A hand consisting of J-9-7-4-2 would thus beat a hand consisting of J-9-5-4-3.Ī hand like Q-Q-10-A-5 is called 'a pair of Queens'. If another player also has a 'nothing' hand with the same highest card as you, you compare the second highest cards, and so on down. Such a hand is ranked according to its highest card. The individual ranking of the cards is the usual one, meaning Ace is the highest and 2 is the lowest. This hand you would call 'Jack high only'. An example would be J-9-7-4-2 in at least two different suits. This 'nothing' hand does not contain any pair, nor are the cards in numerical sequence or all of the same suit. Remember that all four suits rank equally in correct poker! Here is the ranking order, from bottom to top:

(OK, there are a few rare exceptions among odd forms of poker.) In some forms of poker you will start with fewer than five cards and you will at the end have more than five cards, but even so you must choose the five cards among these which will make up your poker hand – the other cards then play no part. Once again I remind you that a poker hand by definition consists of five cards, no more, no less.

It is time to list the accepted ranking order among the various possible hands, which applies to over 99% of all forms of poker and also to list the existing tie-breaking rules.

Poker 3 king vs 2 ace