Online Poker: Hand Rankings, the Rake and Where Irish Players Sit Down

Online poker is played against other people, not the house: the site deals the cards, runs the table and takes a small cut of each pot or tournament entry, called the rake. That makes it different from every other game in this section, because a better player can come out ahead over time, and a worse one pays both the rake and the better player.

The hands come first, in order, then Texas Hold'em as dealt online, the rake and the free poker apps. Real-money poker, like every game here, is 18+ only.

Poker hands ranked, best to worst

The ranking of poker hands is the same in nearly every game. The odds column shows how often each hand turns up in a random five-card deal from a full deck; in Hold'em, where you pick your best five from seven cards, the stronger hands appear more often, but the order never changes.

Hand	Example	Five-card odds
Royal flush	A K Q J 10, one suit	1 in 649,740
Straight flush	9 8 7 6 5, one suit	1 in 72,193
Four of a kind	Four queens	1 in 4,165
Full house	Three sevens and two fours	1 in 694
Flush	Any five of one suit	1 in 509
Straight	Five in sequence, mixed suits	1 in 255
Three of a kind	Three jacks	1 in 47
Two pair	Two tens and two threes	1 in 21
One pair	Two eights	1 in 2.4
High card	Nothing better	About 1 in 2

Ties between the same type of hand go to the higher cards: a pair of kings beats a pair of nines, and when the pairs match, the next highest card, the kicker, decides. Suits never rank against each other in standard poker. An ace can play high or low in a straight, but not both at once, so Q K A 2 3 is no straight at all.

Good poker hands to start with in Hold'em

In Texas Hold'em each player gets two private cards, and five shared cards are dealt face up in three stages: the flop of three, the turn and the river. There are four rounds of betting. The best starting hands are high pairs (aces, kings, queens) and high cards together, such as ace-king. Most of the 169 distinct starting hands are worth folding most of the time, and the commonest error at low stakes is playing too many of them.

Position matters nearly as much as the cards. The player who acts last in a betting round sees everyone else's decision first, which is worth a great deal. A modest hand played from the button is often worth more than a better one played first to act.

How the rake changes the sums

A poker room earns by taking a percentage of each cash-game pot, usually with a cap, or a fee built into each tournament buy-in. That money comes out of the players' pockets collectively. At a table of evenly matched players, the rake is the only certain winner. To show a profit, you need to beat the other players by more than the room takes. That is possible, which is why poker attracts serious players; it is also why most casual players lose a little steadily.

Online poker against casino poker games

Not everything called poker in a casino lobby is played against people. Casino Hold'em, three card poker and video poker are house-banked games with fixed payouts and a built-in edge, more like blackjack than a poker room. Nothing you do at the table changes the edge more than marginally. If the screen shows a dealer and a pay table rather than other players' names, you are playing the house.

Free poker games and play-money chips

Free poker comes in two forms. Real poker sites often run play-money tables, which are fine for learning the order of play but teach little about strategy, because nobody plays seriously for chips that cost nothing. Social poker apps, including the well-known ones carrying tournament brands and offering free chips each day, are a separate business: the chips cannot be cashed out, but the bundles on sale cost real money. Treat them as a game you pay for, not a route to winning anything.

Searches for poker sets, poker tables and tablets for home games are for kit, which this desk does not review. Live festivals such as the Irish Open are run by their organisers, who publish their own schedules; we do not carry tournament dates and will not guess at them.

Where Irish players play poker online

Poker is gaming, not betting, and Ireland issues no online gaming licences yet; the GRAI expects to start in early 2027. Some bookmakers that hold a GRAI licence for their sportsbook list poker among their products: Unibet's Irish site, run by Platinum Gaming Limited, shows poker on its menu. Its GRAI licence covers betting only, so the poker room runs under its other licences. Check the footer of any poker site for the regulator and licence number before depositing, and see our online casinos section for how we read foreign licences.

Rooms licensed only in Curacao or Anjouan hold no Irish licence and give an Irish player no Irish protection; a frozen balance would become a matter for an overseas regulator, if there is one. We do not recommend them and do not list them.

Bankroll before bravado

Poker swings. Even a good player can lose for weeks, which is why sensible players keep a separate bankroll and never move up in stakes after a bad night. Set deposit limits with the room, and if the game is costing more than you meant to spend, the support listed on our responsible gambling page is free. The other card games are covered under online blackjack and in the wider casino games guide.