What Beats What in Poker: Head-to-Head Matchups
What beats what in poker follows a fixed ranking order, and most disputes at the table happen between hands sitting close together on that ladder. This article settles the pairwise questions directly: does a flush beat a straight, what happens when two players hold the same hand, and where quads and a full house land against each other. For how each hand gets built card by card, the hands glossary covers that ground.
Flush vs Straight: Which One Wins
A flush beats a straight in every standard poker variant. The five-card ranking order places a flush above a straight because five cards of one suit are harder to draw than five cards in sequence. So when the question is what wins in poker straight or flush, the flush takes the pot, regardless of the straight's high card.
This rule holds even when the straight runs ace-high and the flush is low. Suit never breaks a tie and never adds value on its own. A straight flush, however, outranks a plain flush, combining both patterns in one hand.
Variant Note
Full House vs Quads and Trips
Four of a kind, commonly called quads, beats a full house every time. Poker rules what beats what places quads above a full house because matching all four copies of a rank is far rarer than pairing three of a kind with a separate pair. In the quads vs full house poker comparison, quads always wins outright.
The reverse question, what beats quads in poker, has only one answer within standard hand rankings: a straight flush. Nothing else on the chart clears four of a kind. As for what does quads beat in poker, the answer is everything below it — full house, flush, straight, trips, two pair, one pair, and high card all lose to quads.
A full house, in turn, beats trips (three of a kind) because it adds a paired kicker to the three matching cards. Between two full houses, the hand with the higher three-of-a-kind wins, even if the opponent holds a higher pair.
| Matchup | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Flush vs Straight | Flush | Flush ranks higher on the standard hand order |
| Quads vs Full House | Quads | Four matching cards outrank three-plus-two |
| Full House vs Trips | Full House | The extra pair beats an unpaired kicker |
| Straight Flush vs Quads | Straight Flush | Only hand that outranks four of a kind |
| Two Pair vs One Pair | Two Pair | A second pair outranks a single pair |
When Two Hands Are the Same
Who wins in poker if both have a pair comes down to the pair's rank first, then the kickers. A pair of kings beats a pair of jacks outright. If both players hold the identical pair — for example, both have a pair of tens from a shared board — the next-highest kicker card decides the pot.
When every card ties, including all kickers in order, the pot splits evenly between the players. This happens most often in community-card games like Texas hold'em, where the board itself can form the best five-card hand for more than one player at the table. No suit, chip stack, or position ever breaks a genuine tie; the rules simply divide the pot.
- Compare the hand category first — a flush always beats a straight regardless of rank
- Within the same category, compare the highest-ranked card or set
- If that's equal, move to the next kicker in descending order
- If all five cards match exactly, the pot splits between the tied players
Kicker Order Matters
Straight and Flush Ties Explained
Two straights are compared by their highest card; a queen-high straight beats a jack-high straight even though both run five cards deep. Two flushes compare their highest card first, then work down through each remaining card until one hand pulls ahead or the two split the pot.
These same principles extend to every category on the ranking chart. Two pair compares the higher pair first, then the lower pair, then the kicker. Three of a kind compares the trip rank alone, since no kicker changes a set's standing. A standard external reference on the subject is Wikipedia's list of poker hands.