Flush

What Is Flush?

A flush is one of the strongest hands in poker, formed when a player holds five cards that share the same suit — all hearts, all diamonds, all clubs, or all spades. The cards do not need to be in any particular order or sequence. If they were also consecutive, the hand would be upgraded to a straight flush or royal flush.

Under standard 52-card high hand rankings, a flush sits below a full house and four of a kind but above a straight, trips, two pair, a pair and high card. Other variants can differ: the official rankings reference places a flush above a full house in short deck. Check the game before comparing hands.

Flush draws are among the most common and important drawing situations in poker. When you hold two suited cards and two more of that suit appear on the flop, you have a flush draw with nine outs (thirteen cards of each suit minus the four you can see). This gives you roughly a 35% chance of completing your flush by the river, making flush draws powerful hands that often justify continued aggression. Understanding how to play flush draws — and how to play against them — is a core skill at every level of the game.

How It Works

A flush is ranked by its highest card, then by subsequent cards if needed to break a tie:

• Ace-King-Jack-Eight-Four of hearts beats Ace-King-Jack-Seven-Three of hearts (the fourth card, Eight vs. Seven, breaks the tie).
• Ace-high flush beats King-high flush, regardless of the other four cards.
• Suits are never ranked against each other. A flush of hearts and a flush of spades with identical card values result in a split pot.

Common flush scenarios in Hold’em:

• Two suited hole cards + three suited board cards: You hold Ace-Ten of diamonds and the board contains three diamonds. This is the most standard way to make a flush.
• One suited hole card + four suited board cards: The board has four hearts, and you hold one heart. Everyone with a heart has a flush, but the highest heart wins.
• Five suited board cards: In Hold’em, choose the best five cards of that suit from the board and your hand. Compare all five cards. On Ac Kc Qc Jc 8c, holding Tc makes a royal flush; it need not outrank the Ac. If nobody can improve the board, tied eligible players split.

Flush draw math:

• Outs: 9 (13 cards of the suit minus 4 accounted for).
• Probability of hitting on the turn: approximately 19.1%.
• Probability of hitting by the river (from the flop): approximately 35%.
• Probability of flopping a flush with two suited hole cards: approximately 0.84%.

The “nut flush” is the highest possible flush given the board. If the board shows three clubs and you hold the Ace of clubs, you have the nut flush draw or the nut flush — no other flush can beat yours (though a full house or better still can).

Example

You are playing $1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em and are dealt Ace of spades and Nine of spades on the button. A player in middle position raises to $8, and you call. The blinds fold. The pot is $19.

The flop comes: King of spades, Seven of spades, Three of diamonds. You have the nut flush draw. With nine spades remaining in the deck, you have a roughly 35% chance of making the best possible flush by the river. You also have an overcard (the Ace might be good if it hits).

Your opponent bets $12 into $19. Calling costs $12, and the pot would then be $19 + $12 + $12 = $43. A call closing the action would require $12 / $43 ≈ 27.91% equity before rake. Here another betting round remains: about 35% draw completion by the river does not mean this call buys both cards, and neither flush cards nor Ace outs are automatically winning outs. The draw alone does not prove the call profitable.

You call. The pot is $43. The turn is the Five of spades, completing your flush. You now hold the Ace-high flush (the nuts). Your opponent bets $28. Rather than just calling, you raise to $80, targeting your opponent’s likely strong Kings or overpairs that they will have difficulty folding. Your opponent calls with King-Queen offsuit (top pair, good kicker).

The river is the Jack of diamonds, changing nothing. Your opponent checks, and you bet $120 into the $203 pot. Your opponent calls, unable to release top pair. Your nut flush wins a $443 pot.

Common Mistakes

• Overvaluing non-nut flushes on four-flush boards. When four cards of one suit appear on the board, anyone with a single card of that suit has a flush. Holding the Six of hearts on a board with four hearts does not mean you have a strong hand. Someone else likely holds a higher heart. Proceed with extreme caution unless you hold the Ace or King of the relevant suit.
• Ignoring paired boards when holding a flush. Under standard high rankings, a full house beats a flush, but trips do not. On a K-K-7-5-2 board with three clubs, pocket Sevens make Sevens full of Kings and pocket Fives make Fives full of Kings. A single King without a matching second pair can still be only three Kings. Read the best five cards before deciding.
• Chasing flush draws without proper pot odds. On the turn with one card to come, a flush draw has roughly a 19% chance of completing (about 4:1 against). If the pot is not offering close to 4:1, calling is a losing play in isolation. Always calculate pot odds before committing chips to a draw. Our poker odds calculator can help you practice these calculations.

Related Terms

• Hand Rankings — the complete hierarchy where a flush ranks fifth
• Full House — the hand that beats a flush most commonly
• Straight Flush — a flush that is also a straight, ranking much higher
• Royal Flush — the highest possible flush and the best hand in poker
• River — the final card that often completes or misses a flush draw

FAQ

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes. A flush always beats a straight in the hand rankings. Even the lowest possible flush (7-5-4-3-2 suited) beats the highest possible straight (A-K-Q-J-T of mixed suits). This is because flushes are statistically rarer than straights, and the hand rankings are ordered by rarity.

What is a “backdoor flush draw”?

A backdoor flush draw needs both remaining board cards of the same suit. For example, hold Ah Qh on a Jh 7c 2d flop: three hearts are known, so both the turn and river must be hearts. With only these five cards known, the probability is (10 / 47) × (9 / 46) ≈ 4.16%. One heart in your hand plus one on the flop is insufficient: two more hearts would total only four.

How important is it to play suited cards versus offsuit cards?

Being suited adds roughly 2-3% equity to a hand compared to the same ranks offsuit. This seems small, but it matters over thousands of hands. Suited hands make flushes, flush draws, and backdoor flush draws that offsuit hands never can. However, the suitedness bonus does not transform a bad hand into a good one. King-Two suited is still a weak hand from early position. For position-based hand selection guidance, visit our poker guides and explore starting hand charts in our tools section.