Straight in Poker: Rules, Odds and Examples
Key takeaways
- A straight in poker is five cards in consecutive rank order, in any mix of suits, like 6-7-8-9-10.
- Ace plays high or low: Broadway (10-J-Q-K-A) is the highest straight, the wheel (A-2-3-4-5) is the lowest. Wraparounds like K-A-2-3-4 do not count.
- A straight loses to a flush and everything above it, and beats three of a kind and everything below it.
- Dealt five cards, you will make a straight about once in 255 hands (0.39%). An open-ended straight draw completes about 31.5% of the time from flop to river.
- When two players both hold a straight, the higher top card wins. Kickers never matter.
What is a straight in poker?
A straight is a five-card hand where the ranks run in unbroken sequence. Suits are irrelevant. A hand like 4 of hearts, 5 of clubs, 6 of diamonds, 7 of spades, and 8 of hearts is a straight, even though no two cards share a suit. What matters is the order of the ranks, nothing else.
There are exactly ten possible straights, one for each possible top card from 5 up to ace. Each straight is named by its highest card: a 5-high straight (the wheel) at the bottom, an ace-high straight (Broadway) at the top.
If your five cards run in sequence and also share one suit, the hand is no longer a straight. It becomes a straight flush, which ranks far higher. If those suited cards happen to be 10 through ace, you hold a royal flush, the best hand in the game.
The wheel: A-2-3-4-5
The wheel, also called the bicycle, is the lowest straight. The ace plays as a 1 here, sitting below the 2. This confuses new players because the ace is the highest card in almost every other context. In a wheel, it is simply the bottom rung.
The wheel matters most in split-pot games like Omaha Hi-Lo, where A-2-3-4-5 can win both halves of the pot, and in any hand reading situation where you need to spot that an ace on the board completes a low straight, not just a high one.
Broadway: 10-J-Q-K-A
Broadway is the highest straight. Here the ace plays at its natural position above the king. Any ace-high straight is Broadway by definition, and the term shows up constantly in hand discussions, so it is worth knowing. “He flopped Broadway” means someone hit 10-J-Q-K-A on the first three community cards.
What does not count as a straight
The ace can be high or low, but never both in the same hand. K-A-2-3-4 is not a straight. Neither is Q-K-A-2-3. These are called wraparound or round-the-corner sequences, and standard poker rules reject them. A hand like K-A-2-3-4 is just ace-high.
Four cards in sequence is also not a straight, no matter how close it looks. Four in a row on the board is a draw, not a made hand, until a fifth card completes it.
Where a straight ranks in poker
In the standard order of poker hand rankings, the straight sits in the middle: sixth out of ten, if you count high card at the bottom.
| Rank | Hand | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | 10-J-Q-K-A, one suit |
| 2 | Straight flush | 5-6-7-8-9, one suit |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Q-Q-Q-Q-3 |
| 4 | Full house | J-J-J-8-8 |
| 5 | Flush | Five hearts, any ranks |
| 6 | Straight | 6-7-8-9-10, mixed suits |
| 7 | Three of a kind | 9-9-9-K-4 |
| 8 | Two pair | A-A-7-7-2 |
| 9 | One pair | K-K-10-6-3 |
| 10 | High card | A-J-8-5-2 |
So a straight beats three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and high card. It loses to a flush, a full house, four of a kind, a straight flush, and a royal flush.
Straight vs flush: which wins, and why
The flush wins. This trips up beginners because a straight looks harder to make. It feels more specific. But the ranking order follows raw combinatorics, not intuition.
Count every five-card combination from a 52-card deck: there are 2,598,960 in total. Of those, 10,200 are straights (excluding straight flushes), while only 5,108 are flushes. Flushes are roughly twice as rare, so they rank higher. That is the entire logic of the hand rankings: rarer hand, higher rank.
| Hand | Combinations | Probability (5 cards dealt) | Approximate frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight | 10,200 | 0.3925% | 1 in 255 |
| Flush | 5,108 | 0.1965% | 1 in 509 |
| Straight flush | 36 | 0.00139% | 1 in 72,193 |
One practical note: when you hold a straight and the board shows three cards of one suit, your hand has dropped in relative strength even though its absolute rank is unchanged. More on that in the board texture section below.
Straight odds and probabilities
The numbers below come from standard combinatorics. For a wider set of hand odds, see the poker hand probabilities breakdown.
