Ten hand types decide which five-card poker hand wins, ranked from Royal Flush at the top to High Card at the bottom. The order below is the complete list, with no numbers attached.
| Rank | Hand |
|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Flush |
| 2 | Straight Flush |
| 3 | Four of a Kind |
| 4 | Full House |
| 5 | Flush |
| 6 | Straight |
| 7 | Three of a Kind |
| 8 | Two Pair |
| 9 | One Pair |
| 10 | High Card |
How to use the order at the table
Read the list from rank 1 downward. When two players reach showdown, compare hand types first: a Flush at rank 5 beats a Straight at rank 6 no matter how high the cards inside each hand are. Only after both players hold the same type do you compare the cards themselves. That single step removes most of the guesswork from a showdown, because you do not have to weigh a high Straight against a low Flush. The type settles it before the cards do.
Keep the order in mind before showdown as well. If the board already shows three cards of one suit, a Flush becomes a real possibility for anyone still in the hand, and a made Straight is no longer the safest holding. The ranking tells you which outcomes outrank yours, so it also tells you what you are rooting against while the remaining cards are dealt.
What the order does not cover
The list says nothing about how often each type appears. High Card sits last in strength but is the most common result, and Royal Flush sits first while being the rarest. Those are two different questions, and mixing them up is why a player can overvalue a hand that looks impressive in the ranking but is ordinary in practice. For the counts behind each type, see the full hand rankings chart or the poker odds chart.
The order also stops at the hand type. Two players holding the same type are separated by their highest cards and then by kickers, which this table deliberately leaves out. A reference that tries to carry both jobs at once gets hard to scan. This one answers a single question: which type wins. Use a separate reference when you need the tie-breaking rules.
Reading it as a checklist
Work down from the top when you are counting outs or deciding whether a draw is worth chasing. Ask which of the ten types you can still make, then ask which of them would beat what an opponent is likely to hold. A draw to a type ranked higher than your opponent’s likely made hand is worth more than a draw to one ranked lower. The order gives you a fixed scale for that comparison, so the decision does not shift with how the hand feels at the moment. It also stops you from chasing a draw that would only complete a type your opponent already holds in a stronger form.