A straight flush poker is five cards in sequence, all of the same suit, such as 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥. It’s the second-highest hand in standard poker: it beats four of a kind and everything below, and loses only to a higher straight flush. The highest one, A-K-Q-J-10 suited, is the royal flush.
The straight flush in brief
- Cards: five consecutive ranks in one suit, from 5-4-3-2-A (the lowest) up to A-K-Q-J-10 (the royal flush).
- Rank: beats four of a kind; loses only to a higher straight flush.
- Ties: the higher top card wins; identical straight flushes split the pot.
- Odds, excluding the royal flush: 1 in 72,193 in five cards; 1 in 3,591 by the river in Texas Hold’em.
- A straight and a flush in the same seven cards aren’t a straight flush unless the same five cards make both.
The straight flush is the hand that beats four of a kind, and it’s where many of poker’s most memorable coolers come from. It’s also easy to misjudge. Players confuse it with a flush and a straight that happen to share a board, forget that a straight can’t wrap around the ace, assume a straight flush on the board means a split pot, and chase straight flush draws for the wrong reasons.
This guide covers the straight flush from definition to showdown. It sets out the forty straight flushes and how they rank against each other and against the rest of the hand rankings, the rules for what counts, and the exact odds: in five cards, by each street in Texas Hold’em, for every type of starting hand, at tables of every size, and in Omaha, Short Deck, Seven Card Stud, draw poker and video poker. Then come draws, the “idiot end” of a straight flush, worked examples, how to play the hand, what happens at showdown, 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. Each example was checked with a hand evaluator.
Key takeaways
- There are 40 straight flushes: ten in each suit, from the 5-high “steel wheel” to the ace-high royal flush. Straight flushes are compared only by their top card.
- Suited connectors from 5-4 to J-10 make a straight flush by the river about once in 502 hands, more than six times as often as the average starting hand.
- Suited hands whose two cards fit inside one straight are 13.9% of starting hands but make just over half of all Hold’em straight flushes.
- Unlike a royal flush, a straight flush on the board doesn’t always split the pot: a player holding the next card up in the same suit has a higher one.
- Heads-up in Hold’em, a straight flush loses to a higher straight flush about 0.6% of the time and splits about 4.6% of the time.
What Is a Straight Flush?
A straight flush is a hand that is a straight and a flush at the same time: five cards of consecutive rank, all in the same suit. 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣ 4♣ is a straight flush. So is J♦ 10♦ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦. The hand is named by its highest card, so the first is an “eight-high straight flush” and the second a “jack-high straight flush.”
Because a straight has ten possible shapes, from 5-4-3-2-A up to A-K-Q-J-10, there are ten straight flushes in each suit and 40 in the whole deck. Here they are in hearts, from best to worst:
| Rank among straight flushes | Cards | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ | Ace-high straight flush, better known as the royal flush |
| 2 | K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 9♥ | King-high straight flush |
| 3 | Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ | Queen-high straight flush |
| 4 | J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ | Jack-high straight flush |
| 5 | 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ | Ten-high straight flush |
| 6 | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | Nine-high straight flush |
| 7 | 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ | Eight-high straight flush |
| 8 | 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ | Seven-high straight flush |
| 9 | 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ | Six-high straight flush |
| 10 | 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ A♥ | Five-high straight flush, often called the “steel wheel” |
The same ten exist in spades, diamonds and clubs, and a straight flush in one suit is exactly as good as the same straight flush in another. Suits never rank in standard poker.
Ten straight flushes per suit, ranked only by the top card.
Is a royal flush a straight flush?
Yes. The royal flush is simply the highest straight flush, and it has its own name because it’s the best hand in poker. Hand-ranking charts usually list it separately, and odds tables usually count “straight flushes” without it. This guide follows that convention where it matters and says so: when a figure is labeled “excluding the royal flush,” it counts the 36 straight flushes from 5-high to king-high; when it says “any straight flush,” it includes the four royal flushes too.
The steel wheel
The lowest straight flush uses the ace as a low card: 5-4-3-2-A in one suit. A plain 5-4-3-2-A straight is called “the wheel” (or “the bicycle”), and the suited version is often called the “steel wheel.” It’s the weakest straight flush, but it still beats four aces. In ace-to-five lowball games, where straights and flushes don’t count against a low hand, the same five cards are the best possible hand.
Where the Straight Flush Ranks
A straight flush is the second-best hand in standard poker, or the best if you count the royal flush as one of them. 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.
That order follows rarity. Here’s how the straight flush compares with its neighbors, counted over every possible five-card hand and every possible seven-card hand:
| Hand | Five-card hands | About once in | Seven-card hands (best five) | About once in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 4 | 649,740 | 4,324 | 30,940 |
| Straight flush (excluding royal) | 36 | 72,193 | 37,260 | 3,591 |
| 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 |
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.
In five cards, four of a kind is about 17 times as common as a straight flush. With seven cards to choose from, the gap narrows to about six times, but the straight flush is still far rarer, which is why it ranks higher. And a straight flush is much rarer than either a straight or a flush alone: it needs five specific cards, where a flush only needs any five of one suit and a straight any five in a row.
What a straight flush beats, and what beats it
- It beats four of a kind, a full house, a flush, a straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card, every time.
- It loses only to a higher straight flush, including the royal flush.
- It ties only with a straight flush of the same height, and then the pot is split.
That makes a straight flush one of the few hands that is almost always the best hand at showdown. The only question is whether someone has a higher one, and as later sections show, the board usually tells you whether that’s possible.
Straight Flush Rules: What Counts and What Doesn’t
A hand is a straight flush only if all of these are true of the five cards that make up your hand:
- All five are the same suit. One card of another suit turns it into a straight.
- The five ranks run in an unbroken sequence. One gap turns it into a flush.
- The sequence doesn’t wrap around the ace. The ace can be high (A-K-Q-J-10) or low (5-4-3-2-A), but never both at once, so Q-K-A-2-3 in one suit is only an ace-high flush.
- The same five cards make both the straight and the flush. In a seven-card game, having a straight and a flush among your seven cards isn’t enough.
- The cards are ones you’re allowed to use. In Hold’em, any mix of hole cards and board cards counts; in Omaha, you must use exactly two hole cards and three board cards.
Everything else follows from the general rules of poker: only your best five cards count, suits never break a tie, and cards speak at showdown, so a straight flush wins even if you announce it as a flush, as long as you show your cards.
In a seven-card game, the same five cards must make both the straight and the flush.
