Texas Holdem Poker Ranking Hands

Since we just went over the basics of texas hold em poker, let's expand a little bit on the cards and how the hands rank. Texas hold em poker is played with a normal poker deck of cards. Consisting of 52 cards in four suits.

A suit, is a category of cards. The four suits consist of hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds. Each suit has 13 cards, starting with the ace and working up to the king. Note: the ace can either be the highest or lowest card in each suit depending on how you want to play your hand. The rank of the cards is, ace - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - J - Q - K - ace

That said let's look at some of the more common hands in texas hold em poker. Starting with the ones with the highest of value.

Royal Flush, Five card hand consisting of the ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all in the same suit.

Straight Flush, five cards in the same suit that are in order, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Four of a Kind, Four cards of the same rank. 4 kings, jacks, tens, etc.

Full House, Three cards of one rank and two of another. Example 3 queens and 2 fives

Flush, Any five cards of the same suit in no particular order.

Straight or Run, Five cards in order, same suit. Example 5, 6, 7, 8 ,9 of spades.

Three of a Kind, Three cards all of the same rank. Example three fives.

Two Pair, Two pairs of matching cards in the same rank. Example 2 fours and 2 fives.

One Pair, One pair of matching cards in the same rank. Example 2 aces.

High Card, highest card in your hand. Ace is low or high, your choice.

Now that we have a basic understanding of poker hands in texas hold em poker, our next blog entry will cover an example of how a texas hold em poker game might go. In the meantime, if you have not done so already, I suggest you Download The Free Poker Software so that you can test out your new found texas hold em poker skills one on one against live competition from around the world for FREE!