Poker is a game of chance and luck. However, when you introduce the concept of betting, poker gains quite a bit of skill and psychology. This is meant as a very basic primer into the rules of poker, for more information, get a book on the game or start playing with a group of people who know how. It's more expensive than reading a book, but the group won't mind!.
 

• Texas Hold'em is the most popular form of poker in the world. It’s what you see played on TV, and it’s what determines each year’s poker champ at the World Series of Poker. If you’re new to poker, start here.
   
• Omaha High and Omaha 8 or Better are closely related to Texas Hold’em. The main difference is that you are dealt four cards instead of two, and your five card hand must be formed by two cards from your hand and three community cards. Strategies for winning differ significantly from Texas Hold’em.
   
• Seven Card Stud and Stud 8 or Better are very different from either Texas Hold’em or Omaha. Each player is dealt his or her own hand, and if you don’t like the hand you’ve been dealt you throw it in the pile. As a result, each player still in the hand must keep track of discarded cards so they can better estimate their chances and calculate other players’ odds.

PartyPoker - Ranking of Poker Hands:

Ranking of Poker Hands
 

Standard Poker Hand Ranking

There are 52 cards in the pack, and the ranking of the individual cards, from high to low, is ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. There is no ranking between the suits - so for example the king of hearts and the king of spades are equal.

A poker hand consists of five cards. The categories of Poker hand, from highest to lowest, are listed below. Any hand in a higher category beats any hand in a lower category (so for example any three of a kind beats any two pairs). Between poker hands in the same category the rank of the individual cards decides which is better, as described in more detail below.

In poker games where a player has more than five cards and selects five to form a poker hand, the remaining cards do not play any part in the ranking. Poker ranks are always based on five cards only.

Some readers may wonder why I deal with the case of (say) two threes of a kind of equal rank. This obviously cannot arise in standard poker, but such comparisons are needed in some other games using poker combinations.

No.1 Royal Flush

This is the highest poker hand. It consists of ace, king, queen, jack, ten, all in the same suit. As all suits are equal, all royal flushes are equal.

No.2 Straight Flush

Five cards of the same suit in sequence
Straight with all five cards in the same suit.

No.3 Four of a kind

Four cards of the same rank - such as four queens. The fifth card can be anything. This combination is sometimes known as "quads", and in some parts of Europe it is called a "poker", though this term for it is unknown in English. Between two fours of a kind, the one with the higher set of four cards is higher - so 3-3-3-3-A is beaten by 4-4-4-4-2. It can't happen in standard poker, but if in some other game you need to compare two fours of a kind where the sets of four cards are of the same rank, then the one with the higher fifth card is better.

No.4 Full House

This consists of three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank - for example three sevens and two tens (colloquially known as "sevens full" or more specifically "sevens on tens"). When comparing full houses, the rank of the three cards determines which is higher. For example 9-9-9-4-4 beats 8-8-8-A-A. If the threes of a kind were equal, the rank of the pairs would decide.

No.5 Flush

Five cards of the same suit. When comparing two flushes, the highest card determines which is higher. If the highest cards are equal then the second highest card is compared; if those are equal too, then the third highest card, and so on.

No.6 Straight

Five cards in sequence. Cards can be in any suit. An Ace can be used in the highest straight (10, J, Q, K, A) and the lowest straight (A, 2, 3, 4, 5).

No.7 Three of a Kind

Three cards of the same rank plus two other cards. This combination is also known as Triplets or Trips. When comparing two threes of a kind the hand in which the three equal cards are of higher rank is better. So for example 5-5-5-3-2 beats 4-4-4-K-Q. If you have to compare two threes of a kind where the sets of three are of equal rank, then the higher of the two remaining cards in each hand are compared, and if those are equal, the lower odd card is compared.

No.8 Two Pairs

A pair is two cards of equal rank. In a hand with two pairs, the two pairs are of different ranks (otherwise you would have four of a kind), and there is an odd card to make the hand up to five cards. When comparing hands with two pairs, the hand with the highest pair wins, irrespective of the rank of the other cards - so J-J-2-2-4 beats 10-10-9-9-8 because the jacks beat the tens. If the higher pairs are equal, the lower pairs are compared, so that for example 8-8-6-6-3 beats 8-8-5-5-K. Finally, if both pairs are the same, the odd cards are compared, so Q-Q-5-5-8 beats Q-Q-5-5-4.

No.9 Pair

A hand with two cards of equal rank and three other cards which do not match these or each other. When comparing two such hands, the hand with the higher pair is better - so for example 6-6-4-3-2 beats 5-5-A-K-Q. If the pairs are equal, compare the highest ranking odd cards from each hand; if these are equal compare the second highest odd card, and if these are equal too compare the lowest odd cards. So J-J-A-9-3 beats J-J-A-8-7 because the 9 beats the 8.

No.10 High Card

Five cards which do not form any of the combinations listed above. When comparing two such hands, the one with the better highest card wins. If the highest cards are equal the second cards are compared; if they are equal too the third cards are compared, and so on. So A-J-9-5-3 beats A-10-9-6-4 because the jack beats the ten.

Notes on Low Poker

When playing games in which the lowest hand wins, there are some modifications to the ranking. These may not be universal, so should be discussed in advance when starting a game with new players. As far as I can tell, the most usual rules are:

• straights and flushes do not count as combinations
• aces count as low, below the twos
• a hand is always considered to belong to the highest category into which it fits - for example 7-7-7-5-5 counts as a full house - not (for example) as a pair with three odd cards that happen to be equal.

With these rules the best low hand is 5-4-3-2-A, which does not count as a straight in this case.

Notice that because aces are low, a pair of aces is the lowest, and in this context therefore the best pair, beating a pair of deuces.

Variations that I know of include:

• recognising straights and flushes: in this version the best hand is 6-4-3-2-A of mixed suits;
• playing with aces always high: in this version (with straights and flushes also counting) the best low hand is 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits.

Ranking of poker suits

In standard poker there is no ranking of suits. If two hands are identical apart from the suits of the cards then they count as equal. In standard poker, if there are two highest equal hands in a showdown, the pot is split between them.

However, Franco Pratesi has informed me that in Italy there is a generally accepted ranking of suits in poker. The ranking is: hearts (high), diamonds, clubs, spades (low). These ranks are used to break ties between otherwise equal hands. Other players in different places use other suit rankings - for example Ken Pikus (kpikus@chemonics.com) and John (jqv77@hotmail.com) report that their circles play with the ranking spades (high), hearts, clubs, diamonds (low); Rudolf Lercher (WLNLER@rlb-noe.raiffeisen.at) and his friends play with the ranking hearts (high), diamonds, spades, clubs (low).

Note if you do play with a suit ranking, it is not at all obvious how it should apply when comparing hands with mixed suits, and careful discussion in advance is needed to avoid unpleasant arguments later.

Poker Hand Ranking with Wild Cards

A wild card is a particular card, often a joker, which can be used to substitute for any card the holder wishes, even a duplicate of a card the holder already has. Several cards may be designated as wild - for example all the twos. This must be agreed in advance.

The hand ranking is the same as described above, except that it is now possible to have five of a kind - five cards of the same rank - in which of course at least one will be represented by a wild card. Five of a kind is the highest combination, beating a Royal Flush.