The simplest algorithm for poker hand evaluation

Question

I am thinking about poker hand (5 cards) evaluation in Java. Now I am looking for simplicity and clarity rather than performance and efficiency. I probably can

Answer 1

If you are representing a hand as an array of, for example, Card objects, then I would have methods for looping through this array and determining if it has a 2-of-a-kind, flush etc - and if it does, what type it is; so you could have the 3ofaKind() method return 5 if a hand had three 5s. Then I would establish a hierarchy of possibilities (e.g. 3 of a kind is higher than 2 of a kind) and work from there. The methods themselves should be pretty straightforward to write.