Poker Hand Rankings Explained (and the Ties That Start Arguments)

Every poker hand ranking fits on one little chart, and by the end of this video, you'll know all 10 of them, plus the one rule that settles almost every argument about who actually won the pot. Because the chart is the easy part. The fights at a home game start when two people both think they've got it. Like the same pair with different side cards or a flush sitting right there on the board, and somebody's about to toss a winning hand away because nobody saw it. And you can see it in the comments under the big hand ranking videos. People aren't asking whether a flush beats a straight. One person asked who wins when the flush comes on the five shared cards and only one player has another card of that suit. Another asked why a player couldn't just use his pair of aces. And someone wrote about a bar tournament where the hand should have been a split pot, but the other players counted a sixth card. Those are all the same question and it has one answer. [music] So, first we'll go through the 10 hands from the top fast. Then the three ideas that actually start the arguments, which are your best five cards, kickers, and when the board plays. Then the classic spots everyone gets wrong. And at the end, I'll deal four hands for you to call before I show the answer. And I'm leaving the last one for the comments. The best hand in poker is a royal flush, which is ace, king, queen, jack, and 10 all in the same suit. Right under it is a straight flush, which is any five cards in a row in one suit, like nine down to five in hearts. And a royal is really just the highest straight flush there is. Then comes four of a kind. All four cards of one rank, like four sevens, with one more card riding along. Next is a full house, which is three of one rank and two of another, like three kings and two fours, and you'd call it kings full of fours. When two full houses meet, the three matching cards decide it first. So kings full of fours beats queens full of aces. Then the flush, which is any five cards of one suit in any order. And when two flushes meet, you compare the highest card, then the next one all the way down. So it's never about adding them up. Then the straight, which is five cards in a row in mixed suits, like 8 9 10, Jack, Queen. Two straights are compared by their top card only. The ace can play at either end. So ace, [music] king, queen, jack, 10 is the highest straight. And ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, the wheel is the lowest. But the ace can't wrap around the corner. So queen, king, ace, two, three isn't a straight at all. The bottom half goes quickly. Three of a kind is three cards of one rank, and two pair is exactly what it sounds like with the higher pair compared. One pair is one pair, and high card is when you've got nothing. So your highest card plays. And notice that suits never rank. A heart flush doesn't beat a spade flush. So, if two hands only differ by suit, they split the pot. Two spots on the chart get mixed up more than the rest. A flush beats a straight because five cards of one suit is harder to make than five in a row. And a full house beats a flush. So, if you only remember one stretch of that chart, make it straight, then flush, then full house because that's where most of the mix-ups happen. [music] I used to think learning that chart was the whole job. And once you knew it, you'd never lose an argument at the table. But almost every argument at a home game starts after everybody already knows the chart. And it comes from three ideas. is the chart doesn't show you. The first one is that your hand is the best five cards out of seven. In Holdem, you get two cards and the board gets five. And you can use both of yours, one of yours, or none of them. Nobody ever plays more than five cards. So, there's no sixth card to break a tie, which is exactly what went wrong at that bar tournament. And your two cards don't get any special treatment. So, if your best five are all on the board, that's still your hand. The second idea is the kicker. When two players have the same pair, the next highest cards in their five decide it one at a time. So, say the board is king 9642 and you have king queen while your friend has king jack. You both have a pair of kings, but your queen beats his jack and you take the pot. But a kicker only counts if it makes it into the best five. Change the board to king, queen, jack, 8, four. Now you have king seven. Your friend has king three. And you're sure your seven wins. It doesn't because both of your best five are king, king, queen, jack 8. Your seven never makes the hand, so it's a split pot. And that's the most common argument in home poker. The third idea is when the board plays. Sometimes the five shared cards are the best hand for everybody, like a straight from six to 10 right there on the table. If nobody can beat it with their own cards, everybody still in the hand plays the board and the pot is split, even the player holding two deuces. So never throw your cards away at the showdown because the cards speak for themselves. If you turn them face up, the hand is red for what it actually is, not for what you said out loud. And that's the rule from the start, your best five cards, and the cards speak. Now, the classic spots starting with the flush on the board. All five shared cards are hearts, king, 9, 7,42. One player has the queen of hearts and the other has a pair of aces in black. The aces don't matter here because they're both playing a flush and only hearts count. The queen of hearts pushes the two out of the best five. So, the queen wins. And even the three of hearts would win this pot because three beats the two it replaces. The next one is the counterfeited two pair. You have 65 and the flop comes 652. So you've got two pair and your friend has ace six with just a pair of sixes. Then the turn is a king and the river is another king. Now you have three pairs but you can only use two. So your best hand is kings and sixes with a five. Your friend has kings and sixes too with an ace and the ace beats your five. Your fives got counterfeited and the hand you were winning with on the flop just lost. And the last classic is the wheel ace 2345. It's a real straight. The lowest one there is. If the board is ace 239 king and you hold four or five, you've got a straight and that beats a friend holding ace king for two pair. But any other straight beats it, even two through six because in a wheel, the ace is playing as a one. And one more board catches people every time. If the board is four nines and a king, everybody has four nines, so the fifth card decides it. The king plays for everyone and the pot is split unless somebody holds an ace and that one ace takes the whole pot. A pair of queens in your hand doesn't help at all because the queen is lower than the king already on the board. And if your group plays a high hand prize where the best hand of the night wins a little extra, this chart is the whole game. In HG Poker, the app I built to run our home game, the host picks who had the high hand when the tournament ends, and it's right there in the results everyone gets. It takes no bets, holds no money, and moves no money. It just keeps track of the night. Okay, your turn. And call each one before the answer shows up. Hand one. The board is ace king 83. One player has queens and the other has ace two. The ace two wins because aces and eights beats queens and eights. Hand two, the board is nine 8 762. Jack 10 against a pair of fives. Both have a straight but jack high beats nine high. Hand [music] three, the board is king king 449. Ace two against 98. 98 wins with kings and nines because the ace only plays as a kicker behind kings and fours. And the last one is yours. The board is queen queen 774. One player has ace three and the other has king four. So, he's holding three pairs. Who wins this one? Tell me in the comments and I'll pin the answer. And if your table still argues about it, send them this video because best five cards and the cards speak settles almost every one of these. [music] >> [music]