Flush in Poker: Rules, Rankings, Tie-Breakers and Examples

The flush is the first “big” hand most players make, and one of the easiest to misread. It looks simple: five cards of one suit. But whether it’s the nuts or a trap depends on the board. With three suited cards showing, a flush is usually the best hand at the table. With four showing, anyone holding a single card of the suit has one too, and the highest card wins. On a paired board, full houses lurk. Most expensive flush mistakes come from treating these situations the same.

This guide covers the flush from definition to showdown: how flushes rank and how two of them are compared card by card, what counts when you have seven cards to choose from, and the exact odds in five cards, by each street in Texas Hold’em, for suited and unsuited starting hands, at tables of every size, and in Omaha, Short Deck, Seven Card Stud, draw poker and video poker. After that come how Hold’em flushes are made, how often a flush is the nut flush, reading the board, flush draws and pot odds, worked examples, how to play the hand, showdown rules, common mistakes, a quiz and a quick-reference summary.

Every probability here was calculated by the TopSitesPoker.com editorial team, either exactly, by counting every possible combination of cards, or by large simulations where exact counting isn’t practical. The only exceptions are the video poker frequencies and pay-table returns, which come from the Wizard of Odds. Each example was checked with a hand evaluator.

What Is a Flush in Poker?

A flush is a five-card hand in which every card is the same suit and the ranks aren’t in sequence. A♠ J♠ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠ is a flush: five spades, no straight. If the five suited cards were in sequence, such as 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠, the hand would be a straight flush, a far stronger hand. A flush is named by its highest card, so the first example is an “ace-high flush,” and players often just say “the ace flush” or “the nut flush” when it’s the best one possible.

The suit itself never matters. A heart flush and a spade flush with the same ranks are exactly equal, and in standard poker no suit outranks another when pots are awarded.

There are C(13,5) = 1,287 ways to choose five ranks from one suit. Ten of those form a straight (from A-2-3-4-5 up to 10-J-Q-K-A), and those are straight flushes, so 1,277 different flushes remain by rank. Each can be made in any of the four suits, giving 5,108 flush hands among the 2,598,960 possible five-card hands.

Flushes by highest card	Different flushes by rank	Five-card hands	Share of all flushes	Best and worst example
Ace-high	493	1,972	38.6%	A-K-Q-J-9 down to A-6-4-3-2
King-high	329	1,316	25.8%	K-Q-J-10-8 down to K-5-4-3-2
Queen-high	209	836	16.4%	Q-J-10-9-7 down to Q-5-4-3-2
Jack-high	125	500	9.8%	J-10-9-8-6 down to J-5-4-3-2
Ten-high	69	276	5.4%	10-9-8-7-5 down to 10-5-4-3-2
Nine-high	34	136	2.7%	9-8-7-6-4 down to 9-5-4-3-2
Eight-high	14	56	1.1%	8-7-6-5-3 down to 8-5-4-3-2
Seven-high	4	16	0.3%	7-6-5-4-2 down to 7-5-4-3-2
All flushes	1,277	5,108	100%	—

Exact counts by TopSitesPoker.com. Each count excludes the straight flushes with that top card; A-5-4-3-2 of one suit is a five-high straight flush, not an ace-high flush.

The best possible flush is A-K-Q-J-9 of one suit; A-K-Q-J-10 would be a royal flush. The worst is 7-5-4-3-2. There’s no six-high flush, because the only five ranks from the six down, 6-5-4-3-2, form a straight: five suited cards with those ranks are a straight flush.

 

Five cards of one suit, not in sequence, named by the highest card.

Flushes are mostly high

Because a flush is named by its highest card, and there are far more ways to choose five cards when an ace is allowed at the top, most flushes are ace-high or king-high: 64% of all five-card flushes. The same is true with seven cards to choose from. Counting every seven-card hand whose best hand is a flush, 39.2% are ace-high, 25.9% king-high, 16.3% queen-high and only 9.1% are ten-high or lower. So when an opponent shows a flush, it’s usually a big one, and a flush with no card above a ten is at the bottom of the range.

Where the Flush Ranks

A flush is the fifth-best hand in standard poker. The full order is royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card. Here’s how it compares with the hands around it:

Hand	Five-card hands	About once in	Seven-card hands (best five)	About once in
Straight flush (including royal)	40	64,974	41,584	3,217
Four of a kind	624	4,165	224,848	595
Full house	3,744	694	3,473,184	38.5
Flush	5,108	509	4,047,644	33.1
Straight	10,200	255	6,180,020	21.6
Three of a kind	54,912	47.3	6,461,620	20.7

Exact over all 2,598,960 five-card hands and all 133,784,560 seven-card hands. Seven-card counts are by the best five-card hand. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

The ranking follows rarity. In five cards, a straight is almost exactly twice as common as a flush, and a flush is about 1.4 times as common as a full house. With seven cards the gaps narrow, to about 1.5 times and 1.2 times, but the order holds, which is why every standard poker game ranks a flush above a straight and below a full house.

What a flush beats, and what beats it

• It beats a straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card, every time.
• It loses to a full house, four of a kind, a straight flush, a royal flush and a higher flush.
• It ties only with a flush of exactly the same five ranks. In Texas Hold’em that happens only when all five board cards are the same suit and both players use the board’s flush.

One more seven-card fact: if your seven cards contain a flush, they can’t also contain a full house or four of a kind. Five cards of one suit are all different ranks, so the two other cards can add at most two pairs or one three of a kind, never a full house. So a flush in your seven cards is always your best hand, unless the same cards also make a straight flush.

Flush Rules: What Counts and What Doesn’t

The definition is short, but most flush mistakes at the table come from the details: how many suited cards you need, which of them count, and what the rules of each game let you use. These are the rules that apply in nearly every standard poker game:

• Five cards, one suit. A flush needs five cards of the same suit. Four suited cards are a flush draw, not a flush, and they count for nothing at showdown.
• Not in sequence. Five suited cards in sequence are a straight flush, which outranks every flush and four of a kind.
• Only five cards play. With six or seven suited cards among the cards you can use, your hand is the best five of them; the lowest suited cards don’t count.
• Suits are equal. No suit is higher than another. A flush in hearts and a flush in spades with the same five ranks tie, and the pot is split.
• All five cards count in a tie-break. Two flushes are compared highest card first, then the next, down to the fifth card if needed.
• Hold’em and other board games: you make your best five-card hand from your two hole cards and the five community cards, using two, one or none of your hole cards.
• Omaha: you must use exactly two of your four hole cards and exactly three board cards, so a flush needs two cards of the suit in your hand.

At showdown, cards speak: a flush is a flush even if you announce it as a straight, as long as your cards are shown [TDA 13]. Deliberately miscalling a hand can still be penalized, and to win any part of the pot you’re expected to table all your hole cards [TDA 14], including when the board’s flush plays for you.

Flush or not? Look-alike hands

Cards	Is it a flush?	Why
A♠ J♠ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠	Yes	Five spades, not in sequence: an ace-high flush
9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥	No, better	Five hearts in sequence: a straight flush
A♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦ 9♣	No	Only four diamonds: ace-high, no pair
Hold’em: A♠ 3♥ on K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣	No	One spade in hand plus three on the board is only four spades
Hold’em: A♠ 3♥ on K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♠ 2♣	Yes	The A♠ and four board spades: A-K-9-7-4
Hold’em: Q♥ J♥ on K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠	Yes, the board’s	Five spades on the board: everyone has at least K-9-7-4-2
Hold’em: 3♠ 2♦ on K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 5♠ 4♠	Yes, the board’s	The 3♠ is lower than every board spade, so it doesn’t play
Seven cards: A♠ K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠ 8♦	Yes	Six spades; the best five are A-K-9-7-4, and the 2♠ doesn’t count
Omaha: A♠ K♦ Q♣ J♥ on 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠ 3♦	No	Exactly two hole cards must play, and this hand has only one spade
Omaha: A♠ 5♠ Q♣ J♥ on 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♦ 3♦	Yes	A♠ 5♠ with three board spades: A-9-7-5-4
Short Deck: A♠ J♠ 9♠ 8♠ 6♠ against 7♣ 7♥ 7♦ K♠ K♥	Yes, and it wins	Under most Short Deck rules, a flush beats a full house
Draw: J♥ 9♥ 6♥ 3♥ K♣ before the draw	No	A four-card flush; you need to draw a fifth heart

Each hand checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.

