Poker hand ranking is used to determine the winning player in a poker game. The "hand" consists of five cards and ranked based on the predetermined rules of the type (or format) of a poker game being played, which can vary.
A poker hand ranking is determined by the type of cards that the player has gotten from a shuffled deck of poker cards. The basic rule is that the strongest hand (set of five cards) will be those that come from the same rank, from the same suit or with consecutive values.
Each card in a deck is assigned a particular value. Individual cards Q, K, J, 10 to 2 and A are ranked "A" or high, while Suits have zero value.
In reading and exposing poker hand rankings, the most important or high value card is on the left, with the value decreasing towards the right. The overall or total value is the same.
Standard rankings include the highest combination which is the Straight Flush, a sequence of five cards from the same suit (heart, diamond, etc.). This is followed by Four Of A Kind or quads (has four cards belonging to one rank and the other card from another rank). The third is the Full House which has three matching cards of the same rank and the two other cards belonging to another rank. The fourth is called Flush which consists of five cards of the same suit sequence as against rank sequence. The fifth is the Straight where the five cards are of sequential ranking but they belong to varying suits. There's also the Three Of A Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and the High Card.