Is it a straight flush? Thirteen hands that look close
| Cards | Straight flush? | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ | Yes | A nine-high straight flush |
| 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♣ | No | A nine-high straight; one card is a club |
| 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 4♥ | No | A nine-high flush; the missing 5 breaks the sequence |
| K♠ A♠ 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ | No | An ace-high flush; a straight can’t wrap around the ace |
| 5♦ 4♦ 3♦ 2♦ A♦ | Yes | The five-high straight flush, or steel wheel, the lowest one |
| A♣ K♣ Q♣ J♣ 10♣ | Yes | The highest straight flush: the royal flush |
| Hold’em: 8♥ 7♥ in hand, 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ on the board | Yes | An eight-high straight flush using both hole cards |
| Hold’em: J♣ 2♦ in hand, 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ 7♣ K♦ on the board | Yes | A jack-high straight flush using one hole card |
| Hold’em: 10♥ 9♥ in hand, 8♥ 7♥ 6♦ 5♣ 2♥ on the board | No | A ten-high flush; the straight uses the 6♦, the flush uses the 2♥, and no five cards make both |
| Hold’em: 10♠ 2♦ in hand, 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠ on the board | Yes | A ten-high straight flush, which beats the nine-high straight flush on the board |
| Omaha: 9♦ 8♣ 4♠ 2♥ in hand, 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ 4♦ K♣ on the board | No | A nine-high straight; with one diamond in hand, you can’t make a flush at all |
| Omaha: 9♦ 8♦ 4♠ 2♥ in hand, 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ K♣ 2♣ on the board | Yes | A nine-high straight flush: two hole cards and three board cards |
| Short Deck: A♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ | Yes, in Short Deck | With the 2s to 5s removed, A-6-7-8-9 counts as the lowest straight; in standard poker it’s an ace-high flush |
Each hand was checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.
The straight-and-flush trap
The ninth row is one of the most common and costly misreads. With seven cards to choose from, you can hold a straight and a flush at the same time without holding a straight flush, because the two hands use different cards. It isn’t rare: counting every seven-card hand, 5.75% of all flushes, about one in 17, also contain a separate straight. When you see both, check whether the same five cards are doing both jobs. Only then is it a straight flush.
The fix is simple. Take the cards of your flush suit, put them in order, and look for five in a row. If there’s a gap, the hand is a flush, and you compare it with other flushes by high card. If the run of five is there, you have a straight flush, and it beats four of a kind.
Comparing Straight Flushes
When two players both have a straight flush, the comparison is the simplest in poker: the one with the higher top card wins. Nothing else matters.
| Situation | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Different top cards | J♠ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ vs 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ | The jack-high straight flush wins |
| Same top card, different suits | 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ vs 9♣ 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣ | Split pot; suits don’t rank |
| Steel wheel vs six-high | 5♠ 4♠ 3♠ 2♠ A♠ vs 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ | The six-high wins; the ace counts as a one in the steel wheel |
| Straight flush vs royal flush | K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 9♥ vs A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ | The royal flush wins |
| Hold’em, board straight flush | Board 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠; one player holds 10♠ 2♦, the other A♦ A♣ | The 10♠ makes a ten-high straight flush and wins; the aces only play the board |
| Hold’em, both play the board | Board 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠; players hold K♦ Q♦ and 4♠ 3♠ | Split pot; the 4♠ makes only an eight-high straight flush, so both play the nine-high on the board |
Each comparison was checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.
No kickers, no suits
A straight flush uses all five cards of a poker hand, so there’s no kicker. In Hold’em, the two cards you don’t use never break a tie, and neither does the suit. Two straight flushes with the same top card are identical for showdown purposes and split the pot.
The last row of the table is worth a second look. Holding a card that extends a straight flush downward doesn’t help: the 4♠ below a nine-high straight flush on the board makes an eight-high straight flush, which is worse than the board’s. Only a card that extends it upward, the 10♠ here, makes a better hand.
Straight Flush Odds
How often you make a straight flush depends mainly on how many cards you get to choose from. Here are the exact odds for the situations players ask about most, both excluding the royal flush, as most odds charts do, and for any straight flush including it:
| Situation | Straight flushes (excluding royal) | About once in | Any straight flush (including royal) | About once in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dealt five cards (Five Card Draw before the draw) | 36 of 2,598,960 | 72,193 | 40 | 64,974 |
| Texas Hold’em, by the flop | 36 of 2,598,960 | 72,193 | 40 | 64,974 |
| Texas Hold’em, by the turn (6 cards) | 1,656 of 20,358,520 | 12,294 | 1,844 | 11,040 |
| Texas Hold’em, by the river (7 cards) | 37,260 of 133,784,560 | 3,591 | 41,584 | 3,217 |
| Seven Card Stud (7 cards) | 37,260 of 133,784,560 | 3,591 | 41,584 | 3,217 |
| Omaha, by the river (4 hole cards, exactly 2 used) | 368,486,160 of 463,563,500,400 | 1,258 | 411,293,760 | 1,127 |
| Short Deck, five cards (36-card deck) | 20 of 376,992 | 18,850 | 24 | 15,708 |
| Short Deck Hold’em, by the river | 8,700 of 8,347,680 | 960 | 10,560 | 790 |
| 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker, optimal strategy | Sourced figure | about 9,150 | — | — |
Exact counts by TopSitesPoker.com, except video poker, which is the published figure for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better with optimal strategy (Wizard of Odds). Hold’em, Stud and Omaha figures assume the hand is played to the end.
More cards to choose from, and a shorter deck, mean far more straight flushes. Log scale.
Why the extra cards matter so much
A five-card straight flush needs five specific cards: there are only 40 such hands in the whole deck. Give a player seven cards and each of those five-card straight flushes can be completed by any two of the other 47 cards, which is why a Hold’em player who sees the river makes a straight flush about 20 times as often as a player dealt five cards. Omaha is more generous again. Each player holds four cards, and although only two of them can be used, those four cards offer six different two-card combinations, so an Omaha player makes a straight flush almost three times as often as a Hold’em player.
Short Deck takes this furthest. Removing the 2s through 5s leaves nine ranks per suit, so each suit’s cards are packed more tightly together and much more likely to form a run. A Short Deck Hold’em player who sees the river makes a straight flush about once in 790 hands, four times as often as in regular Hold’em.
Every straight flush is equally likely, except one
In a five-card hand, all ten straight flushes are equally likely: there are exactly four of each. With seven cards, something odd happens. Counting by the best hand, each straight flush from the steel wheel up to king-high appears in 4,140 seven-card hands, but the royal flush appears in 4,324. The difference is that a lower straight flush can be “upgraded”: a nine-high straight flush with the 10 of the same suit among the other two cards becomes a ten-high straight flush, so it counts there instead. Nothing can upgrade a royal flush. So in Hold’em, the single most common straight flush is the royal flush, by about 4%.
By the numbers: the turn and river
Most straight flushes in Hold’em arrive late. A player who sees every card makes a straight flush (including royals) about once in 64,974 hands by the flop, once in 11,040 by the turn and once in 3,217 by the river. Put the other way round: of all the straight flushes a player holds on the river, only about 5% were already complete on the flop and 29% on the turn. The other 71% were completed by the river card itself.
