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A royal straight flush is when you have 10-J-Q-K-A in your hand, all of the same suit. This is the best there is, no bluffing about it. Although if you are a good bluffer, you might smile as brightly as the sun when you look at your hand and realize you don't have this, then immediately go.well, poker-faced.

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The odds of flopping a straight flush with a premium suited connector such as T9s is 0.02% or 1 in 4,900

Definition of the Straight Flush –

Five cards of consecutive rank, all of the same suit.

The Ten to Ace Straight Flush is the strongest hand in poker and is referred to as the “Royal Flush”.

Odds of Making a Straight Flush on the Flop

Flopping a Straight Flush seldom happens in poker. We specifically need to start out with two suited connected cards for this to be possible.

The odds of flopping a Straight Flush are so unlikely (0.02% or less) that the majority of poker equity calculators don’t even show the precise odds.

We’ll need to do some maths of our own.

Calculation of Straight Flush Odds

Let’s start with a very specific example -

We hold A2s. What are the odds of flopping the Ace to Five Straight Flush?

Why do we choose this example? It’s the easiest one because it provides only one way of making the Straight Flush. The flop has to come down precisely Three, Four, Five of the correct suit.

So, how likely is this?

In order to calculate, we’ll first need to know how many combinations of three cards are possible on the flop.

Basic Combinations and Permutations

Firstly, how many different combinations of three cards can be dealt on the flop? Assuming we care about the order of the three cards (and that our two hole cards are already known), the answer is 117,600 (50 * 49 * 48).

In statistics, this type of calculation is referred to as a permutation and accounts for the order of the flop cards.

Of course, in Hold’em, the order of the cards on the flop doesn’t matter (i.e. a 3,4,5 flop is the same as a 5,3,4 flop, for all intents and purposes). What we are interested in is the number of possible combinations of three cards.

A combination is similar to a permutation but doesn’t account for the order. Since there are 6 possible ways of arranging three cards, we can simply divide our number of permutations (117,600) by 6 to establish the number of possible three-card combinations on the flop.

117,600 / 6 = 19,600 possible combinations of three cards on the flop (given two cards are known)

In other words, there are 19,600 different possible sets of three cards that may fall on the flop given that our two hole cards are already known.

Guess what?

To make the exact Straight Flush in question, only one of these 19,600 combinations will do the job.

Armed with that information, we can now establish a range of different probabilities.

Odds of flopping the Straight Flush with A2s = 1/19,600 = 0.00005 or roughly 0.005%

That’s an insanely small likelihood!

Thankfully, the odds with different types of starting hands are usually a little better.

It all depends on the number of different combinations of three cards that provide a Straight Flush.

For example, think about T9s.

How many different ways are there to make a Straight Flush with 9Ts?

Ways of making a Straight Flush with T9s

JQK
QJ8
J87
678

So that’s four different ways. We are hence four times as likely to make a Straight Flush with 9Ts as we are to make a Straight Flush with A2s.

Odds of flopping the Straight Flush with 9Ts = 4/19,600 = 0.0002 or roughly 0.02%

Ways of making a Straight Flush with T8s

QJ9
J79
679

Odds of flopping the Straight Flush with T8s = 3/19,600 = 0.00015 or roughly 0.015%

Ways of making a Straight Flush with T7s

J89
689

Odds of flopping the Straight Flush with T7s = 2/19,600 = 0.0001 or roughly 0.01%

Only suited connectors (or gappers) can make Straight Flushes on the flop. All other holdings such as pocket-pairs and off-suit combos can never flop a Straight Flush.

We are, naturally, more likely to flop a Straight Flush draw as opposed to the Straight Flush itself. To see examples of calculating the odds of hitting a Straight Flush draw on the flop, check out the 888poker article on Royal Flush odds in poker.

Odds of Making a Straight Flush on the Later Streets

There will be two primary types of Straight Flush draw we’ll flop. The gutshot Straight Flush draw and the open-ended Straight Flush draw.

Gutshot Straight Flush draws have 1 out in the deck, while open ended Straight Flush draws have 2 outs in the deck.

Odds of Hitting on the Turn or River

Odds of catching the gutshot Straight Flush on the turn 1/47 = 0.0213 or roughly 2.1%

Odds of catching the open-ended Straight Flush on the turn 2/47 = 0.426 or roughly 4.3%

Odds of catching the gutshot Straight Flush on the river 1/46 = 0.0217 or roughly 2.2%

Odds of catching the open-ended Straight Flush on the river 2/46 = 0.0435 or roughly 4.4%

Odds of Hitting by the River

To calculate the probability of hitting by the river, we’ll employ the trick of calculating the possibility of not hitting and then subtracting from 100%.

