Poker Hand Combinations Explained. Poker hands fall into one of ten categories. The highest is a royal flush, followed by a straight flush, then four of a kind, a full house, a flush, a straight. Folding means a player throws in their hand and gives up playing that round. If all other players fold the last remaining player wins. A player who folds does not need to show their cards at the end of the hand. Winning Poker Hand Rankings: Five Of A Kind – 5 cards of the same rank, only possible with wild cards.

The Differences Between Three, Five and Seven Card Poker Hands

Best Poker Hands In Descending Order Meaning

Best Poker Hands In Descending Order Calculator

Three Card Hands

As the name suggests, three card hands consists of just three cards, effectively ruling out the possibility of you building a full house, a four of a kind, or a two pair hand. Also, unlike five and seven card hands, strictly speaking, there is no royal flush in Three Card Poker, save for some games that specifically implement a mini royal bonus for a same-suited A K Q hand.

Please note the following card references:

(h) Hearts (d) Diamonds (c) Clubs (s) Spades

There are six Three Card Poker hands, which are shown in descending order below:

1. Straight Flush – three cards in sequence as in 6d 5d 4d

2. Three of a Kind – three cards, same value as in 10d 10h 10s

3. Straight – three consecutive cards, any suit as in Kd Qc Js

4. Flush – three cards, same suit, any value as in 7d 5d 2d

5. Pair – two cards of the same value plus a random card, any suit as in 9d 9c 3s

6. High Card – three random cards as in Kd 6s 4c, highest high card at the table wins

Five Card Hands

Five card hands, on the other hand, allow for more combinations because, as you may have probably guessed, they consist of five cards instead of just three. This also changes the probability of getting each hand so the rankings change a bit:

1. Royal Flush – five consecutive cards of the same suit with an ace as the high card as in As Ks Qs Js 10s

2. Straight Flush – five consecutive cards of the same suit with a king or lower as the high card as in Kc Qc Jc 10c 9c

3. Four of a Kind – four cards of the same value plus a random card, any suit as in 8s 8d 8c 8h 2c

4. Full House – three cards of the same value plus two cards of the same value, any suit as in Jd Jh Js 6c 6s

5. Flush – five cards of the same suit, any value as in Qc 9c 6c 4c 2c

6. Straight – five cards in sequence, any suit as in Jc 10h 9s 8s 7d

7. Three of a Kind – three cards of the same value plus two random cards as in 4c 4s 4d Kd 2h

8. Two Pair – two cards of the same value plus another two cards of the same value plus a random card as in 7h 7s 4c 4d Qh

9. Pair – two cards of the same value plus three random cards as in 2d 2h 4c 9d Ks

10. High Card – five random cards as in Kd 9c 7h 4s 2s, highest high card at the table wins

Take note that unlike in Three Card Poker, a straight is more valuable in five-card games than a three of a kind.

Seven Card Hands

Well, the funny thing is that there are no actual seven card poker hands to speak of. Standard seven-card poker games actually make use of the exact same hands and rankings as their five-card counterparts despite having entirely different rules and betting structures.

The only major difference is that since players are given a total of seven cards to work with, it is possible to come up with several sub-hands, so to speak, and then go with the best five-card set you can build. Below are some examples:

1. Kd Kh Kc 4s 4c 4d 4h – With this set, you can build a full house, a two pair and a four of a kind. Of course, a four of a kind ranks higher than the other two so that is what you’d want to go with.

2. 7c 6s 5h 4h 3h Kh Jh – This set makes up both a straight and a flush. Which one would you choose?

3. 10c Jh 4d 2c 10s 7c 3s – We’ll leave this one to you. What hands can you make out of this set and which one would you go with?

Three, Five or Seven: Which One Should You Play?

Well, it all depends on what kind of playing experience you’re looking for. If want something quick and simple, then a three-card game is your best bet. If you fancy something a bit more challenging, then go for seven-card varieties. Five-card games are somewhere in between.

Still can’t decide? Why not just play them all and see which one you like the most? Sign up for a www.safeclub.com account today and start enjoying some real money poker action online! We’ll even hook you up with more of these poker tips so you can keep getting better while you play!

This course explains how to determine who has the winning poker hand after all the betting is done. The first step to determine the winning hand is to take a look at all the players’ cards. For this course we are assuming a standard five-card poker hand. The player with the highest-ranking poker hand wins. Cards can have one of the following ranks in ascending order: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. The suit of a card will be either Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs or Spades.

If there is a tie the pot is usually split equally among the winning hands. In a five-card game a sixth card is never used to break a tie.

Folding means a player throws in their hand and gives up playing that round. If all other players fold the last remaining player wins. A player who folds does not need to show their cards at the end of the hand.

Winning Poker Hand Rankings:

Five Of A Kind – 5 cards of the same rank, only possible with wild cards
Royal Flush – Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten of the same suit
Straight Flush – Five cards of the same suit in sequence
Four Of A Kind – Four cards of equal rank
Full House – Three cards of equal rank and two different cards of equal rank
Flush – Five cards of the same suit
Straight – Five cards in sequence regardless of suit
Three Of A Kind – Three cards of equal rank
Two Pair – Two cards of equal rank and two different cards of equal rank
Pair – Two cards of equal rank
High Card – Any five cards not fitting one of the above ranks, Ace is the highest-ranking high card, two is the lowest