Straight Flush Odds by Starting Hand
The 1 in 3,217 figure for Hold’em is an average over all 1,326 starting hands. Your two hole cards change it a great deal. What matters is how many different straight flushes could use both of your cards: 8♠ 7♠ fits inside four of them (the eight-, nine-, ten- and jack-high straight flushes in spades), while A♠ K♠ fits inside only one, and 9♠ 4♠ inside none. We counted every starting hand against every possible board:
| Your starting hand | Examples | Straight flushes that can use both cards | Share of starting hands | Any straight flush by the river | Share of all straight flushes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suited connectors, 5-4 to J-10 | 8♠ 7♠, J♥ 10♥ | 4 | 2.1% (28 combinations) | 1 in 502 | 13.5% |
| Suited one-gappers 5-3 to Q-10, plus 4-3 and Q-J suited | 9♦ 7♦, Q♣ J♣ | 3 | 3.0% (40) | 1 in 654 | 14.8% |
| Suited two-gappers 5-2 to K-10, plus 3-2, 4-2, K-Q and K-J suited | 9♥ 6♥, K♠ Q♠ | 2 | 3.9% (52) | 1 in 943 | 13.4% |
| Suited three-gappers 6-2 to K-9, plus A-K, A-Q, A-J, A-10 and A-2 to A-5 suited | 9♣ 5♣, A♦ K♦, A♠ 3♠ | 1 | 4.8% (64) | 1 in 1,666 | 9.3% |
| Suited, too far apart to share a straight | 9♠ 4♠, A♥ 8♥ | 0 | 9.7% (128) | 1 in 6,121 | 5.1% |
| Offsuit hands | 8♠ 7♦, A♣ K♥ | 0 | 70.6% (936) | 1 in 5,607 | 40.5% |
| Pocket pairs | 10♠ 10♥, A♦ A♣ | 0 | 5.9% (78) | 1 in 5,607 | 3.4% |
| All hands | 100% (1,326) | 1 in 3,217 | 100% |
Exact counts over all 2,118,760 boards for each starting hand, including royal flushes and straight flushes that appear on the board by themselves. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.
Suited connectors make a straight flush more than eleven times as often as offsuit hands.
The pattern is clean. Each extra straight flush your two cards can share adds roughly one chance in 2,200, so a suited connector with four such windows makes a straight flush about once in 502 hands, a one-gapper with three about once in 654, and so on down to about once in 1,666 for a hand with just one. Hands that can’t use both cards, which is most of them, depend on a single hole card or the board and make a straight flush on average only about once in 5,600 to 6,100 hands (from about 1 in 4,400 to 1 in 9,800, depending on the ranks).
Put the four suited groups together and they’re 13.9% of all starting hands but make 51.1% of all Hold’em straight flushes. That’s the case for suited connectors in one number, although, as later sections show, a straight flush is only a small part of what makes those hands playable.
The best and worst hands for a straight flush
Seven starting hands tie for the best straight flush chances, each about 1 in 502: J-10, 10-9, 9-8, 8-7, 7-6, 6-5 and 5-4 suited. They differ by only a board or two out of 2,118,760. J♠ 10♠ is the only one of the seven that can make a royal flush with both hole cards, and about a quarter of its straight flushes are royals.
Among hands that can use only one card, the best hold two cards from 5 to 10, such as pocket sevens or 9-6 offsuit, at about 1 in 4,420. Each rank from 5 to 10 appears in five of the ten straight flushes of its suit, more than any other rank. (The 5 and the 10 between them appear in all ten, which is why every straight in poker contains a 5 or a 10.) The worst hands of all, at about 1 in 9,809, are built from aces, kings and deuces, the ranks that appear in only two straight flushes each: pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket deuces, A-K offsuit, A-2 offsuit and K-2 suited or offsuit.
Street by street with 8♠ 7♠
Take a hand from the top group. Here’s how its straight flush chances develop, counted over every possible flop, turn and river:
| Stage | Chance | About once in |
|---|---|---|
| Flop a straight flush | 0.020% | 4,900 flops |
| Flop an open-ended straight flush draw (two cards complete it) | 0.71% | 140 flops |
| Flop a gutshot straight flush draw (one card completes it) | 1.39% | 72 flops |
| Flop a backdoor straight flush draw (needs both the turn and the river) | 31.3% | 3.2 flops |
| No straight flush possible after the flop | 66.6% | 1.5 flops |
| Straight flush by the turn | 0.080% | 1,245 hands |
| Straight flush by the river | 0.199% | 502 hands |
Exact over all 19,600 flops, 230,300 four-card boards and 2,118,760 five-card boards. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.
Two-thirds of the time, the flop kills the straight flush chance completely. A real draw, one that a single turn or river card can complete, comes only about once in 48 flops. Most of the time, even the best starting hands for a straight flush are really playing for something else: a pair, a straight or a flush.
Where Straight Flushes Come From
Turn the question around: of all the straight flushes made in Texas Hold’em, how many use both hole cards, how many use one, and how many are on the board? Counting every combination of two hole cards and five board cards, with the best straight flush in each hand:
| How the straight flush is made | Share of all Hold’em straight flushes | Can another player have a higher one? |
|---|---|---|
| Using both hole cards (three suited board cards) | 47.6% | Yes, if the board allows a higher one |
| Using one hole card (four suited board cards) | 47.6% | Yes, if someone holds the card above yours |
| Using no hole cards (the straight flush is on the board) | 4.8% | Yes, unless it’s a royal flush: the next card up in the suit beats it |
Exact over all 2,809,475,760 combinations of two hole cards and five board cards; 873,264 of them contain a straight flush, including royal flushes. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.
The split is the same as for royal flushes alone: almost exactly half use both hole cards, half use one, and about one in 21 is on the board. What’s different is the last column. A royal flush can’t be beaten, but any other straight flush can, and the board decides by whom.
A straight flush on the board isn’t always a split pot
Suppose the board is 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠. Every player still in the hand has at least a nine-high straight flush. But a player holding the 10♠ has a ten-high straight flush, and a player holding both the 10♠ and the J♠ has a jack-high one. Counting every hand an opponent could hold, 44 of the 990 possible holdings beat the board: 43 with the 10♠ and one with the 10♠ J♠.
So if you’re playing the board, the question is whether anyone holds the one card that beats it. Against a single opponent, the chance is 2 in 45, about 4.4%. At a full nine-handed table where all eight opponents are still in, it’s 16 in 45, about 36%, because 16 of the 45 cards you can’t see are in their hands. Holding a card that extends the straight flush downward, like the 4♠ here, is no help at all.
The one exception is a royal flush on the board. Nothing extends it, so every player in the hand shares it.
Four suited cards to a straight flush on the board
The most dangerous boards for straight flush holders show four cards to one, such as 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ with a blank. Any player holding the 5♠ or the 10♠ has a straight flush, and they’re not equal:
| Your hand on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 2♦ | What you have | Opponent holdings that beat you (of 990) |
|---|---|---|
| 10♠ with any card except the J♠ | Ten-high straight flush | 0: the jack-high one needs your 10♠ |
| 5♠ without the 10♠ | Nine-high straight flush | 44: every hand holding the 10♠ |
| A♠ with a non-spade | Ace-high flush | 87: every hand holding the 5♠ or the 10♠ |
| K♠ with a non-spade | King-high flush | 129: the 87 straight flushes plus 42 hands holding the A♠ |
Exact counts over every possible opponent holding with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.
The player with the 5♠ is on what poker players call the idiot end: they have a straight flush, but the lowest one the board allows. The next section looks at that in detail.
The Idiot End: Is Your Straight Flush the Nuts?
With a royal flush, you always hold the nuts. With any other straight flush, you have to check. A straight flush is beaten only by a higher one, so the question is simple: could anyone hold the card, or cards, that extend the straight flush upward in the same suit?
