Poker hand rankings and Texas hold'em rules: the complete beginner's guide

Every hand ranked from Royal Flush to High Card, exact odds, tiebreaker rules, and how a full round of Texas Hold'em actually plays out

Whether you're heading to a UK poker room, a US casino, or trying either site covered elsewhere on this guide's poker coverage, everything starts with the same foundation: knowing which hands beat which, and understanding how a hand of Texas Hold'em actually unfolds from the first card dealt to the showdown. This guide covers both completely, including the specific mechanics - the best-five-of-seven rule, kicker tiebreakers, and the "three pair" misconception - that trip up more new players than the basic rankings themselves.

The 10 poker hand rankings, strongest to weakest

This same hierarchy applies across nearly every major variant - Texas Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), Seven-Card Stud, and most others use this identical ranking order. What changes between variants (covered later in this guide) is how the five-card hand is constructed, not which hands beat which.

Tiebreaker rules: kickers and hand comparisons

Higher-ranked versions of the same hand type win. An ace-high straight beats a king-high straight. A pair of aces beats a pair of kings. Within Four of a Kind or Full House, the rank of the matched cards determines the winner.

Kickers decide ties within the same hand rank. If two players both hold One Pair of the same rank, the remaining unpaired cards ("kickers") are compared in descending order to break the tie. This is genuinely one of the most commonly misunderstood mechanics for new players - a pair alone doesn't fully determine hand strength if an opponent holds the identical pair; the kickers decide it.

Suits do not break ties in standard poker rules. If two players hold genuinely identical five-card hands (a tie down to the exact rank of every card, including any relevant kickers), the pot is split evenly between them - this is called a "chop." Standard poker rules, followed at essentially every regulated UK and US cardroom and online poker room, do not rank suits against each other for tiebreaking purposes; clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades are treated as equal.

"Three pair" is not a real poker hand. Because a poker hand consists of exactly five cards, holding what looks like three pairs across your hole cards and the board (for example, hole cards of 7-6 with a board of 7-6-A-A-2) doesn't create "three pair" - you simply have the best two pair available (Aces and Sevens, in this example) with your highest remaining card serving as the kicker. This misconception is common enough among newer players that it's worth stating explicitly.

How a full round of Texas hold'em works

1. Blinds. Before any cards are dealt, two players post forced bets - the small blind and big blind - seeding the pot and ensuring there's always something to play for.

2. Hole cards. Every player receives two private cards, face down, visible only to themselves.

3. Preflop betting. Starting with the player to the left of the big blind, each player can fold, call, or raise based on their two hole cards alone.

4. The flop. Three community cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table, shared by every remaining player, followed by another betting round.

5. The turn. A fourth community card is dealt, followed by another betting round.

6. The river. A fifth and final community card is dealt, followed by the final betting round.

7. Showdown. Remaining players reveal their hole cards. Whoever has the best possible five-card hand, built from their two hole cards and the five community cards combined, wins the pot.

The dealer button and table positions

Every hand, one player holds the dealer button - a small physical marker (or its digital equivalent online) that determines both the order cards are dealt and, critically, the order players act in every betting round. The button moves one seat clockwise after every completed hand, meaning every player cycles through every position over the course of enough hands.

How positions are named, working around the table from the blinds: Immediately left of the button sit the small blind (SB) and big blind (BB), who post the forced bets covered above. Moving further left, the next player to act preflop is Under the Gun (UTG) - the first player to voluntarily act on their two hole cards, before anyone else has any information about how the hand will develop. At larger tables (commonly 9-handed, also called full-ring), additional named positions follow: UTG+1, UTG+2, Middle Position (MP), Lowjack (LJ), Hijack (HJ), and the Cutoff (CO) - the seat immediately before the button itself. Six-handed ("6-max") tables use fewer early-position names, since there are simply fewer seats to fill between the blinds and the button.

Why position matters beyond just naming seats. Players who act later in a betting round see everyone else's decisions before making their own - genuinely valuable information that earlier-acting players don't have access to. The button is the single best position at the table specifically because it acts last in every postflop betting round, every single hand it holds the button. The blinds sit at the structural disadvantage: forced to invest chips before seeing any cards, and acting first (worst position) after the flop, turn, and river, despite acting last preflop specifically.

