188JILI Poker Card Ranking From Royal Flush to High Card

Here is the poker card ranking in the order that decides every showdown: ten hands, from the royal flush at the top to a bare high card at the bottom. A hand in a higher category always beats a hand in a lower one, and inside a category the ranks of the cards settle it. Use this page whenever a table asks you to read a five-card hand, then move to the Pinoy card games on the Poker row to see which titles use these ranks.

Poker card ranking: the ten hands in order

1. Royal flush: A, K, Q, J and 10 of one suit, for example all diamonds.
2. Straight flush: five cards in sequence and one suit, such as Q, J, 10, 9 and 8 of hearts.
3. Four of a kind: four cards of one rank plus one kicker, such as four nines and a jack.
4. Full house: three of one rank and two of another, such as three 3s and two 6s.
5. Flush: five cards of one suit that are not in sequence, such as K, 10, 7, 6 and 4 of clubs.
6. Straight: five cards in sequence in mixed suits, such as 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3.
7. Three of a kind: three of one rank and two unrelated cards, such as three 2s with a king and a 6.
8. Two pair: two pairs and a kicker, such as jacks and fours with a 9.
9. One pair: two cards of one rank and three unrelated cards, such as a pair of fours with K, 10 and 5.
10. High card: a hand that fits none of the above, such as K, J, 8, 7 and 4 in mixed suits.

The fewer hands a category contains, the higher it ranks. That is the whole logic of the list, and it is why the royal flush, which has only one version per suit, sits on top.

Royal flush and straight flush: the top two

A royal flush is an ace-high straight flush, so it is the top end of the straight flush category rather than a separate shape. A straight flush is ranked by its highest card, so a higher top card always wins.

Four of a kind and full house: rank first, then the extra cards

Four of a kind is ranked by the four matching cards, then by the kicker. A full house looks at the triplet first and the pair second.

Flush and straight: reading five cards at a time

A flush is compared from its highest card down to its lowest, one card at a time. K, J, 9, 6 and 4 of diamonds beats Q, J, 7, 6 and 5 of clubs because the king beats the queen at the first comparison. A straight is ranked by its top card only, so J, 10, 9, 8, 7 beats 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.

Three of a kind, two pair and one pair

Three of a kind is ranked by the triplet, then the higher kicker, then the lower one. Two pair compares the higher pair, then the lower pair, then the kicker. One pair compares the pair first and then three kickers in order.

High card: when nothing lines up

A high card hand is compared from the top card down through all five cards. Only if the top card matches do you look at the second card, and so on to the fifth.

1. K, 6, 5, 3, 2 beats Q, J, 6, 5, 3 because the king beats the queen at the first card.
2. Q, J, 6, 5, 3 beats Q, 10, 8, 7, 4 because the jack beats the ten at the second card.
3. Q, 10, 8, 7, 4 beats Q, 10, 7, 6, 4 because the eight beats the seven at the third card.

Do suits break a tie in poker?

No. Suits are not ranked in poker, so two hands that differ only by suit are of equal rank and split the pot.

1. A flush of 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 in diamonds ties with 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 in spades.
2. A pair of eights with 10, 6, 5 ties with the same cards in other suits.
3. A straight of 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 ties with the same straight in any other suits.

This is a real difference from Pusoy Dos ranking of cards and suits, where the suit decides between cards of the same rank.

How many five-card hands exist

Five cards can be dealt from a 52-card deck in 52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48 = 311,875,200 orders. Divide by the 120 ways to order five cards (5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1) and you get 2,598,960 distinct hands. Because hands that differ only by suit are equal, those collapse into 7,462 distinct hand ranks.

Where these ranks carry over

The same five-card hand names return in Chinese poker, where the back and middle hands are five-card poker hands and the front hand has three cards; the Chinese poker rules for setting 13 cards show how. They do not apply to every table: the JILI’s drop ball game and Color Game pay on where balls and dice land, not on card hands. In any game, open the title’s own info screen and read how it ranks and pays before you stake.