Odds of not catching the gutshot Straight Flush on the turn 46/47

Odds of not catching the open-ended Straight Flush on the turn 45/47

Odds of not catching the gutshot Straight Flush on the river 45/46

Odds of not catching the open-ended Straight Flush on the river 44/46

Odds of not catching the gutshot Straight Flush on the turn or river = 46/47 * 45/46 = 0.9574 or roughly 95.7%

Odds of not catching the open-ended Straight Flush on the turn or river = 45/47 * 44/46 = 0.9158 or roughly 91.6%

Odds of hitting the gutshot Straight Flush by the river = (100- 95.7%) roughly 4.3%

Odds of hitting the open-ended Straight Flush by the river = (100 – 91.6%) roughly 8.4%

Implied Odds Analysis of a Straight Flush

A Straight Flush always carries excellent implied odds when hitting. This is because our opponent is usually forced into stacking off with very strong worse hands such as worse flushes and full houses.

Straight Flushes made with two of our hole cards always carry better implied odds than Straight Flushes made with one of our hole cards.

When using just one of our hole cards, it means there will be four cards to the Straight Flush already on the board. This decreases the chance that our opponent will pay us off with worse holdings.

Although Straight Flushes should hardly ever be folded, their implied odds are the best when no higher Straight Flush is possible on the board.

Basic Strategy Advice

It’s basically the nuts. Play aggressively and make big bets! Even if a higher Straight Flush is possible, it’s usually just a cooler if we are beat. We’d have to be really deep to find an exception.

Table Of Contents

Do you want to know what beats what in poker? Use the official poker hands rankings chart and seem them from best to worst!

Whether you play live at your local casino or card room, you have your home game going, or you prefer the online action at websites like PokerStars, 888Poker, or partypoker, you need to learn the order of poker hands from best to worse.

Use the list of poker hands below to know beats what in poker.

Commit this poker hands ranking list to memory today and print it if you need it (there's a button for it at the bottom). Knowing the correct poker hands rank is key to start making winning poker hands.

Poker Hands From Best To Worst

Poker Hands From Best To Worst

Not Sure What Beats What in Poker?

Many consider poker less of a gambling game than other casino games. For that to be true, players need to improve their understanding of game play and the strategy required to be a winning player.

The first step toward learning how to play poker is to learn the poker hand rankings.

Most poker players have these rankings memorized, which allows them to think about other things at the table when deciding the best way to play their hands.

The good news is these hand rankings tend to be the same among a wide variety of poker variants, whether it is Texas Hold'em, Omaha, seven-card stud, or other games.

All of those games use the same traditional poker hand rankings that were first developed way back in the 19th century when five-card draw first started to be played.

On this page, you find a complete list of poker hand rankings going from the highest possible hand (the Royal Flush), down to the lowest hand in which there is no pair among the five cards.

Hand rankings in poker correspond to the likelihood of making such hands.

A royal flush, consisting of the cards ranked ace through ten all being the same suit, is extremely rare — in fact, some players go their entire lives without making a royal flush.

A regular straight flush with any five consecutive cards of the same suit is a little less rare, four of a kind occurs slightly more frequently, and so on.

Notice that a full house is ranked higher than a flush.

That's because a full house comes just a little less frequently than a flush, thereby making it the higher-ranked hand of the two.

Additional readings for beginners:

• Poker Tips: A collection of tips 'to bring your game from 'meh' to amazing' created to help beginners become better players.
• Texas Hold'em Strategy: a complete manual to read as soon as you start to remember what beats what in poker.
• Poker starting hands chart: the only article you need to read to learn how to use your cards to the fullest.

Understanding Winning Poker Hands

Players new to the game of Texas hold'em often struggle, at least at first, with what the best poker hands are.

Once they have read this easy-to-digest guide that will no longer be the case.

The aim of Texas hold'em is to make the best five-card poker hand at showdown.

You can win without having to show your cards if you force someone to fold before the river. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this article, we'll pretend that we've gone to showdown and need to know what beats what in poker.

Winning Poker Hands: What Are The Best Hands In Poker?

