What is the highest hand in poker?

The highest hand in poker is the royal flush.

What is the highest hand in poker?

The royal flush is the single best hand you can hold: A-K-Q-J-10 all of the same suit. It outranks every other combination, is impossible to beat, and can only ever be matched by another royal flush for a split pot. Everything below it — from the straight flush down to a bare high card — loses to it.

Try it yourself: use our free poker equity calculator to compare any two hands and see the exact odds.

Why

The royal flush sits at the top for two reasons at once: it is a straight flush (five consecutive cards, one suit), and it is specifically the highest possible straight flush, running ace-king-queen-jack-ten. There is no higher card than an ace and no straight flush that can run above it, so nothing in the standard 52-card deck outranks it. It is also the rarest hand by a wide margin — about 1 in 649,740 five-card deals, roughly nine times rarer than any other straight flush (about 1 in 72,193). One footnote worth knowing: some home games play with wild cards, which can create a five-of-a-kind hand that beats a royal flush by house rule — but that is a variant, not the standard ranking used in Hold’em, Omaha, or any casino or online game. In every game played with a standard 52-card deck and no wild cards, the royal flush is the true, undisputed ceiling.

Example

A royal flush — A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ — is unbeatable. Against a king-high straight flush (9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ would be one rung lower), the royal flush still takes the pot.

A second example

Here is a scenario unique to the royal flush: if the community board itself runs out A-K-Q-J-10 all in the same suit, every player left in the hand plays the board and shares a royal flush — the pot chops. It is the only realistic way for a royal flush to end in a split rather than a single winner, since two different players cannot each hold a full royal flush of different suits off their own hole cards without sharing the same community cards.

In real play

Most players will never be dealt a royal flush in their lifetime at the table — at roughly 1 in 649,740, it is far rarer than winning many local raffles. The practical takeaway is less about chasing it and more about knowing the ceiling of the game: when you hold a royal flush, there is no need to worry about a better hand existing, because none does. See what beats the next hand down, a plain straight flush, in our dedicated guide, or see the full poker hand rankings chart. If you ever do hold one, there is nothing to think about strategically — bet or raise for maximum value every single time.

How each hand is built

Here is exactly what the hand requires to be made:

• Royal Flush: an ace-high straight flush — A-K-Q-J-10, all one suit.

Odds and frequency

How often each hand is dealt in a random five-card poker hand (a rarer hand always outranks a more common one):

• Royal Flush: 1 in 649,740

Full poker hand ranking

For reference, here are all ten hand categories from highest to lowest:

1. Royal Flush
2. Straight Flush
3. Four of a Kind
4. Full House
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Three of a Kind
8. Two Pair
9. One Pair
10. High Card

Key takeaway

A common mix-up is calling four aces the best hand — four of a kind is strong, but a straight flush and the royal flush both beat it. When in doubt, work down the ranking chart from the top and the higher hand always takes the pot.

Read the full poker hand rankings chart, or test any matchup in the poker equity calculator.