Yes—a Flush Beats a Straight in Standard Hold’em

Yes. In standard Texas Hold’em and other standard high-poker games, a flush beats a straight. If one player’s best five-card hand is a flush and another player’s is a straight, the flush wins—even against an ace-high straight. The hand category is compared first; individual card ranks matter only when players hold the same category of hand.

The short answer: a flush beats a straight

The relevant part of the standard poker ranking order is:

Rank	Hand
Higher	Full house
↓	Flush
↓	Straight
Lower	Three of a kind

For example, a 10-high flush beats an ace-high straight. You do not compare the flush’s 10 with the straight’s ace because the two hands belong to different categories. A flush ranks higher, so it wins.

A flush is strong but not unbeatable. Under standard high-poker rankings, it loses to a full house, four of a kind, and a straight flush.

How to recognize a flush, a straight, and a straight flush

These three hands are easy to distinguish once you focus on suit and sequence:

Hand	Definition	Example	Tie-break method
Flush	Five cards of one suit that do not collectively form a five-card sequence	A♣–J♣–8♣–5♣–2♣	Compare all five cards from highest to lowest
Straight	Five consecutive ranks that are not all one suit	K♦–Q♠–J♥–10♣–9♦	Compare the highest card in each straight
Straight flush	Five consecutive cards of one suit	10♥–9♥–8♥–7♥–6♥	Compare the highest card in each sequence

In a direct showdown, A♣–J♣–8♣–5♣–2♣ beats K♦–Q♠–J♥–10♣–9♦. The first hand is an ace-high flush, while the second is a king-high straight. The flush wins because it belongs to the higher hand category, not merely because it contains an ace.

If five suited cards also form a complete sequence, the hand is classified as a straight flush rather than an ordinary flush. A straight flush beats both an ordinary flush and an ordinary straight.

Under standard high rules, an ace can appear at either end of a straight:

• Ace high: A-K-Q-J-10
• Ace low: A-2-3-4-5

The ace cannot wrap around the sequence. Hands such as Q-K-A-2-3 are not straights.

How Texas Hold’em chooses the winning five cards

At a river showdown, each Hold’em player has seven available cards: two private hole cards and five shared community cards. The player uses whichever five-card combination is strongest. The remaining two cards are ignored and cannot break a tie once the best five-card hands have been established.

That best-five rule matters whenever the board contains several cards of the same suit. A player does not simply announce “flush” and compare one hole card. The complete five-card flush must be identified.

When two players have flushes, compare their flush cards in this order:

1. Highest card
2. Second-highest card
3. Third-highest card
4. Fourth-highest card
5. Fifth-highest card

Stop at the first difference. If every card is equal in rank, the hands tie.

Consider this board:

6♠–8♠–Q♠–J♠–2♠

Player 1 holds 7♠–6♦, while Player 2 holds 10♠–7♥. Their strongest five-card hands are:

• Player 1: Q♠–J♠–8♠–7♠–6♠
• Player 2: Q♠–J♠–10♠–8♠–6♠

The queen and jack are the same in both hands. The next comparison is Player 2’s 10 against Player 1’s 8, so Player 2 wins. This illustrates why a flush on the board does not automatically produce a split pot: a hole card can improve one player’s best five-card flush.

Straights are compared by their highest card. An ace-high straight beats a king-high straight, a king-high straight beats a queen-high straight, and so on. The ace-low A-2-3-4-5 straight counts as five-high.

Suits do not have different values in standard poker. A spade flush does not beat an otherwise identical heart flush. If two players have exactly the same best five-card hand—often because the board itself is the best available hand—the pot is split. Unused hole or community cards do not act as extra kickers.

Why the stronger hand can have more draw outs

A completed hand’s ranking and the chance of completing a draw are separate concepts.

Among random five-card hands, an ordinary flush occurs less often than an ordinary straight. That provides mathematical context for the familiar ranking, but it is not a calculation players perform at showdown. Once the cards are revealed, the prescribed ranking table determines the winner.

The apparent contradiction arises when a player starts with four cards toward a particular hand. If four cards already share a suit, nine cards of that suit remain available to complete the flush: a suit has 13 cards, and four are already accounted for. Cornell’s Hold’em overview likewise uses nine remaining hearts as nine flush outs.

A typical open-ended straight draw has two ranks that can complete it. For example, 6-7-8-9 can improve with any 5 or any 10. With four cards of each rank in the deck, that gives eight nominal outs. The common nine-versus-eight draw comparison therefore favors the four-card flush draw in that specific situation.

This does not reverse the ranking of the completed hands. If one player finishes a flush and another finishes a straight, the flush still wins.

Nor should every unfinished sequence be treated as an eight-out draw. An inside straight draw usually needs one rank rather than either end, while gapped or edge-constrained sequences can have different completion patterns. Identify the exact missing ranks before counting the available cards.

Check the variant before applying the rule

“Flush beats straight” applies to standard high-poker rankings, including ordinary Texas Hold’em. It is not universal across every game described as poker.

Lowball games use different evaluation systems. Under ace-to-five low rules, straights and flushes are not recognized as hand categories, while other lowball formats can evaluate them differently. Wild-card rules can also introduce hands unavailable in a standard deck, such as five of a kind. These are among the variant-dependent changes to conventional hand categories.

Three-Card Poker also reverses the familiar relationship: a three-card straight beats a three-card flush because straights are less frequent than flushes among three-card hands. The relevant probabilities are specific to that game and should not be applied to five-card Hold’em hands, as shown in this comparison of standard and Three-Card Poker rankings.

Short-deck games may alter the standard hierarchy, and not every short-deck table necessarily uses the same alteration. Check the posted rules rather than assuming that one short-deck ranking applies everywhere.

Omaha generally retains the familiar high-hand hierarchy but changes how a hand must be constructed. A player must use exactly two hole cards and exactly three community cards. Consequently, holding one heart when four hearts appear on the board does not make an Omaha flush: that combination would use only one hole card. Both the Omaha construction rule and possible short-deck ranking changes are explained in this flush rules guide.

The practical rule is straightforward: in standard high poker, a flush beats a straight unless the variant’s stated rules say otherwise.

For memorization, keep this sequence in order:

Full house > flush > straight > three of a kind

Then compare only each player’s best five cards. If the game uses nonstandard rankings or different hand-construction requirements, check those rules before applying the standard Hold’em hierarchy.