Two rows cause the most arguments in live games. The first is the three-flush board: with three spades on the board, you need two spades in your hand, and a single ace of spades is only a draw until a fourth spade arrives. The second is the five-flush board: everyone still in the hand has a flush, and a spade in your hand only matters if it’s higher than the lowest spade on the board.

Wild cards and the bug

In games with wild cards, a wild card can stand in for any suited card, so three hearts and two wild cards make at least a flush. Some house games use a “bug,” a joker that can be used only as an ace or to complete a straight or a flush; A♥ Q♥ 8♥ 4♥ plus the bug is an ace-high flush. Wild-card rules vary widely between home games and cardrooms, including whether a flush made with wild cards ties or loses to a natural one, so check the house rules before you play.

Flush Tie-Breakers: Comparing Two Flushes

When two players both have a flush, the hands are compared card by card, from the top down. Start with each flush’s highest card; the higher one wins. If they’re the same rank, compare the second-highest cards, then the third, the fourth and finally the fifth. The first difference decides the pot. If all five ranks match, the hands tie and the pot is split. Suits never break the tie.

Two things surprise newer players. First, a flush isn’t judged by how “connected” or how strong its middle cards look: K-5-4-3-2 beats Q-J-10-9-7, because the king beats the queen and nothing after that matters. Second, the fifth card counts. K-Q-8-6-3 beats K-Q-8-6-2, and that single step at the bottom can be worth a whole pot.

Flush A	Flush B	Winner	Decided by
A-K-9-7-4	A-Q-J-10-8	A	Second card: king over queen
K-5-4-3-2	Q-J-10-9-7	A	First card: king over queen
K-Q-8-6-3	K-Q-8-6-2	A	Fifth card: three over deuce
J-9-7-5-4	J-9-7-6-2	B	Fourth card: six over five
A♥ J♥ 8♥ 6♥ 2♥	A♠ J♠ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠	Tie	All five ranks match; suits don’t count

Standard high-hand ranking, as used in Hold’em, Omaha, Stud and draw games.

 

Compare from the top down; the first difference decides.

Flush against flush in Hold’em

In Texas Hold’em, two players can only both have a flush in the same suit, because two different five-card suits would need more board cards than there are. So a flush-against-flush showdown always comes down to who holds the higher cards of that suit, and the board cards they share often decide nothing:

Board	Player 1	Player 2	Result
K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♦	A♠ 3♥: A-K-9-7-4	Q♠ J♠: K-Q-J-9-7	Player 1 wins on the first card, with one spade against two
A♠ K♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♦	Q♠ 3♦: A-K-Q-8-5	J♠ 10♠: A-K-J-10-8	Player 1 wins on the third card: queen over jack
K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠	3♠ 3♦: K-9-7-4-3	Q♥ J♥: K-9-7-4-2	Player 1 wins on the fifth card: the 3♠ replaces the board’s deuce
K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠	A♦ A♥: K-9-7-4-2	Q♥ J♥: K-9-7-4-2	Split pot: both play the board

Each result checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.

The second row is worth remembering: a single high card of the suit beats two lower ones. On a four-flush board, what matters is the highest card of that suit you hold, and players often call that card the flush’s “kicker,” even though it’s part of the flush itself. The last row shows the other side: pocket aces are worth no more than any other hand when the board’s flush plays, because neither ace is a spade.

Which card decides a flush-over-flush showdown?

Because players share board cards, the highest card decides fewer flush-over-flush showdowns than you might expect. We simulated 200,000,000 heads-up Hold’em deals with both players seeing the river and looked at every one in which both players had a flush:

Board when both players have a flush	Share of these showdowns	Decided by the first card	Second card	Third card	Fourth or fifth card	Split pot
Three cards of the suit	5.3%	57.0%	28.7%	11.4%	2.9%	0%
Four cards of the suit	67.5%	34.6%	27.1%	19.7%	18.6%	0%
Five cards of the suit	27.2%	10.3%	9.6%	9.1%	16.4%	54.6%
All flush-over-flush showdowns	100%	29.2%	22.4%	16.4%	17.2%	14.8%

TopSitesPoker.com simulation of 200,000,000 heads-up deals; both players had a flush in about one deal in 142.

Two-thirds of these showdowns happen on a board with four cards of the suit, where each player adds one hole card and the board’s high cards are shared. On a five-flush board, more than half end in a split, because often neither player holds a card of the suit that’s higher than the board’s lowest one.

Suits never break ties

In standard poker, suits have no rank when the pot is awarded. Two identical flushes split the pot, whatever their suits. If the pot can’t be divided evenly in a flop game, the odd chip is assigned by position, not by suit: under the TDA rules it goes to the first winning player to the left of the button [TDA 21]. Suit order, usually clubs lowest, then diamonds, hearts and spades highest, is used only for procedural decisions such as deciding the bring-in in Seven Card Stud, the odd chip in Stud, or who gets the button when players draw cards for it.

Flush Odds

A flush is uncommon in five cards and a regular sight in seven. Here are the odds for the situations players ask about most, counting hands whose best five-card hand is a flush:

Situation	Flush hands	Probability	About once in
Dealt five cards (Five Card Draw before the draw)	5,108 of 2,598,960	0.197%	509 hands
Texas Hold’em, by the flop	5,108 of 2,598,960	0.197%	509 hands
Texas Hold’em, by the turn (6 cards)	205,792 of 20,358,520	1.01%	99 hands
Texas Hold’em, by the river (7 cards)	4,047,644 of 133,784,560	3.03%	33.1 hands
Seven Card Stud (7 cards)	4,047,644 of 133,784,560	3.03%	33.1 hands
Omaha, by the river (4 hole cards, exactly 2 used)	Simulated	6.74%	14.8 hands
Short Deck, five cards (36-card deck)	480 of 376,992	0.127%	785 hands
Short Deck Hold’em, by the river	175,560 of 8,347,680	2.10%	47.5 hands
9/6 Jacks or Better video poker, optimal strategy	Sourced figure	1.10%	about 91 hands

Exact counts by TopSitesPoker.com, except Omaha (a TopSitesPoker.com simulation of 200,000,000 hands) and video poker (the published figure for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better with optimal strategy, from the Wizard of Odds). Short Deck counts treat A-6-7-8-9 as a straight. Hold’em, Stud and Omaha figures assume the hand is played to the end.

 

Seven cards make a flush about 15 times as common as five. Log scale.

Why seven cards make such a difference

In five cards, every card has to be the same suit. With seven, you need five of seven, and any two cards can be of other suits. That’s why a Hold’em player who sees the river has a flush about 15 times as often as a player dealt five cards: once in 33 hands instead of once in 509.

Omaha doubles it again. With four hole cards there are six pairs of hole cards to combine with the board, and a player who sees the river has a flush as their best hand about once in 15 hands. Short Deck goes the other way. With only nine cards in each suit, five of one suit are much harder to collect, and a flush becomes rarer than a full house: 1 in 785 five-card hands against 1 in 218. That’s why most Short Deck rules rank the flush above the full house.

Street by street in Hold’em

Counting every starting hand and every board, a player who sees every card makes a flush about once in 509 hands by the flop, once in 99 by the turn and once in 33 by the river. Of all the flushes a player holds on the river, 6.4% were already complete on the flop and 33.2% by the turn; the other two-thirds were completed by the river card. That’s the practical reason a flush is so often a drawing hand: most of the time, you don’t have it until the last card.

Flushes and the other hands in seven cards

With seven cards, a straight is about 1.5 times as common as a flush, and a flush about 1.2 times as common as a full house. It’s also the hand that decides a lot of big pots. In our heads-up simulations with both players seeing the river, one player or the other had a flush in 5.3% of deals, about once in 19, and at a nine-handed table with everyone seeing the river, someone had a flush in about one deal in 6.5.

