Poker Hand Rankings poker. Three of a Kind. Easy-to-understand visual that shows poker hands in order from straight flush to high card. Chart of the best poker hand rankings. A hand is ranked within its category using the ranks of. Poker Hand Chart. A starting poker hand chart is helpful for beginner poker players, much like a basic strategy chart is helpful to blackjack players. In fact, new card players should print off a starting hand chart and follow it rigidly at first. This helps you memorize the best hands in Texas Holdem to play throughout your poker career.
Learning how to play poker should not be difficult. If you want to understand why so many people love this game, this beginner's guide to the rules and the basics of poker is all you need.
Poker is a simple game to learn, but the poker rules can be challenging for a complete beginner.
But don't let that put you off. It is not hard to learn how to play poker, and you can move from the basics of the game to the tables of the top online poker sites in no time.
Here's everything you'll learn in this guide on how to play poker:
Before you move to the 'practical' side of this guide on how to play the most popular variants of this game, you need to learn the basics of poker.
When most people say they want to know 'how to play regular poker,' they imply that they want to learn the basics of Texas Hold'em.
Texas Hold'em is (by far) the most popular poker game out there and it's the one you find at every online poker site.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. With so many poker variants to play online and offline, the only proper guide on how to play poker for dummies is the one that gets you access to all the best games out there.
Not just to the most famous one.
Many poker rules are consistent from game to game, although among the dozens of variants such as Texas hold'em, Omaha, and seven-card stud you will find some ket differences you need to kno.
Let's have a quick look at the poker rules of the most played poker games online:
Game | Texas Hold'em |
How Many Players | 2-10 |
Poker Rules | How to play Texas hold'em |
Also called the 'Cadillac of Poker,' Texas hold'em is the one you are going to play over and over again.
This is the most popular poker game online and it is also the one you are most likely to play with our friends in your next home game.
Whether you play it in the form of a tournament or as a ring-game, the basic poker rules and the hand rankings don't change.
> Discover how to play Texas Hold'em
Game | Omaha Poker |
How Many Players | 2-10 |
Poker Rules | How to play Omaha |
Where to Play | Top poker sites |
The second-most popular poker variant. Omaha poker finds its roots in the game of Texas Hold'em, although the rules of the two games are slightly different from each other.
Many players find learning how to play poker Omaha to be the natural step to take after they have successfully mastered the basics of Texas Hold'em.
In the poker rules page dedicated to the game, you find the perfect beginner's guide to moving your first steps in the world of Omaha.
> Learn how to play Omaha poker
Game | Seven-Card Stud |
How Many Players | 2-8 |
Poker Rules | How to play 7-card Stud |
Where to Play | Top poker sites |
Before Texas hold'em became king, anyone who wanted to learn the basic poker rules and how to play poker had to go through the game of seven-card stud.
As the name suggests, this is a variant of stud poker. 7-card stud is also the 'S' game in the H.O.R.S.E. poker — but if you are still learning how to play poker, it's probably too early for you to jump on that.
> Discover how to play seven-card stud poker
If you want to go deeper and you want to learn how to play even more poker games, PokerNews is the right site for you.
Pick one poker variant to learn from the list that follows and find out how to play some of the most exciting and lesser-known poker games out there!
Use these guides to learn how to play poker and master not only the most 'obvious' games like Texas hold'em bu also all the other different variants out there.
In our guides for beginners, you find the official poker rules, the basic strategy tips, and the hand rankings — because knowing how to calculate points is key if you want to win at poker.
One element used in most poker variants is the system of hand rankings.
The highest ranked hand is a Royal Flush (five cards of the same suit, ranked ace through ten), followed by a Straight Flush (five cards of the same suit of consecutive ranks).
The third-best combination is the Four-of-a-kind, which is then followed by the Full House (three of a kind plus one pair), the Flush, the Straight, the Three-of-a-kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card or no pair.
When a hand reaches the showdown, the player with the highest-ranked hand wins the pot.
That's true of Texas hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud, and five-card draw.
Of course, in 'lowball' games like razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw, the hand rankings are turned upside down and the 'worst' hand according to traditional hand rankings is the winning one.
Games like hold'em and Omaha feature small and big blinds, so called because they are 'blind' bets players have to make before they are dealt any cards.
Meanwhile stud games usually use 'antes', which also involve players putting chips in the middle before the hand begins.
From there players bet more as the hand progresses, thereby creating larger pots.
Some games are played with no-limit betting, which means players can bet as much as they like at any point in the hand, including going 'all in.'
Pot-limit betting means that the current size of the pot creates an upper limit on how much a player can bet.
Games that are played with fixed-limit betting have predetermined amounts from which players cannot vary when they make their bets and raises.
There are other terms that tend to be used in all different poker games, including many having to do with the actions you perform when playing.
When the action is on you, you can:
All of those terms are an important step in your journey to learn how to play poker since they tend to come up in all poker variants.
In games with community cards like hold'em and Omaha (also sometimes called 'flop games'), the betting rounds are referred to as:
One other poker rule common to just about every variant of the you'll play – whether you are playing live poker or online poker – is one called 'table stakes.'
