You can’t play a game that you don’t know the rules to, so you definitely can’t play poker without knowing the ranks of the various hands. Here is a quick refresher course.

 Poker no matter what type of game is an easy game to learn. Players compete against each other with the hands, in most games win the highest hand but there are also poker games where the lowest hand wins. A poker hand always consists of five cards. Below are the ranking of hands in poker starting with the highest rank.

Royal Flush: The highest possible hand, a straight from 10 to Ace in the same suit. Also known as a Royal Straight Flush, or just a Royal.

Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit. When there’s more than one player with a straight flush, the straight to the higher card wins.

Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank, also known as Quads for example A-A-A-A-x

Full House: A hand made of three cards of one rank and two cards of another for example A-A-A-K-K which would be the best possible full house hand. When there are two full houses the player with the highest three card combination wins.

Flush: Five cards of the same suit. When there’s more than one player with a flush, the higher card that is not common to both hands wins.

Straight: Five consecutive cards out of suit, such as A-K-Q-J-10; when there’s more than one player with a straight, the straight to the higher card wins.

Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank, also called Trips for example A-A-A-x-x

Two Pair: A hand made up of one pair of one rank and a second pair of another rank for example A-A-K-K-x

Pair: Two of the same card with any three other cards, for example A-A-x-x-x

Low Poker Hand or High Card: The lowest hand you can get; no pairs, no trips, no nothing. In this case, your highest card (called the Kicker) becomes your only real hope. This does not include any of the combinations above, for example A-Q-10-7-3

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