Players call the lower end of a straight “the idiot end” (or “the ignorant end”): the straight that’s completed by the lowest card, which loses to anyone completing the same run from the top. The same idea applies to straight flushes. On any board, the straight flush that uses the lowest cards is the one at risk.
Three suited cards on the board
When the board has three cards to a straight flush, a player needs both hole cards to complete it, and the possible straight flushes are few. Here are every straight flush holding on two such boards, with the number of opponent holdings, out of 990, that beat each:
| Board | Your hand | Straight flush | Opponent holdings that beat it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ K♠ | 10♥ 9♥ | Ten-high | 0 |
| 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ K♠ | 9♥ 5♥ | Nine-high | 0: a ten-high one needs your 9♥ |
| 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ K♠ | 5♥ 4♥ | Eight-high | 1: 10♥ 9♥ |
| 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ A♦ 2♣ | J♠ 10♠ | Jack-high | 0 |
| 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ A♦ 2♣ | 10♠ 6♠ | Ten-high | 0: a jack-high one needs your 10♠ |
| 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ A♦ 2♣ | 6♠ 5♠ | Nine-high | 1: J♠ 10♠ |
Exact counts over every possible opponent holding with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.
Two lessons come out of this table. First, the middle straight flush is often the nuts too, because you hold a card the higher one needs. 9♥ 5♥ on 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ is only nine-high, but nobody can have the ten-high straight flush without your 9♥. Second, even the idiot end is very rarely beaten on these boards: a single opponent holds the one hand that beats it only once in 990 deals.
Four suited cards on the board
Boards with four cards to a straight flush are a different story, as the previous section showed. Any single card can complete the straight flush, so opponents holding the higher card are far more common: on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 2♦, the 5♠ makes a nine-high straight flush that 44 of the 990 possible opponent hands beat, while the 10♠ makes the nuts. Against eight opponents who are all still in the hand, the chance that one of them holds the 10♠ is 16 in 45, about 36%. At a full table, the idiot end on a board like this is a hand to value carefully rather than a hand to go broke with, especially when an opponent raises.
How often a straight flush loses, by its height
Heads-up, counting every possible deal, a straight flush from the steel wheel up to queen-high loses to a higher straight flush about 0.67% of the time, a king-high one about 0.63%, and a royal flush never. Over all straight flushes, including royals, the loss rate heads-up is about 0.60%, and a further 4.6% end in a split pot. All of those are board straight flushes that neither player can improve, because two players can’t make the same straight flush with their own cards.
The lesson is that a straight flush’s height matters much less than the board. A six-high straight flush made with 6♥ 2♥ on a board like 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ K♣ Q♦ can’t be beaten at all: a seven-high one would need the 6♥ you hold, and any higher run needs more hearts than the board has. A king-high straight flush made with the 9♥ on K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 3♣ loses to any opponent holding the A♥: 44 of the 990 possible hands.
A Straight Flush at the Table: How Often Someone Has One
Your own chance of a straight flush in Hold’em is 1 in 3,217 per hand played to the river, counting royals. The chance that somebody at the table has one is much higher, because every player gets a chance. It doesn’t simply multiply, though: when the straight flush is on the board, everyone shares the same one, so extra players add a little less each time.
| Players seeing the river | Someone has a straight flush, about once in | Two or more players have one, about once in | A straight flush loses to a higher one, about once in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 (heads-up) | 1,656 deals | 55,818 deals | 270,000 deals |
| 3 | 1,118 | 43,500 | 107,300 |
| 4 | 847 | 32,400 | 57,600 |
| 5 | 682 | 24,400 | 35,100 |
| 6 | 571 | 18,800 | 24,100 |
| 7 | 492 | 14,600 | 17,400 |
| 8 | 433 | 11,600 | 13,300 |
| 9 | 387 | 9,430 | 10,400 |
| 10 | 351 | 7,770 | 8,380 |
Heads-up figures are exact counts over every possible deal. Three to ten players: TopSitesPoker.com simulations of 500,000,000 deals per table size (2,000,000,000 for three, six and nine players), with every player seeing the river. Figures include royal flushes and board straight flushes, which count once however many players share them.
Every player seeing the river; real games, with folding, see fewer.
At a full nine-handed table where everyone saw the river, somebody would have a straight flush about once every 387 deals: at a live pace of around 30 hands an hour, about once every 13 hours. Real games see far fewer, because most players fold before the flop and many more before the river.
The last column is the cooler column: a player holding a straight flush and losing to a bigger one. Heads-up it’s extraordinarily rare, about once in 270,000 deals. At a full table with everyone to the river it’s about once in 10,400 deals, because with more players there are more ways for two of them to share the same suited run. Heads-up, about four in five hands where both players have a straight flush are split pots on a board straight flush. At a full table it’s the other way round: about nine in ten such hands involve two different straight flushes, like the 5♠ and the 10♠ on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠, and someone loses.
When your straight flush meets another
From the point of view of the player holding it, a straight flush almost always wins. Heads-up, it wins outright about 94.8% of the time, splits about 4.6% and loses about 0.6%. With more players the losses grow, but slowly:
| Players seeing the river | Your straight flush wins outright | Splits the pot | Loses to a higher straight flush |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 94.8% | 4.6% | 0.6% |
| 6 | 93.3% | 3.7% | 3.0% |
| 9 | 92.0% | 3.2% | 4.8% |
Heads-up exact; six and nine players from 2,000,000,000 simulated deals each, counted over every player who held a straight flush (including royals) at showdown. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.
Even at a full table with everyone seeing the river, a straight flush wins more than 90% of the time. It stays the most reliable hand in poker below the royal flush.
Straight Flush Draws
A straight flush draw is four cards to a straight flush with at least one card to come. On the flop, 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ is an open-ended straight flush draw: the 10♥ or the 5♥ completes it. 9♥ 8♥ on 6♥ 5♥ 2♣ is a gutshot straight flush draw: only the 7♥ does. Both are among the strongest draws in Hold’em, and almost none of their strength comes from the straight flush itself.
| Draw | Example | Straight flush outs | Outs to a straight or better | Straight flush by the river | Straight or better by the river |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flop: open-ended straight flush draw | 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ | 2 (10♥, 5♥) | 15 | 8.4% | 54.1% |
| Flop: gutshot straight flush draw | 9♥ 8♥ on 6♥ 5♥ 2♣ | 1 (7♥) | 12 | 4.3% | 45.8% |
| Turn: open-ended straight flush draw | 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ K♦ | 2 | 15 | 4.3% | 32.6% |
| Turn: gutshot straight flush draw | 9♥ 8♥ on 6♥ 5♥ 2♣ K♦ | 1 | 12 | 2.2% | 26.1% |
| Flop: backdoor straight flush draw | 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 3♣ 2♦ | Needs two running cards | — | 0.28% | 8.3% |
Exact over every possible turn and river, checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com. The flop figures include runner-runner improvements.
The flush and straight outs, not the straight flush cards, make these draws strong.
