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Poker Hand Rankings: Which Hand Beats Which?

Discover official poker hand rankings from Royal Flush to High Card. Learn tiebreakers, full house rules & kickers to win more pots.

You fold on your first hand because the board shows no flush or straight, then the next card turns the hand you discarded into the winner. A few hands later, you hold an ace and feel safe, but another player shows a pair of aces with a better fifth card and takes the pot.

The rankings below show which hands beat which, and how ties get broken. When you sit down at a BetVision88 poker table, keep the list handy so you can look up a hand the moment you're unsure about it.

Poker Hand Rankings: What Beats What?

At a Singapore poker live casino table, every Texas Hold'em hand you make falls into one of the ten types below.

To find where your hand ranks, read down from the top until you reach the first type your best five cards fit. The suit of a flush never decides a showdown on its own, so a flush in spades has no built-in edge over one in hearts.

How Do You Compare a Full House?

A full house has two ranks in it, three cards of one and two of another. When you are learning how to play poker, the three of a kind is the one you check first. Take these community cards:

K♠ 4♣ 4♦ 2♥ 7♠

Player A holds K♥ K♦ and makes kings full of fours. Player B holds 7♣ 4♠ and makes fours full of sevens. Player B has the higher pair, but Player A wins with three kings against three fours, and the sevens would come into play only if both players held the same three of a kind.

When Does a Player Play the Community Cards?

Your two hole cards do not have to be part of your final hand in Texas Hold'em. If the five community cards already make a hand that nothing in your hand can improve, those five cards are your hand. Suppose the community cards are:

10♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠

They form a royal flush, the highest poker hand, so no hole card can produce anything stronger. When both players reach showdown, each of them holds the same five cards, and the pot is split.

Poker players call this playing the board, and it also happens with lower hands, such as a straight on the table when neither player holds a card that improves it.

In that situation, even an ace in your hand adds nothing, because it cannot improve the five cards already on the table.

How Do You Check Which Poker Hand Wins?

1. Pick your best five. Choose the strongest five cards from your seven and do the same for your opponent. The other two cards do not count, even a hole card that adds nothing to the hand.
2. Match each hand to the rankings. If the two types differ, the higher one wins, so a full house beats a flush, regardless of which cards make up the flush.
3. Compare hands of the same type. A full house goes to the higher three of a kind before the pair is considered, and two pair goes to the higher pair, then the lower pair.
4. Check the kicker. The kicker decides a hand only when the main cards match exactly.

Ready For the Real Showdown?

At showdown, you name your hand, and your opponents from the rankings. A flush beats a straight, and when you and your opponent hold the same type, the cards inside the hand decide: a full house goes to the higher three of a kind, and a pair or two pair can come down to the kicker. If the community cards already make a five-card hand and neither of you holds a card that improves it, the pot is split.

Understanding poker gets easier once you check every card before the pot moves, because if you stop at the first one you recognize, you can lose a pot you thought you had won.

To practice telling which hand wins, you can play at the poker tables of BetVision88 and check each hand against the rankings above. Set a playing budget before you start so your attention stays on the cards.

FAQs:

What Does "The Nuts" Mean In Poker?

The nuts is the best hand possible with the community cards showing. Your hand can be the nuts on the flop and stop being the nuts when the turn or river brings a card that gives someone else a better hand.

How Many Outs Does A Flush Draw Have?

Nine. A suit has 13 cards, and with two in your hand and two on the flop, four are already accounted for, which leaves nine to come. Seeing both the turn and the river gives you about a 35% chance of hitting one of them.

What Does Drawing Dead Mean?

You are drawing dead when no card left in the deck can win you the pot. Say the best you can still make is a straight and your opponent already holds a flush. The river can complete your straight, and you still lose.