What are all the possible poker hands
Poker Hand Rankings (Highest to Lowest)
Learn the ranking of poker hands and the probability of each hand coming up so you can get an edge over other players. Listed below are the Texas Hold’em hands in order from best to worst, which are the same for all the main poker variations.
Download and print out our poker hands ranking chart, or save it to your phone. Keep this poker cheat sheet nearby when playing so that you always know the ranking of hands from best to worst.
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Video Tutorial: Poker Hand Rankings
Poker Hand Trainer
Use our brand new poker hand training tool to go from fish to shark in no time!
- Hit the Deal button to get started
- Rank each of the hands, from strongest to weakest, by clicking on the + icon next to each player
- Hit Check Order to see if you were correct
In the event that you're wrong, you can choose to either try again or see the correct rankings - Hit Deal again and you'll see the next round of cards and repeat the ranking process
- Once the hand is complete you can start again with another hand
Happy ranking and good luck!
Poker Hand Combinations Explained
Poker hands fall into one of ten categories. The highest is a royal flush, followed by a straight flush, then four of a kind, a full house, a flush, a straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and finally a high card.
The highest hands are the least common, with a royal flush and straight flush with the highest value cards, being exceedingly rare.
What Are Poker Suits?
A deck of cards is divided into four suits. All card suits have the same value in poker, including in Texas Hold'em. Even if two players have the same hand, the winner is determined by the player with the highest kicker (a card that doesn't form part of the hand you are playing). If the kicker is also the same, you simply split the pot.
There are very rare exceptions. For example, if you're splitting an uneven pot in a high-low game where you tied your hand with another player, the remaining chip can be given to the player with the highest-ranking single card. If this card is also the same, it can go to the player whose suit ranks higher. In these rare occasions, spades ♠ rank highest, and clubs ♣ lowest, as below. But generally, you can totally ignore suits in poker.
All Possible Poker hands and their rank order.
We all know the importance of handling our cards well when it comes to winning a game of poker. Even with all the luck in the world, you might not win the game if you do not know when to play for which hand. This is where having an in-depth knowledge of all the hands in poker is a must, along with their order. Only then can you make the best possible poker hand at the time and win the pot. Here we have listed all the hands in poker that you must know in detail.
Type of hands and their ranking order
There are typically ten types of hands in a poker game that you can make at the end of rounds. Here, we have explained each one of them in their ranking order, starting from the highest poker hand, and then going to the lowest poker hand. Understanding the poker hand rank is imperative for you to win the pot and take the riches at the end of the game!
Royal Flush
A Royal Flush consists of Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 of the same suit, and it is the best possible poker hand that you can have in a game. It is a win-win situation for you if you manage to play this hand, with all the money in the pot being yours. Simply put, having this hand will trump any of the other hands in poker.
Straight Flush
A Straight Flush is a set of connecting cards of the same suit. For example - 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. A Royal Flush is the superior version of the Straight Flush. A Straight Flush can be a winning poker hand if none of your opponents have a Royal Flush. One thing to note here is that if two or more players have a Straight Flush, the one with the best high-card wins the pot. For example, a straight flush with 10 as the highest card will beat a straight flush with 9 as the highest card, irrespective of the suit these cards belong to. A Straight Flush holds the second position in the poker hand rank.
Four-of-a-kind
Four-of-a-kind holds the third rank when it comes to the order of hands in poker. It has four cards of the same value but obviously of different suits. The best possible Four-of-a-kind poker hand you can have is that of Aces and then one with Kings, Queens, Jacks, 10s and so on. Always remember, the rank of the card matters in this poker hand and not their suit.
Full-house
Next in the list of the order of hands in poker is a Full House. Now, this poker hand rank might sound like something that has all five similar cards but it is a combination of two other hands in poker Three-of-a-kind and a Pair. The interesting thing is that both these hands in poker rank much lower in the poker hand rank but combine together to be ranked fourth in the overall list. A Full House has three cards of the same rank and a pair of same cards of some other rank. For example a combination of three 4s and two 5s. Here, the best possible hand you can have is that of three Aces and two Kings.
