Does a flush beat a straight?
Yes — a flush beats a straight in poker.
Does a flush beat a straight?
This is one of the most common poker ranking questions, and the answer never changes: a flush wins against a straight. Because a flush is rarer and ranks higher than a straight, it wins the showdown every single time, no matter the suits or the cards inside each hand.
Try it yourself: use our free poker equity calculator to compare any two hands and see the exact odds.
Why
This matchup shows up constantly in Hold’em because the same board texture can make both hands at once. A board with three cards of one suit and three connected ranks lets one player rake in a flush while another rivers a straight off the very same cards — and the flush wins every time. That is down to rarity, not drama: a flush is dealt about once every 509 five-card hands, a straight about once every 255, so a flush is roughly twice as hard to make. Poker ranks hands by how hard they are to form, and a flush is simply the tougher hand to complete, which is why it sits one rung above a straight on the chart no matter which cards make it up.
Does a straight beat a flush?
No — a straight never beats a flush. A flush ranks above a straight on the official hand chart, so even the best possible straight loses to any flush, regardless of suits or card values.
Example
One player shows A♠ J♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠ (a flush); the other shows 9♦ 8♠ 7♥ 6♣ 5♦ (a straight). A flush outranks a straight, so the flush wins.
A second example
Board: 9♥ 8♥ 6♥ 3♠ 2♣. Player A holds K♥ Q♥ and rivers a king-high flush (K-Q-9-8-6 of hearts). Player B holds 7♣ 5♣ and completes a 9-8-7-6-5 straight using the board’s 9-8-6 of hearts plus their own 7 and 5. Both hands are real, both are strong, but Player A’s flush still wins the pot.
In real play
The odds above are for a random five-card deal; in Hold’em you are picking the best five of seven cards, so both flushes and straights land more often than those baseline numbers suggest — but the ranking between them never moves. The practical mistake is betting a made straight into a visibly wet, three-flush board and assuming you are ahead. If three or more cards of one suit are showing, treat a straight as vulnerable rather than nailed-on, and run the exact holdings through the equity calculator before committing a big stack.
How each hand is built
Here is exactly what each hand requires, side by side, so there is no ambiguity about why one outranks the other:
- Flush: five cards of one suit, not in sequence.
- Straight: five sequential cards, mixed suits.
Odds and frequency
How often each hand is dealt in a random five-card poker hand (a rarer hand always outranks a more common one):
- Flush: 1 in 509
- Straight: 1 in 255
The numbers line up with the ranking: a flush is the rarer hand of the two, which is exactly why it ranks higher and wins the showdown.
Full poker hand ranking
For reference, here are all ten hand categories from highest to lowest:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pair
- One Pair
- High Card
Key takeaway
Players often confuse the two because both are five-card hands, but the ranking is fixed: a flush is always the winner. When in doubt, work down the ranking chart from the top and the higher hand always takes the pot.
Read the full poker hand rankings chart, see our guides to Flush, and Straight, or test any matchup in the poker equity calculator.
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