PHMAPALAD Rank of Cards Across Four Table Games
A king counts zero in baccarat, ten in blackjack and ranks above queen in poker; in pusoy and Big Two the 2 is the highest card and suits break ties.
- PHMAPALAD One Pair in Poker
- One pair is two cards of the same rank plus three unmatched cards.
- PHMAPALAD Check in Poker and the Other Betting Actions
- To check in poker is to stay in the hand without betting, which you may do only when no one has bet yet in the current round.
- PHMAPALAD Two Dice Probability for Every Total
- Two dice make 36 equally likely outcomes.
A king is worth zero at a baccarat table, ten at a blackjack table, and simply “above the queen” in poker. That is the whole puzzle behind the rank of cards: the deck is the same 52 cards, but each game reads it with its own rulebook. This page lays the four rulebooks side by side so you can tell, before you stake anything, what a card is worth where you are sitting.
Every rule below comes from the card-game rules pages saved for this site on pagat, and the arithmetic is shown so you can check it yourself.
Rank of cards side by side
Start with the comparison. Read across a row to see what one card does in four games.
| Card | Baccarat | Blackjack | Poker | Pusoy and Big Two |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ace | 1 | 1 or 11 | High, or low in a straight | Second highest |
| King, queen, jack | 0 | 10 each | K above Q above J | K above Q above J |
| 10 | 0 | 10 | Ranks between 9 and J | Ranks between 9 and J |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Lowest card | Highest card |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Second lowest | Lowest card |
The ace and the 2 are where players trip. The ace changes value in three of the four games, and the 2 swings from lowest card in poker to highest in pusoy.
Rank of cards in baccarat
Baccarat has no ranking at all in the poker sense. Pip cards count face value, the ace counts 1, and tens and picture cards count zero. Only the last digit of a hand total matters, so the best hand is 9.
- Add the two cards: a king and a 6 make 0 + 6 = 6.
- Drop the tens digit: a 9 and an 8 total 17, so the hand is worth 7.
- Compare totals: the higher single digit wins, and equal totals are a push.
Because tens and pictures are worth nothing, a hand of two court cards is a zero, the weakest start there is. The third-card rules then depend on those digits, so a zero start is the weakest place to begin.
Rank of cards in blackjack
Blackjack reads the same deck as a counting problem. Numbered cards keep their face value, jacks, queens and kings count 10, and an ace counts 11 unless that takes the hand over 21, when it drops to 1.
Work three hands through to see it:
- Ace plus king is 21 on two cards, a blackjack.
- Ace plus 6 is a soft 17, because the ace can fall back to 1 if the next card would bust it.
- King plus queen plus 5 is 25, a bust, since each court card counts 10.
Nothing here is ranked by suit, so a hand of spades and a hand of diamonds with the same total are equal.
Rank of cards in poker
Poker ranks the cards and, more importantly, the combinations. Ace is high, then king down to 2, and the ace may also sit below the 2 to complete a five-high straight. Any hand in a higher category beats every hand in a lower one, so three of a kind beats two pair whatever the card ranks.
The nine categories, from highest to lowest:
- Straight flush
- Four of a kind
- Full house
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- One pair
- High card
Within a category, the cards themselves decide. The deeper look at the second-last category is on the page about how one pair is ranked and dealt, and the betting side is in what it means to check in poker.
Suit ranking: poker has none, pusoy does
In standard poker, suits carry no rank. Two flushes of different suits are separated by their cards, and a suit order appears only when a group agrees one as a house rule before the first deal.
Pusoy and Big Two are different, because there the suit breaks ties between cards of the same rank. The saved rules page gives the Philippine order for Pusoy Dos and the order most Big Two rules use:
| Game | Suits, high to low |
|---|---|
| Pusoy Dos as played in the Philippines | Diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs |
| Big Two, standard rules | Spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds |
Example: with the Pusoy Dos order, the 9 of diamonds beats the 9 of clubs, while a queen of clubs still beats a jack of diamonds because rank is compared first.
Rank of cards in pusoy and Big Two
The ranking runs 2, ace, king, queen down to 3, so the 2 is the top single card and the 3 the lowest. Pairs and triples follow the same order: a pair of 2s is the highest pair, and a pair of 3s the lowest.
In straights the 2 does not play high. It sits below the 3, which means A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest straight and 5-4-3-2-A the lowest. Ace may be used at either end of a straight but never in the middle.
| Straight | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| A-K-Q-J-10 | Highest straight, includes the ace of spades in standard Big Two |
| K-Q-J-10-9 | Beats Q-J-10-9-8 |
| 5-4-3-2-A | Lowest straight |
| 2-A-K-Q-J | Not valid, the ace cannot sit in the middle |
Before you play with other people, agree which suit order you use, since the rules page itself lists several variations.
Card tables on the PHMAPALAD lobby
The lobby sidebar lists Live and Poker lanes among its other lanes, as read on 19 October 2026. Its live tab lists Evolution among the studios, and its poker and PVP tab lists KingMidas. The studio profile for Evolution as a live table studio sits with the other reference pages.
Whatever table you open, the rules above set the card values, but the table’s own rules decide which side bets and draw rules apply. If you prefer to browse by maker first, the game providers hub lists the studios side by side.
If you are curious about reel games instead, the JILI games pillar and the Pragmatic Play slots hub cover those titles. Dice-based fish, prawn and crab titles are covered in the the fishing game online casino page section.
Where to go next on this cluster
Three pages continue from here, in the order most readers need them:
- The two dice probability table: all 36 outcomes and what they mean for dice-table payouts.
- One pair hands in poker: kickers, ties and the 1,098,240 hands that hold exactly one pair.
- How to check in poker: when you may check and how it differs from calling or folding.
Set a limit before you sit down at any table; the PHMAPALAD responsible play rules give a budget method and the help lines.
FAQ
What is the rank of cards from high to low in poker?
Ace is high, then king, queen, jack, 10 down to 2. The ace can also play low in a straight, so 5-4-3-2-A is the lowest straight, but it never wraps around the king.
Is the ace high or low in blackjack?
Neither: it counts 11 unless that would push the hand over 21, in which case it counts 1. A king and an ace on the first two cards make 21.
Do suits have a rank in poker?
In standard poker no suit beats another, so two flushes in different suits are compared by their cards. A suit order only appears as a house rule agreed before the game.
Ano ang suit ranking sa pusoy?
In Pusoy Dos as played in the Philippines the suits run diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs from high to low, per pagat's Big Two rules page. Check the table's own rules, because Big Two variants order the suits differently.
Why does a king count zero in baccarat?
Baccarat gives tens and picture cards a value of zero and only the last digit of a hand total counts. A king and a 6 therefore make 6, and 9 plus 8 makes 7.
Which card is highest in pusoy and Big Two?
The 2 is the highest card, then ace, king and down to 3 as the lowest. Between cards of the same rank the suit order decides.