First up is the weakest possible holding you can make in poker, a hand that can still win you the pot, although the likelihood of that happening decreases in a pot involving multiple players.

We are of course talking about high card.

As the name suggests, you don't even hold a pair here and instead are using the highest card among the five you are playing.

Example:

You have and the board has come .

Your best five-card hand would be where you would hold queen-high.

Next up is one pair, one of the more common Texas hold'em hands and one that will win you plenty of pots.

Example:

You have and the board comes .

Your five-card hand is — you have a pair of aces. Nice poker hand!

One place higher up on the poker hands chart is two pair.

Example:

You have and the five community cards are .

Your best five-card hand at showdown is or two pair, tens and nines.

One note of warning on this specific poker hand: if you are verbally declaring your hand, try to announce the higher pair first as to help avoid confusion.

Good Poker Hands

Now we're getting into the realm of the best poker hands because once you make three-of-a-kind (sometimes called a set or trips), you are much more likely to win the pot than with any of the previously mentioned hands.

Example:

Your five-card poker hand is — you have three-of-a-kind kings, often a very powerful hand in hold'em.

To beat three-of-a-kind you're going to need at least a straight.

A straight is five consecutive cards where at least one of them is a different suit from the others.

Example:
Should your hand read you would hold a six-high straight.

If someone held a seven-high straight, then that player would win the hand.

There are two straights that have nicknames that are worth remembering.

A wheel is a straight that runs from ace-to-five, and a Broadway straight — the strongest straight — runs from ten-to-ace.

A flush is one of the most powerful Texas hold'em hands because it is only beaten by a handful of others.

Any hand that that has five cards of the same suit is a flush.

Aces are always high when it comes to flushes, which means a hand such as beats .

There are few hands that can beat a flush — one that does is a full house. Also called a 'boat,' a full house is when your five-card hand is made up of three of a kind plus a pair.

Example:

With you have kings full of deuces, while is fives full of queens.

When it comes to full houses, the higher three of a kind determines which hand wins, so in this case 'kings full' would beat 'fives full.'

The Stronger Hands in Poker

The next three holdings are so rare that if you hold them, you can almost guarantee that they are winning poker hands.

Four of a kind is the minimum holding you'll need to beat someone with a full house.

Again, as the name suggests, four of a kind means having four cards of the same rank.

Example:

is four-of-a-kind tens and an extremely powerful holding.

Your only way to beat four of a kind, or 'quads' as they are often called, is to hold either a straight flush or a Royal Flush.

The former is five consecutive cards all of the same suit, so would be an eight-high straight flush and practically unbeatable.

If you manage to make (or the same holding in any of the other three suits), you have a Royal Flush and the only way to lose the hand would be to fold by accident!

Poker Hands Probability

If you are into numbers (most poker players are), you might be wondering about the probability of poker hands.

We said that she platers might go entire lives without ever getting the highest hand in poker but, looking at the numbers, what are the odds of a Royal Flush?

In this section of our complete analysis of the poker hand ranking and what beats what in poker, you get a clear overview of the probability of poker hands.

How to calculate the probability of poker hands?

Straight Vs Flush Poker

When you know that there are 52 cards in play and 2,598,960 possible combinations, the calculation is easy.

You just need to divide the number of possibilities to build a specific poker hand by the number of total poker hands.

Let's run a few examples:

What are the odds of a Royal Flush? 0.000,001,539
(4/2,598,960)

What are the odds of a Straight Flush? 0.000,015,39
(40/2,598,960)

Use the table below to calculate the probabilities of all poker hands.

Absolute Value vs. Relative Value of Poker Hands

Higher Poker Hand Flush Or Straight

It should be noted also that while poker hand rankings never change, sometimes circumstances can make a good hand less valuable and a poor hand more valuable.

In other words, when it comes to poker hands there's a difference between absolute value (reflected in the list of poker hands above) and relative value.

For instance, in a game of Texas hold'em, if you have two pair that might seem like a good hand.

But if your opponent keeps betting into you and it's possible he could have a straight or flush, your two pair is no longer looking so good.

Meanwhile, if you have just one pair but your opponent keeps checking to give you a free play at the pot, you might well have the strongest hand and should bet your hand.

The 'absolute' value of your hand may not be great, but in that case the 'relative' value very well could be.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that in some games like razz, deuce-to-seven triple draw, Badugi, and others you might encounter when playing online poker, the hand rankings listed below do not apply.

These hand rankings are for regular or 'high-card' games, not 'lowball' games with alternate hand rankings.