Flush
A Flush is a poker hand that consists of five cards from the same suit, irrespective of the numerological order. It can be any five of the 13 cards of the same suit available in a deck. For example a combination of King, 10, 5, 3 and 2. Note that if more than one player has a Flush as their poker hand, the rank of the cards will be considered instead of the suit. A hand of K, 9, 7, 5 and 2 will lose to a hand of K, 10, 6, 4 and 1 because the second card in the latter is superior to that of the former. A Flush is one of the better hands in poker that you can have, as it is slightly easier to make and also is superior to quite a few other hands.
Straight
A Straight holds the sixth rank in the order of hands in poker, and it consists of five cards with consecutive ranks but of different suits. They just have to be in their right ranking order, irrespective of the suit they belong to. The highest possible poker hand you can have in a Straight is that of Ace, King, Jack, Queen and 10, and it is called Broadway . The lowest Straight hand you can have is that of Ace, 2, 3, 4 and 5, which is called a Bicycle or Wheel in some parts of the world.
Three-of-a-kind
One of the most common hands in poker, the Three-of-a-kind consists of three cards of the same rank and two other unpaired cards. To give a quick example, three Jacks along with a 3 and a 7 will be counted as a Three-of-a-kind poker hand. There are two subtypes of Three-of-a-kind called Set and Trips.
A Set is formed
Two-Pair
Two Pair, as the name suggests, consists of two pairs of cards of different ranks. For example, a couple of 7s and a couple of 2s along with another card in your poker hand, makes the hand a Two Pair. You can create the Two Pair with the help of the cards on the table as well. If you have a King and a 10, and the first three community cards too have a King and a 10 in them, then you can claim to have a Two Pair when your turn comes.
One-Pair
One Pair is one of the easiest hands in poker that you can have and hence is ranked so low in the hands in poker. You just need a pair of cards with the same rank to make this hand. Since the denomination of the card matters the most, the best possible poker hand you can have in this case would be that of two Aces.
However, if two players have similar One Pair hands, the value of the kicker card (the highest card from the remaining three cards) determines the winner.
High Card
The High Card is the lowest possible poker hand that you can have, as not even a single card is related to each other in this poker sequence. All five cards are different in denominations and hence cannot be paired. The highest ranking card will determine the value of the hand in such cases.
For example, if more than one person has this poker hand ranking, the King-high hand will always beat a Queen-high hand and the highest possible hand will be that with an Ace in it.
Tie breakers in poker hands
If more than one person has the same type of poker hand, then the person with the highest denominations wins! For instance, if two people have a straight flush, with one having 2,3,4, and 5 of and the other having 3,4, 5, and 6 of , the latter will win because of the higher denomination of cards. Note that the suite has nothing to do with who wins.
Now that you know about all the hands in poker, you should be able to play the game more efficiently and intelligently to create a winning poker hand. Keep reading our blogs to know more about how you can become a Poker expert and start practicing your skills on GetMega app by downloading it now.
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The Best Poker Starting Hands 2021 (It Will Shock You)
However, the truth is that there are clear winners and losers in terms of the profitability of certain poker starting hands.
The best starting hands in poker are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ and more holdings like this. The reason why they are the best starting hands is because they are statistically most likely to win the pot at showdown. You can improve your winnings in poker dramatically by focusing on playing hands like this.
The Two Absolute Best Poker Starting Hands in 2021
From my personal experience as much as half of all my winnings come from these two hands alone. Which is completely insane.
Go ahead and check it for yourself right now and let me know your results in the comments!
In fact even the very worst hand in poker (72 offsuit) has nearly 13% equity versus AA before the flop.
And when you start adding a few more people into the mix with a few random suited connectors, you can see that your equity with pocket aces drops dramatically, all the way down to nearly 50%.
Yes, a virtual coinflip!
However, what many people fail to realize is that these two hands hands (AA and KK) still have a much higher chance of winning the pot than all the others.
So for all these reasons I think you will almost certainly find that these are the two best poker starting hands in the game. And by that I mean the most profitable!
These 3 Poker Hands are Also Hugely Profitable
The next three most profitable poker starting hands are as follows:
- QQ, JJ and AK
And it only makes sense.
Pocket queens and pocket jacks, again despite what some might think, are actually extremely easy to play and among the very best poker starting hands that you can be dealt.
Just like with AA and KK, they are going to lose frequently though especially in large pots with multiple players. But your chances of making an overpair or coolering someone are still very high.
And ace-king is another excellent hand as well. While it is true that you will only flop an ace or a king 1 in 3 times, you need to remember that those times when you do hit, you often win a big pot.
