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Determining the best poker hand and more importantly, knowing the strength of your hand will keep you away from unnecessary trouble. When your hand is in play, you are not going to know for sure whether your hand is ahead (winning) unless you hold the nuts (the best hand possible from the board cards).
In most poker card games, Ace is the highest card and a 2 is the lowest. If you take a look at our poker hand rankings, you will see how hands compare to each other. Let's look at Hold'em as this is by far the most popular of all card games. In Hold'em some poker hands are equal and some are not. Starting at the top, a Royal Flush, well there can only be one. I had a real chuckle to myself when recently read an article that said that if 2 Royal Flushes are dealt in the same hand the pot it shared, so there you go. As there are only 5 board cards and you need 2 in your hand, i can assure you that this is not possible. Most poker sites if you are playing ring games and you hit a Royal, you will get a bonus, which can vary in value. If you get dealt one, you will win the pot as it is the best hand possible. Having said that the odds of getting one are 649,739 to 1.
Next is the straight flush. 99 times out of 100 you will win the pot with this hand. You can however get 2 Straight Flushes. Lets assume that the board reads 9  8 7 . It is possible that someone has the 10 J with another player having the 6 5 but this would be a rare scenario.
Four of a kind will also in most cases be good enough to win the pot. In most online poker rooms, there is a bad beat jackpot which can be well in excess of $100,000 if you get beaten with four 8's or better. You will also find bad beat tables in many rooms where people play for the jackpot, however they don't come round very often. With this hand, if two people have quads, the higher four of a kind will win.
A full house is much more frequent and you will see a good number of these. This hand requires your 5 card hand to contain 3 of a kind and 2 of a kind, for example 10 10  10  9  9 . It is also not uncommon for two players to hit a full house. If this happens, the hand that has the highest value card in their three of a kind would win. For instance 10 10 10 9 9 would be beaten by J J J 10 10 . To hit this there needs to be a pair on the board (community cards). Be careful when you see the board pair. it is important to recognize your scare cards, the cards which could give your opponent a better hand than you.
A flush is any 5 cards of the same suit. As only one flush is possible in the hand, there will never be two different flushes on the same hand of different suits (that might be stating the obvious however after reading that article explaining what happens when you get 2 Royal Flushes in the same hand, i don't want to make assumptions). When comparing two flushes, the highest card in the hand will win. For example K 10 7 5 6 will beat Q 9 7 8 2 as the King is the highest card. Remember that Aces are high so if you have an Ace high flush you cannot be beat by another flush on the same hand.
A straight is any 5 cards in sequence, for instance 8 7  6 5 4 . It is very possible to get two straights on the same hand, the second might be 7 6 5 4 3 . If you have the low end of the flush, tread carefully and beware of someone having the high flush. In addition, lets assume that you have 8-Q in your hand and the board reads 4-5-6-7 don't go all guns blazing in case someone has the 8-9. Again, it is important to recognize scare cards.
Three of a kind is fairly common and you will see these every few hands or so. The odds of hitting your trips (three of a kind) ar 7.5 to 1 so every 7.5 hands you will hit. The trick with pocket pairs is not to get too attached to them. Get in cheap, and you if you hit your set it will be well disguised and you can make a good return. Where there are more than one three of a kind on the board, the highest one wins.
Two pairs are very common. Be careful, particularly of any scare cards that might be there giving your opponent the chance of beating you (board paired, three or more of a suit on the board or cards in sequence). Again where two or more players have two pairs, the highest pair held by an opponent will win the pot.
A pair will often be enough to win the hand but it is easily beaten. A pair of aces is the highest pair and a pair of twos is the lowest. If two players both have a pair, the highest pair will win.
Where no player has made a pair, the high card comes into play. Ace is the highest card so the highest card will take the pot. If one player has a King and the other has the Queen, the player with the King would win.
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Royal Flush 