Table stakes means that once a hand begins, you can only bet whatever amount you had on the table to begin the hand and are not allowed to add anything more during the hand as it plays out.
If you only have $100 on the table to begin a hand, you can't pull out your wallet and add more halfway through the hand – you can only play out the hand with whatever you had to start.
Now that you know the basic poker rules and you have links to go back to your poker guides when you need to, it's time to look for the best websites to practice poker online.
Don't start to play poker for real money right away. Try out the games for free first. That's the only way to discover if you have really learned how to play poker.
Looking for a site to practice online poker for free?
Don't miss the updated list of the best free poker sites in 2020!
There are countless options to give the game a test run, but the best way is to try out the real deal.
Sign up for a poker account with one of the big online poker rooms and give the freerolls a try.
That way, you can practice poker online without any risk; you're not wagering any money.
And if you want to try out cash games instead of tournaments, all major poker sites online have so-called play money tables.
That way you can practice the game, learn the rules, and figure out how the software works, readying yourself for the big stage.
Register a free gaming account and test your poker knowledge in the next freeroll!
Knowing what beats what in poker or Texas Hold’em is an important early step in learning the game. To help you out, I have provided for you an attractive printable or downloadable “cheat sheet” for both 5 card hand rankings as well as top 24 pre-flop starting hands.
Poker hands ranked from best to worst:
To make things easier on you, I have included some handy charts that can be used to reference during play or even printed out.
Never forget what beats what again. Feel free to save this to your phone/tablet/computer or print the chart out.
Click below to download a high-quality PDF that includes a printable copy of both the showdown and pre-flop hand rankings.
To help you out, I have also included the top 24 no-limit hold’em starting hands to give you a further idea of what beats what in poker. I based this list on both raw equities as well as post-flop playability.
I have used over 10 years of experience in both tournaments and cash games to compile this info. You get to benefit from my hard work!
I took a look at a few of the pre-flop hand ranking charts out there and, while most appeared to get it right for the most part, there seemed to be something off.
The thing is, everyone always does pretty well on the top 5 or 6 hands. However, after that things get a bit murkier
So, what really matters when it comes to weighing hand strength? I decided to take a close look at the problem. Using the knowledge I’ve gained over the past few years, I tried to come up with a better way of codifying hand rankings.
I decided to go about it from a logical standpoint. When deciding whether to play a hand or not, what are the factors a strong player considers before acting
So, I decided that there are basically two main factors to consider in determining the strength of a particular pre-flop hand. And, since equity is the tool we use to rank the value of hands I just had to figure out what type of equities matter most and then apply it to each factor
Once I was able to define which equities to consider, it just took a bit of math.
The first equity I decided to factor in is a hand’s raw pre-flop equity. I mean, sometimes you need to get all-in before the flop, right?
Of course, some hands will get all-in more frequently than others but for the sake of simplicity, raw equity against a strong range will give us a decent enough metric to come up with a comparative ranking.
Secondly, we need to factor in how a hand does post-flop. There’s no doubt, that certain hands play much better after the flop than others.
To calculate how well a hand does after the flop I looked at what post-flop hands tend to get all-in most of the time in a post-flop scenario. This includes the strongest made hands, including top pair and better, as well as strong draws.
Once I was able to figure out what hands are likely to get all-in, I just had to figure out the equity of every hand versus that range on a random flop.
Doing these kinds of calculations by hand would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Luckily, there is a software program called Cardrunner’s EV that does the math for me.
After I figured out both the raw pre-flop equity and the likely flop equity of each hand, I just used excel to average them. That data was used to compile the rankings.
Here are the final equity percentages:
Knowing which hands to open raise is important to your success. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
I have built charts that provide you profitable opening ranges from every position. As a bonus, the charts also include what to do at every decision point possible for playing a 20 to 40 big blind stack
The guide will give you an excellent starting point for playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em and will get you off on the right foot by allowing you to play fundamentally sound poker right now!
If more than one player has the same hand then you have to follow the tie-breaker rules to determine the winner.
In the case where two players have a flush or straight, the person who has the highest card in their hand wins. For example, T9876 beats 76543.
In the case of multiple full houses, the player with the highest “trips” as part of their full house wins. For example, TTT22 beats 555AA.
If multiple players have exactly the same two pair, the highest kicker is used to determine the winner. For example, JJ66Q beats JJ66T.
The same process is used for one-pair. The next highest kicker is used. If that is the same, you use the next highest kicker. So on and so forth until the tie is broken. For example, AAK85 beats AAK84.
Similarly to one pair and two-pair hands, you use the next highest kicker to determine the winner. You keep moving on to the next kicker until a winner is determined. For example, KT763 beats KT753.
Three of a kind beats two-pair. It also beats a pair and high card.
A flush beats a straight. It also beats three of a kind, two pair, a pair, and high card.
The worst hand against multiple players is 72 offsuit. The worst hand heads-up is 32o.
A royal flush is extremely rare. You can only expect to get a royal flush once every 650,000 hands. That doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed. Personally, I have played well over 5 million hands and have only had one royal using both cards.
I hope this article has helped you learn more about how hand rankings work in poker. If you want to learn about basic poker strategy, be sure to check out my detailed no-limit hold’em basic tutorial.