Poker Hands

You can’t play a game that you don’t know the rules to, so you definitely can’t play poker without knowing the rank of the various poker hands. Nothing is more embarrasing than thinking your Straight beat their Flush, only because you didn't study up on your poker hand ranks. So here is a quick refresher course.


Low Poker Hand: The lowest hand you can get; no pairs, no trips, no nothing. In this case, your highest card (called the Kicker) becomes your only real hope.

Pair: Two of the same card.

Two Pair: A hand made up of one pair of one rank and a second pair of another rank.

Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank, also called Trips.

Straight: Five consecutive cards, such as 6789T; when there’s more than one player with a straight, the straight to the higher card wins.

Flush: Five cards of the same suit. When there’s more than one player with a flush, the higher card that is not common to both hands wins.

Full House: A hand made of three cards of one rank and two cards of another.

 
Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank, also known as Quads.

Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit. When there’s more than one player with a straight flush, the straight to the higher card wins.

Royal Flush: The highest possible hand, a straight from 10 to Ace in the same suit. Also known as a Royal Straight Flush, or just a Royal.