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A flush is five cards of the same suit, in any order — A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 3♦ is one. It is the fifth-strongest hand in poker. It beats a straight, three of a kind and everything below them, and it loses to a full house, four of a kind, a straight flush and a royal. When two players both make one, it is settled by the highest card, then the next, and so on down all five — the suit itself never comes into it. Put a flush against a full house in the tool below to see the comparison that costs people the most money.
What a flush beats and what beats it, without the guesswork
How two flushes are compared, card by card down to the fifth
Why the nut flush is the only one worth playing for a stack
What beats what
Rank 5 of 10
Any five, same suit
Rank 6 of 10
Five in a row, mixed suits
Flush beats Straight. The stronger hand class always wins, whatever the cards inside it are.
Highest card first. If they match, the next card, and so on through all five. In Texas Hold'em there is no suit order — a spade flush and a heart flush of the same ranks split the pot.
Flush A
A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 3♦
Flush B
K♥ Q♥ J♥ 9♥ 4♥
Winner
A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 3♦
Decided by
Ace beats king on the first card.
Flush A
K♠ Q♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠
Flush B
K♣ J♣ T♣ 9♣ 8♣
Winner
K♠ Q♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠
Decided by
Kings match, so the queen beats the jack.
Flush A
Q♥ T♥ 8♥ 6♥ 3♥
Flush B
Q♦ T♦ 8♦ 6♦ 2♦
Winner
Q♥ T♥ 8♥ 6♥ 3♥
Decided by
Identical for four cards; the three beats the two.
Flush A
9♠ 7♠ 5♠ 4♠ 2♠
Flush B
9♥ 7♥ 5♥ 4♥ 2♥
Winner
Split pot
Decided by
Same five ranks. Suits do not break ties.
Two suited hole cards flop a flush draw about one time in nine. From there the chance of completing it depends only on how many cards are left to come.
Situation
Flush draw on the flop, two cards to come
Cards that complete it
9
Chance of making the flush
About 35%
Situation
Flush draw on the turn, one card to come
Cards that complete it
9
Chance of making the flush
About 19%
Situation
Two suited hole cards, before the flop
Cards that complete it
—
Chance of making the flush
About 6.5% by the river
Situation
Two suited hole cards flopping the flush outright
Cards that complete it
—
Chance of making the flush
About 0.8%
Five cards of the same suit. That is the entire requirement — they do not need to be in order, and if they are, you have a straight flush instead, which is a much better hand. In Texas Hold'em the five cards are the best five you can assemble from your two hole cards and the five on the board, so most flushes are made with two suited cards in hand and three of that suit on the table.
Compare the top card, then the second, then the third, fourth and fifth if you have to. An ace-high flush beats a king-high flush, and a king-queen flush beats a king-jack flush. All five cards can matter, which surprises people who are used to the kicker rules for pairs. Two flushes that match on all five ranks split the pot, because Texas Hold'em assigns no order to suits — a common house rule elsewhere, and not part of the game here.
The nut flush is the highest possible one on that board — usually the ace of the suit. Everything below it is a hand that beats almost everything except the one hand that is beating it. This is where the second-best flush earns its reputation: a player holding the eight-high flush on a three-suited board is calling a large bet with a hand that is either winning against nothing or losing against exactly the hand that is raising. If your suited card is small, plan on paying less to see the showdown.
Frequency, again. A flush is the best available hand about 3.03% of the time in Hold'em and a full house 2.60%, so the full house is rarer and therefore ranks higher. The margin is narrow enough that the two hands are nearly neighbours in seven-card poker, which is why the argument comes up constantly. With five cards the gap is wider — a full house is rarer there too — so the order is the same in every format.
In seven-card Hold'em a straight is more common than a flush — 4.62% against 3.03% — so the flush ranks higher. With five cards the gap is wider still: a flush is about twice as rare as a straight. Either way the order comes out the same, which is worth knowing when somebody at the table insists otherwise. They are usually thinking of a game with a shortened deck, where removing the low cards makes flushes easier than straights and the order really is reversed. In Texas Hold'em it is fixed: flush over straight, every time.
Three cards of one suit on the board is the warning, and by the river a fourth makes it worse: now anybody holding a single card of that suit has a flush, and your two suited cards may be playing for nothing. The four-flush board is where more money is lost than on any other texture, because a hand that felt strong on the flop is suddenly beaten by a player who called with one club and got lucky. Slow down when the fourth suited card arrives unless you hold the ace.
A made flush wants to be bet, not checked. The hands that pay it — two pair, a set, a straight, a smaller flush — do not fold to one bet, and the board that made your flush possible is exactly the board they are worried about. Bet an amount they can call rather than the amount that makes you feel safe. The exception is the paired board, where a full house is live and a large bet is a good way to find out that somebody has one.
Flush disputes are usually about the fifth card, and they are usually resolved by two people re-reading the board three times. Keep the ranking chart visible, agree before the night starts that suits never break a tie, and let the room track the pot. On PokerChip.live the stacks update as the hand plays out, so a split pot is divided by the app rather than by argument at one in the morning.
FAQ
01
Five cards of the same suit, in any order. It is the fifth-strongest hand in poker.
02
A full house, four of a kind, a straight flush and a royal flush. Everything else loses to it.
03
Yes. A flush is fifth in the rankings and a straight sixth, so a flush wins every time in Texas Hold'em.
04
The one with the highest card. If those match, compare the second card, then the third, fourth and fifth. Identical ranks split the pot.
05
Not in Texas Hold'em. Spades do not beat hearts. Two flushes with the same five ranks chop the pot, and any house rule to the contrary is a house rule, not the game.
06
The highest flush possible on that board, which is normally the one containing the ace of the suit. Everything below it can be beaten by another flush.
07
About 3% of hands end up as a flush in Texas Hold'em. From a flush draw on the flop, you complete it around 35% of the time by the river.
08
Yes, when four cards of the suit are on the board. It also means every other player with one card of that suit has a flush too, and the highest one wins.
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