Does a Flush Beat a Straight in Poker? Yes — Here's Why

Yes, a flush beats a straight. In Texas Hold’em, Omaha and every standard form of poker, a flush (five cards of the same suit) ranks above a straight (five cards in sequence). If one player has a flush and another has a straight, the flush wins the whole pot.

Why a flush ranks higher

Poker hands are ranked by how rare they are. The rarer the hand, the higher it ranks — and a flush is rarer than a straight.

Hand	Chance with 5 cards	Chance with 7 cards (Hold’em)
Straight	0.39%	4.62%
Flush	0.20%	3.03%

With five cards, you’re about twice as likely to be dealt a straight as a flush. There are 10,200 possible straights but only 5,108 flushes (not counting straight flushes).

Where they sit in the rankings

From strongest to weakest:

1. Royal flush
2. Straight flush
3. Four of a kind
4. Full house
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Three of a kind
8. Two pair
9. One pair
10. High card

So a flush beats a straight, three of a kind and anything below, but loses to a full house — see what beats a full house. Full chart: poker hand rankings.

Quick answers: what beats what

Question	Answer
Does a flush beat a straight?	Yes. Flush wins.
Does a straight beat a flush?	No.
Does a flush beat three of a kind (trips)?	Yes.
Does a straight beat three of a kind?	Yes.
Does a full house beat a flush?	Yes. A full house is one step above a flush.
Does four of a kind beat a flush?	Yes.
Does a straight flush beat a flush?	Yes. It beats every hand except a higher straight flush.

An example hand

The board is 7♥ 6♥ 5♣ K♥ 2♠.

• Player A holds 9♣ 8♦ and makes a nine-high straight: 9-8-7-6-5.
• Player B holds A♥ 3♥ and makes an ace-high flush: A♥ K♥ 7♥ 6♥ 3♥.

Player B wins with the flush. If you hold both a straight and a flush in the same seven cards, you simply play the flush, unless the same five cards are in a row and one suit, which makes a straight flush.

Flush vs flush, straight vs straight

• Two flushes: the one with the highest card wins. If those tie, compare the second-highest card, and so on down all five. Suits never matter.
• Two straights: the one with the highest top card wins. A-K-Q-J-T beats K-Q-J-T-9. The lowest straight is 5-4-3-2-A (the “wheel”), where the ace plays low.

Common confusion

• A straight flush is not a flush. Five suited cards in a row (like 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥) is a straight flush and beats four of a kind.
• Four to a flush is nothing. You need all five cards of the same suit. Four hearts and a spade is just high card, unless it also makes a pair or better.
• Short-deck poker is different. In six-plus (short-deck) Hold’em, with the 2s–5s removed, a flush is harder to make than a full house, so many rooms rank the flush higher. Standard Hold’em never does.

Practise it

Deal a few flush-versus-straight boards in the odds calculator to see who’s ahead, and drill your outs with the outs trainer.

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