Hands and Hand Rankings in Texas Hold’em

As in other poker games, to play Texas hold’em you need to know the different suits of the cards, the value of each card, and the card combinations that form the different types of possible hands.

Individual cards are categorized by suit and rank:

The four suits—hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds—are equal in value. In poker, certain hands can be made only with cards of the same suit, while other hands can be made regardless of suit. In this guide, if suit is important, cards will be marked with suits. If suit is not important, cards will appear without suits.

In Texas hold’em, as in other poker games, the highest-ranking card in each suit is an ace (A), followed by the face cards, king (K), queen (Q), and jack (J). These are followed in rank by the numbered cards, which are ranked from 10 (written as T) down to 2.

Cards of different ranks and suits can be combined to form hands. Just as each card has a rank, the combinations of cards that form hands also have ranks. These hand rankings determine who has the best hand in a game of poker. The following table lists all types of poker hands and their rankings (in descending order).

To play Texas hold’em, you have to be able to recognize the best five-card combination that can be made from your two hole cards and the five community cards. You also need to have a sense of how your hand most likely stacks up against the hands of other players.

Some hands, such as the pair hands, don’t use all five of the cards in your hand. In the pair hands—four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, and one pair—your kicker, the highest card not in the pair, serves as a tiebreaker. For instance, if you have A-A-7-4-3, you’ll lose to a player with A-A-J-4-3 because your kicker is a 7 and the other player’s kicker is a J.