What beats what in poker (List)

1. Royal Flush
The Royal flush beats every other poker hand. This is the ultimate hand in poker of course. You have a royal flush when you hold the 10-J-Q-K-A all of the same suit. Typically, you only make royal flushes a handful of times in your lifetime… But it does happens, I’ve hit a few myself!

2. Straight Flush
A straight flush is a combination of five cards of the same suit in the same order. For example, 5-6-7-8-9 is a 9 high straight flush. What does the straight flush beat? Every possible hand combination except higher straight flushes (say 10 high) and the royal flush. If you have a straight flush the probably of you having the best hand versus one opponent on the river is way above 99.99%.

3. Four of a kind
This is when you hold four of the same card, say 4-4-4-4-9

4. Full House
This is when you have three of a kind plus a pair, for example QQKKK

5. FLush
All of your cards are of the exact same suit. They can be in order or not. For example J4616 all of hearts.

6. Straight
You hold five cards that are connected in a row, not necessarily of the same suit, say A-2-3-4-5

7. Three of a Kind
As the name indicates, if you hold three cards of the same number in your hand, you have three of a kind.
Three of a kind gets beat by a straight however.

8. Two Pair
A very nice heads-up or shorthanded, two pair is when you hold two cards of the same number or rank. If you have K-K-5-5-9 you’ve got two pair: Kings and fives.

9. One pair
This is the hand most beginners go broke with. This is when your hand only contains two cards of the same number say 7-7

10. High Card
If a player has none of the above, the player with the highest hand in their hand will win the pot. The high card get beat by every other hand combination in poker. Some professional poker players will sometimes call down on the river with ace high when they suspect that their opponents are bluffing. But this requires very accurate reads and is really suited for heads-up play.