Flush Odds by Starting Hand

In Texas Hold’em, your chance of a flush depends almost entirely on one thing: whether your two hole cards are the same suit. The ranks barely matter, because a flush is about suits. Here are the exact odds for every type of starting hand, for a player who sees every card:

Your starting hand	Share of starting hands	Flush by the flop	By the turn	By the river	Share of all flushes
Suited (both cards the same suit)	23.5% (312 combinations)	1 in 120 (0.84%)	1 in 34 (2.91%)	1 in 15.4 (6.51%)	50.6%
Unsuited, not a pair	70.6% (936)	Impossible	1 in 234 (0.43%)	1 in 51 (1.95%)	45.6%
Pocket pair	5.9% (78)	Impossible	1 in 234 (0.43%)	1 in 51 (1.95%)	3.8%
All hands	100% (1,326)	1 in 509	1 in 99	1 in 33.1	100%

Exact counts over every flop, turn and river for every starting hand, counting hands whose best hand is a flush (straight flushes are counted separately). Includes flushes that are on the board by themselves. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Suited hands make up less than a quarter of all starting hands but produce just over half of all flushes. A suited hand makes a flush by the river about once in 15 hands; an unsuited hand, about once in 51. Unsuited hands and pocket pairs have exactly the same flush odds, because either way your two cards are in two different suits, and to make a flush with one of them you need four more cards of that suit on the board.

 

Suited hands are 23.5% of starting hands but make half of all flushes.

What a suited hand can expect on the flop

With two suited cards, 11 cards of your suit remain in the 50 you can’t see. The flop, three of those 50, falls like this:

Cards of your suit on the flop	What you have	Probability	About once in
Three	A made flush (or, rarely, a straight flush)	0.84%	119 flops
Two	A flush draw: four cards of your suit	10.9%	9.1 flops
One	A backdoor flush draw: you need both the turn and the river	41.6%	2.4 flops
None	No flush of your suit is possible any more	46.6%	2.1 flops

Exact: out of the 19,600 possible flops from the 50 unseen cards. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

So a suited hand flops a flush or a flush draw 11.8% of the time, about once in 8.5 flops. The flush draw then gets there by the river about 35% of the time, which accounts for most of the flushes suited hands make. When a suited hand makes a flush, it uses both hole cards 94% of the time; the rest are flushes in which only one of your cards plays, or none, because four or five cards of the suit are on the board.

High suited cards against low ones

Every suited hand makes a flush about equally often, but not every flush is equally good. Holding the ace of your suit means your flush is almost always the best possible one; holding two middle cards means it almost never is. We counted every board for five suited hands, plus one unsuited hand, and checked each flush against every possible opponent hand:

Starting hand	Flush by the river	The flush is the nut flush	When you have a flush, a random opponent beats you
A♠ 5♠	6.52% (1 in 15.3)	97.2%	2.8%
K♠ Q♠	6.48% (1 in 15.4)	27.1%	3.6%
10♠ 9♠	6.38% (1 in 15.7)	0%	5.4%
7♠ 6♠	6.38% (1 in 15.7)	0%	6.7%
4♠ 2♠	6.48% (1 in 15.4)	0%	7.7%
A♠ K♥ (unsuited)	1.96% (1 in 51)	62.7%	4.3%

Exact over all 2,118,760 boards for each hand, and every possible opponent holding when the hand has a flush; both players see the river. “The nut flush” means the flush includes the highest card of the suit that isn’t on the board. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Three things stand out. Connected suited hands like 10♠ 9♠ and 7♠ 6♠ make slightly fewer flushes, because some of their suited boards make a straight flush instead. A flush made with 10♠ 9♠ can never be the nut flush: for the 10♠ to be the highest spade missing from the board, the A♠, K♠, Q♠ and J♠ would all have to be on it, and then you’d have a royal flush. And the gap between the best and worst suited hands grows once opponents choose which hands to play, as the next sections show: the players who stay in on a flush board are the ones holding cards of the suit.

How Hold’em Flushes Are Made

A Hold’em flush can use both of your hole cards, one of them, or none. Counting every combination of two hole cards and five board cards whose best hand is a flush, and looking at which cards the flush actually uses, the split is exact and surprisingly tidy:

How the flush is made	Example	Board shows	Share of all Hold’em flushes
Both hole cards	A♠ 5♠ on K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣	Three, four or five of the suit	47.6% (10 in 21)
One hole card	A♠ 3♥ on K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♣	Four or five of the suit	47.6% (10 in 21)
No hole cards: the board’s flush plays	Q♥ J♥ on K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠	Five of the suit	4.8% (1 in 21)

Exact over all 2,809,475,760 combinations of two hole cards and five board cards; 85,000,524 of them have a flush as the best hand. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

The 10 : 10 : 1 split has a simple reason. A seven-card flush always leaves exactly two cards out of the best five. Of the 21 ways to pick which two of the seven cards are your hole cards, 10 put both hole cards in the flush, 10 put one in, and just one leaves both hole cards out. It works out the same whether you have five, six or seven cards of the suit.

What the board looks like when you have a flush

Counting the same way, here’s how many cards of your suit the board shows when you finish with a flush:

• Three cards of the suit: 44.5%. You need two in your hand, so only suited hands can have it, and opponents need two as well.
• Four cards of the suit: 49.1%. Any single card of the suit makes a flush, so opponents with one card of the suit have one too, and the highest single card wins.
• Five cards of the suit: 6.4%. Everyone has a flush, and only cards higher than the board’s lowest one improve it.

So more than half of all river flushes come with four or five cards of the suit showing, which is exactly when the flush is weakest: the board is telling everyone at the table about it.

 

All Hold’em flushes played to the river, by your highest card of the suit.

How often is your flush the nut flush?

The nut flush is the best flush possible on the board, the one that includes the highest card of the suit that isn’t on the board. Usually that’s the ace; on a board with the A♠, the K♠ makes the nut spade flush. Counting every Hold’em flush that uses at least one hole card, and ranking the highest card each player holds against the cards of the suit still missing from the board:

Your highest card of the suit	Share of all flushes	Board has three of the suit	Board has four of the suit
The highest one missing (the nut flush)	15.1%	20.0%	12.1%
Second-highest missing	14.0%	17.8%	11.9%
Third-highest missing	12.9%	15.6%	11.6%
Fourth-highest missing	11.8%	13.4%	11.4%
Fifth-highest or lower	41.4%	33.2%	52.9%
None: the board’s flush plays	4.8%	—	—

Exact over every Hold’em hole-card and board combination with a flush as the best hand; the last two columns are shares within each type of board. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Across all starting hands, only about one flush in seven is the nut flush, and four in ten are made with a card that four or more unseen cards of the suit outrank. That’s with every hand going to the river. In real games the players who stay in on a flush board are more likely to hold high cards of the suit than a random hand is, so a small flush is in more danger than these numbers suggest when the betting gets big.

The four-flush board is where small flushes suffer most. With four spades showing, every opponent holding a single spade has a flush, and more than half of all flushes on these boards are made with a card that at least four others outrank.

Reading the Board: When a Flush Is Possible

In Hold’em, nobody can have a flush unless the board shows at least three cards of one suit. So the first question on every street is simple: how many cards of one suit are on the board? Here’s how often each board texture appears:

Most cards of one suit on the board	Flop (3 cards)	Turn (4 cards)	River (5 cards)	What it means
One (all different suits)	39.8% (rainbow)	10.5%	—	On the flop, no flush draw yet; on the turn, no flush is possible by the river
Two	55.1% (two-tone)	71.9%	62.9%	Flush draws possible on the flop and turn; no flush on the river
Three	5.2% (monotone)	16.5%	32.6%	A flush needs two cards of the suit in hand
Four	—	1.06%	4.29%	A single card of the suit makes a flush
Five	—	—	0.198%	Everyone has at least the board’s flush

Exact over all possible boards of each size. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

On the river, a flush is possible on 37.1% of boards, a little more than one in three. On most of those, 32.6% of all boards, the board has exactly three cards of the suit, and only players holding two of them can have a flush. Four-flush boards are much rarer, 4.3% of rivers, but they change the hand completely: now one card of the suit is enough. A monotone flop, all three cards of one suit, comes about once in 19 flops.

