All variations of poker uses hand rankings, so it is important to understand them to have a good future at poker, whether you plan to play online, on your weekly poker night with friends or at a casino. After you’ve understood and mastered how rankings work, you can make an informed decision whether you would play a hand or not. Since all poker games follow the same hand rankings, you only need to learn one kind of hand ranking. Here are the standard hand rankings listed from highest to lowest:

1) Royal flush – The highest possible hand in poker, royal flush consists of an ace straight flush, such as 10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace in the same suit.
2) Straight flush – This hand consists of five consecutive cards all in the same suit, which contains a flush and a straight, such as 4-5-6-7-8 or 9-10-J-Q-K.
3) Four-of-a-kind – This hand is a combination of four cards of the same rank, such as Q-Q-Q-Q or 5-5-5-5 and any unmatched card.
4) Full house – This hand consists of three cards with the same rank and two pairs of identical ranking cards, such as 4-4-4-9-9 or J-J-J-2-2 and so on. If two or more players have a full house on the same round, the player with the higher ranked three-of-a-kind wins the game.
5) Flush – This hand consists of five cards of the same suit. It can be five different diamonds, hearts, clubs or spades. If two or more players have a flush hand at the same time, the one with the higher-ranking card wins.
6) Straight – This hand consists of five consecutive cards with different suits, such as 8-9-10-J-Q or 4-5-6-7-8 and so on. If other players also have straight hands, the player with the highest-ranking cards wins.
7) Two-pair – As its name suggest, this hand consists of two sets of the same ranking cards and one unmatched card, such as 2-2-4-4-5 or Q-Q-9-9-4 and so on.
One-pair – This hand consists of three unmatched cards and two cards of the same rank, such as A-A-4-6-8, J-J-9-8-7 and so on.
9) High card – When none of the players are able to make any of the poker hand rankings, they each have a high card and the one with the higher-ranked card wins.

The highest-ranking card is Ace, but it can also be used as the lowest for straights, if used as A-2-3-4-5. Regardless of the number of cards given to a player, a poker hand only consists of five cards. No poker game uses wildcards, jokers and other cards aside from the 52 standard cards on a deck. Make sure you understand and master all poker hand rankings before you play poker.