Poker Ranking Hands Guide For the Novice Player

Most novice poker and Texas Hold’em players find the most difficult part of learning how to play poker in the ranking of hands. Every card games have its own rules and ranking systems, though poker hand ranking is simple, most players find it a bit confusing at first. With our quick poker hand ranking guide you'll know it all in few minutes.

You can have many combinations of cards in your hand, not always these combinations would earn you the pot, the lowest combination possible is when you have no pairs at all, and meaning there's nothing identical in your cards, they are not from the same suit and they do not produce a sequence of numbers (1-2-3-4-5 and so on).

A pair is higher than nothing, all you need to have is the same card twice, and if you're lucky enough you'll grab two pairs, which worth more. One level up and we've reached Trips. A trip is three of a kind, for example a 3-3-3 or K-K-K. If you are lucky to get a trip you're most likely to win the pot, but notice that there are hand combinations that worth more, such as a Straight. A straight is basically a series of sequential numbers, such as 9-10-J-Q-K.

One step higher it's the Flush, which is when all your cards belong to the same suit (Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds, Spades). After a Flush there's a Full house, which is compiled from a pair and three of the same kind (aka Trip), but this worth little in comparison to Four of the same kind.

At the top there's a Straight Flush, which is a combination of a Flush and a Straight, and if you're real lucky you'll have a Royal Flush, which is a Straight flush with of the series A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit. That's it, there's nothing complicated about it at all.