Three of a suit, four of a suit, five of a suit

• Three on the board. A flush needs two suited hole cards, so only a minority of hands can have one. Your flush is strongest here: when you have one, you’re usually the only player who does.
• Four on the board. Any hand with one card of the suit has a flush, and what matters is how high that one card is. A flush made with a low card is often second-best here, and big bets from opponents deserve respect.
• Five on the board. Everyone has a flush. Only a card of the suit higher than the board’s lowest card improves it, and the pot is often split.

When the board itself is a flush

When all five board cards are the same suit, every player still in the hand has at least that flush. The pot is split unless someone holds a card of the suit that’s higher than the board’s lowest one, or holds the cards for a straight flush. How often that happens depends on the board:

Board	Hands that improve it (of 1,081)	What improves it	Heads-up: split pot
A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 9♠	46 (4.3%)	Only the 10♠, which makes a royal flush	91.5%
K♠ 10♠ 7♠ 4♠ 3♠	301 (27.8%)	Any spade from the A♠ down to the 5♠; the 2♠ doesn’t play	51.2%
A♠ J♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠	340 (31.5%)	Any of the eight remaining spades	46.1%
9♠ 7♠ 6♠ 4♠ 2♠	340 (31.5%)	Any remaining spade; some make a straight flush	46.1%

Exact over every hand from the 47 unseen cards, and every pair of hands for the heads-up split. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

On A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 9♠ the board’s flush is already the best flush possible, so the only hand that beats it is a royal flush. On a low board like 9♠ 7♠ 6♠ 4♠ 2♠, any spade in your hand improves the board, and 8♠ 5♠, 5♠ 3♠ or 10♠ 8♠ make a straight flush. Counting every five-flush board, a heads-up player whose best hand is a flush splits the pot about 54% of the time on these boards, according to our simulations.

How Strong Is Your Flush?

“I have a flush” isn’t the end of the thinking. How strong a flush is depends on the board: how many cards of the suit it shows, whether it’s paired, and how high your cards of the suit are. Here’s what that looks like on four river boards, counting every hand an opponent could hold:

Board and your hand	What you have	Opponent hands that beat you (of 990)	Hands that tie
Three spades, unpaired: K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣
A♠ 3♠	Ace-high flush, the nuts	0	0
Q♠ J♠	King-high flush	7: the A♠ with any other spade	0
10♠ 8♠	King-high flush	18	0
6♠ 5♠	King-high flush, K-9-6-5-4	27	0
9♥ 9♣	Three nines (no flush)	48: every flush and pocket kings	0
Four spades: A♠ 8♠ 6♠ 3♠ K♦
K♠ 2♦	Ace-high flush with the king, the nuts	0	0
Q♠ 2♦	Ace-high flush with the queen	44: any hand with the K♠	0
10♠ 2♦	Ace-high flush with the ten	129	0
7♠ 7♦	Ace-high flush with the seven	210	0
2♠ 2♦	A-8-6-3-2, the lowest flush possible here	324	0
K♥ K♣	Three kings (no flush)	363	0
Three spades, paired: K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 9♦ 2♣
A♠ 3♠	Ace-high flush, the nut flush	28: 27 full houses and four nines	0
Q♠ J♠	King-high flush	35	0
6♠ 5♠	King-high flush	55	0
K♥ 9♥	Nines full of kings	1: pocket kings	2
Five spades: A♠ J♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠
K♠ Q♦	A-K-J-8-5 flush, the nut flush	1: 4♠ 3♠, a straight flush	0
3♠ 3♦	A-J-8-5-3	287	0
K♥ Q♦	The board’s flush	324	666

Exact counts over every possible opponent holding, with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.

The three-spade board shows why flushes made with two suited cards are so strong: even a low flush like 6♠ 5♠ loses to only 27 of 990 hands, all of them bigger flushes. On the four-spade board the same kind of flush is fragile. With 2♠ 2♦, a third of all random hands beat you, because any single spade higher than the deuce makes a bigger flush, and 7♠ 7♦ isn’t much better.

The paired board adds a new danger. On K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 9♦ 2♣, the nut flush loses to any full house: a nine with a king, a four or a deuce, pocket kings, fours or deuces, and the last two nines for four of a kind. The five-spade board shows the last trap: even holding the K♠, the best card left, you can lose to a straight flush if the board has three spades close together. Here the A♠, 5♠ and 2♠ leave room for 4♠ 3♠ to make a five-high straight flush.

Why one high card beats two low ones

On the four-spade board, compare Q♠ 2♦ with 7♠ 5♠. The second hand holds two spades, and both of them play: A-8-7-6-5. The first hand makes A-Q-8-6-3, and the queen beats the eight at the second card. In Hold’em, when two players both have a flush and at least one of them uses a hole card, the player holding the highest card of the suit wins. How many suited cards you hold doesn’t matter; misreading this on four-flush boards is one of the most common flush mistakes.

A Flush at the Table: How Often, and How Often It Loses

The odds so far describe one player’s cards. At a real table, the questions are how often anyone makes a flush, and how often a flush runs into something bigger. To answer them, we simulated 400,000,000 Texas Hold’em deals for each table size from two to nine players, with every player seeing the river.

Players	Someone has a flush by the river	A flush loses to a bigger flush	A full house beats a flush
2	1 in 18.7 deals	1 in 167 deals	1 in 1,260 deals
3	1 in 13.7 deals	1 in 74 deals	1 in 470 deals
4	1 in 11.2 deals	1 in 47 deals	1 in 261 deals
5	1 in 9.6 deals	1 in 35 deals	1 in 172 deals
6	1 in 8.5 deals	1 in 29 deals	1 in 125 deals
7	1 in 7.7 deals	1 in 25 deals	1 in 96 deals
8	1 in 7.1 deals	1 in 22 deals	1 in 78 deals
9	1 in 6.5 deals	1 in 21 deals	1 in 65 deals

TopSitesPoker.com simulation, 400,000,000 deals per table size, every player seeing the river. The last two columns count deals in which at least one flush was beaten that way at showdown.

Heads-up, someone has a flush about once in 19 deals; at nine players, about once in six or seven. A flush beating a flush is the common cooler here, far more common than a full house beating a flush, because on a board with four cards of a suit several players can have a flush at once.

How often a flush wins at showdown

Here’s what happens to every flush in those simulated deals, from the point of view of the player holding it:

Players	Wins	Splits	Loses	Loses to a bigger flush	Loses to a full house	Loses to four of a kind or a straight flush
2	85.0%	3.5%	11.5%	9.9%	1.3%	0.3%
3	76.7%	2.5%	20.9%	17.7%	2.5%	0.6%
4	69.8%	1.8%	28.4%	23.9%	3.6%	0.9%
5	64.2%	1.3%	34.6%	28.7%	4.6%	1.2%
6	59.5%	0.9%	39.6%	32.5%	5.6%	1.5%
7	55.6%	0.6%	43.8%	35.5%	6.5%	1.8%
8	52.2%	0.4%	47.4%	37.9%	7.3%	2.1%
9	49.3%	0.3%	50.4%	39.8%	8.1%	2.4%

TopSitesPoker.com simulation, 400,000,000 deals per table size, every player seeing the river. Includes flushes that are on the board.

 

Every player seeing the river; includes flushes on the board.

Heads-up, a flush wins 85% of the time. At a full table with everyone in to the river, it loses about half the time, and it loses to a bigger flush about five times as often as to a full house. That’s a sharp contrast with the full house, which still wins more than half the time at nine players. The difference is the board: to beat a full house, an opponent needs a bigger full house or better, which takes specific cards, while every four-flush board hands a flush to anyone holding a single card of the suit.

It all depends on how many suited cards are on the board

Splitting the same simulations by the number of cards of the flush suit on the board shows where the losses come from:

Cards of the suit on the board	Share of all flushes	Flush loses heads-up	Six players	Nine players
Three	44.5%	3.6%	15.3%	22.2%
Four	49.1%	17.2%	57.4%	71.2%
Five	6.4%	23.7% (and 53.9% split)	73.0%	86.0%

TopSitesPoker.com simulation, 400,000,000 deals per table size, every player seeing the river.