This is especially the case when another ace hand is involved such as:
- AQ, AJ or AT
These hands are in big trouble versus AK when the ace comes on the flop.
So once again it is important not to be fooled by short term results with these hands. Yes, sometimes you will lose the pot with QQ, JJ and AK several times in a row.
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These are the 5 Next Best Poker Starting Hands
The final 5 top poker starting hands are as follows:
- TT, 99, 88, 77 and AQ
Here's the thing. Pocket pairs rule in No Limit Hold'em.
This is a simple fact. You can once again go load up your poker tracking program and double check this for yourself right now.
And the middle pocket pairs like TT, 99, 88 and 77 are some of the best.
Many times with these hands you will simply be forced to check and fold. There really is nothing that you can do with 88 for instance when the flop comes:
However, the power of hitting a set with these hands is so important in a game like No Limit Hold'em where the stacks in a cash game are often 100 big blinds deep.
Just imagine what happens when you have 88 versus a bad poker player with AK and the flop comes:
Ya, he is going to lose all of his money to you.
This is especially true if you are betting and fast-playing your hand correctly as I talk about at length in Crushing the Microstakes.
Suited Connectors are Bad Poker Hands (But You Should Still Play Them)
You may have noticed that everybody's favorite (suited connectors) are nowhere to be found on my list of the top 10 best poker starting hands.
By the way these are hands like:
- 65s, 76s, 87s, 98s, T9s and JTs
Go ahead and fire up PokerTracker once again and check it for yourself. I am willing to bet that even if you are a winning poker player, you are still losing with all of your suited connectors.
The reason why is that these hands really only win a big pot when you connect with the board extremely hard such as making two pair, a straight or a flush.
What's worse is that many people will hit top pair with a hand like T9s and end up paying off one of the better hands that I already listed above such as QQ when the flop comes:
But in practice this is a recipe for disaster. The reason why is because these top 10 hands come around so rarely that even the drunk fish will be able to tell that you are just sitting around waiting for the nuts all day.
Therefore, he won't pay you off when you hit like he will against the other players who are much more active.
So what these hands like suited connectors (and also suited aces) do for you is add depth to your poker starting hand selection.
They essentially make you a much harder player to play against. And that is because it makes it that much harder for them to put you on a hand.
Should You Have a Lucky Poker Hand?
What about having a lucky poker hand or a favorite poker hand though? Some people will swear that they always win with some wacky holding like 85 suited.
Heck, I am guilty of this too!
I go by the screen name "BlackRain79" in online poker. So you can probably already guess what my favorite poker starting hand is.
However, once again the evidence just doesn't support the idea that having a lucky hand like this in poker is a good idea.
85 suited and 79 suited are both going to be losing hands for you in the long run. And I don't care if your name is Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey.
In fact Daniel Negreanu even talks about this in his new poker training course!
Final Thoughts
So here are the top 10 best poker starting hands.
Lastly, if you want to learn how to start consistently making $1000 per month in low stakes poker games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
Let me know your favorite poker hands in the comments below. Do you have a lucky poker hand?
18 comments:
Everyone I think picks a favorite based on some good experience in their early poker career. I won my first tournament after busting 3 players at the FT with A5, including some bigtime luck with an A5 of spades, which became my favorite hand. It's at least worth a 3 bet in position a lot of the time, but most players learn not to overplay the favorite hand the hard way. Usually not the first time though :D
Haha definitely agree with that. I can still remember the hand I won my first tournament with, 86 of spades :)
One poker coach I follow has shared tons of very eye opening stats from his Poker Tracker database.
He pointed put the # of bb that is typically won on average by each of the toppest of top hands.
AA earns 10bb, KK=5, QQ/JJ=4, AK/AQ=2, TT/99/88=1.5
Almost no other hands are profitable, longterm. Unless you 3bet them, against loose openers -- or even TAGs -- who will raise-call out of position vs you then play fit-or-fold ($cha-ching$!)
IMO those bb earn numbers are critical to keep in mind when considering loosely (impulsively? tilted?) snap calling a big river bet . OR when tempted to be greedy when sizing a river value bet with nutted hands but you are likely up against a tight villain range!
Those numbers look about right from my experience as well. It is pretty crazy how few hands are actually significant longterm winners.
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