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In almost all forms of Poker a player’s final hand is made up of five cards. In Draw Poker it’s the five cards they’ve been dealt. In Hold’Em it’s the best five card hand they are able to make from the pocket cards they hold and the community cards on the table. And on it goes.

The winning hands in Poker all have names and they are ranked as follows, strongest hand first:

Royal Flush (aka Royal Straight Flush)

This is the big one in Poker, an A-high Straight Flush. There are only four ways to get it:
A K Q J T
A K Q J T
A K Q J T
A K Q J T

Straight Flush

The number two hand in Poker is any five consecutive cards of the same suit such as:

J T 9 8 7
K Q J T 9
7 6 5 4 3
etc

Four-of-a-Kind

Four cards of the same face value and one spare card:

J J J J 3
7 7 7 7 A
etc

Full House, (aka "a boat")

Three-of-a-Kind and one Pair:

9 9 9 Q Q
K K K 4 4
etc

Flush

Any five cards of the same suit:

K J 8 5 4
9 5 4 3 2
etc

Straight

Any five consecutive cards:

Q J T 9 8
7 9 6 4 3
A K Q J T
etc

Three-of-a-Kind (aka Trips)

Three cards of the same face value with two spares:

Q Q Q 8 2
9 9 9 3 2
etc

Two Pair

Like it says, a couple of Pairs and a spare:

A A 8 8 3
K K Q Q J
etc

Pair

One Pair and three spares :

K K J 8 2
J J T 9 8
etc

No Pair (aka Nothing, High Card)

Five dissimilar, non-consecutive cards of mixed suit:

K J 9 8 2
A K J T 7
etc

Poker hands are compared by rank first and then the highest ranking hands are compared card-by-card (if necessary) to determine a winner.

All suits are ranked equally.

There are generally no wild cards in Poker unless otherwise stated.