 

With four suited cards on the board, one card of the suit makes a flush.

With three suited cards on the board, a flush is almost always the best hand heads-up: it loses 3.6% of the time. Add a fourth suited card, and the loss rate is nearly five times higher, because now any single card of the suit makes a flush. At a nine-handed table where everyone sees the river, a flush on a four-flush board loses more often than it wins.

Paired boards: a different danger, about the same risk

A pair on the board brings full houses into play, but it also makes four- and five-flush boards less likely, since two of the five board cards share a rank. The two effects nearly cancel out. Heads-up, a flush on a paired board loses 11.7% of the time: 7.7% to a bigger flush, 3.7% to a full house and 0.3% to four of a kind or a straight flush. On an unpaired board it loses 11.5% of the time, almost all of it, 11.2%, to a bigger flush. At nine players, a flush on a paired board loses 53.0% of the time, 23.0% to a full house, against 48.9% on an unpaired board.

What these numbers mean in a real game

Real hands aren’t played with everyone going to the river. Most players fold before the flop, and those who stay in to call big bets on a four-flush board hold stronger hands than a random deal would give them. So treat the simulations as a picture of how crowded the top of the rankings gets, not a prediction for any single pot. Three practical points follow:

• Three suited cards on the board are your friend. A flush made with two suited hole cards on a three-flush board is rarely beaten heads-up.
• Four suited cards call for the high card. With one card of the suit on a four-flush board, how high that card is matters more than anything else about your hand.
• Multiway pots shrink every flush. Each extra player is another chance for a higher card of the suit, and on a paired board, for a full house.

Drawing to a Flush

Two-thirds of Hold’em flushes are completed on the river, so most of the time a flush starts life as a draw: four cards of a suit, waiting for a fifth. With four suited cards after the flop, 9 of the 47 cards you can’t see complete it. Here are the exact chances for the common flush draws:

Your draw	Outs	On the turn	On the river (if the turn misses)	By the river (from the flop)
Flush draw	9	19.1%	19.6%	35.0%
Flush draw plus a gutshot straight draw	12	25.5%	26.1%	45.0%
Flush draw plus an open-ended straight draw	15	31.9%	32.6%	54.1%
Flush draw plus two overcards, against one pair	up to 15	31.9%	32.6%	54.1%
Backdoor flush draw (three suited cards on the flop)	Needs two in a row	—	—	4.2%

Exact, counting clean outs against 47 unseen cards on the flop and 46 on the turn. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

 

Clean outs; a set or a higher flush draw can cut these numbers.

Counting flush outs

A suit has 13 cards. With four of them between your hand and the board, 9 are left, and all 9 are among the cards you can’t see. From the flop, the chance of hitting one of them on the turn or the river is 1 − (38/47 × 37/46) = 35.0%. With one card to come, it’s 9 of 46, or 19.6%. The quick “rule of 4 and 2” gets close: 9 outs × 4 = 36% with two cards to come, and 9 × 2 = 18% with one.

A backdoor flush draw, three suited cards after the flop, needs both the turn and the river: 10/47 × 9/46 = 4.2%, about once in 24 tries. It’s worth a little extra when you’re deciding whether to continue, but it’s rarely a reason to call on its own.

Not every out is clean

Raw outs assume that every card of your suit wins, and that’s not always true. Against a set, a card of your suit that pairs the board gives your opponent a full house, and even when you hit on the turn, the set can still fill up on the river. Against a higher flush draw, hitting your flush can cost you money. Here’s how flush draws fare against real hands on the flop, counted over every possible turn and river:

Flop	Your hand	Opponent	Your chance to win by the river
K♠ 8♠ 2♣	A♠ 5♠ (nut flush draw)	K♥ Q♦ (top pair)	45.9%
K♠ 8♠ 2♣	A♠ 5♠ (nut flush draw)	8♥ 8♦ (a set)	25.6%
K♠ 8♠ 2♣	J♠ 10♠ (lower flush draw)	A♠ 5♠ (nut flush draw)	22.0%
A♦ 9♠ 4♠	7♠ 6♠ (flush draw)	A♥ K♦ (top pair)	39.3%
J♠ 8♠ 2♣	A♠ K♠ (flush draw, two overcards)	Q♥ Q♦ (overpair)	54.4%
J♠ 8♠ 2♣	10♠ 9♠ (flush and open-ended straight draw)	A♥ J♦ (top pair)	56.8%
K♠ 8♠ 2♠	Q♠ J♠ (a made flush)	8♥ 8♦ (a set)	65.6%
K♠ 8♠ 2♠	Q♠ J♠ (a made flush)	A♠ 5♦ (one-card nut flush draw)	71.1%

Exact over all 990 turn-and-river combinations for each matchup, with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com. No cards are folded or known to be dead.

Against top pair, the nut flush draw is close to a coin flip, and against a set it’s a big underdog at 25.6%, well below the 35% its nine outs suggest. The lower flush draw against the nut flush draw wins only 22% of the time, mostly by pairing a jack or a ten, because a spade gives both players a flush and the ace wins. And a made flush on a monotone flop isn’t safe: the set wins 34.4% of the time by filling up, and a single A♠ still wins 28.9% of the time.

Combination draws change the picture. With a flush draw and an open-ended straight draw, 10♠ 9♠ on J♠ 8♠ 2♣ is a 56.8% favorite over top pair: with fifteen outs and two cards to come, the draw is stronger than most one-pair hands.

Pot odds: when a flush draw is worth a call

Suppose it’s the turn, you have a flush draw and nothing else, the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $50. You have to call $50 to win $150, so you need to win at least 50 ÷ 200 = 25% of the time. Your flush comes in on the river 19.6% of the time, so on the pot odds alone, calling loses money.

Implied odds can close the gap. If you expect to win more on the river when your flush arrives, the call can still be right: to break even, you’d need to win about $56 more, on average, on the river when you hit, because 19.6% × ($150 + $56) ≈ 80.4% × $50, about $40 either way. Against an opponent who will pay off a big river bet, that’s realistic. Against one who shuts down when a third or fourth card of the suit arrives, it isn’t. And with two cards to come, the math improves a lot: calling a pot-sized bet on the flop needs 33.3%, and a clean flush draw that will see both the turn and the river gets there 35.0% of the time.

Flush Examples

These examples cover the flushes you’ll meet most often in Texas Hold’em, the spots where one flush beats another, and how Omaha, Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw change the picture. Every hand was checked with a hand evaluator.

Example 1: the nut flush on a three-flush board

You hold A♠ 5♠ and the board is K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣. Your best five cards are A♠ K♠ 9♠ 5♠ 4♠, an ace-high flush. The board isn’t paired, and no straight flush is possible, so no hand beats you. It’s the ideal flush: hidden, since you need two spades to have it, and unbeatable.

Example 2: second-best flush, a classic cooler

You hold K♠ J♠ on Q♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣ for a king-high flush, K-Q-J-9-4. Your opponent holds A♠ 3♠ for A-Q-9-4-3. The first card decides: ace beats king, and your opponent wins, even though your other cards are higher. Only 7 of the 990 hands an opponent could hold beat you here, all of them the A♠ with another spade, but when an opponent puts in a big raise on this board, that’s one of the hands they often have.

Example 3: one card on a four-flush board

The board is A♠ 8♠ 6♠ 3♠ K♦. You hold Q♠ 2♦; your opponent holds 7♠ 5♠. Your opponent has two spades and you have one, but your flush is A-Q-8-6-3 and theirs is A-8-7-6-5. You win at the second card, queen over eight. With four spades on the board, only the highest spade in each hand matters.

Example 4: a flush on the board

The board is K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠. You hold A♦ A♥ and your opponent holds Q♥ J♥: both of you play the board’s K-9-7-4-2 and split the pot. Your aces are worth nothing here. If you’d held the 3♠ instead, you’d have K-9-7-4-3 and won the whole pot, because the three replaces the board’s deuce.

