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A royal flush beats a straight flush, and the reason is simpler than most people expect: a royal flush *is* a straight flush — the one that runs ace-king-queen-jack-ten. It is not a separate kind of hand, it is the top end of the same one, and it wins for exactly the reason ten-high beats nine-high. Nothing beats it, and in Texas Hold'em you will see one roughly once in every 31,000 hands.
Royal flush wins — because it is the ace-high straight flush
How rare each one really is: 1 in 30,940 against 1 in 3,590
What happens when the board itself makes a royal flush
What beats what
Rank 2 of 10
Five in a row, same suit
Rank 1 of 10
A-K-Q-J-10, same suit
Royal Flush beats Straight Flush. The stronger hand class always wins, whatever the cards inside it are.
Odds are for making the hand from seven cards in Texas Hold'em. At a table dealing thirty hands an hour, one player somewhere sees a straight flush about every two hours; a royal takes considerably longer.
Hand
Royal flush
Combinations
4,324
Odds
1 in 30,940
Rank
1st
Hand
Straight flush
Combinations
37,260
Odds
1 in 3,590
Rank
2nd
Hand
Four of a kind
Combinations
224,848
Odds
1 in 595
Rank
3rd
Three suited, connected board cards are what it takes. Player A holds a queen-high straight flush and is beaten by the one hand above it — a result rare enough that most players will go a lifetime without seeing it at a kitchen table.
Board
Cards
Q♠ J♠ T♠ 4♦ 2♥
Best five cards
—
Result
Three suited and connected
Player A
Cards
9♠ 8♠
Best five cards
Q♠ J♠ T♠ 9♠ 8♠
Result
Queen-high straight flush
Player B
Cards
A♠ K♠
Best five cards
A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠
Result
Royal flush — wins the pot
Five cards in sequence, all one suit, is a straight flush. When those five cards happen to be ace through ten it gets its own name, but the rules treat it as what it is: the highest straight flush possible. It beats a king-high straight flush the same way a ten-high straight flush beats a nine-high one — by the top card, which is how every straight is compared.
It is the top of the chart with nothing above it. The only way to not win with one is for another player to have one too, which requires all five cards to be on the board — and then everyone at the table has it and the pot is split. There is no version of Texas Hold'em in which a royal flush loses.
Compare the top card, as with any straight. A nine-high straight flush beats an eight-high straight flush. Two identical straight flushes split the pot; suits do not break the tie. This can only happen when most of the hand is on the board, which is also the only realistic way two players end up with straight flushes at the same time.
A-2-3-4-5 all in one suit is a straight flush, and it is the lowest one. The ace plays low there just as it does in an ordinary straight, so holding the ace of that suit does not mean you have the better hand. It is called the steel wheel, and losing with it to a six-high straight flush is one of the rarest bad beats in poker.
A straight flush needs at least three of your five board cards to be suited *and* connected. That is a specific enough shape that when it appears, cautious play from an opponent is worth taking seriously — the hand is astronomically unlikely in the abstract but far more likely on a board that already has three cards doing most of the work.
Charts quote 1 in 649,740 for a royal flush and 1 in 30,940 for the same hand, and both are correct — the first is for a five-card hand, the second for the best five out of seven. Because Hold'em gives you seven cards, the seven-card number is the one that describes the game you are playing. Any chart that mixes the two is worth distrusting on everything else too.
Some cardrooms pay a jackpot when a very strong hand loses, and the qualifying hands are usually quads or better. Home games that copy the idea should write down the rule before the first deal, including what happens when the board plays and everybody has the same hand, because that is the case people forget and it is the one that produces the argument.
The one time somebody at your game makes a straight flush, the hand becomes a story, and stories drift. Running the game with digital chips means the pot, the bets and the final stacks are on record, so the version told a year later is at least anchored to what actually happened.
Three suited connected cards on the flop is the most dangerous texture in poker, and it is dangerous long before anybody has a straight flush. Flushes, straights, and every draw to both of them are live at once, which means the pot grows quickly and the hand that wins it is often one nobody put their opponent on. Treating that flop with more caution than a strong hand seems to warrant is the cheapest habit in the game.
FAQ
01
Yes. A royal flush is the ace-high straight flush, so it beats every lower one for the same reason a higher straight beats a lower one.
02
Nothing. It is the best possible hand in poker.
03
About 1 in 30,940 seven-card hands. The 1 in 649,740 figure you may have seen is for a five-card hand.
04
Yes — the steel wheel. It is the lowest straight flush, because the ace plays low.
05
Only when all five cards are on the board, in which case every player has it and the pot is split.
06
Roughly six times rarer: 1 in 3,590 against 1 in 595 in seven-card Hold'em.
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