Straight Flush Poker Hand

Poker Hand Rankings F.A.Q.

What is the order of poker hands?

As shown in the poker hand rankings chart, the order of poker rankings (from the highest to the lowest) is: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card.

What is the best hand in poker?

The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker. To have a Royal Flush, you need an Ace, a King, a Queen, a Jack, and a 10. All the cards that compose the hand need to be of the same suit.

What beats what in poker?

As you can see in our poker hand rankings chart, the hands in poker follow a clear hierarchy.

In a game of poker, the hand rankings work as follows:

• a pair beats a high card;
• a two pair beats a one pair;
• a three-of-a-kind beats a two pair;
• a straight beats a three-of-a-kind;
• a flush beats a straight;
• a full house beats a flush;
• a four-of-a-kind beats a full house;
• a straight flush beats a four-of-a-kind;
• a Royal Flush beats a straight flush.

The Royal Flush is the best hand in poker, so no one other hands beat this one.

What is a straight in poker?

You have a straight when all the five cards that compose your poker hand are consecutive ones. E.g. 5-6-7-8-9.

Poker Flush Straight

If the cards are of the same suit, you have a straight flush, which is a considerably stronger hand compare d to the simple straight.

What beats a straight in poker?

Although many see the straight as a stronger hand, there are many other poker hands that beat it.

The list of hands that beat a straight includes:

• a flush;
• a full house;
• a four-of-a-kind;
• a straight flush;
• a Royal Flush.

What beats a flush in poker?

The list of hands that beat a flush includes:

• a full house;
• a four-of-a-kind;
• a straight flush;
• a Royal Flush.

What beats a full house in poker?

The list of hands that beat a full house includes:

Straight Flush Poker Mn

• a four-of-a-kind;
• a straight flush;
• a Royal Flush.

What is the highest suit in poker?

All the suits in poker have the same value. In some games, different suits can be assigned different values.

When that happens, the value is as follow (from the lowest to the highest): clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. In that case, spades is the highest suit.

How many poker hands are there?

The total number of poker hands in a game of poker is 2,598,960. Since a game of poker uses a 52-card deck of French cards, there are 2,598,960 different possible combinations (aka. poker hands).

Poker Hands Flush Straight

What hands to play in poker?

The type of hands to play in a poker game depends on the game you play and other factors like your position in the hand, your stack, and the action at the table.

In a famous poker strategy article, professional player Jonathan Little shared which hands to play in poker and how to play marginal hands.

Can you make three pairs?

Poker Hands Flush Vs Straight

Although it is possible to hold a pair in your hand and then have another two pair appear among the five community cards, you can only use a total of five cards to make your poker hand, so you don't win anything for three pairs.

Which is better, a set or trips?

They are both essentially the same hand because they are both three of a kind.

The terminology 'set' is used when you have a pair as your hole cards and then catch another one of those cards on the board.

'Trips' is when there is a pair on the board and you have another of those cards as one of your hole cards.

Sets are easier to disguise than trips so many consider them to be a better hand, although they both rank the same.

What is a chopped or split pot?

If you and an opponent have the same five-card poker hand, then the pot is divided equally between you.

Say you have and your opponent has , and the board comes .

You both would be playing the same five-card hands in terms of their value (A-J-T-8-3), and so would split the pot.

If there is four of a kind on the board, who wins?

Because the aim is to make a five-card poker hand, whoever has the highest fifth card in this case wins.

Baby Straight Poker Hand

If the board reads and you have in your hand and your opponent has , then you win because you hand is 7-7-7-7-A and your opponent's is 7-7-7-7-K.

You would also win even if your opponent holding was in this example.

Are the suits ranked in Texas hold'em?

No, they are not. Some poker variants have different ranks for suits, but hold'em is not one of them.

Why did my 4-4-4-T-T lose to my opponent's 7-7-7-8-8?

As mentioned earlier, it is the three-of-a-kind element of a full house that dictates the winner.

If you're new to the game and want a reference of all of Texas hold'em hands, you can keep this page open or you could always download and print our poker hands ranking chart and keep it next to you while you're playing poker.

Useful Poker Tools

• Poker Odds Calculator: Add your cards to the calculator to discover your chances to win the hand.
• How to use PokerStars Tools to Your Advantage: As a beginner, this article can save your life! Let us show you how you can use all the tools available on the PokerStars client to become an outstanding poker player!