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What Beats What in Poker — Every Hand, In Order

The order never changes: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. A higher class always beats a lower one, no matter what the individual cards are — the worst possible flush beats the best possible straight. Pick any two hands in the tool below to see which takes the pot, how often each one turns up, and what happens when both players end up with the same thing.

Compare any two hands and get the answer instantly

Real Texas Hold'em frequencies, not five-card draw numbers

Covers the tie-breakers the ranking chart cannot answer

Qué mano gana

Elige dos manos y mira cuál se lleva el bote

Full

Puesto 4 de 10

Gana
Frecuencia
2.60%
Probabilidad
1 de cada 39

Trío + pareja

Color

Puesto 5 de 10

Frecuencia
3.03%
Probabilidad
1 de cada 33

Cinco cualesquiera del mismo palo

Full gana a Color. La categoría de mano más alta siempre gana, sean cuales sean las cartas que la formen.

Every hand, strongest to weakest

The percentage is how often that is the best five-card hand a player can make from seven cards — their two hole cards plus the five on the board. These are Hold'em numbers; the five-card figures most charts print are different, and notably reverse the flush and the straight.

#

1

Hand

Royal flush

Example

A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠

How often

0.0032%

#

2

Hand

Straight flush

Example

9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥

How often

0.028%

#

3

Hand

Four of a kind

Example

Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 7♠

How often

0.17%

#

4

Hand

Full house

Example

J♠ J♥ J♦ 4♠ 4♣

How often

2.60%

#

5

Hand

Flush

Example

A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 3♦

How often

3.03%

#

6

Hand

Straight

Example

9♣ 8♦ 7♠ 6♥ 5♣

How often

4.62%

#

7

Hand

Three of a kind

Example

8♠ 8♥ 8♦ K♣ 4♠

How often

4.83%

#

8

Hand

Two pair

Example

A♠ A♣ 6♥ 6♦ 9♠

How often

23.5%

#

9

Hand

One pair

Example

T♥ T♠ A♦ 7♣ 3♥

How often

43.8%

#

10

Hand

High card

Example

A♠ Q♦ 9♥ 6♣ 3♠

How often

17.4%

The matchups people actually argue about

Each of these has its own page with the reasoning, the frequencies and the edge cases. They are the comparisons that come up at kitchen tables, in that order.

Matchup

Full house vs flush

Winner

Full house

Why people get it wrong

A flush looks harder to make and is not

Matchup

Three of a kind vs straight

Winner

Straight

Why people get it wrong

Three matching cards feel stronger than five in a row

Matchup

Three of a kind vs two pair

Winner

Three of a kind

Why people get it wrong

Two pair is four useful cards against three

Matchup

Full house vs straight

Winner

Full house

Why people get it wrong

Rarely disputed, often looked up mid-hand

Matchup

Three of a kind vs flush

Winner

Flush

Why people get it wrong

Same instinct as trips vs straight

Matchup

Flush vs straight

Winner

Flush

Why people get it wrong

The one people flip in seven-card games

Matchup

Straight flush vs royal flush

Winner

Royal flush

Why people get it wrong

A royal is just the highest straight flush

Rarer beats commoner, and that is the whole rule

The hand order is not arbitrary and it is not tradition. It is a ranking by how hard each hand is to make, worked out long before anyone had a computer to check it. Four of a kind beats a full house because quads are about fifteen times rarer. Once you know that, you never have to memorise the chart again — you only have to remember which hand is harder to hit.

The one place that rule flips in Hold'em

With five cards a flush is rarer than a straight, which is why the flush ranks higher. With seven cards to choose from — as in Hold'em — a flush is actually the more common of the two: 3.03% against 4.62%. The ranking still says the flush wins, because the ranking was fixed for five-card hands and never changed. It is the only place where the intuition and the chart genuinely disagree, and it is worth knowing rather than being surprised by at the table.

A hand class beats a hand class, full stop

Two nines and a three beat ace-king-queen-jack-nine of mixed suits, every time. The worst possible flush beats the best possible straight. People lose money at home games by treating an ugly version of a strong hand as somehow worth less than a pretty version of a weak one — the ranking does not care what your cards look like, only which class they make.

When both players have the same hand

This is where the chart stops helping and most home-game arguments start. Two flushes are settled by the highest card in each, then the second, and so on. Two full houses are settled by the three of a kind first and only then by the pair. Two straights are settled by the top card. Two pairs compare the higher pair, then the lower pair, then the fifth card. If all five cards match, the pot is split — suits never break a tie in Hold'em.

The five-card rule, and why the board can play

Your hand is always the best five cards out of seven, and they do not have to include your hole cards. If the board is A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠ then everybody at the table has a royal flush and the pot is split, no matter what anyone is holding. The same idea causes quieter arguments: if the board pairs and gives everyone two pair, the winner is whoever has the best fifth card — and sometimes that fifth card is on the board too, which means a chop.

Kickers decide more pots than hand rankings do

Because one pair is the most common hand in Hold'em at nearly 44%, most showdowns are settled by the unpaired cards next to the pair rather than by anything on the ranking chart. Ace-king and ace-four both make a pair of aces on an ace-high board; the king wins, and it wins a lot. This is why playing weak aces from early position is expensive in a way the hand-ranking chart never warns you about.

Print it, or keep it on the phone

New players look this up two or three times a night for the first few sessions, and a phone unlocked next to the cards is slower than a chart on the table. The printable version of the rankings is a one-page sheet with the order, an example of each hand, and the standard chip values on the back, sized to sit next to the dealer button without getting in the way.

Settling it at the table without the argument

The reason these questions get heated is not that the answer is unclear — it is that somebody has already pushed chips in. Agree before the first hand who reads the board when there is a dispute, and keep the pot visible so nobody is reconstructing it from memory afterwards. If you run the game on PokerChip.live, every bet, pot and payout is recorded as it happens, so the disagreement is only ever about the cards.

FAQ

Preguntas sobre what beats what in poker

01

What is the order of poker hands?

Royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card — strongest to weakest.

02

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes. A flush beats a straight in every standard poker game, even though a flush is the more common of the two when you are making a hand from seven cards.

03

Does a full house beat a flush?

Yes. A full house is ranked fourth and a flush fifth, so the full house wins regardless of how high the flush is.

04

What beats a royal flush?

Nothing. It is the highest hand in poker. Two players can only hold one at the same time if all five cards are on the board, and then the pot is split.

05

Do suits matter in poker?

Not in Texas Hold'em. If two players make identical five-card hands the pot is split; no suit outranks another. Some other card games rank suits, but Hold'em does not.

06

What happens if two players have the same hand?

Compare the five cards in order, highest first. Two full houses compare the three of a kind before the pair; two flushes compare the top card, then the next. If all five match, split the pot.

07

Can you use both, one or neither of your hole cards?

Any of the three, in Hold'em. Your hand is the best five cards from the seven available, so if the board is stronger than anything you can add, the board plays.

08

Which hand comes up most often?

One pair, at about 44% of seven-card hands. High card is next at roughly 17%, then two pair at around 23.5% — meaning most pots are decided by a pair and a kicker.

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