Poker List Of Hands Texas Hold Em

The strategy of what to hold, and why, takes a bit to master, so studying the worst starting hands in Texas Hold'em, even more, can help you improve your game. Beginner's Advice Play only the cards in the 10-best list and always fold those in the worst hands list.

The PDF rules of poker are provided below for Texas Hold’em, the most popular poker variant.

To get the PDF printable version of this post click on of the unlock buttons below:

Other popular game variants include Pot Limit Omaha and 5card draw.

Table Of Contents

  • Texas Hold’em Rules
  • Poker hand Ranking System

Texas Hold’em Rules

In Texas hold’em each player is dealt two cards called their ‘hole’ cards. Hole cards can only be seen and used by one person. The dealer button (denoted by a circular disc) is allocated before hands are dealt to allow for the positioning of the forced bets: small blind and big blind, and also to determine who will act first and last in the hand.

There are a total of four betting rounds: preflop, the flop, the turn and the river. The betting rounds will be detailed further on.

If you have a dedicated dealer (such as at a casino), the button will still move around the table so everybody will eventually have to pay the blinds. The button doesn’t show who is dealing in a casino; the button shows who is seated the best position at the table and where the blinds are located.

If you just sat down (out of turn) you will have to pay the blinds in order get dealt a hand; otherwise, you can wait until the blinds come around to your seat. You should wait for the blinds as paying twice is unprofitable.

Poker List Of Hands Texas Hold Em

The size of the blinds depends on the limit; for example, a 1/2 No Limit Hold’em game would have a big blind of $2 and a small blind of 1$. The small blind and big blind are located to the left of the button.

This is shown in the case of a 6 handed game below:

The blinds are an important part of the rules of poker. These forced bets which give players an incentive to play; in other words ‘spice up’ the game. Without the blinds, there would be no penalty for waiting and only playing strong hands. The only hand worth playing would be two aces!

Antes are another form of forced bets which are often used the increase the action in some game types such as tournaments and deep stacked cash games.

Pre-flop – The First Betting Round of Hold’em

The first round of betting takes places starting at the position to the left of the big blind (early position or EP). Each player has the following options:

Raise: you can raise the current bet to increase the stakes of the game. If someone has raised before you, you can still raise again – this is call a reraise. The minimum size you can raise is typically chosen to be twice that of the last bet or raise.

Call: When you do not want to raise the stakes but want to continue with your hand you can match the current bet.

Fold: If you feel your hand is not worth playing any further you can fold your hand and not commit any more bets.

Check: If there is no bet placed you can check in order to see the next card. This isn’t applicable to preflop. The blinds are the first bet preflop which must be matched with a call or raised, if a player wishes to continue.

Players must act in sequence until all bets are settled. The button must always act last in the first sequence. This first round of betting called ‘pre-flop’ occurs before the flop is dealt.

The Flop – The Second Betting Round

The second round of betting takes places after the three community (shared) cards called the flop are dealt. The action will be to the first player to the left of the dealer. This is opposed to the action starting to the left of the big blind during the preflop betting round.

The first player to act has the option to check bet or fold; although you should not fold when you can check for free. The betting rounds after the flop is dealt is collectively known as ‘post-flop’.

The Turn – The Third Betting Round

The third round of betting occurs after the second community card has been dealt. This card is called the turn. Again, the action starts with the active player to the left of the dealer.

The River and Showdown – The Fourth Betting Round

The fourth and final round of betting occurs when the dealer turns over the river card. The hand ends with the showdown of hands or if there is only one live hand remaining (the other player(s) have folded).

At showdown, the player with the best five card combination from their hole cards and the community cards wins the final pot. Split pots occur when both players have the same best five cards.

After each hand, the button moves to the left of the dealer. This means everyone will have to play the blinds at some point.

Texas hold’em rules are quite simple; however the strategies involved in winning are ever evolving.

The rules of Texas Hold’em are just the beginning so head to our poker training sites post here if you want to improve your poker game!

Other notes:

  • The dealer will often take one card off the top of the deck before turning over the flop, turn and river for a total of three cards. The three removed cards are called the burn cards. The purpose of these cards is to make it difficult for cheaters.
  • A player can not buy in for any more chips once he is in the hand. So if they start the hand with $100 they cannot add another $20 to their stack midway through the hand; they have to top up in between hands.

he poker hand ranking system is universal to all types of poker games. Be it 7 Card Stud, Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha a flush will always beat a straight and a full house will always beat a flush. So make sure you pay attention because the ‘poker hands order’ will be useful to you no matter what type of poker you play!

Poker hand Ranking System

To get the PDF printable version of this hand rankings click on of the unlock buttons below:

To get a printable winning poker hands ranking chart in PDF format click here.

Keep this printable PDF hand ranking sheet beside you when you play to make sure you don’t make a mistake!

The strongest to weakest hands of them poker hand hierarchy are listed below with the poker hands probability listed in brackets. After reading there will be no debating with friends ‘who has the best poker hand’!

  1. Royal Flush (649,739:1)
    Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten all of the same suit – the strongest poker hand.
  1. Straight flush (72,192:1)
    Five sequential cards all of the same suit. The second strongest poker hand.
  1. Four of a kind (4,164:1)
    Four cards of the same value. Also known as ‘quads’.
  1. Full House (693:1)
    Three cards of the same value plus two cards of the same value. Usually a winner!
  1. Flush (508:1)
    Five cards all of the same suit.
  1. Straight (254:1)
    Five cards in sequential order. Also referred to as a run.
  1. Three of a kind (46:1)
    Three cards of the same value.
  1. Two pair (20 : 1)
    Two sets of two cards with the same value. A common hand which can sometimes win at showdown!
  1. One pair (1.37:1)
    Two cards of the same value.
  1. High card
    The player with the highest card wins. Unlikely to be a winner so play with care.

