This poker cheat sheet puts the three things you actually look up mid-game on one page: what beats what, which starting hands to play, and how likely your draw is to come in. It’s built for Texas Hold’em, it prints on one sheet (the button is below each section), and every number on it comes from the calculators linked underneath, so you can check any of it.
Poker cheat sheet: hand rankings
| # | Hand | Example | Chance in 7 cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ | 0.003% |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | 0.03% |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Q Q Q Q 7 | 0.17% |
| 4 | Full house | J J J 4 4 | 2.6% |
| 5 | Flush | A♦ J♦ 8♦ 6♦ 2♦ | 3.0% |
| 6 | Straight | 10 9 8 7 6 | 4.6% |
| 7 | Three of a kind | 7 7 7 K 2 | 4.8% |
| 8 | Two pair | A A 9 9 5 | 23.5% |
| 9 | One pair | K K 10 6 3 | 43.8% |
| 10 | High card | A Q 9 5 2 | 17.4% |
Suits never break a tie in Hold’em. Two flushes are compared card by card from the top, and an ace-high straight beats a king-high one. The full explanation, with every tiebreak, is on the poker hand rankings page.
Starting hands worth playing
| Where you sit | Raise first in with |
|---|---|
| Early (first two or three seats) | Pairs 77+, AK, AQ, AJs, KQs |
| Middle | Pairs 55+, AJ, ATs, KQ, KJs, QJs, JTs |
| Cut-off | Any pair, AT+, A2s+, KJ, KTs, QJ, QTs, JTs, T9s, 98s |
| Button | Any pair, any ace, K9+, K5s+, QT+, J9+, suited connectors down to 54s |
| Small blind (folded to you) | Close to the button range, a little tighter |
“s” means suited. These are sensible ranges for a full-ring cash game where nobody has raised yet; against a raise, tighten up a lot. The colour-coded grid with all 169 hands is the CasinoCalcs poker starting hands chart, and the positions chart explains which seat is which.
Outs and odds
| Your draw | Outs | Hit by the river (from the flop) | Hit on the turn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flush draw | 9 | 35% | 19.1% |
| Open-ended straight draw | 8 | 31.5% | 17% |
| Gutshot | 4 | 16.5% | 8.5% |
| Flush draw + open-ender | 15 | 54.1% | 31.9% |
| Two overcards | 6 | 24.1% | 12.8% |
| Pocket pair to a set | 2 | 8.4% | 4.3% |
The shortcut that saves you at the table: outs times four on the flop, outs times two on the turn. It overshoots a bit past eight outs, but it’s never far enough out to change a decision. Then compare it with the price. If you need to call £10 into a £30 pot, you’re getting 3 to 1 and need about 25% to break even, so a flush draw on the turn with one card to come (9 outs from 46 cards, 19.6%) is a fold unless you expect to win more later. The pot odds calculator does that sum, and the poker odds calculator gives exact equity for any hand against any range.
Five rules that cover most spots
Play fewer hands from early seats than from the button, because you act first on every later street. Raise when you enter a pot rather than limping. Don’t chase draws without the price, the outs table above tells you what that price is. Bet your strong hands; the most common leak at home games is checking a set and hoping. And remember that a cheat sheet tells you the odds, not what the player opposite holds, which is the part of poker that never fits on a page.
Running a home game? How to deal poker and the side pot calculator keep it moving.
Poker is a game of skill and luck, and the luck can run against you for a long time. BeGambleAware.org is there if you need it.