There are as many as 10 different types of poker hands in the poker hands rankings, from the lowly high card to the mighty royal flush. Some are extremely common and worth nothing in terms of payout odds. Others are so rare, you might never see one, and if you do, you could win a 4-figure sum.
Let’s take a look through all of the poker hands, show you what beats what, and point out some unusual differences between certain types of poker.
Complete list of poker hands
The definition and order of poker hands is important to know, because in the poker rules for most games in UK online casinos, the payout odds get bigger, you win more money for hands that are higher in the hand rankings.
The payout odds for poker hands can also change depending on the rules of each game. In 3 Card Poker, you win 5 to 1 odds for a straight flush, compared to 20 to 1 in Casino Hold’em. That’s because it is much easier to hit a straight flush in 3 Card Poker.
I’m going to focus on the poker hand rankings for the most common 5 card games like Texas Hold’em, Casino Hold’em and video poker that you can play online at PlayOJO.
Poker hands chart
Here is the complete list of poker hands, ranked from strongest to weakest. This is the poker hand chart used for Texas Hold’em hand rankings, but it’s also used for almost all types of poker, including Casino Hold’em, Video Poker, and Caribbean Stud Poker.
Other poker games
Some types of online poker have different rules to the rest, and the poker hand rankings are very different too. The most popular types of poker with slightly different rules involve just 3 cards.
3 Card Poker hands
With only 3 cards to play with, there’s a limited selection of poker hands you can make in 3 Card Poker rules. You can’t make two pairs, a full house or 4 of a kind, but all other hands are possible. Here’s the paytable from Evolution Gaming’s 3 Card Poker Live game at PlayOJO.
3 Card Brag hands
Brag is the oldest type of poker in the UK, where players are dealt just 3 cards. There is no draw, so it is basically the same stud poker as 3 Card Poker. At PlayOJO, Playtech calls their 3 card stud game 3 Card Brag, while Evolution Gaming call it 3 Card Poker. As you can see, the poker hands in Playtech’s version below are similar, though the order of hands is different and the terminology uses old words such as prial instead of 3 of a kind, and run instead of straight.
Video poker hands
Video poker is basically 5 card draw, where you get dealt 5 cards and can hold or draw any number of your cards. The poker odds for video poker are similar to other types of poker, except the lowest hand – a pair – often has a minimum requirement. In this Jacks or Better paytable, the lowest hand is a pair of Jacks.
Poker hands and odds
Now let’s look at each of the poker hands in detail, and see how to make each one, and the likelihood them occurring in various types of poker.
Royal Flush
I’m a stickler for terminology, which means I see the royal flush as simply an Ace-high straight flush – nothing more, nothing less. But because it is the best hand in poker, and has a fairly flashy reputation, it’s often called a royal flush. A royal flush is five cards in a row, of the same suit, running from Ace to Ten. Royal flushes are extremely rare, appearing about 1 in every 650,000 hands in a game of 5 card stud. This is why royal flushes pay 100 to 1 in Casino Hold’em, and 1,000 to 1 in the 5+1 Bonus in Caribbean Stud.
Straight Flush
A straight flush is 5 cards in a row, of the same suit. In online poker, the highest card in the ‘run’ is used to identify the hand. For example, 2-3-4-5-6, all spades, would be a six-high straight flush. In online casino games like Caribbean Stud and Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker, the suits don’t matter at all – a straight flush of hearts is just as good as a spade straight flush. Straight flushes are the best category of poker hand, and usually the second highest payout odds in poker games. In 3 Card Poker, a straight flush is still the highest paying hand, but you will get dealt a straight flush 1 in 460 hands, on average. Not bad eh!
4 of a Kind
Four of a kind in poker is often called “quads”, and it is the third best poker hand. The odds of being dealt 4 of a kind in any 5-card poker hand are roughly 1 in 4,165. The fifth card is irrelevant and never comes into play. In video poker with wild cards, it’s possible to upgrade 4 of a kind into 5 of a kind!
Full House
A full house in 5 card poker games is a combination of 3 of a kind and 1 pair. Let’s say you get K-K-K-3-3. That would be called a full house, “kings over threes”. Full houses turn up once every 700 hands in 5 card stud games like Caribbean Stud. Because a full house requires exactly 5 cards, you won’t find this strong poker hand in the rules of 3 Card Poker.
Flush
A flush is one of my favourite poker hands, don’t ask me why. A flush is any 5 cards of the same suit. In multiplayer poker, or in poker against the house, if you and another player (or the dealer) has a flush, the hand with the highest card wins. The example above is a “King-high flush”. If you and another player both had a King-high flush, the deciding card would be the next highest card. Flushes are relatively common in games like Casino Hold’em, and you’ll make one around 1 in every 6 hands, which is why the payout odds for a flush in Casino Hold’em are a modest 2 to 1.
Straight
In poker, a straight is 5 cards in a row, such as 8-9-10-J-Q. Depending on where you live in the world, a straight is sometimes called a run. The suits don’t matter, and the straight is named by the highest card. So the example I just used would be called a “Queen-high straight”. Because Aces can be used as both the lowest and highest cards in most poker games, the lowest straight is A-2-3-4-5 and the highest straight is 10-J-Q-K-A. You can’t make a straight using an Ace any other way. So K-A-2-3-4 would not be allowed. Interestingly, straights are higher than flushes in 3 Card Poker, because they are harder to make.
3 of a Kind
Three of a kind is also called “trips” or a “prial”, and it’s pretty self-explanatory. In Casino Hold’em rules, 3 of a kind is so common that it doesn’t appear on the paytable. But it’s good enough for a 3 to 1 payout in Caribbean Stud and it actually has higher payout odds than a straight, in 3 Card Poker.
2 Pairs
Two pairs barely needs any explanation – it’s a pair of one rank, and another pair of a different rank. In Casino Hold’em and Texas Hold’em, you’ll get two pairs around 24% of the time on average. It’s so common that you won’t win much, but in some poker paytables you may get a slightly better payout odds than 1 to 1.
One Pair
One measly pair really does need no explaining, though it’s worth remembering that the highest card from the rest of your hand is called the “kicker”. So a Texas Hold’em hand of A-A-7-3-2 is a pair of Aces with a 7 kicker.
High Card
In poker, if you have none of the hands above, you have no pair. The highest card in your hand is used to describe your hand. So in the example above, we have “King high”. In draw games like video poker, you may start off with a high card hand, but all is not lost, as you may have a draw to a better hand. If you’re dealt 5 cards, you’ll get a high card hand about half the time. You can learn more about this in our video poker guide. In 7 card games like Texas Hold’em, those 2 extra cards make a huge difference, and the odds of getting a high card hand drop to 17%.
FAQ
In poker, a hand that can improve to become a flush if it draws one more card of the same suit is called a flush draw. If you need 2 more cards of the same suit to make a flush, it’s called a backdoor flush draw.
A straight draw in poker is a hand with 4 cards in a row, where a fifth card (often at either end of the run) will complete the straight.
The best possible hand in most types of poker is an Ace-high straight flush, sometimes called a royal flush.
The worst hand in standard poker games like Texas Hold’em is a high card. In online poker, the worst of the high card hands is “7 high”, made up of 2-3-4-5-7. With 7 high, it’s impossible to beat any other hand in poker. That’s why the worst 2-card starting hand in poker is 7-2 offsuit, as it consists of the 2 lowest cards that have very little chance of making a straight or a flush.