Where the strength really comes from
Take the open-ended straight flush draw. Nine hearts make a flush or better, and six more cards (the non-heart tens and fives) make a straight, for 15 outs in all. With two cards to come, that’s a 54.1% chance of at least a straight, so the draw is a favorite to make a big hand. The straight flush itself arrives only 8.4% of the time. If you count only the straight flush outs when deciding whether to call a bet, you’ll fold hands you should be raising.
Against real hands, the numbers stay impressive:
| Your draw | Opponent’s hand | Your equity with two cards to come |
|---|---|---|
| 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ (open-ended) | A♣ 7♣ (top pair, top kicker) | 65.9% |
| 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ (open-ended) | 2♠ 2♦ (a set of twos) | 42.1% |
| 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ (open-ended) | 7♦ 7♠ (top set) | 42.1% |
| 9♥ 8♥ on 6♥ 5♥ 2♣ (gutshot) | A♣ 6♣ (top pair, top kicker) | 59.3% |
| 9♥ 8♥ on 6♥ 5♥ 2♣ (gutshot) | 2♠ 2♦ (a set of twos) | 34.3% |
Exact over all 990 turn and river combinations for each matchup, with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.
An open-ended straight flush draw is a clear favorite over a single pair, even top pair with the best kicker, and has more than 40% against a set, which can still improve to a full house or four of a kind. That’s why strong players usually play these draws aggressively on the flop, betting and raising rather than just calling: they win the pot immediately when the opponent folds, and they’re often the favorite when called.
The outs a set can’t take away
Against a set, some of your outs are tainted, because a card that pairs the board gives the set a full house or better. On 7♥ 6♥ 2♣, the 2♥ completes your flush but turns a set of twos into four of a kind and a set of sevens into a full house, and two-card runouts that pair the board cost you more. The straight flush cards are the exception. The 10♥ and the 5♥ beat a full house and four of a kind, so they win whatever the opponent is holding. That’s the real value of the straight flush part of the draw: not that it comes often, but that nothing can counterfeit it.
Pot odds with a straight flush draw
Suppose you hold 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ K♦ with one card to come. The pot is $100, and your opponent bets $50. To call, you need to win at least $50 ÷ $200 = 25% of the time. You have 15 outs from 46 unseen cards, or 32.6%, a clearly profitable call before you count the extra chips you’ll win when you hit. Counting only the two straight flush outs, you’d have 4.3% and would need pot odds of about 22 to 1. Treat the straight flush cards as the best of your outs, not as the reason to continue.
Straight Flush Examples
The examples below cover the ways a straight flush is made in Texas Hold’em, the coolers it creates, a misread that looks like one, and how the picture changes in Omaha, Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw. Every hand was checked with a hand evaluator.
Example 1: using both hole cards
You hold 8♥ 7♥. The board runs out 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ K♣ 2♦. Your five best cards are 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ 4♥, an eight-high straight flush. Could anyone have a higher one? A nine-high straight flush would need the 9♥ and your 8♥ and 7♥, so no. An opponent holding 3♥ 2♥ would have a six-high straight flush, lower than yours. Your hand is the nuts.
Example 2: using one hole card
You hold Q♣ 3♦. The board is J♣ 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ 2♠. Your Q♣ completes a queen-high straight flush with the four board clubs. An opponent with the 7♣ has a jack-high straight flush, and one with the K♣ has only a king-high flush, because a king-high straight flush would need your Q♣. Your hand is the nuts again, this time because of the card you hold.
Example 3: the board straight flush that isn’t a split
The board is 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠. You hold A♦ A♣, so you play the board’s nine-high straight flush. Your opponent holds 10♠ 2♦ and has a ten-high straight flush. They win the whole pot. Any player holding the 10♠ beats the board, and nobody can do anything with a lower spade.
Example 4: a straight flush beats four of a kind
You hold K♦ Q♦. The board is J♦ 10♦ 9♦ 9♣ 9♥. Your opponent holds 9♠ 2♣ for four nines. You have a king-high straight flush, and it wins. Paired boards with three suited, connected cards produce some of poker’s biggest coolers, because they can give one player four of a kind and another a straight flush at the same time.
Example 5: the steel wheel beats four kings
You hold A♥ 2♥. The board is 3♥ 4♥ 5♥ K♣ K♦, and your opponent holds K♥ K♠ for four kings. Your A♥ plays as a one, making 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ A♥, the lowest straight flush of all, and it still beats four of a kind. Only one hand could beat you here, 7♥ 6♥, for a seven-high straight flush.
Example 6: the straight-and-flush misread
You hold 10♥ 9♥. The board is 8♥ 7♥ 6♦ 5♣ 2♥. You have a straight, 10-9-8-7-6, and a flush, 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 2♥, but no straight flush: the straight needs the 6♦ and the flush needs the 2♥. Your hand plays as a ten-high flush, and it loses to any higher heart flush.
Omaha: the straight flush and the trap
You hold 9♦ 8♦ 4♠ 2♥ and the board is 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ K♣ 2♣. You use your 9♦ 8♦ with the board’s 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ for a nine-high straight flush, using exactly two hole cards and three board cards.
Now change the hand to 9♦ 8♣ 4♠ 2♥ on 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ 4♦ K♣. A Hold’em player would see a nine-high straight flush with the 9♦. In Omaha, you need two diamonds from your hand to make any flush, and you hold one. Your best hand is 9♦ 8♣ with 7-6-5, a nine-high straight. The same rule means that four suited, connected cards on an Omaha board never give a one-card straight flush.
Seven Card Stud: reading the up cards
In Stud, each player’s straight flush uses only their own cards, and four of those cards are dealt face up. If an opponent shows 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ on board, a straight flush is possible, and you can check whether the cards they would need, the J♣, 10♣, 9♣, 5♣, 4♣ or 3♣ (they have three hidden cards), have already been dealt face up to someone else. Every one you can see makes their straight flush less likely. Two players can also hold straight flushes in different suits in Stud, since there are no shared cards, though it’s extremely rare.
Five Card Draw: four to a straight flush
You’re dealt 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ K♣. Throw away the K♣ and draw one card. Two of the 47 cards you haven’t seen, the 10♥ and 5♥, give you a straight flush (4.3%). Another seven hearts give you a flush, and six more tens and fives give you a straight, so 15 of the 47 cards, about 31.9%, make a straight or better.
How to Play a Straight Flush
Most of the time, a straight flush is the best hand, and playing it is about one question: how do you get the most chips from opponents who have something worth calling with? The other question, the one players forget, is whether a higher straight flush is possible. The board answers it.
Step 1: check whether you have the nuts
Look at the suit of your straight flush and ask which cards would extend it upward. If those cards are in your hand, on the board already, or would need more suited board cards than there are, you have the nuts and nothing can beat you. If one card could do it, such as the 10♠ against your 5♠ on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠, you have a very strong hand that is still beatable, and you should think about who’s betting into you.
Step 2: think about what your opponents can hold
A straight flush gets paid by hands that are strong in their own right. The boards that make straight flushes also make flushes, straights and sometimes full houses, so opponents often have a hand they like. Counting every hand one opponent could hold on the river:
| Opponent’s river hand | You: 8♥ 7♥ on 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ K♣ 2♦ | You: Q♣ 3♦ on J♣ 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ 2♠ |
|---|---|---|
| Straight flush (lower than yours) | 0.1% | 4.4% |
| Flush | 2.7% | 28.3% |
| Straight | 17.4% | 20.3% |
| Two pair or three of a kind | 10.5% | 9.2% |
| One pair or less | 69.3% | 37.8% |
Exact over all 990 possible opponent holdings on each board. Real opponents who reach the river hold stronger hands than a random two cards. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.
