Poker Hand Rankings: From Strongest to Weakest

From its inception in the early nineteenth century to its current cultural power, the game of poker has fragmented over time to include various different versions, both in tournaments and online poker—Seven-Card Stud, Omaha Hi-Lo, etc., they all have one thing in common: the goal of the poker game is to construct the best five-card combination, or hand, possible.

There are nine main groups of hands among the nearly 2.5 million different five-card hands. Hand ranks are so-called because they can be thought of as a hierarchy—in most poker variants, if your set of five cards has the highest ranking cards, you win.

Different Hand Rankings Per Game

It is critical to remember that not all poker games determine the winning hand based on the best ranked poker hand rankings. The poker hand rankings often determine the greatest poker hand in three ways.

Hi-hand or high-hand poker

The most basic application of the ranks is in ‘Hi’ or High hand games, where the best poker hand is determined by the hand that rates highest on the poker hand rankings outlined above. 

Poker is sometimes known as lo, low-hand, or lowball.

Lowball poker hand rankings function in the inverse manner of high hand games. The normal poker hand rankings are flipped, so the hand with the lowest ranking is the best possible hand. Variations frequently revolve around whether or not the Ace is high or low, as well as whether straights and flushes are counted.

High-low split poker or hi-lo split poker 

High-low split games are the third and final application of poker hand rankings. The pot is distributed evenly between the players with the highest and lowest rating poker hands in this round.

List of Poker Hand Rankings Explained

The high Card

This is the bottom rung of the ladder. A high card hand, also known as a no pair hand, consists of all five cards having different card rankings (such as), not sharing the same suit, and not being sequential. 

If one person has an Ace, as in the example above, while their opponent’s highest card is a Queen, the first person wins with “Ace high.” If this results in a tie, proceed to compare their next highest card, and so on until a winner is found. If both hands are identical, no winner will be declared, and the pot will be divided among the players.

One Pair

One pair hands, which consist of a single pair and three other unpaired cards, account for 42% of all potential hand combinations. If both players have one pair in a showdown, the winner is the hand with the higher pair, or the hand with the highest non-paired card if both hands have the same pair.

Two pairs

What’s better than one pair? Of course, there are two pairs. In a showdown, the winning two pair hand is the one with the higher pair, hence our example hand would beat 99TTQ. In poker, the first hand is frequently referred to as “Jacks Up,” which beats “Tens Up” in our example.

Three of a kind

We’re now entering the region of relatively unusual hands. A three of a type occurs just once every 47 times when picked at random from a standard deck. You might have realized that these hands consist of three cards of the same rank plus two other unpaired cards—our example hand is frequently referred to as “trip Aces” or “a set Aces”), and it can beats QQQK9 (“trip Queens” or “a set of Queens”) since Aces have a higher rank than Queens. 

It is critical to remember that the other two cards in the hand must be unpaired, or else the hand becomes a complete house.

Straight

Straights are the first hand combination that requires the use of all five cards. A straight is formed when all five cards in a hand are different and consecutive in rank, with the restriction that they cannot also be of the same suit. The hand in our scenario can be described as “a straight to the 7.” 

The worst conceivable straight is A23445, a straight to the 5 also known as “the wheel,” and the finest possible straight is TJQKA, a straight to the Ace also known as “Broadway.” Remember that aces can only be part of a straight if they operate as a bookend in the hand—wrap-around straights like KQA23 are not allowed in poker. 

Flush

A flush, like a straight, is a five-card combination in which all of the cards are of the same suit but do not also make a straight. 

Our example shows an Ace-high flush, whereas QJT72 represents a Queen-high flush.

Full-house

A full house, often known as a full boat, is a hand with three of a kind and a pair. The phrase “full house, Kings full of 9s” is sometimes used to describe our example hand.

The complete house with the higher ranking three of a kind always beats the full house with the low ranking three of a kind, regardless of the rank of the combined component, hence our example hand beats in QQQAA a showdown.

Four of a Kind

These final two hand types are extremely unusual, so players don’t expect to see them very often. With just four of each cards rank in a deck, the chances of getting four of a type in a 5-card draw are 0.026%. 

Best example hand, sometimes referred to as “quad deuces,” wins all hands in poker except higher four of a kind cards. 

Straight flush

The straight flush is a legendary poker hand that appears significantly more frequently in films and literature than in real life. Many poker players have never seen this in their whole lifetimes. It is rather self-explanatory: a hand must be both a straight and a flush to qualify as a straight flush, as seen by the example. 

The royal flush, which is definitely a straight flush to an Ace (such as TJQKA), is at the summit of the poker food chain. 

FAQs

Conclusion

Poker hand ranking is a necessary ability for any poker enthusiast. Understanding the hand hierarchy and employing advanced methods can improve the players chances of winning at the poker table. For the best outcomes, remember to adjust your strategy dependent on your opponents and the table dynamics. With this thorough guide given by JiliAsia, you’ll be able to make informed judgments and dominate the poker game like a pro.