Kickers

A kicker is much like a decider when both players have similar hand types. For example, if player A has A♠Q♣and Player B has A♣J♠ and the board is A♥K♦5♠ 7♠ 2♦ both players will have top pair with an ace but player A will win because the Q♣ is a better kicker than the J♠. The best five cards in this scenario are AAQ75 whereas the losing hand has AAJ75. A kicker is a very important concept when trying to understand the poker hand ranking system.

Split pots

Split pots occur when both players get to showdown and have the same hand rank. The pot is divided up equally between each of the players.

To take an example, if player A has K♠J♥ and player B has K♣Q♠ on a A♥K♦5♠5♣2♠ board both players will have two pair and ace kicker as their best hand (A, K, K, 5, 5). Therefore the pot will be split between the two players.

Alternatively, if the neither player can improve the hand on the board it will also be a split pot. If the board is A♥K♦5♠5♣K♠ and player A has Q♠J♣ and player B has 4♣4♠ then both players will be playing the board and thus it will be a split pot. Hence, you cannot have three pair in poker and the best two pair will play.

Beyond hand rankings

Hold

The rules of poker and poker hand rankings are just the beginning for you on your poker journey. One of the core skills in poker is being able to determine whether your hand is strong or weak on a relative scale as opposed to an absolute scale. For example, three of a kind is extremely strong on a board with no flush or straight possibilities but very weak on a board with 4 to a flush or 4 to a straight (e.g. T♥9♥8♥7♥ – any heart or J or 6 beats three of a kind).

Order Of Texas Hold'em Hands

One key point to note is that in poker all suits are of the same value. An Ace high flush of hearts is the same value as an Ace high flush of spades.

The first step to this is remembering if a flush beats a straight, or whether a straight flush beats quads; the next stage is figuring out your hand’s relative strength based on how your opponent is playing, his tendencies and most importantly the board texture as noted.

Additionally, we should take into account the following factors:

  • How many players are in the pot
  • The amount of chips in the pot
  • The size of the bets made

If you can understand the poker hand rankings and relative hand strength you will be ahead of the game; get ready to beat all your friends and opponents at your home games and casinos! Want to accelerate your poker learning? Check out or poker training sites post for the quickest ways to improve your poker game.

If you are new to poker and are unsure of what hands you need to play, check out our starting hand charts over at the poker cheat sheet webpage.

Check out this poker hand ranking video for a more visual format of everything we said:

Make sure you check out the fan favorite posts:

Poker cheat sheet for beginners & Best Poker Books

Hand Rank > FAQ : Quiz

Learning the rank of hands in Texas Hold'em is just as important as learning the rules themselves. Be sure to know what beats what, so you won't be surprised the next time that flush beats your straight. Check out the hand rank FAQ to help answer questions you might have about the ranking of hands in Texas Hold'em.

Poker List Of Hands Texas Hold Em

The hands are in order from top to bottom, decreasing in value as you move down.

Rank of hands.

#1 Royal flush.

An ace-high straight flush. It's just a straight flush really, but it's made with the 5 highest value cards.

List Of Poker Hands In Texas Holdem

A royal flush is the absolute best possible hand in the game of Texas Hold'em. You will rarely (if ever) see this hand.

#2 Straight flush.

5 cards of the same suit in sequential order. This is essentially the best hand in the game, only coming second to it's bigger brother; the royal flush.

#3 Four of a kind.

Four cards of the same value. Virtually a guaranteed winner.

Unfortunately you rarely really win as much money with it as you would like, as it's unlikely that other players in the pot will make a hand that they're happy to call lots of bets and raises with. Still, better than nothing!

#4 Full house.

Three of one and two of another. Or you could think of it as 3-of-a-kind + 2-pair. Also known as a 'boat'.

This is the most common out of the 'big hands' you will see in Texas Hold'em. You can win a nice chunk of money if another player ends up making a weaker hand like a flush or a straight.

If you think your opponent has a weaker full house than you, take advantage of Zeebo's theorem.

#5 Flush

Five cards of the same suit.

As long as there are no pairs on the board (e.g. 448JK or 27TAA), this will be the strongest type of hand anyone can make.

Beginner players love to chase flushes, and it usually results in losing money. Make sure you learn about pot odds before you chase your next flush.

Tip: If you're playing online, use the four colour deck feature. This turns the club cards green () and the diamonds blue (). So less chance of mistaking 4 diamonds and 1 heart as a flush.

#6 Straight.

Five cards in sequence.

This hand is beaten by a flush, so don't make the rookie mistake of over-valuing the straight when there are a number of cards of the same suit on the board. It is actually harder to make a flush than a straight.

#7 Three of a kind.

3 cards of the same value.

A 'set' is when you have 3 of a kind whilst holding a pocket pair. A set tends to be one of the most profitable hands in Texas Hold'em. It's handy to know the difference between sets and trips.

#8 Two pair.

Two pairs of course.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that this hand is stronger than 3 of a kind. It's actually easier to pick up two-pair than it is to get 3 of a kind.

#9 Pair.

Texas Hold'em Poker Hands Chart

Two cards of the same value. Almost like 'two of a kind' really.

A very common hand that can actually win a fair number of pots for you. Just be careful not to go overboard with this hand. The higher the pair the better.

#10 High card.

Just the highest value card.

Hands In Texas Holdem

If two players have the same value high card, you look at the next highest card (and so on) to find the winner.

This is not really much of a hand, but occasionally the winner of the hand will be decided on who holds the card of highest value. Don't expect to win any big pots with this one. It's usually there to determine the winner as a last resort.

Go back to the interesting Texas Hold'em articles.