The one-card straight flush on a four-club board comes with plenty of customers: more than half of all possible hands have a straight or better, and a third have a flush or better. Many of those players will think they’re good. That’s the spot for big bets and raises. With the two-card straight flush on a three-heart board, only about one hand in five has a straight or better, and most of those are straights, so a smaller bet that two pair or a straight can call may win more.
Step 3: size your bets for the hands that will pay
- On a scary board, bet big. Four suited cards or a straight flush draw on the board make many hands, and players with a flush often won’t fold. Overbets and all-ins are often the most profitable play.
- On a board that looks dry, bet what a worse hand can call. A straight flush made from three suited board cards can look like nothing to an opponent holding top pair. A bet they can call wins more than one they fold to.
- On a paired board, look for the cooler. When the board has a pair and three suited, connected cards, an opponent can hold a full house or four of a kind, and they’ll put a lot of money in. That’s exactly when your straight flush wins the biggest pots.
When the straight flush is on the board
If the board is a straight flush and you can’t improve it, your best outcome is a split. The danger is an opponent holding the next card up. Facing a bet, the arithmetic is simple. Say the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $100. If you call and the pot is split, you get back your $100 plus half of the original pot, $50 better than folding. If you call and they have the card that beats the board, you lose $100. So calling breaks even if they have the upgrade one time in three, and it’s right when you think they hold it less often than that. Against one random opponent, they hold the card only about 4% of the time, but a big bet or a raise from a careful player makes it much more likely.
If you hold the card that extends the board’s straight flush, you have the nuts, unless it’s also possible to extend yours further. Bet it: opponents playing the board will often call to protect their share.
Before the flop: straight flushes don’t make a hand playable
Even the best starting hands for a straight flush make one only about once in 502 hands played to the river. If each of those straight flushes won you 100 big blinds, that would be worth about 0.2 big blinds per hand, far less than the chips you’d lose playing weak suited connectors from early position. Suited connectors are worth playing in the right spots because they make straights, flushes, two pair and strong draws that win big pots, and because they’re easy to fold when they miss. The occasional straight flush is a bonus on top.
The Straight Flush in Other Games
The straight flush ranks just below the royal flush in every standard high-hand game. What changes from game to game is how often it appears and which cards you’re allowed to use.
Omaha
In Omaha, you must use exactly two hole cards and exactly three board cards. For a straight flush, that means two suited cards in your hand and three more of the same suit on the board, all fitting in one run. A player who sees the river makes a straight flush about once in 1,127 hands, including royals, almost three times as often as in Hold’em. The two-card rule creates the traps shown in the examples: four suited, connected cards on the board never give a one-card straight flush, and a straight flush on the board plays for nobody.
Short Deck (6+ Hold’em)
Short Deck removes the 2s through 5s. The ace can still play low, but now it connects to the 6: A-6-7-8-9 is the lowest straight, and in one suit it’s the lowest straight flush. With nine ranks per suit there are six straight flushes in each suit, and they’re far more common than in the full deck: 1 in 15,708 five-card hands, and about once in 790 hands played to the river in Short Deck Hold’em. The straight flush still ranks second, above four of a kind, although Short Deck reorders some of the hands below it (a flush beats a full house, and some games rank three of a kind above a straight).
Seven Card Stud
A Stud player who stays to seventh street makes a straight flush with the same frequency as a Hold’em player who sees the river: 1 in 3,591 excluding royals, 1 in 3,217 including them. The difference is information. You can see four of each opponent’s cards, so you can judge both whether a straight flush is possible for them and whether the cards they need are still live.
Five Card Draw
You’re dealt a straight flush, excluding royals, once in 72,193 hands. Draws help only when you already hold most of it: four to an open-ended straight flush (9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥) completes on a one-card draw 2 times in 47, and four to an inside one (9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 5♥) 1 time in 47.
Lowball games
In deuce-to-seven lowball, where the lowest hand wins and straights and flushes count against you, a straight flush is a terrible hand. In ace-to-five lowball, used in Razz and most hi-lo split games, straights and flushes are ignored, so 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ A♥ is simply “the wheel,” the best possible low hand. In hi-lo games like Omaha Hi-Lo, a steel wheel can win both halves of the pot: the best high hand with its straight flush, and the best low with its five low cards.
Wild-card games
With jokers or deuces wild, straight flushes become much easier to make, and five of a kind becomes possible. Many house rules rank five of a kind at the top, though not all: Deuces Wild video poker, for example, pays a natural royal flush more than five of a kind. Some games also rank a natural straight flush above one made with a wild card. There’s no single standard, so agree on the rankings before the first deal.
Video poker
On a standard full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better machine, a straight flush pays 50 for 1, and a player following optimal strategy makes one about once in 9,150 hands. Four cards to a straight flush are one of the most valuable draws on the machine. We worked out the average return of each option for common situations, counting every possible draw:
| Dealt hand | Option | Average return | Draw to the straight flush | Average return | Best play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♣ | Keep the straight | 4.00 | Hold 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ | 3.45 | Keep the straight |
| 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 2♥ | Keep the flush | 6.00 | Hold 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ | 3.40 | Keep the flush |
| J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ J♣ | Hold the jacks | 1.54 | Hold J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ | 3.57 | Break the pair |
| Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 8♥ Q♣ | Hold the queens | 1.54 | Hold Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 8♥ (inside) | 2.45 | Break the pair |
| 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 6♣ | Hold the sixes | 0.82 | Hold 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ | 3.53 | Break the pair |
| 9♥ 9♣ 8♥ 8♣ 7♥ | Hold the two pair | 2.60 | Hold 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ | 0.60 | Keep the two pair |
Average coins returned per coin bet at maximum coins, exact over every possible draw. Pay table per coin: royal flush 800, straight flush 50, four of a kind 25, full house 9, flush 6, straight 4, three of a kind 3, two pair 2, jacks or better 1. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com; the straight flush frequency is the published figure from the Wizard of Odds.
The pattern: keep a made straight or flush, but break a high pair or a low pair to draw to four cards of a straight flush, even an inside one. Three to a straight flush is much weaker: holding 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ returns about 0.63, less than keeping any pair, even a pair of twos (0.82), and far less than two pair.
Showdown, Etiquette, Promotions and Jackpots
At showdown
- Show all your cards. Cards speak, so a straight flush wins even if you announce “flush.” But under the TDA rules and in most cardrooms, you have to show all your hole cards face up to win any part of the pot, and that includes playing a straight flush on the board.
- Keep your cards away from the muck. In most rooms, cards pushed into the muck that can’t be identified and retrieved are dead. With a straight flush, keep them face up in front of you until the pot is pushed to you.
- Check the board before you celebrate. If the board allows a higher straight flush, let the dealer read both hands. It’s easy to table the idiot end of a straight flush and assume the pot is yours.
