Most poker games use the standard high-hand ranking, from royal flush to high card. Lowball games use ace-to-five or deuce-to-seven rankings, and hi-lo games split the pot between high and low hands. Badugi and Short Deck have rankings of their own.
Short Deck rules differ on whether a straight beats three of a kind (2.22).
Whatever a game deals you, your hand at showdown is the best five-card combination that game lets you make. In 7-Card Stud that is the best five of your seven cards; in Texas Hold'em it is the best five from your two hole cards and the five on the board; in a five-card draw game it is the five you hold. Cards beyond those five play no part in the ranking.
Some games limit which cards you may combine. In Omaha you must use exactly two of your hole cards with exactly three from the board. Each game's chapter says what its hand is made of.
Two hands whose best five cards rank the same are tied, however their remaining cards compare. A sixth or seventh card is never brought in as an extra kicker.
Example: in Hold'em the board is 10-10-6-6-A. Ana holds K-3 and Ben holds 9-2. Both play the board's two pair with the ace, 10-10-6-6-A, because the ace is better than anything either of them holds. Ana's king is a sixth card and does not count. They split the pot.
In standard poker no suit outranks another when two hands are compared. Two flushes with the same five ranks tie, even if one is in spades and the other in clubs, and so do two royal flushes. A suit matters only for deciding whether five cards are a flush (and, in Badugi, which cards may count, 2.18).
Card rooms do rank the suits, from the top: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. That order is used for things other than winning a pot: drawing for the button, deciding who brings it in at stud (Blinds, antes and bring-ins), and giving out an odd chip at stud (8.9). Some home games do break ties by suit. pagat.com describes that as a house rule with no agreed method, and Robert's Rules rules it out for winning a pot.
2.4 The ace is the highest card, and the lowest in a five-high straight
In high poker the ace ranks above the king. It may also play below the two, but only to make the straight 5-4-3-2-A (the wheel), which counts as five high. Everywhere else, as a single card, in a pair or in a flush, the ace is high. Lowball games change this rule, each in its own way (2.11, 2.13).
A royal flush is simply the highest straight flush; some lists don't give it a line of its own. The order is the same in every game that uses high hands, except short deck (2.21). Without wild cards there is no five of a kind.
2.6 Any hand in a higher category beats any hand in a lower one
The category decides first, and the ranks of the cards only matter between two hands of the same category. The smallest full house, 2-2-2-3-3, beats the best flush. A pair of twos beats A-K-Q-J-9 with no pair.
2.7 Straights rank by their top card, and don't turn the corner
Between two straights, the one with the higher top card wins: 9-8-7-6-5 beats 8-7-6-5-4. A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest straight. The wheel, 5-4-3-2-A, is the lowest, because it counts as five high: 6-5-4-3-2 beats it.
A straight can't wrap around from the top to the bottom. Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight; it is just ace high. The same rules apply to straight flushes, so the wheel in one suit is the lowest straight flush.
2.8 Inside a category, the matched cards decide first, then the kickers
When two hands are in the same category, you compare the cards that make the category first, and then the leftover cards, the kickers, from the highest down. Only if all five cards match in rank is it a tie.
Hand
Compare first
Then
Straight flush, straight
The top card
Nothing else: equal top cards tie
Four of a kind
The rank of the four
The fifth card
Full house
The rank of the three
The rank of the pair
Flush
The highest card
Each next card down, to the fifth
Three of a kind
The rank of the three
The higher kicker, then the lower
Two pair
The higher pair
The lower pair, then the fifth card
One pair
The pair
The three kickers, highest first
High card
The highest card
Each next card down, to the fifth
So 3-3-3-2-2 beats 2-2-2-A-A (the three decides, not the pair), Q-Q-5-5-2 beats Q-Q-4-4-A (the lower pair decides before the kicker), and K-K-9-7-3 beats K-K-9-6-5 (the third kicker decides).
Find each player's best five cards under the game's rules (2.1).
Name each hand's category (2.5). If the categories differ, the higher one wins (2.6), and you're done.
If the categories are the same, compare the cards that make the category: the four, the three, or the pairs, the most important first (2.8).
If those are equal, compare the kickers one at a time, highest first.
If all five ranks are equal, the hands tie. Suits don't count (2.3) and nor do any other cards (2.2). The pot is split (8.7).
Example: the board is K-9-7-4-2 in mixed suits. Ana holds K-Q and Ben holds K-J. Both have one pair (step 2). The pairs are both kings (step 3). The kickers are compared next: Ana's best five are K-K-Q-9-7 and Ben's are K-K-J-9-7. The queen beats the jack at the first kicker, so Ana wins (step 4).
2.10 In lowball the lowest hand wins, compared from the top card down
In lowball games the pot goes to the lowest hand instead of the highest. Low hands are compared by their highest card first: the hand whose top card is lower wins. If the top cards are the same, compare the next card down, and so on through all five. So 8-5-4-3-2 beats 8-6-4-3-2: the top cards are both eights, and at the second card 5 is lower than 6.
There are two main ways of ranking low hands, ace-to-five (2.11) and deuce-to-seven (2.13). They differ in whether the ace is low and whether straights and flushes count. A home game that just says "lowball" should agree which one it means before the first hand.
2.11 Ace-to-five: the ace is low and straights and flushes don't count
In ace-to-five lowball (also called California lowball) the ace is always the lowest card, and straights and flushes are ignored: five cards are judged only by their ranks. The best hand is 5-4-3-2-A, the wheel, even when it is all one suit. Next comes 6-4-3-2-A, then 6-5-3-2-A.
