Poker Hands - How They Work

Learning the poker hands is probably one of the most important skills in playing poker. In every poker game each player makes up a hand of 5 cards, the player with the best hand wins the game and the pot of money.

Here is a breakdown of the poker hands. They are shown in ranking order, and so the top hand beats the lower hands.

Straight Flush - within this hand the five cards follow in sequence and they need to be of the same suit. If in a poker hand 2 or more players have a Straight Flush the hand with the higher cards within the Straight Flush wins the game. A Royal Flush is the highest hand you can get and it consists of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10 all of the same suit.

Four of a Kind - is a hand of 4 cards of the same number and of different suits and one unmatched card. The higher the cards the better the hand, and so if 2 or more players have a four of a kind hand the player with the higher cards wins over the lower card four of a kind.

Full House - a full house is where you have 3 cards the same rank and different suit and 2 cards the same rank and different suit. With this hand the cards that are higher in the set of 3 cards wins and so for example 7,7,7,2,2 beats 5,5,5,King,King.

Flush - a flush is a set of 5 cards all of the same suit but not in sequence. Higher cards within the flush hand beats a lower hand of flush cards. For example all hearts Jack,8,4,2,Ace would beat all clubs 9,7,5,3,Ace. The flush is described by their highest card and so a Jack flush or a Queen high flush for example.

Straight - is a hand where all the cards are of different suits but go in sequential order. Two Straight hands are ranked by the highest cards of each and so 8,7,6,5,4 (all of different suits) beats 5,4,3,2,Ace (all of different suits).

Three of a Kind - is a poker hand that has 3 cards of the same rank and of different suits and 2 unmarked cards for example 4,4,4,King,Ace. The higher the cards of the 3 set wins, and so the previous hand would beat 2,2,2,King, Ace. If the 3 set of 2 hands are the same value the next highest card of the unmarked cards wins.

Two Pair - has 2 pairs in a hand and one unmarked card. For example you have 2,2,5,5,King. If 2 hands has a 2 pair the highest pair cards wins the hand. If 2 players have the same highest pair then it goes to the second pair, if that pair is the same for both pairs then the highest unmatched card is the winner.

One Pair - consists of a hand with one pair with 3 unmatched cards. Higher ranking pair will beat a lower ranking pair. If 2 hands have the same ranking of their pair the winner is decided on the kicker cards depending who has the highest card.

High Card - is a hand sometimes called ‘no pair' or ‘nothing'. This hand has no sequential cards and no pairs of different suits. If 2 players have a high card hand the highest ‘high card' wins the hand. If these cards are the same it carries on down the line to see who has the winning hand.

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