Heads-up play (two players) is a genuine exception to the standard rule. With only two players remaining, the button posts the small blind and acts first preflop specifically, but last on every subsequent betting round - an inversion of the standard multi-way structure that trips up players new to heads-up formats.

Betting structures: no-limit, pot-limit, and fixed-limit

Texas Hold'em can be played under three distinct betting structures, and while the hand rankings and basic flow covered throughout this guide remain identical across all three, how much you're allowed to bet at any given moment differs substantially.

No-Limit Hold'em (NLHE): The most widely played structure globally, in both cash games and tournaments. There is no maximum bet size - any player can bet or raise any amount up to the entirety of their remaining chips ("all-in") at any point during a betting round.

Pot-Limit Hold'em: The maximum bet or raise at any point is capped at the current size of the pot. This is the standard structure for Pot-Limit Omaha specifically, and is occasionally seen in Hold'em cash games and tournaments as well.

Fixed-Limit Hold'em: Bet sizes are predetermined for each betting round - commonly a smaller fixed amount preflop and on the flop, doubling for the turn and river. This structure was historically more common before No-Limit's rise to global dominance, and remains available at some cardrooms and online poker sites specifically for players who prefer its more structured, lower-variance betting pattern.

Minimum raise rules apply regardless of structure. In No-Limit specifically, a minimum raise must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in that same betting round - you can't, for example, raise a $10 bet by just $2; the raise itself must be at least $10 on top of the call, making the total bet at least $20 in this example.

All-in bets and side pots

This is a genuinely common scenario in No-Limit and Pot-Limit games that trips up newer players: what happens when a player doesn't have enough chips remaining to match a bet or call.

Going all-in. If a player's remaining chip stack is smaller than the bet they're facing, they can go all-in - betting everything they have remaining, even if it doesn't fully match the bet on the table.

How a side pot forms. When a player goes all-in for less than a full call, a side pot is created for the remaining active players who do have enough chips to keep betting further. The all-in player remains eligible to win only the main pot - everything wagered up to the point they went all-in - while any additional betting between the remaining players who aren't all-in goes into the separate side pot, which the all-in player has no claim to regardless of their hand strength at showdown.

Why this matters practically: A player who goes all-in early with a strong hand can still lose their overall equity in the full pot if other players continue betting into a side pot they're not eligible to win - genuinely important to understand if you're ever the shortest-stacked player at a table facing a significant bet.

Antes: the other forced bet

Beyond the small and big blind, some games - most commonly poker tournaments, and occasionally certain cash games - require an additional forced bet called an ante. Depending on the specific format, an ante may be posted by every player at the table each hand, or by a single player (a "button ante") on behalf of the whole table. Antes exist for the same fundamental reason as blinds: seeding the pot and creating action, particularly useful in tournament formats where blinds alone might not generate enough incentive to play hands as stack sizes and blind levels increase.

Basic actions, defined precisely

Check. Passing the action without betting - only available when no bet has been made yet in that specific betting round.

Bet. Placing the first wager of a betting round.

Call. Matching the current bet on the table to remain in the hand.

Raise. Increasing the size of the current bet, requiring every other player still in the hand to either call the new, larger amount, raise further themselves, or fold.

Fold. Surrendering your hand and any chips already committed to the pot, exiting the hand entirely.

Cash games vs. tournaments: how blinds differ

In cash games, blinds remain fixed for the entire session - a $1/$2 game stays $1/$2 regardless of how long you play or how your stack size changes.

In tournaments, blinds increase at predetermined intervals throughout the event, specifically to ensure the tournament reaches a conclusion within a reasonable timeframe rather than continuing indefinitely as players accumulate increasingly large chip stacks relative to a static blind structure. This structural difference is a major reason tournament and cash game strategy diverge meaningfully, even though the underlying hand rankings and basic rules covered throughout this guide remain identical between the two formats.

The best-five-of-seven rule: how your final hand is actually built

This is a specific mechanic that genuinely confuses new Hold'em players, since it's easy to assume your hole cards always count as part of your hand - they don't have to.

You have seven cards available at showdown - your two private hole cards plus the five shared community cards - but your actual poker hand can only use five of them. You can construct your best five-card hand in any of three ways: using both hole cards plus three from the board, using one hole card plus four from the board, or - in the specific case where the five community cards themselves already form the best possible hand - using all five community cards and effectively "playing the board," ignoring your own hole cards entirely.

