All poker hands ranking: texas holdem hands with description

The goal of the poker game is to win as many bets of the hands as possible while losing as little as possible. To win the hand in poker you need to pick up the pot by collecting the best combination. In order to do this 5 cards are used (out of 5 cards on the board and 2 pocket cards).

The second way to win is to force opponents to fold (drop the cards). In the second case, the most essential is not to overdo it, because the opponent can have a good combination but not show it. As a result, he will wait until you start bluffing or until you also collect some combination to make a bet. In this case, the player is confident his combination is stronger than yours, and he needs you to think as if your combination is stronger (and that he doesn't have it at all).

Since there is no way to play poker without knowing the combinations and poker hands ranking, we suggest you learn them right now. Also you will need the rules of poker and poker dictionary. 

Card ranking

Today we're going to talk about what combinations are in the most popular types of poker – Texas Hold'em, five-card draw-poker, seven-card stud and, of course, Omaha. Texas holdem hand and poker hands order in general – this is basic information for beginners which must be learnt before moving on to the poker rules.

In fact, it's not difficult to learn the poker combinations in ascending order. In this article, we have gathered everything together and we are ready to tell beginners the basic information about the poker hands (that's how combinations are also called in poker).

So, the first card is an ace. In poker, the ace has two values - the highest and the lowest card. The rest cards are sequential. It's worth remembering that there is no suits precedence in poker.

There is a certain hierarchy of poker combinations that determine your odds of winning a particular hand. Depending on what kind of pocket cards you have, you either accept the bet or not (if you're not the big blind). On the flop you see whether you've managed to collect any combination or maybe you have a chance to collect such (straight, flush, high pair) on the turn or river.

If several players have the same combination, kicker is the decisive card. Kickers are all cards that are not included into the collected combination.

It's very easy to define the number of the kickers - you need to remove the number of cards that form the combination from five cards (a pair has three kickers, for of a quads - just one).

Let's look at the precedence of combinations in poker.

Poker combinations in ascending order in pictures: 

High card

If none of the players have collected nothing, the high card wins. The cards are compared according to the seniority from one to five.

Example: you have 5-3 as your pocket cards. You've reached the turn, the board: Q-7-9-2. Your hand: Q-9-7-5-3 (high card Q).

Pair

Pair means two cards of the same rank.

Example: you have K-8. The flop is 8-2-7. Your combination: 8-8-K-7-2 (a pair of 8s and three kickers).

Two pairs

Two pairs ("doper") - two pairs of cards. In case two or more players have collected two identical dopers, the winner will be the one whose pair is higher. If two players have collected equal top pairs, the winner is the one with the higher bottom pair. If two players have collected two identical pairs, the winner is the one with the higher kicker (in this case, only one card can be a kicker).

Example: your pocket cards are K-6 . You've reached the river, the board: K-6-3-2-2. As we can see, you have three pairs but since such combination doesn't exist, your hand is: K-K-6-6-3 (where 3 is a kicker).

Set (triple)

Set (triple) - three cards of the same rank.

Suppose your cards are 5-5. If the flop hits with 9-5-3, your set mining (an attempt to collect a set with a pocket pair) is successful. Then your combination is 5-5-5-9-3.

If you have collected a set formed by two community cards and one pocket card - it's called a trips (triplet). It is no different in strength from the usual set, but it is considered that it's easier for the opponent to guess you have a set if the pair is already on the board (and when you're demonstrating aggression, i.e you're making bets).

Straight

Straight is a combination of sequence of unsuited cards.

Example: you have J-10. On the board: 8-A-9-7-A. You've collected a straight from seven to Jack.

Flush

Flush - a combination formed by suited cards (any of the four suits - diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs).

Example: your pocket hand is Q-9s (prefix "s" means suited) of diamonds. On board 8-5-2s also diamonds. You've collected a flush with the high card Q.

Full House

Full House - a combination of three and two identical cards. In case several players have collected Full House, they look at the high triple. If several gamblers have equal triple, they need to compare the top pair.

Example: you have a pair of ten. The flop comes with 10-7-5. So far you have a set of tens. But on the river one more five falls on the board. You have a full house 10-10-10-5-5.

Four of a kind (quads)

Four of a kind (quads) - 4 identical cards. You should note that if quads is formed by community cards, the kicker must be taking into account.

You have a pair of eight on your hands. On the board: 5-3-2-8-8. Your combination is 8-8-8-8-5 (quads with kicker 5).

Straight-flush

Straight-flush - combo of straight and flush (see the picture above)

Example: your pocket cards are Q-9s (diamonds). On the board: 8-10-A-3-J (of which jack, ten and eight are diamonds). You've collected a straight-flush on the river.

Royal-Flush (or Flush Royal)

Royal-Flush (or Flush Royal, also known as "Broadway") is the strongest combination in poker. An exclusive variant of straight-flush from ten to ace. The odds of collecting it are very low. But just in case you've had a luck to collect the highest combination in poker, it will look like this: your hand is A-Ks. The board falls with 10-J-Qs. You've collected a royal flush.

For the convenience, we offer you to download poker combinations in good quality.

If you've just started familiarizing with the game, then you will not succeed without knowing poker combinations. You can learn them in more detail with the help of this article. Poker rules and poker vocabulary will also come in handy.

If necessary, you can download poker combinations in good quality and print them. But it is better to memorize the hands as it is the basis of poker game.