Royal Flush
A, K, Q, J, 10 — all of the same suit. The strongest hand in poker and the only one you can't beat.
Probability: 1 in 649,740 (0.000154%)
Poker hand rankings & probabilities
Start with the drill — ten real hands, side by side, and you pick the winner. Then the full reference below: every poker hand from strongest to weakest, with the example cards and the odds of being dealt it straight from a 52-card deck. The higher up the list, the rarer the hand — and the bigger the table reaction when you flip it over.
Which hand wins?
Test yourself before you sit down
10 hands, side by side. Pick the one you think takes the pot — you'll get the answer and the reason straight away. These are the exact spots that catch people out at a real table, not trick questions.
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Hand 1 of 10 Correct: 0
Which of these two hands wins?
The flush wins. Five of one suit (1 in 509) is rarer than five in a row (1 in 255), so it sits higher. This is the single most common mix-up at a beginner table.
Which of these two hands wins?
The full house wins. An ace-high flush looks enormous, but the smallest full house still beats the biggest flush. Rank of the hand type always decides first.
Which of these two hands wins?
Three sevens win. Two pair with aces in it feels far stronger than three small cards, but trips are the higher hand — and this one costs people real money.
Which of these two hands wins?
Same pair, so the next highest card settles it — ace beats king. This is why the card alongside your pair matters more than new players expect.
Which of these two hands wins?
The eight-high straight wins. An ace can play low to make A-2-3-4-5, but that makes the weakest possible straight, not a big one — the ace is worth five here, not fourteen.
Which of these two hands wins?
King-high flush wins. Two flushes are compared card by card from the top — and the suit itself never matters. Spades do not beat diamonds.
Which of these two hands wins?
Kings and threes win. The top pair is compared first, and kings beat queens — so the second pair is never even consulted. Two big pairs lose to one bigger pair.
Which of these two hands wins?
Nines full wins. In a full house the three-of-a-kind decides it, never the pair — so a pair of aces on the side counts for nothing against higher trips.
Which of these two hands wins?
The straight wins. Three aces is the strongest possible trips and it still loses to the weakest straight — hand type first, card values second.
Which of these two hands wins?
The straight flush wins. Four kings is a monster you might play your whole life without seeing — a straight flush is rarer still (1 in 72,193 against 1 in 4,165).
Not sure what a hand is called? The full rankings are further down this page.
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Free guide
First Night at the Table
Everything nobody tells you before your first live game — what a night costs, how a hand actually works, what beats what, and the handful of table manners that are obvious once you've seen them once.
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Or skip straight to the table — this week's games are friendly to first-timers, and one-on-one coaching is where a hand you got wrong gets pulled apart properly.
Every hand, strongest to weakest
Straight Flush
Five cards in sequence, all of the same suit (but not the top five). Beats everything except a Royal Flush.
Probability: 1 in 72,193 (0.00139%)
Four of a Kind
All four cards of the same rank, plus any other card (the "kicker"). Also called "quads".
Probability: 1 in 4,165 (0.024%)
Full House
Three cards of one rank and two of another. The higher trip wins when two players both have a full house.
Probability: 1 in 694 (0.144%)
Flush
Five cards of the same suit, in any order. The highest card determines who wins between two flushes.
Probability: 1 in 509 (0.197%)
Straight
Five cards in sequence, mixed suits. The Ace can play high (A-K-Q-J-10) or low (5-4-3-2-A).
Probability: 1 in 255 (0.392%)
Three of a Kind
Three cards of the same rank, plus two unmatched cards. Also called "trips" or a "set".
Probability: 1 in 47 (2.11%)
Two Pair
Two cards of one rank, two of another, and one unmatched. The higher pair breaks ties.
Probability: 1 in 21 (4.75%)
One Pair
Two cards of the same rank, plus three unmatched cards. The most common ranked hand on the table.
Probability: 1 in 2.4 (42.26%)
High Card
No pair, no straight, no flush — just the highest single card. Wins more often than you'd think when everyone misses.
Probability: 1 in 2 (50.12%)
A few things worth knowing
- These are five-card draw odds. Texas Hold'em odds work out differently because you're choosing the best five cards from seven (two hole cards plus five community cards) — making hands like flushes and straights much more reachable.
- Ties are broken by the highest card in the hand. Two players with the same straight? Higher straight wins. Two flushes? Higher top card wins, then the second, and so on.
- Suits don't break ties. No suit beats another in standard poker — if two hands are identical in rank, the pot is split.
New to the game and want to walk through a few hands at a real table? Drop into one of the weekly games or message Fred first — first-timers always welcome. There's more about Fred if you'd rather know who's running the table before you turn up, and the blog goes deeper on how these hands actually play out.