Like in most poker games a poker hand consists of 5 cards. In Texas Hold’em no notice is taken of the different card suits. (For example spades are not worth more than diamonds). The ace has the highest card value followed by king, queen etc down to two. Below you will find a list of card combinations that make out the different rank of hands. We start with the hand lowest in rank and continue to the hand with the highest rank. A hand of higher rank always beats a hand of lower rank.

• High card. If you have none of the below hands (i.e you have nothing) then your hand is judged by it’s highest card.
• Pair. Two cards of the same kind (ex 3,3)
• Two pair. (ex 3,3,5,5)
• Three of a kind. (ex 7,7,7)
• Straight. Five consecutive cards (not of the same suit). (ex 4,5,6,7,8,9). 
• Flush. Five cards of the same suit.
• Full house. Three of a kind and a pair. (ex 4,4,5,5,5)
• Four of a kind. (ex 4,4,4,4)
• Straight flush. Five consecutive cards of the same suit.
• Royal straight flush. The five highest cards (from ace to ten) of the same suit.

By looking at the list you can quite quickly distinguish that a pair beats a hand with only a high card. But what happens if you both have the same hand? Who wins? Well usually this is quite easy to distinguish.

If you both have a pair or two pair the player with the highest pair wins. If you both have three of a kind or a full house then the one holding the highest “trips” wins. If you and your opponent have the same flush it is the person with the highest card of the suit that wins. If you have both have straights then it´s the straight with the highest cards that wins.

But what happens if you have the same pair?  

If you have the same pair (if you don´t well then the highest pair wins) then it´s the highest other card (of the remaining three) that decides the winning hand. If you both hold a pair of aces and one of you holds a king and the other a queen the person holding the king wins. This high card in this case is also known as the “kicker”. The higher kicker you have the better hand you have.

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