Five Card Draw Poker Hand Rankings

As with all the different types of poker games, there are ten basic hands that play into whether you will win or lose that hand. However, with Five Card Draw, it is much easier to create great hands because you have more options available to you, and up to ten cards to play from. So, once you’ve decided to stay in the betting rounds, you will need to know what hands you can make from your cards to win the pot.

 

The easiest hand to form is a High Card hand, where you win the pot with the highest card in play on the table. This is then beatable by a Pair, as even something as simple as a Pair of 2’s will beat out an Ace high hand. Next comes the Two Pair, which is two sets of cards that have the same value. The highest of the common hands is the Three of a Kind, which is where you have three cards of identical values.  

Once you pass the basic hands, you get into Straights and Flushes. Straights are hands are where you have consecutive numbers that are in play. The higher the consecutive numbers, the better the hand will be, and the more likely it is that you will win. Flushes come next on the list, and are cards that have various values but that are all the same suit.  

After Flushes, you have the more rare poker hands. The first is what’s known as a Full House. This is where you have a Three of a Kind and pair in your hand. The higher the Three of a Kind, the more likely you are to win the pot. Then you have Four of a Kind, which is four cards of the same value. Next is a Straight Flush, this is where you get a Straight that is all the same suit. This is an extremely rare and difficult to get hand, but if you do, there is only one hand that will beat it.  

Finally, you have the rarest and most advanced hand, the Royal Flush. The Royal Flush is a Straight that is Ace High. This hand will beat any other hand on the table, but will split the pot with another Royal Flush, as all of them are equal.