Winning Poker Hands

There are many aspects to mastering the game of Poker but before getting into advanced techniques and strategies players must first learn the correct order for winning poker hands. With practice, it becomes clear that poker hands are ranked roughly in the order in which the laws of probability dictate they will occur in a given game. In other words, the less likely you are to obtain certain poker hands, the higher their rank.

Winning Poker Hands – Highest to Lowest

Photo about Young woman with aces four of a kind playing poker and throwing the cards in the excitement. Image of excitement, energetic, excited - 18814315. The pot odds represent the number of times out of 100 you need to achieve a hand to break even. Professional poker players compare the pot odds to the hand odds before calling bets on the turn and river. When pot odds exceed hand odds, a solid betting situation exists. After the flop, there is $50 in the pot. Find all poker hands ranked from best to worst. Use the OFFICIAL poker hand rankings to know what beats what in poker. Download the PDF list of poker hands.

• Straight Flush – Poker hands containing 5 cards in consecutive order and of the same suit
  
• Four of a Kind – Poker hands containing 4 cards of the same kind
  
• Full House – Poker hands containing three of a kind and one pair
  
• Flush – Poker hands containing 5 cards of the same suit regardless of order
  
• Straight – Poker hands in which the 5 cards are in consecutive order regardless of the suit of each card
  
• Three of a Kind – Poker hands in which there are 3 cards of the same kind
  
• Two Pair – Poker hands in which there are 2 sets of 2 cards that are the same
  
• One Pair – Poker hands in which there is 1 pair of the same kinds

High Card – In the event of a round of Poker during which none of the players is able to achieve any of the Poker hands listed above, the player with the highest single card has the winning hand. If there is a tie between players, the second highest card wins.

Variations of Winning Poker Hands

Depending on the particular game being played, the value of the poker hands listed above may change slightly. For example when you are playing with wild cards, it becomes possible to get five of a kind. This becomes the most valuable poker hand.

Some variations of poker also change the rules for getting a royal flush. The royal flush is the highest straight flush possible and outside of games with wild cards, is considered unbeatable. Some variations of poker have slightly different rules that allow the lowest straight flush to beat a royal flush

Tied Poker Hands

There is always a chance that you are betting on the same hand to win as one of your opponents. If two or more players have the same ranked hand at the end of a round, the hand containing the highest cards wins. If player one has a pair of nines and player two had a pair of fours, then player one would win the hand. If both players had a pair of nines, then the next highest card from each hand would determine the winner.

Knowing your poker hands is crucial to playing a solid game at the table, and regardless of whether you’re playing Texas Hold’em, or Omaha, you’ll always want to know the value of your hand. When you have this knowledge at your disposal, you’ll be able to make an informed decision on whether to raise, check, call, or fold your hand when it matters most.

In this post, we’re going to look at the winning poker hands structure of two different games; Texas Hold’em, and Omaha – and we’ll begin by taking a look at a poker hands chart, followed by the best and worst starting hands. We’ll also show you a list of poker hands to help you make the right decisions in your game.

Texas Hold’em Winning Poker Hands Ranking

In this guide, you’ll see that there are a total of 10 hands in Texas Hold’em poker (or 9 if you don’t count ‘no pair’ as a hand), and we’ll detail these below. (The winning poker hands chart below shows a list of poker hands, ranked best, to worst).

Royal Flush: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, all of the same suit.

Straight Flush: Any 5 cards of the same suit, in consecutive order. (I.e. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of spades).

4-of-a-kind: 4 cards of the same value (i.e. the 5 of spades, the 5 of hearts, the 5 of clubs, and the 5 of diamonds).

Images Of Winning Poker Hands

Full House: A full house consists of one 3-of-a-kind hand, and one pair, so for instance, a full house could be the 2 of spades, the 2 of diamonds, the 2 of clubs, and a pair of Aces.

Flush: Five cards of the same suit (i.e. 2, 3, 7, 8, and 9 of hearts).

Straight: Five cards in consecutive order (i.e. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, off-suit).

3-of-a-kind: Three cards of the same value (I.e. 3 of clubs, 3 or spades, and the 3 of hearts).

Two Pair: Two pairs in one hand – i.e. a pair of 2’s, and a pair of 3’s.

One Pair: One singular pair – i.e. a pair of Aces.

No Pair: A no pair hand is when you don’t have any of the above. In this instance, you have what is known as a ‘high card hard’.

Use the poker hands chart above to ensure you’re always in full control of your game!

Omaha Poker Hands Ranking

Omaha uses the exact same hand-ranking process as Texas Hold’em does, and while it may seem as though that’s a little ‘odd’ at first, remember that Omaha is almost identical, aside from the fact that players have four cards, and that betting is usually pot-limit.

This means that a Royal Flush is the best possible hand in a game of Omaha, and high-card (while incredibly unusual due to the 4 cards each player holds) is the lowest possible hand.

For a full guide on playing Omaha, be sure to check out our How to Play Omaha guide.

Best Starting Poker Hands

Knowing your winning poker hands is crucial if you want to play a solid game of poker – and below, we share how to determine whether or not you have a winner on your hand!

Texas Hold’em: The best starting hand is a pair of Aces. A pair of aces (also known as pocket rockets) are a favourite pre-flop over any other starting hand and is almost always one of the best winning poker hands. The second, and third best starting hands are a pair of Kings and Queens respectively, followed by Ace-King suited, pocket Jacks, pocket Tens, and then Ace-Queen suited. The 10th best starting hand is Ace-King Offsuit – which is actually still a very strong hand.

Omaha: Working out winning poker hands in Omaha is a little more complex than Texas Hold’em, when looking at the best starting hands, although mathematically, the best starting hands can be determined.

Image Of Poker Hands

For example, the strongest hand is AAKK, followed by AAJT, AAQQ, and AAJJ. It’s worth noting however, that the best possible hand in Omaha holds little value against a full-ring of players, hence the need to play aggressively, pre-flop and post-flop; see our poker hands chart for more details.

Worst Poker Starting Hands

Determining the worst starting hands in poker is a little more challenging – largely due to the fact that most players simply have knowledge of the better starting hands – yet knowing what the worst starting hands are is just as important, as it allows you to know when to throw away your hands pre-flop. Below, we look at the worst starting hands for both Texas Hold’em and Omaha.

Texas Hold’em: 2-7 offsuit (this is well-known as the worst starting hand in poker, due to the fact that it’s often used as side-bets in games.) 7-2 offsuit is followed by 8-2 offsuit, 8-3 offsuit, 7-3 offsuit, 6-2 offsuit, 9-2, 9-3, and 9-4 offsuit.

List Of Poker Winning Hands

Omaha: Unfortunately, with Omaha, there isn’t an ‘official’ list of worst poker hands – purely due to the fact that there would be too many to list. However, most professionals and poker experts agree that any starting hand that combines any of the worst starting hands in Texas Hold’em generally constitute a very poor starting hand in Omaha too – so it’s worth throwing these away most of the time, pre-flop. If in doubt, consult the list of winning poker hands ranking above.