Poker Hand Rankings Cheat Sheet

Here’s the fast reference: all ten poker hands ranked from strongest (royal flush) to weakest (high card), with a clear example and the odds for each. Bookmark this and you’ll never second-guess what beats what mid-hand. The order is identical across Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and seven-card stud.

Odds cheat sheet: how rare each hand is

Prices and pot decisions get easier when you know how often each hand actually appears. These are the exact counts out of 2,598,960 possible five-card hands:

Hand	Combinations	Odds (approx.)
Royal flush	4	1 in 649,740
Straight flush	36	1 in 72,193
Four of a kind	624	1 in 4,165
Full house	3,744	1 in 694
Flush	5,108	1 in 509
Straight	10,200	1 in 255
Three of a kind	54,912	1 in 47
Two pair	123,552	1 in 21
One pair	1,098,240	1 in 2.4
High card	1,302,540	1 in 2

The pattern is the entire logic of the rankings: the rarer a hand, the higher it sits. For the deeper math and flop/turn/river draw odds, see the full poker hand probability chart.

How to memorize the order fast

Break the ten hands into small groups instead of a flat list:

• The suited-sequence pair: royal flush and straight flush at the very top — both need five suited cards in a row.
• The “of a kind” family: four of a kind, then (later) three of a kind. Matching ranks.
• The full house and flush middle: the two most confused hands. Full house (trips + pair) beats flush (five suited).
• The straight: five in a row, mixed suits, sits just under the flush.
• The pairs and nothing: two pair, one pair, and high card round out the bottom.

Say the mantra “rarer wins” and you can always reconstruct the order from the odds.

Quick tie-break rules

When two players land in the same category, use these:

• Straights and flushes: highest top card wins; then compare down card by card.
• Full house: the higher three-of-a-kind wins; the pair is only a secondary check.
• Pairs / two pair / trips: compare the made cards first, then kickers, highest to lowest.
• Everything even: if all five ranks match, split the pot. Suits never break a tie.

Common cheat-sheet mistakes to avoid

Even with the chart in front of them, players trip on the same few points. Keep these straight:

• A straight does not beat a flush. The flush is rarer and sits one row higher. If you take only one thing from this sheet, take that.
• Suits have no rank. A flush in spades is exactly equal to a flush in hearts — the tie is settled by the card ranks, never the suit.
• The ace plays high or low in a straight, so A-K-Q-J-10 and 5-4-3-2-A are both valid, but the ace never wraps the corner (Q-K-A-2-3 is nothing).
• Three of a kind beats two pair. Beginners often assume two pairs “add up” to more than three matching cards. They don’t — trips is rarer.
• Full house is read by its trips first. Aces full of twos beats kings full of queens, because the three-of-a-kind portion is compared before the pair.

Using this for Texas Hold’em

In Texas Hold’em you build your best five-card hand from your two hole cards and the five shared community cards — you can use both, one, or none of your hole cards. The rankings above are exactly what you’re comparing at showdown. For how betting rounds and the board work around these rankings, head to the Texas Hold’em section.

Bottom line

Ten hands, one rule — rarer beats more common. Keep this cheat sheet handy for the order, the odds, and the tie-breaks, and pair it with the full what beats what in poker walkthrough or the complete hand rankings hub when you want the detail behind any single hand.