What is poker hand ranking?

In poker games, a hand is a set of 5 cards drawn from the deck of 52 cards in 4 suits.

Hand ranking is a set of rules to determine which hand has a higher rank between 2 hands.

Rule 1: A hand in a stronger hand category ranks higher. Below is a list of hand categories starting from the strongest.

• Straight Flush - 5 cards are of the same suit and have sequential values, such as Q♣ J♣ 10♣ 9♣ 8♣, A♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦ 10♦, or 5â™  4â™  3â™  2â™  Aâ™ . Note that Ace (A) can be used as value 13 or 1. The probability of "Straight Flush" is about 0.0015%.
• Four of a Kind - 4 of 5 cards have the same value, such as 9♣ 9â™  9♦ 9♥ J♥. The probability of "Four of a Kind" is about 0.0240%.
• Full House - 3 of 5 cards have the same value and the other 2 cards also have the same value, such as 7♥ 7♦ 7â™  4â™  4♣. The probability of "Full House" is about 0.1441%.
• Flush - 5 cards are of the same suit, but not in sequence, such as Q♣ 10♣ 7♣ 6♣ 4♣. The probability of "Flush" is about 0.1960%.
• Straight - 5 cards have sequencial numers, such as A♣ K♣ Qâ™  Jâ™  10â™ , or 5♥ 4♦ 3♦ 2♥ A♥. Note that Ace (A) can be used as value 13 or 1. The probability of "Flush" is about 0.3900%.
• Three of a Kind - 3 of 5 cards have the same value and the other 2 have different values, such as 2♦ 2♥ 2♣ Kâ™  6â™ . The probability of "Flush" is about 2.1100%.
• Two Pair - 2 cards share same value and another 2 have a different value, such as 8♥ 8♣ 4â™  4♣ 10â™ . The probability of "Two Pair" is about 4.7500%.
• One Pair - 2 cards share same value and the other 3 have different values, such as 4♥ 4♦ Kâ™  10♣ 5â™ . The probability of "Two Pair" is about 42.2600%.
• High Card - 5 cards are not of the same suit, not have sequential values, and not share any values, such as K♥ J♥ 8♦ 7♣ 4â™ . The probability of "High Card" is about 50.1100%.

Rule 2: Two hands of the same category are ranked using the following rules in order:

• The hand with higher "Four of a Kind" value ranks higher. For example, 7♣ 7â™  7♦ 7♥ J♥ ranks higher than 5♣ 5â™  5♦ 5♥ K♣.
• The hand with higher "Three of a Kind" value ranks higher. For example, Qâ™  Q♥ Q♦ 7â™  4♣ ranks higher than Jâ™  J♣ J♦ A♦ K♣.
• The hand with higher "Pair" value ranks higher. For example, 10â™  10♣ 8♥ 8♣ 4â™  ranks higher than 10♥ 10♦ 4♥ 4♣ Q♣.
• The hand with higher "Card" value ranks higher. For example, Q♣ Jâ™  10â™  9♥ 8♥ ranks higher than 10♣ 9♦ 8â™  7♣ 6â™ .