8 ♠9.
The straight is the most overrated hand there is. Plenty of people feel intuitively that “five in a row is harder to hit” and conclude that a straight beats a flush — it is the other way around. Section 5 explains why.
7. Three of a Kind
Three of a rank plus two spare cards, for instance ♠Q ♥Q ♦Q ♣8 ♥3.
Decently strong. Worth betting for value, not yet worth putting your stack in casually.
8. Two Pair
Two pairs plus a spare card, for instance ♠J ♥J ♦4 ♣4 ♠A.
The single most overrated hand for beginners. Two pair looks handsome, but it is one card away from a full house — and that card is usually in the opponent’s hand. Win small pots, lose big ones: this is where most people’s leak lives.
9. One Pair
Two of a rank plus three spare cards, for instance ♠A ♥A ♦J ♣7 ♠3.
Play seven cards to the end and the most common result is one pair (43.8%). A pair of aces is a fine hand, but it is nowhere near a lock.
10. High Card
Nothing made at all, so the highest single card decides it, for instance ♠A ♥J ♦8 ♣5 ♠2.
Standard after the flop, and unremarkable. More than half the hands at a table never reach showdown anyway.
4. The Five Showdowns People Get Wrong
The table above takes five minutes to learn. These five are the ones that make you misread who won at a real table.
Situation 1: Two Flushes, Who Wins?
The rule: compare the highest card, then the next, and so on down.
Board: ♠7 ♠5 ♠3 ♦9 ♣2
- Player A holds ♠A ♠J → flush of A-J-7-5-3
- Player B holds ♠K ♠Q → flush of K-Q-7-5-3
A > K on the first card, so player A wins and nothing further gets compared.
The practical meaning is blunt: how high your flush card is, is the whole hand. Chase a flush with ♠4 ♠2 and you will often lose even when you hit it — you beat everyone who missed and lose to everyone holding a big one of that suit. It is also why, when you work out your pot odds, “am I drawing to the best flush” changes whether that call is worth making at all.
While we are here, a common question: one hand can never contain flushes in two different suits. A flush needs at least three cards from the board, and the board only has five, so two suits cannot both have three there. Whenever anyone has a flush, everyone with one is in the same suit.
Situation 2: Two Players With a Pair of Aces, Who Wins?
The rule: compare kickers — the cards left over after the hand itself — again from the top down.
Board: ♦A ♣7 ♥4 ♠2 ♦J
- Player A holds ♠A ♣K → best five are A-A-K-J-7
- Player B holds ♥A ♦9 → best five are A-A-J-9-7
Both have a pair of aces, the first two cards tie, and on the third K > J, so player A wins.
That king is the kicker. This is exactly why AK and A9 are hands of completely different classes — they flop a pair of aces equally often, but once they do, one of them is collecting and the other is paying. A great many big pots are, underneath, an argument about kickers.
Situation 3: Is the Ace High or Low in a Straight?
Both, but it cannot wrap around.
- Ace high: A-K-Q-J-10, the best straight there is.
- Ace as a 1: A-2-3-4-5, the lowest straight, usually called the wheel.
- No wrapping: Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight. There is no such hand.
Note that the wheel is the weakest straight of all. You hit A-2-3-4-5 and it feels like a straight, but anyone holding a 6 has 2-3-4-5-6 and beats you outright.
Situation 4: The Board Itself Is the Best Hand
The rule: best five out of seven — and if those five happen to be the five on the board, then the board it is.
Board: ♠A ♥K ♦Q ♣J ♠10
- Player A holds ♠2 ♦7
- Player B holds ♥8 ♣6
The board is already an A-K-Q-J-10 straight, neither player’s hole cards improve on it, and both players’ best five are that same straight — split pot.
This is called playing the board. The mistake beginners make here is folding because their own two cards look terrible, giving up a share of a pot they were entitled to.
The reverse deserves as much attention: on a board of A-K-Q-J-10, even holding a pair of aces (three of a kind) does not win, because a straight beats trips and your best five are still that straight. “But I have aces” is not a reason to bet there — once the board completes, that pair has changed jobs.
Situation 5: Ties Are More Common Than You Think
Split pots are not a rarity. All three of these happen daily:
- Both players hold AK, the board pairs nothing and connects with neither — same high cards, split.
- Both players play two pair from the board with the same kicker — split.
- The board itself is the best hand (situation 4) — everyone still in splits it.
And once more, the point from section 1: a tie is a tie, and no suit breaks it. Your spades will not save you.
5. No Need to Memorise: Harder to Make Means Stronger
If you cannot be bothered with the table, derive it instead: the harder a hand is to make, the higher it ranks.
Take the three that get confused most:
- Straight: five ranks in a row, any suits — one condition.
- Flush: five cards of one suit, any ranks — also one condition, but there are only 13 cards in a suit, which is fewer combinations than the runs give you.
- Full house: three of a kind and a pair at the same time — two conditions at once.
Hence straight < flush < full house.
One thing to be honest about: the probability column in section 3 is the frequency across seven cards, while the ranking order is defined by the probabilities of five-card hands. The two agree almost everywhere, with exactly one row out of step — high card (17.4%) is rarer in seven cards than two pair (23.5%), and it still ranks last.
The reason is that seven cards make a pair so easily that “hitting nothing” becomes the unusual outcome. That only affects how often you meet each hand, not which one beats which. Order follows the five-card difficulty, frequency follows what seven cards feel like; keep the two apart and none of it is confusing.
6. Common Questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Flush or straight, which is higher? | The flush. |
| Full house or flush, which is higher? | The full house. The one line worth remembering: full house > flush > straight. |
| What exactly is a full house? | Three of a kind plus a pair, for instance 999 44. |
| What is a kicker? | The leftover cards that break a tie between identical hands, such as the third card when both players hold a pair of aces. |
| Can one hand contain flushes in two suits? | No. A flush needs at least three board cards, and five board cards cannot give two suits three each. |
| What if two players have exactly the same hand? | Split pot. Suits take no part in it. |
| Is the ace high or low? | High by default. The only exception is A-2-3-4-5, the lowest straight, where it plays as a 1. |
| Can I play the board and ignore my hole cards? | Yes. The rule is best five out of seven; nothing says you have to use your own cards. |
| Do suits have a rank? | No. That is an instinct carried in from other card games. |
Hand rankings are the one part of Hold’em you learn once and are done with. Memorise this post and you never have to read it again.
What has no end is everything after it: which hands to play from which seat, whether this call is worth it, why the opponent bet that large here. If the rankings are solid, the next step is the full guide to position — the same AJo is a raise on the button and a fold under the gun, and that is where the money is actually won and lost.
I am an engineer, and the reason I started writing RushCraft was simple: I wanted to know where my own leaks were. Record the hands you have played, split them by position and starting hand, and the numbers answer the question — usually not flatteringly.