Example 5: flush against a straight

You hold A♥ 6♥ on J♥ 10♥ 9♣ 8♦ 3♥. Your opponent holds Q♣ 7♠ and has a queen-high straight, Q-J-10-9-8. You have an ace-high heart flush, A-J-10-6-3, and a flush always beats a straight. Watch the board, though: with four cards to a straight and three hearts, both hands were possible, and many players with the straight will bet it hard.

Example 6: flush against a full house

You hold A♠ 3♠ on K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 9♦ 2♣ for the nut flush. Your opponent holds K♥ 9♥ for nines full of kings. The pair on the board turned your nut flush into a bluff-catcher: 27 full houses and one four of a kind beat you, and an opponent who raises big on a paired, suited board often has one of them.

Example 7: the straight-flush trap

The board is A♠ J♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠. You hold K♠ Q♦, so your flush is A-K-J-8-5, the best flush possible. Your opponent holds 4♠ 3♠ and has a five-high straight flush, 5-4-3-2-A. On a five-flush board with three low spades, even the nut flush can lose, though only to one exact hand.

Example 8: six spades, and your low one doesn’t play

You hold 3♠ 2♠ on A♠ K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 5♦. You have six spades, but only the best five play: A-K-9-7-3. Your opponent holds Q♣ 4♠ for A-K-9-7-4 and wins at the fifth card. Holding two spades didn’t help you; the 4♠ is higher than both of yours.

Omaha: an ace of the suit isn’t enough

You hold A♠ K♥ Q♥ J♦ on 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠ 3♦. In Hold’em, the A♠ would give you the nut flush. In Omaha, you must use exactly two hole cards and three board cards, and with only one spade in your hand you have no flush at all, just ace-high. An opponent holding 6♠ 5♠ K♣ 10♦ uses the two spades for a nine-high flush, 9-7-6-5-4, and wins.

Seven Card Stud: counting dead cards

You start with three hearts. Ignoring every other card at the table, you’ll make a flush by seventh street about 18.0% of the time, because you need at least two more hearts in your next four cards. In a real game, the other players’ upcards change that. In an eight-handed game where you can see seven upcards, the chance is 23.6% if none of them is a heart, 12.3% if three are, and only 6.3% if five are. Each heart you see in someone else’s hand is one fewer out for you.

Five Card Draw: drawing one

You’re dealt J♥ 9♥ 6♥ 3♥ K♣. Throw away the K♣ and draw one card: 9 of the 47 cards you haven’t seen are hearts, so you complete the flush 19.1% of the time. With only three hearts, drawing two cards makes the flush just 4.2% of the time, which is why three-card flush draws are almost never worth keeping.

How to Play a Flush

A flush wins most heads-up pots, but the same hand can be the nuts on one board and second-best on the next. Playing it well starts with reading the board, then deciding how much your flush is worth against the players still in the hand.

Step 1: count the suit on the board

• Three of the suit: only hands with two cards of the suit can have a flush. If yours is ace-high or king-high, you’re rarely beaten. Bet for value.
• Four of the suit: any single card of the suit makes a flush. Your flush is only as good as your highest card of the suit. With the ace or king of the suit, keep betting; with a low card, think about checking and calling rather than building a big pot.
• Five of the suit: everyone has a flush. If your card of the suit doesn’t beat the board’s lowest one, you’re playing for a split at best.

Step 2: check for full houses and straight flushes

A paired board makes full houses possible, and the numbers earlier in this guide show how much that matters: on a paired board, about a third of a flush’s heads-up losses are to a full house or better, and about half at a nine-handed table. A straight flush needs three cards of the suit close together on the board, such as 8♠ 7♠ 5♠. Neither threat makes a flush weak, but both deserve respect when an opponent who rarely bluffs puts in a big raise.

Step 3: know where your flush ranks

Before you bet big, ask how many cards of the suit could beat yours. With the ace of the suit, none can. With the king and the ace on the board, none can either. With the queen, only the ace and the king can, and so on. On a four-flush board, count the missing cards of the suit that are higher than your highest one: each is a flush that beats you, and each opponent who holds one will usually pay you nothing and raise you plenty.

Playing a flopped flush

Flopping a flush with two suited cards, such as Q♠ J♠ on K♠ 8♠ 2♠, is rare, about once in 120 flops for a suited hand, and strong, but it isn’t finished. A set wins 34.4% of the time against it by filling up, and a single A♠ still wins 28.9% of the time by catching a fourth spade. That’s a reason to bet: players holding one high spade, sets and two-pair hands will often call, and each of them has real chances to beat you if they see the turn and river for free. A fourth spade on the turn tends to freeze the action, because now any one spade is a flush, so the flop is often your best chance to build the pot.

Making your flush on the turn or river

When the flush card arrives, everyone at the table sees it. Opponents with one pair become cautious, but many will still call a moderate bet. Size your value bets so that hands like top pair or two pair can call: a huge bet when the third card of a suit lands is easy to fold against. When the fourth card of the suit arrives and you hold a low one, the opposite applies: bet small or check, and don’t turn your hand into a bluff-catcher for a big pot.

The ace of the suit as a blocker

Holding the ace of the board’s suit tells you something even when you don’t have a flush: nobody else can have the nut flush. On K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣, a hand like A♠ Q♦ has no flush, but it makes a strong bluffing hand, because an opponent can’t hold the A♠ and is more likely to fear it. Use this sparingly and against opponents who can fold.

Playing flush draws

• Prefer draws to the nuts. A nut flush draw wins when it hits. A low flush draw can hit and still lose to a higher flush, which costs you the most money of all.
• Bet some of your draws. A flush draw on the flop completes 35% of the time with two cards to come, and betting it wins the pot immediately when your opponent folds. Draws with extra outs, like a flush draw with a straight draw or two overcards, are strong enough to raise.
• Watch the pot odds on the turn. With one card to come, a flush draw is a 4.1-to-1 underdog. Calling a half-pot bet needs 25%, so you need implied odds to make up the difference.
• Be careful multiway on paired boards. Against several opponents, some of your flush outs may give someone else a full house, and a low flush draw may be drawing to a second-best hand.

Before the flop: suited cards add a little, not a lot

Suitedness is a small edge, not a reason to play a hand. Played to the river against the same opponent, suited hands win a few percentage points more often than the same ranks unsuited:

Matchup	Suited version wins	Unsuited version wins	Difference
A-K against Q♥ Q♦	46.2% (A♠ K♠)	43.2% (A♠ K♦)	3.0 points
7-6 against A♥ K♣	42.3% (7♠ 6♠)	38.5% (7♠ 6♦)	3.8 points
A-5 against K♥ Q♥	56.8% (A♠ 5♠)	54.2% (A♠ 5♦)	2.6 points

Exact all-in equity over every board, with ties counted as half a win. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Two or three points of equity add up over thousands of hands, and suited hands are also easier to play after the flop, because they flop flush draws. But a weak hand doesn’t become a good one because its cards match. Suited hands make a flush only about once in 15 hands, so most of their value still comes from pairs and straights.

The Flush in Other Games

Omaha

Omaha’s four hole cards make flushes much more common: a player who sees the river has one as their best hand about once in 15 hands, more than twice the Hold’em rate. But the rule that you must use exactly two hole cards changes everything about how you make one. You need two cards of the suit in your hand, so the way your four cards are suited decides your flush chances:

Your four hole cards	Example	Share of Omaha hands	Flush by the river
Double-suited (two of one suit, two of another)	A♠ 9♠ K♥ 7♥	13.5%	13.7% (1 in 7.3)
Single-suited (two of one suit)	A♠ 9♠ K♥ 7♦	58.4%	6.8% (1 in 14.6)
Three of one suit	A♠ 9♠ 5♠ K♥	16.5%	5.2% (1 in 19.3)
Four of one suit	A♠ 9♠ 5♠ 2♠	1.1%	3.7% (1 in 27)
Rainbow (four different suits)	A♠ 9♥ K♦ 7♣	10.5%	Impossible
All hands	—	100%	6.7% (1 in 14.8)

TopSitesPoker.com simulation of 100,000,000 Omaha hands (200,000,000 for the all-hands figure); hands whose best hand is a flush. The shares of hands are exact.