- Don’t slow roll, and don’t miscall on purpose. Taking your time to show a hand you know is best is poor etiquette. Deliberately announcing the wrong hand to get an opponent to muck is unethical and can be penalized under TDA rules and in most cardrooms.
High-hand promotions
Many cardrooms run high-hand promotions that pay the best hand of the hour or the day, and a straight flush is often good enough to win one, or to qualify for a fixed bonus. The conditions vary, and a hand that misses them earns nothing extra. Common conditions include:
- Both hole cards must play. This matters more than it sounds: only about 47.6% of Hold’em straight flushes use both hole cards. One made with a single hole card or on the board often doesn’t qualify.
- A minimum pot or a seen flop. Some rooms require the pot to reach a set size.
- Verification before the cards are mixed. The floor usually has to see and record the hand. Mucked cards normally can’t be claimed.
- Ties. Straight flushes of the same height tie, and promotions have their own rules for identical hands, such as splitting the prize or awarding it to the first one made.
Read the promotion rules before you play, and when you make the hand, leave your cards face up and tell the dealer.
Bad-beat jackpots
Bad-beat jackpots pay when a very strong hand loses at showdown, and a straight flush is often involved, either as the losing hand or as the hand that beats four of a kind. Qualifying rules vary widely: many jackpots require the losing hand to be four of a kind of a certain rank or better, and both hole cards to play.
These hands are rare. In our simulations of nine-handed Hold’em with every player seeing the river, four of a kind lost to a straight flush about once in 89,000 deals, and a straight flush lost to a higher straight flush about once in 10,400 (over 2 billion simulated deals). Heads-up, both are far rarer: four of a kind lost to a straight flush only about once in 3.1 million deals. In real games, where most players fold before the river, jackpot-qualifying hands come along much less often than that, which is why the jackpots can grow so large.
Common Straight Flush Mistakes
Straight flush mistakes fall into two groups: misreading the hand, and misjudging what it’s worth.
| Mistake | Example | What’s actually true |
|---|---|---|
| Combining a straight and a flush that use different cards | 10♥ 9♥ on 8♥ 7♥ 6♦ 5♣ 2♥ | No five cards make both; it’s a ten-high flush |
| Wrapping a straight around the ace | Q♠ K♠ A♠ 2♠ 3♠ | The ace is high or low, never both; it’s an ace-high flush |
| Counting a suited hand with a gap | 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 4♥ | The missing 5 makes it a nine-high flush |
| Treating the steel wheel as ace-high | 5♠ 4♠ 3♠ 2♠ A♠ vs 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ | The ace plays as a one; the six-high straight flush wins |
| Assuming a board straight flush is always a split | Board 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠ | Anyone holding the 10♠ beats it; only a board royal flush is always shared |
| Thinking a lower suited card improves a board straight flush | Holding 4♠ on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠ | An eight-high straight flush is worse than the board’s nine-high; you play the board |
| Using one hole card in Omaha | 9♦ in hand, 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ 4♦ on the board | Exactly two hole cards must play; there’s no straight flush, and no flush either |
| Thinking suits break ties | “My straight flush in spades beats yours in hearts” | Same top card, same hand: split the pot |
| Ignoring the idiot end | 5♠ on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 2♦ facing a big raise | The 10♠ beats you; 44 of 990 opponent hands hold it |
| Counting only the straight flush outs on a draw | Folding 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣ because “only two cards” make the straight flush | You have 15 outs to a straight or better, 54.1% by the river |
| Playing weak suited connectors for straight flushes | Calling raises with 5♣ 4♣ “for the straight flush” | Even the best hands make one only once in 502; play them for straights, flushes and draws |
| Keeping a high pair over four to a straight flush in video poker | Holding J♥ J♣ from J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ J♣ | Four to the straight flush return about 3.57 against 1.54; break the pair |
Most of these misreads disappear with one habit. When you think you have a straight flush, pick out the cards of that suit, put them in order, and read off five in a row. Then look above your top card: if the next card up in the suit could be in someone’s hand, your straight flush isn’t the nuts.
Test Yourself: Straight Flush Quiz
Ten questions on reading, ranking and playing the straight flush. Decide before you read the answer. Every hand was checked with a hand evaluator.
| # | Question | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣ 4♦ a straight flush? | No, it’s a straight | All five cards must share a suit |
| 2 | Which is higher: 5♠ 4♠ 3♠ 2♠ A♠ or 6♦ 5♦ 4♦ 3♦ 2♦? | The six-high | In the steel wheel the ace plays as a one, so it’s the lowest straight flush |
| 3 | Hold’em: you hold 10♠ 3♥ and the board is 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠. What do you have? | A ten-high straight flush | Your 10♠ extends the board’s straight flush upward |
| 4 | Same board. You hold 4♠ 3♠; your opponent holds K♦ Q♦. Who wins? | Split pot | Your 4♠ extends it downward, which doesn’t help; both play the board’s nine-high |
| 5 | Hold’em: you hold 10♥ 9♥ and the board is 8♥ 7♥ 6♦ 5♣ 2♥. What do you have? | A ten-high flush | You have a straight and a flush, but no five cards make both |
| 6 | Omaha: you hold 9♦ 8♦ 4♠ 2♥ and the board is 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ K♣ 2♣. What do you have? | A nine-high straight flush | Two hole cards (9♦ 8♦) and three board cards (7♦ 6♦ 5♦) |
| 7 | Omaha: you hold J♣ 7♥ 4♦ 2♠ and the board is 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ K♥ 3♦. What do you have? | A jack-high straight | J♣ 7♥ with 10-9-8 makes a straight; with one club in hand, no flush is possible |
| 8 | Hold’em: which makes more straight flushes by the river, 8♠ 7♠ or A♠ K♠? | 8♠ 7♠, by far | About 1 in 502 against about 1 in 1,823: 8-7 fits in four straight flushes, A-K in one |
| 9 | Hold’em: on 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 2♦, you hold the 5♠. What share of an opponent’s possible hands beat you? | 44 of 990, about 4.4% | Every hand holding the 10♠ makes a higher straight flush |
| 10 | 9/6 Jacks or Better: you’re dealt J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ J♣. Keep the jacks or draw to the straight flush? | Draw to the straight flush | About 3.57 coins per coin bet against 1.54 for the jacks |
Questions 4, 5 and 7 are the easiest to get wrong at the table, even for experienced players. Each comes down to the same discipline: find the five cards that make your hand, and check which of them you’re allowed to use.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a straight flush in poker?
A straight flush is five cards of consecutive rank, all of the same suit, such as 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ 4♦ 3♦. It combines a straight and a flush in the same five cards and ranks second in standard poker, below only the royal flush, which is itself the highest straight flush.
What’s the difference between a straight flush and a royal flush?
A royal flush is the ace-high straight flush, A-K-Q-J-10 of one suit. Every royal flush is a straight flush, but it’s the only one that can’t be beaten, so it gets its own name and its own line on hand-ranking charts. The other 36 straight flushes run from 5-high to king-high.
Does a straight flush beat four of a kind?
Yes. Any straight flush, even the lowest one, 5-4-3-2-A suited, beats any four of a kind, including four aces. Four of a kind is about 17 times as common as a straight flush in five-card hands and about six times as common in seven-card hands.
