Poker Hands

Before you start playing poker or learning how to play the game of poker, it’s important that you learn what you’re playing poker with. There are several hands in poker that you should poker hand

 

learn prior to playing the game. Each hand has a different ranking, and the same hand with different cards has a different ranking.

If it sounds confusing, it really isn’t – you just need to memorize the basic poker hands and you’ll be fine. Playing the game of poker well takes months if not years of practice, so don’t worry – if at first you don’t succeed, keep at it!

Keep in mind that different types of poker games also use different hands.

The hands in the Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud, Omaha, and Five Card Draw all utilize what are called high poker hands. These poker hands include the following:

  • Straight Flush – five cards of the same suit following a consecutive order. For example, if you have a two, three, four, five and six of clubs you’d have a straight flush. If all of the cards were clubs except for the four, which was a four of diamonds, your hand would not be useless, but it would not be quite so valuable as a straight flush.
  • Royal Flush – this is a straight flush which consists of face cards and a ten – for example, an ace, a king, a queen, jack, and a ten all of hearts.
  • Four of a Kind - Four cards of the same number or face of different suits.
  • Full House – This means that there are three cards and two cards of the same rank. For example, three jacks and two sevens.
  • Flush – Five cards that are all the same suit, but not necessarily in a sequential order
  • Straight – Five cards in consecutive numerical order but that are not necessarily all of the same suit. (A Straight Flush is a combination of these two hands.)
  • Thee of a Kind - Three cards of the same rank with the other two cards being unrelated/unmatching.
  • Two Pair - Two pairs of cards with each pair containing matching ranking cards. For example, two fours and two kings. The fifth card does not match.
  • One Pair – One pair of matching ranking cards out of a five-card hand.
  • High Card – When none of the players has any of the hands listed above, the player with the highest ranking card wins.