This ranking is used in Razz, A-5 Triple Draw and the low half of hi-lo games (2.15).
2.12 Ace-to-five: any hand without a pair beats any hand with one
In ace-to-five, a hand with no pair always beats a hand with a pair, whatever the ranks: K-Q-J-10-9 beats A-A-2-3-4. Among paired hands, one pair beats two pair, which beats three of a kind, and so on. Between two hands with one pair, the lower pair wins, and the ace is the lowest pair: A-A beats 2-2. Then the kickers are compared from the top down.
2.13 Deuce-to-seven: the ace is high and straights and flushes count against you
In deuce-to-seven lowball (also called Kansas City lowball) the worst ordinary high hand wins. The ace is always high, and a straight or a flush is a made hand, so it counts against you. The best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 in at least two suits, which gives the game its name. Next comes 7-6-4-3-2, then 7-6-5-3-2.
From the best down, the order is: no pair (and no straight or flush), one pair, two pair, three of a kind, a straight, a flush, a full house, four of a kind, a straight flush. Inside each category the lower hand wins. A pair of aces is the highest pair, so it loses to every other pair.
This ranking is used in 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw.
2.14 In deuce-to-seven, A-5-4-3-2 is ace high, not a straight
Because the ace is never low in deuce-to-seven, 5-4-3-2-A is not a straight. It is a no-pair hand with an ace on top. It beats every pair and every other ace-high hand, and loses to every no-pair hand topped by a king or lower. In one suit it is an ace-high flush.
Example: Ana shows A-5-4-3-2 and Ben shows K-Q-J-10-8. Both are no-pair hands, compared from the top card: Ben's king is lower than Ana's ace, so Ben wins.
In hi-lo split games such as Omaha Hi-Lo and 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo, a hand can win the low half of the pot only if it qualifies: five cards of different ranks, all eight or lower, with the ace counting as one. Straights and flushes don't spoil a low. Qualifying lows are ranked against each other by ace-to-five (2.11). The best is 5-4-3-2-A and the worst that still qualifies is 8-7-6-5-4.
If no hand qualifies, there is no low, and the best high hand takes the whole pot (8.11). The high half needs no qualifier.
Example: in Omaha Hi-Lo the board is K-8-6-3-2. A player holding A-4-J-J uses A-4 with 6-3-2 to make 6-4-3-2-A, a qualifying six low. A player holding A-K-Q-9 has only one card of eight or lower, and Omaha takes exactly two cards from the hand, so that player has no low.
2.16 A hi-lo hand may use different cards for the high and the low
In a hi-lo game a player makes the best high hand and the best low hand separately, and they may use the same cards or different ones. In 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo any five of your seven cards may make each hand. In Omaha Hi-Lo each hand still takes exactly two cards from your hand and three from the board, but the two you use for the low need not be the two you use for the high.
Example: in Omaha Hi-Lo, holding A-2-K-K on a board of K-7-5-4-9, you have three kings for high (K-K with K-9-7) and a seven low, 7-5-4-2-A, for low (A-2 with 7-5-4).
2.18 A badugi is four cards of four suits and four ranks
Badugi is a four-card lowball game. The best hand is a badugi: four cards that are all of different suits and all of different ranks. The ace is low, and straights mean nothing. The best possible hand is A-2-3-4 with one card of each suit.
If two of your cards share a suit or a rank, they can't both count. Your hand is then the largest set of cards with no shared suit and no shared rank, and if there is a choice of sets that size, the lowest one.
Example: you hold the 9 of hearts, 6 of hearts, 6 of spades and 2 of hearts. Three are hearts, and two are sixes, so the most you can keep is two cards: the 2 of hearts and the 6 of spades, a two-card 6-2.
2.19 More cards beat fewer: four-card, three-card and two-card hands
A four-card badugi beats every three-card hand, a three-card hand beats every two-card hand, and a two-card hand beats every one-card hand, whatever the ranks. So K-Q-J-10 in four suits beats A-2-3 in three.
2.20 Badugi hands of the same size compare from the top card down
Between two hands with the same number of cards, compare the highest cards first, and the lower one wins. If they match, compare the next card down, and so on. So 7-6-5-4 beats 8-3-2-A, and 8-5-3-2 beats 8-6-2-A. Suits never matter: two hands with the same ranks tie and split the pot.
Short deck (also called six-plus) is Hold'em played with 36 cards: the twos through fives are taken out. With only nine cards of each suit, flushes are harder to make, so short deck ranks a flush above a full house. The rest of the order is a separate question (2.22).
2.22 Short deck: rooms disagree on a straight against three of a kind
When short deck first spread, three of a kind ranked above a straight. Today the larger venues put the straight higher: Card Player describes that as the mainstream standard, used at Triton Poker Series events and most online sites, and pokerfuse reports the same for GGPoker and PokerStars. Both note that some games still rank three of a kind higher.
On a board of 9-8-7-K-K, Ana holds 10-6 for a ten-high straight and Ben holds K-Q for three kings. Under the usual order Ana wins; where three of a kind ranks higher, Ben does. Agree which order you play before the first hand.
With no twos through fives in the deck, the ace plays low next to the six instead. A-6-7-8-9 is the lowest straight and counts as nine high, so 10-9-8-7-6 beats it. A-K-Q-J-10 is still the highest. There is no 5-4-3-2-A.