Three Card Brag - Hand Ranks

Hand Ranks

The hand rankings, from best to worst, are: three of a kind ("prial"), straight flush ("running flush"), straight ("run"), flush, pair, high card. The best prial is 3-3-3, followed by the usual order of A-A-A, K-K-K, etc. In variations allowing four-of-a-kind, 4-4-4-4 is the best 'box', followed by A-A-A-A, K-K-K-K, etc. The best running flush or run is A-2-3, A-K-Q, followed by the usual order of K-Q-J,etc. The flushes, pairs, and high cards have rankings identical to poker (aces high).

A pair will beat three-quarters of hands, but must watch out for unexpected runs and flushes. Prials and running flushes are extremely rare (the odds of a dealt prial are 425-to-1 and the odds of a dealt running flush are approx. 461-to-1) but can happen (especially in variations of the game in which a hand is chosen from more than three cards). Unlike in poker, a run beats a flush. Because of the mathematics involved, three card flushes are more likely than three card straights, while the reverse is true of five-card (poker) hands.