What beats a straight flush?
Only a higher straight flush, including the royal flush. A straight flush with a higher top card wins; one with the same top card ties.
How many straight flushes are there?
Forty in a standard deck: ten in each suit, from 5-high to ace-high. Excluding the four royal flushes, there are 36.
What are the odds of getting a straight flush?
Excluding royal flushes, 1 in 72,193 in five cards and 1 in 3,591 by the river in Texas Hold’em or on seventh street in Seven Card Stud. Including royals, the Hold’em figure is 1 in 3,217. In Omaha it’s about 1 in 1,127 including royals, and in Short Deck Hold’em about 1 in 790. Your starting hand matters: suited connectors such as 8♠ 7♠ make one about once in 502 hands played to the river.
Is A-2-3-4-5 of the same suit a straight flush?
Yes. It’s the lowest straight flush, often called the steel wheel. The ace plays as a one, so it’s a five-high straight flush and loses to every other straight flush, but it beats four of a kind.
Can a straight flush wrap around from king to two?
No. K-A-2-3-4 of one suit is not a straight flush in standard poker; it’s an ace-high flush. The ace can be the top of a straight or the bottom, but not the middle.
What happens if two players have a straight flush?
The one with the higher top card wins. If both straight flushes have the same top card, the pot is split. In Texas Hold’em, two different straight flushes need a board with at least three suited cards close together, and two players holding the right cards, which is why two different straight flushes meet only about once in 270,000 heads-up deals. Both players holding the same straight flush, almost always a shared board straight flush, is more common, at about once in 55,800.
Does a kicker matter with a straight flush?
No. A straight flush uses all five cards of a poker hand, so there’s no kicker. Your remaining cards never break a tie.
Which suit wins between two straight flushes?
None. Suits have no rank in standard poker, so a nine-high straight flush in spades and a nine-high straight flush in clubs split the pot.
If the board is a straight flush, is it a split pot?
Only if nobody can improve it. If the board shows 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠, a player holding the 10♠ has a ten-high straight flush and wins. A royal flush on the board is the one case where everyone in the hand must split.
What’s the best starting hand for making a straight flush?
Seven Hold’em hands tie for the best chance: the suited connectors from 5-4 to J-10, each at about 1 in 502 hands played to the river. Among them, J-10 suited is the only one that can also make a royal flush. Hands whose two cards can’t fit in the same straight flush, including pocket pairs and all offsuit hands, make a straight flush only about once in 4,400 to 9,800 hands.
Is a straight flush draw worth playing?
Usually, yes, but because of its flush and straight outs, not the straight flush itself. An open-ended straight flush draw on the flop, like 9♥ 8♥ on 7♥ 6♥ 2♣, has 15 outs and a 54.1% chance of a straight or better by the river, and it’s a favorite over top pair. The straight flush arrives only 8.4% of the time.
Is a straight flush the same as having a straight and a flush?
Only if the same five cards make both. In Hold’em you can hold a straight and a flush among your seven cards without a straight flush, because the two hands use different cards. About 1 in 17 seven-card flushes also contain a separate straight.
How often does a straight flush lose?
Rarely. Heads-up in Hold’em, a straight flush loses to a higher one about 0.6% of the time and splits about 4.6%. At a nine-handed table with everyone seeing the river, it loses about 4.8% of the time and still wins outright about 92%.
What is the idiot end of a straight flush?
It’s the lowest straight flush a board allows, made with the card below the board’s run instead of the card above it. On 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠, the 5♠ makes a straight flush but loses to anyone holding the 10♠. The phrase comes from straights, where the low end is the classic trap.
Straight Flush: Quick-Reference Summary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it is | Five consecutive ranks in one suit |
| How many exist | 40 (36 excluding royal flushes); ten per suit |
| Highest and lowest | A-K-Q-J-10 (the royal flush) and 5-4-3-2-A (the steel wheel) |
| Rank | Second, below the royal flush; beats four of a kind |
| Comparing two | Higher top card wins; same top card splits; no kickers, no suits |
| Odds in five cards | 1 in 72,193 excluding royals (1 in 64,974 including) |
| Odds by the Hold’em river | 1 in 3,591 excluding royals (1 in 3,217 including) |
| Best starting hands | Suited connectors 5-4 to J-10: about 1 in 502 |
| Omaha / Short Deck | About 1 in 1,127 / 1 in 790, including royals |
| Someone at a nine-handed table (all to the river) | About once in 387 deals |
| Open-ended straight flush draw on the flop | 8.4% straight flush, 54.1% straight or better |
| Board straight flush | Hold’em: the next card up in the suit beats it; Omaha: plays for nobody |
| Heads-up result | Wins 94.8%, splits 4.6%, loses 0.6% |
| Video poker (9/6 Jacks or Better) | Pays 50 for 1; break a pair to draw to four to a straight flush |
About This Guide (straight flush poker)
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 wild cards, Short Deck rankings, promotions and jackpots, vary, and the rules of the room or site where you play always apply.
Every probability 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; starting-hand figures over all 2,809,475,760 combinations of two hole cards and five board cards; Omaha over all 463,563,500,400 combinations of four hole cards and five board cards; Short Deck over all 376,992 five-card and 8,347,680 seven-card hands; heads-up straight flush collisions over every possible two-player deal; and every draw, example, board and opponent-holding figure over all possible remaining cards.
- Simulations: the table-size, win-split-loss and four-of-a-kind cooler figures come from simulations of 500,000,000 deals per table size (2,000,000,000 for two, three, six and nine players), all with every player seeing the river. Where the tables give heads-up figures, they’re exact counts.
- Video poker: the hold values are exact over every possible draw with the standard 9/6 Jacks or Better pay table. The straight flush frequency under optimal strategy (about 1 in 9,150) is the published figure from the Wizard of Odds.
- Evaluator checks: every example, look-alike hand, comparison and quiz answer was verified with a hand evaluator.
Hold’em, Omaha and Stud figures assume every hand is played to the end. Real players fold often, so straight flushes, and the coolers they create, appear less often in real games than these figures suggest.
The Bottom Line
A straight flush is five cards in a row of one suit, the second-best hand in poker and the only hand besides the royal flush that beats four of a kind. Straight flushes are ranked only by their top card, from the steel wheel up to the royal flush, and two of the same height split the pot. The traps are all misreads: a straight and a flush that use different cards, a run that wraps around the ace, a one-card straight flush in Omaha, or a board straight flush that someone holding the next card up can beat.
The numbers put the hand in perspective. A suited connector makes a straight flush about once in 502 hands played to the river, and a straight flush draw is worth playing for its many flush and straight outs rather than its two straight flush cards. When you do make one, check the board for a higher straight flush, then think about what your opponents hold and bet for the hands that will pay you. Most of the time, nobody can beat you.
About the Author and Legal Notes
Written and fact-checked by the TopSitesPoker.com Editorial Team. Our editors write, test and review every guide on the site. Poker odds in our guides are calculated with exact enumeration or large-scale simulation, never copied, and rules are checked against current Poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA) standards and published cardroom rules.
Last updated: September 24, 2026
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