Why this matters practically: If the board itself shows a strong hand (for example, a flush already sitting entirely in the community cards), every remaining player at showdown can potentially use those same five cards, meaning a "chop" (split pot) becomes far more likely than newer players often expect, since no individual hole cards are contributing anything better.

Starting hands: the numbers behind preflop decisions

There are 1,326 possible two-card starting hand combinations in Texas Hold'em. Pocket Aces is universally regarded as the strongest possible starting hand; Seven-Two offsuit is universally regarded as the weakest. Understanding hand rankings is the essential first step, but starting hand selection - which of those 1,326 combinations are worth playing from which position - is a distinct strategic skill that builds directly on top of the hand ranking knowledge covered in this guide.

How hand rankings change across variants

Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO): Uses the exact same 10-hand ranking hierarchy as Texas Hold'em - Royal Flush is still best, High Card is still worst. What changes is hand construction: every player receives four hole cards instead of two, and you must use exactly two of your four hole cards combined with exactly three community cards - no more, no fewer. Because players hold more cards, average winning hands run considerably stronger in PLO than in Hold'em; hands that regularly win pots in Hold'em (a modest two pair, a low straight) are often far too weak to be competitive in PLO.

Short Deck (also called Six Plus Hold'em): Removes all cards ranked 2 through 5 from the deck, playing with only 36 cards. This structural change alters the probability of certain hands enough that the ranking order itself shifts: a Flush becomes rarer than a Full House in a 36-card deck (the opposite of standard rankings), so Flush ranks above Full House in Short Deck specifically - a genuine exception to the "same ranking everywhere" rule that applies to every other variant covered in this guide.

Razz (Ace-to-Five lowball): Inverts the entire ranking system - the lowest hand wins. Straights and flushes are ignored entirely for ranking purposes, and Aces always play low. The best possible Razz hand is 5-4-3-2-A.

Omaha Hi-Lo: Splits the pot between the highest qualifying hand and the lowest qualifying hand (typically requiring a hand of 8-or-better with no pairs, called an "8-or-better" qualifier) - meaning a single hand of Omaha Hi-Lo can produce two different winners from opposite ends of the standard ranking spectrum simultaneously.

Frequently asked questions

What is a side pot and when does it form?

A side pot forms when a player goes all-in for less than a full call, and other players continue betting further. The all-in player can only win the main pot (everything wagered up to their all-in point); any additional betting between remaining players goes into a separate side pot the all-in player has no claim to.

What's the difference between no-limit, pot-limit, and fixed-limit hold'em?

No-Limit allows betting any amount up to your full stack at any time. Pot-Limit caps the maximum bet or raise at the current pot size. Fixed-Limit uses predetermined bet sizes for each betting round. Hand rankings and basic gameplay flow stay identical across all three - only how much you can bet at any moment changes.

What beats a full house?

Only three hands: Four of a Kind, a Straight Flush, and a Royal Flush. Nothing else beats a Full House. If two players both hold a Full House, the one with the higher three-of-a-kind portion wins.

Do suits matter for breaking ties in poker?

No, not in standard poker rules followed at regulated UK and US cardrooms and online poker sites. If two hands are genuinely identical down to every relevant card and kicker, the pot is split evenly - called a "chop." Suits have no inherent ranking against each other.

Is "three pair" a real hand in Texas hold'em?

No - a poker hand can only use exactly five cards, so what might look like three pairs across your hole cards and the board actually resolves to your best two pair, with your highest remaining card acting as the kicker.

Do i have to use my hole cards in Texas hold'em?

No. You can build your best five-card hand using both hole cards plus three community cards, one hole card plus four community cards, or - if the community cards alone already form the strongest available hand - all five community cards, effectively "playing the board" and ignoring your hole cards.

Are poker hand rankings the same in every variant?

Almost always, yes - Texas Hold'em, PLO, and Seven-Card Stud all share the identical ranking hierarchy. The clearest exception is Short Deck, where removing low cards from the deck makes Flushes rarer than Full Houses, flipping their relative ranking. Lowball variants like Razz invert the entire system so the lowest hand wins.

This guide is for educational purposes. Gambling problem? In the UK: BeGambleAware.org | 0808 8020 133. In the US: 1-800-GAMBLER. Information correct as of September 2026.