Holding three or four cards of one suit hurts, because the extra suited cards in your hand are ones the board can’t have, and only two of them can play. Double-suited hands flush twice as often as single-suited ones. And because so many Omaha players have a flush draw, the nut flush matters far more than in Hold’em: a king-high flush that would be a strong hand in Hold’em is often second-best in a multiway Omaha pot, and on a paired board, full houses are common.

Short Deck (6+ Hold’em)

Short Deck removes the 2s through 5s, leaving 36 cards and nine cards per suit. With fewer cards in each suit, flushes become rarer: 480 of the 376,992 five-card hands, about 1 in 785, against 1,728 full houses, about 1 in 218. With seven cards, a player who sees the river has a flush about once in 47.5 hands and a full house about once in 13. Because the flush is now the rarer hand, most Short Deck rules rank a flush above a full house. Some rule sets also change how straights and three of a kind rank, so check which version you’re playing.

Seven Card Stud

In Seven Card Stud, each player’s best five of seven cards plays, so the flush odds match Hold’em’s river figure: 3.03%, about once in 33 hands for a player who stays to seventh street. The difference is information. Your opponents’ upcards show you which cards of your suit are gone, and the example earlier in this guide shows how much that matters: in an eight-handed game, a three-flush on third street fills 23.6% of the time if none of the seven upcards you can see is of your suit, and only 6.3% if five are. Suits also have a procedural job in Stud: they break ties for the bring-in and for the odd chip, usually in the order clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades from lowest to highest.

Five Card Draw

You’re dealt a pat flush about once in 509 hands. Drawing one card to a four-card flush gets there 19.1% of the time, 9 outs from 47 unseen cards. Drawing two to three suited cards gets there only 4.2% of the time.

Lowball and split-pot games

• Deuce-to-seven lowball: flushes count against you. Five suited cards are a flush, a strong high hand, which makes it one of the worst hands in deuce-to-seven: 7-5-4-3-2 all in one suit loses to every hand that is only high card, a pair, two pair, three of a kind or a straight.
• Ace-to-five lowball and Razz: straights and flushes are ignored, so suits never matter for the low hand.
• Hi-lo split games: in Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo, a flush can win the high half while the same cards, read without their suits, make a qualifying low.
• Badugi: suits matter in the opposite way: the best hand has four cards of four different suits and four different ranks.

Video poker

In Jacks or Better, the flush is the hand that separates the best pay tables from the rest. A full-pay 9/6 machine pays 6 for 1 on a flush and returns about 99.5% with optimal strategy; a 9/5 machine, identical except for the flush, returns about 98.4%, and 8/5 about 97.3%. With optimal play, a flush comes up about once in 91 hands. Here are some common flush decisions in 9/6 Jacks or Better, with the expected return per credit bet for each option:

Dealt	Option 1	Option 2	Best play
A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 3♠	Keep the flush: 6.00	Hold A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠: 18.43	Break the flush and draw for the royal
K♠ Q♠ J♠ 7♠ 3♦	Hold the four spades: 1.34	Hold K♠ Q♠ J♠: 1.48	Three to a royal
J♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠ J♦	Hold the four spades: 1.19	Hold the jacks: 1.54	The high pair
9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠ 4♦	Hold the four spades: 1.15	Hold the fours: 0.82	The four-card flush
8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 2♠ 5♦	Hold the four spades: 1.15	Hold 8-7-6-5: 0.68	The four-card flush
A♠ 9♠ 6♠ 3♦ 2♣	Hold the three spades: 0.45	Hold the A♠ alone: 0.47	The ace alone

Expected returns calculated exactly by TopSitesPoker.com over every possible draw, for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better. Pay-table returns and flush frequency: Wizard of Odds.

A four-card flush with no high cards is worth 9/47 × 6 = 1.15 credits for every credit bet, which beats a low pair’s 0.82 but loses to a high pair and to three cards to a royal flush. On an 8/5 machine, the flush pays 5 and the four-card flush drops to 0.96, still ahead of a low pair’s 0.81.

Flushes at Showdown and in Promotions

At showdown

• Show all your cards. Cards speak, so a flush wins even if you announce “straight” [TDA 13]. To win any part of the pot, you’re expected to table all your hole cards [TDA 14], and that includes pots where the board’s flush plays for you. Showing one card of the suit and mucking the other can cost you the pot.
• Count to five before you call “flush.” Four suited cards are not a flush. Announcing a flush with only four can mislead an opponent into folding a winner, and deliberate miscalls can be penalized.
• Read both flushes card by card. When two flushes meet, compare the highest cards, then the next, down to the fifth. On four- and five-flush boards, the answer often comes down to one card of the suit.
• Keep your cards until the pot is pushed. Under TDA rules, cards are dead once the dealer pushes them into the muck or they can no longer be identified and retrieved [TDA 15], and most rooms work the same way. If you think your low spade plays on a five-flush board, show it before letting go.
• In flop games, odd chips go by position, not suit. Identical flushes split the pot, and any odd chip follows the house rule, under TDA rules the first winner to the left of the button [TDA 21]. In Stud, the odd chip goes to the high card by suit.

The TDA rules apply only in events and rooms that adopt them. Many home games and some cardrooms use their own procedures, so check the posted rules where you play.

Promotions and jackpots

A flush rarely wins a promotion by itself. High-hand promotions usually go to the best hand over a set period, and over a busy session a flush is usually topped by a full house or better. Bad-beat jackpots need much bigger losing hands, typically a high full house or four of a kind, so a flush losing to a bigger flush, however painful, doesn’t qualify. Some table games and video poker machines pay bonuses for flushes, but those pay tables are set by the game, not by poker’s hand rankings. The exact rules differ by room and game, so check the posted requirements.

Common Flush Mistakes

Mistake	Example	The fix
Calling four suited cards a flush	A♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦ 9♣	You need five cards of one suit; four is only a draw
Counting one suited card on a three-flush board	A♠ 3♥ on K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣	With three of the suit on the board, you need two in your hand
Thinking two suited cards beat one	7♠ 5♠ against Q♠ 2♦ on A♠ 8♠ 6♠ 3♠ K♦	The highest card of the suit decides; the queen wins
Stopping the comparison too early	K-Q-8-6-3 against K-Q-8-6-2	All five cards count; the three wins at the fifth card
Thinking suits break ties	A♥ J♥ 8♥ 6♥ 2♥ against A♠ J♠ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠	Suits have no rank; identical flushes split the pot
Overvaluing a low flush on a four-flush board	2♠ 2♦ on A♠ 8♠ 6♠ 3♠ K♦	A third of all hands beat you; bet small or check
Ignoring the paired board	A♠ 3♠ on K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 9♦ 2♣	Full houses and four of a kind beat you; respect big raises
Forgetting straight flushes	K♠ Q♦ on A♠ J♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠	4♠ 3♠ makes a straight flush; check for suited cards close together
Using one hole card in Omaha	A♠ K♥ Q♥ J♦ on 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠ 3♦	Omaha needs exactly two hole cards of the suit
Chasing a draw without the odds	Calling a pot-sized turn bet with a flush draw	With one card to come you hit 19.6%; a pot-sized call needs 33.3%
Drawing to a low flush in a multiway pot	6♠ 5♠ with three opponents on a two-spade flop	Your flush can hit and still lose to a higher one
Playing any hand because it’s suited	9♠ 2♠ from early position	Suited cards add about 3 points of equity; a weak hand stays weak

Each example checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.

Test Yourself: Flush Quiz

Ten questions on reading, comparing and playing flushes. Decide before you read the answer. Every hand was checked with a hand evaluator.

#	Question	Answer	Why
1	Which wins: K-5-4-3-2 of hearts or Q-J-10-9-7 of spades?	K-5-4-3-2	Flushes are compared from the top card down; the king beats the queen
2	Hold’em: you hold A♠ 3♥ and the board is K♠ 9♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♣. Do you have a flush?	No	You have four spades; with three on the board you need two in your hand
3	Hold’em: the board is A♠ 8♠ 6♠ 3♠ K♦. Q♠ 2♦ against 7♠ 5♠: who wins?	Q♠ 2♦	A-Q-8-6-3 beats A-8-7-6-5 at the second card
4	Hold’em: the board is K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠. A♦ A♥ against Q♥ J♥: who wins?	Split pot	Both play the board’s flush; neither ace is a spade
5	Same board, K♠ 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠. 3♠ 3♦ against Q♥ J♥: who wins?	3♠ 3♦	The 3♠ replaces the board’s deuce: K-9-7-4-3 beats K-9-7-4-2
6	What’s the lowest possible flush?	7-5-4-3-2 of one suit	Anything six-high of one suit would be 6-5-4-3-2, a straight flush
7	You flop a flush draw. How often do you complete it by the river?	35.0%	9 outs from 47 cards, with two cards to come
8	Hold’em: how often does a suited starting hand make a flush by the river?	About 6.5%, once in 15 hands	Unsuited hands and pocket pairs manage about 1.95%, once in 51
9	Omaha: you hold A♠ K♥ Q♥ J♦ and the board is 9♠ 7♠ 4♠ 2♠ 3♦. Do you have a flush?	No	You must use exactly two hole cards, and you have only one spade
10	Short Deck: a flush against a full house. Which wins?	The flush, under most rules	With nine cards per suit, flushes are rarer than full houses, so most rule sets rank them higher

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a flush in poker?

A flush is five cards of the same suit that aren’t in sequence, such as A♠ J♠ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠. It’s the fifth-best hand in standard poker, below the royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind and full house, and above the straight.

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes, always. A flush is rarer than a straight, about half as common in five cards, so it ranks higher in every standard poker game.

Does a flush beat a full house?

Not in standard poker: a full house beats a flush. The exception is Short Deck, where the 2s through 5s are removed and most rule sets rank the flush higher, because it becomes the rarer hand.

What beats a flush?

A full house, four of a kind, a straight flush, a royal flush and a higher flush.

If two players have a flush, who wins?

Compare the highest cards; the higher one wins. If they’re the same, compare the second-highest, and so on down to the fifth card. If all five ranks match, the pot is split. In Hold’em, when both players use at least one hole card, the player holding the higher card of the suit wins.

Is a spade flush better than a heart flush?

No. In standard poker, suits have no rank. Two flushes with the same five ranks tie, whatever their suits, and split the pot. Suit order is used only for procedural decisions such as the bring-in in Seven Card Stud.

What are the odds of getting a flush?

1 in 509 in a five-card hand. In Texas Hold’em, a player who sees every card has a flush about once in 99 hands by the turn and once in 33 by the river. It’s the same 1 in 33 in Seven Card Stud and about 1 in 15 in Omaha.

What are the odds of making a flush with suited cards?

About 6.5%, or once in 15 hands, by the river if you see every card. You flop a flush 0.84% of the time and a flush draw 10.9% of the time. Unsuited hands make a flush about once in 51 hands.

What are the odds of hitting a flush draw?

With a flush draw on the flop, you have 9 outs: 19.1% on the turn, and 35.0% by the river if you see both cards. With one card to come, it’s 19.6%.

How many flushes are there in poker?

1,277 different flushes by rank, and 5,108 five-card flush hands, since each can be made in four suits. The 40 hands with five suited cards in sequence are straight flushes and aren’t counted.

What is the nut flush?

The best flush possible on the board: the one that includes the highest card of the suit that isn’t on the board. Usually that’s the ace; if the ace is on the board, the king makes the nut flush. A nut flush can still lose to a full house on a paired board or a straight flush.

What happens when all five board cards are the same suit?

Everyone still in the hand has at least the board’s flush, and the pot is split unless someone holds a card of the suit higher than the board’s lowest one, or a straight flush. Heads-up, a player whose best hand is a flush splits the pot about 54% of the time on these boards.

Can you make a flush with one card in Texas Hold’em?

Yes, when the board has four cards of your suit. With only three of the suit on the board, you need two in your hand. In Omaha, you always need two.

Does a flush have a kicker?

Not in the usual sense: all five cards are part of the flush and all five count in a tie-break. Players sometimes call the highest hole card of the suit the flush’s “kicker” on a four-flush board, because that one card decides who has the better flush.

What’s the best and the worst flush?

The best is A-K-Q-J-9 of one suit; A-K-Q-J-10 would be a royal flush. The worst is 7-5-4-3-2, because every six-high set of five suited cards is 6-5-4-3-2, a straight flush.

How often does a flush win?

Heads-up, with both players seeing the river, a flush wins about 85% of the time, splits 3.5% and loses 11.5%, mostly to a higher flush. At a nine-handed table where everyone sees the river, it loses about half the time, most often on boards with four cards of the suit.

Flush: Quick-Reference Summary

Question	Answer
What it is	Five cards of the same suit, not in sequence
How many exist	1,277 by rank; 5,108 five-card hands
Rank	Fifth: beats a straight; loses to a full house, four of a kind, straight flush and royal flush (under most Short Deck rules, it beats a full house)
Comparing two	Highest card first, then the next, down to the fifth; identical ranks split; suits never break ties
Best and worst	A-K-Q-J-9 and 7-5-4-3-2
Odds in five cards	1 in 509
Odds by the Hold’em river	1 in 33.1 (1 in 99 by the turn)
Suited / unsuited starting hands	About 1 in 15.4 / 1 in 51 by the river
How Hold’em flushes are made	Both hole cards 47.6%; one hole card 47.6%; the board 4.8%
The nut flush	About one flush in seven, across all hands played to the river
Flush draw	35.0% from the flop to the river; 19.6% with one card to come
At showdown, heads-up	Wins 85%, splits 3.5%, loses 11.5%; loses 3.6% with three suited board cards and 17.2% with four
Omaha / Short Deck	About 1 in 14.8 / 1 in 47.5 by the river
Video poker (9/6 Jacks or Better)	Pays 6 for 1, about once in 91 hands; hold four to a flush over a low pair

About This Guide

This guide uses the standard poker hand rankings used in casinos, cardrooms and online, and the TDA 2026 rules (version 1.0, September 7, 2026) where showdown procedure is concerned. House rules, especially on Short Deck, wild cards, promotions and split-pot procedure, vary, and the rules of the room or site where you play always apply.

Every probability except the video poker frequencies and pay-table returns was produced by the TopSitesPoker.com editorial team rather than copied from other sources:

• Exact counts: five-, six- and seven-card counts over all 2,598,960, 20,358,520 and 133,784,560 hands; flushes by highest card; starting-hand, street, route and nut-flush figures over all 2,809,475,760 combinations of two hole cards and five board cards; board textures over every flop, turn and river; Short Deck over all 376,992 five-card and 8,347,680 seven-card hands; and every example, board, draw, preflop matchup and opponent-holding figure over all possible remaining cards.
• Simulations: the Omaha figures from 200,000,000 and 100,000,000 simulated hands; the table-size, win-loss and loss-by-board figures from 400,000,000 simulated deals per table size; and the flush-over-flush tie-break figures from 200,000,000 heads-up deals, with every player seeing the river.
• Video poker: the hold values are exact over every possible draw. The flush frequency under optimal 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy and the returns of the 9/6, 9/5 and 8/5 machines are published figures from the Wizard of Odds.
• Evaluator checks: every example, look-alike hand, comparison and quiz answer was verified with a hand evaluator, with Omaha hands evaluated using exactly two hole cards and three board cards.

Hold’em, Omaha and Stud figures assume every hand is played to the end. Real players fold often, so flushes, and the flush-over-flush coolers they create, appear less often in real games than these figures suggest.

The Bottom Line

A flush is five cards of one suit, the fifth-best hand in poker. Two flushes are compared card by card from the top down, all five cards count, and suits never break a tie. In Hold’em, a player who sees the river makes one about once in 33 hands, a suited hand about once in 15, and a flush draw on the flop gets there 35% of the time.

The flush is a hand you read from the board. With three cards of the suit showing, a flush made with two suited hole cards is rarely beaten. With four showing, anyone holding one card of the suit has a flush, and only the highest card counts. On a paired board, full houses come into play. Count the suit, check the pairs, and know how many cards of the suit could beat yours before you put your stack in.