Five-card dealt odds
Dealt five cards at random, the chance of a straight (excluding straight flushes) is 10,200 out of 2,598,960 possible hands: 0.3925%, or about 1 in 255. You will play a long session of five-card draw without seeing one in your own hand.
Texas Hold’em odds
Hold’em changes the picture because you combine two hole cards with five community cards, using the best five of seven. Across all seven cards, about 4.6% of hands end with a straight as the best possible holding. Straights are still uncommon, but far less rare than the five-card number suggests.
Some useful flop numbers:
- Holding two connected cards like 8-7, you flop a made straight about 1.3% of the time, roughly 1 in 77.
- Those same connectors flop an open-ended straight draw about 9 to 10% of the time.
- One-gappers like 9-7 flop a straight less often, around 0.9%, because fewer board combinations connect with them.
Straight draw odds after the flop
Two draw types matter:
- Open-ended straight draw (8 outs): you hold 7-8 on a 5-6-K board and any 4 or 9 completes you. The chance of hitting on the turn is 8/47, about 17%. From flop to river, with two cards to come, it rises to about 31.5%.
- Gutshot (inside) straight draw (4 outs): you hold 7-8 on a 5-9-K board and only a 6 completes you. That is 4/47, about 8.5% on the turn, and roughly 16.5% with two cards to come.
These percentages are what you compare against the price of a call. If the pot offers you better odds than your chance of completing, calling is justified; if not, folding is correct. The mechanics of that comparison are covered in pot odds explained with real-world examples, and you can check specific spots with the hand equity calculator.
How straights get made in Texas Hold’em
Using both hole cards
The strongest version. You hold 9-8 and the board runs 7-6-2-K-4. Your two cards plus three from the board make a 9-high straight. Because both hole cards contribute, the hand is well disguised and you cannot be beaten by the identical straight unless an opponent holds the same two ranks.
Using one hole card
You hold 9-5 and the board is 8-7-6-2-A. Your 9 completes a 9-high straight using four board cards. This is playable, but exposed: anyone holding a 9 shares your straight, and anyone holding 10-9 has you beat with a 10-high straight. Playing one hole card to make a straight often means playing the low or shared end of it.
Playing the board
Sometimes the five community cards are themselves a straight, say 4-5-6-7-8. Now every player still in the hand has that same straight. Your hole cards are irrelevant unless one of them extends the straight higher: a 9 in your hand gives you a 9-high straight and the whole pot. Otherwise the pot splits among everyone who reached showdown.
Tie-breakers between two straights
Compare straights by their top card only. A 9-high straight beats an 8-high straight, full stop. There are no kickers in a straight, because all five cards are committed to the sequence. If both players hold the identical straight, the pot splits, regardless of suits or remaining cards.
Board texture warnings for straight hands
A straight is a strong hand, but its real value depends entirely on the board. Three textures should slow you down.
- Paired board. Any pair on the board opens the door to full houses and quads. On 8-8-9-10-2, your J-7 makes a straight, but it loses to every full house, and there are many of them in opponents’ ranges. A straight on a paired board is a bluff-catcher more often than a value hand.
- Three-flush board. If three community cards share a suit, any opponent holding two cards of that suit has a flush. Since a flush beats a straight, your made hand is second best against a large slice of hands that called the flop.
- Four-to-a-straight board. On a board like 5-6-7-8-2, you only need one connecting card to hold a straight, which means everyone has one. Holding a 4 gives you the low end, the “idiot end,” and it loses to any 9. Low-end straights on obvious boards are the classic way beginners lose big pots with a made hand.
The habit to build: before you value-bet a straight, ask what the board makes possible. If a flush or full house is out there, size down or check. If the board is dry and unpaired, your straight is usually the best hand and you should get paid.
A note on wrap draws in Omaha
Omaha deals four hole cards and forces you to use exactly two of them, which changes straight math completely. A “wrap” is a straight draw with more than the eight outs of a Hold’em open-ender, because your four hole cards can surround the board from several directions at once.
A full wrap can carry 13, 17, or even 20 outs. Hold 9-8-7-6 on a board of 5-4-K and you have a monster: any 3, 6, 7, 8, or 9 completes a straight, and some of those cards are still live four times over. A 20-out wrap is around 69% to complete by the river, stronger than many made hands.
Two cautions carry over. First, you must use exactly two hole cards, so a wrap that relies on three or four of your cards is not valid. Second, wraps in Omaha frequently make the same straight as an opponent’s, or the low end of one, so the nut redraw matters more than raw out count. Starting hand selection drives how often you flop these draws; the guide to Omaha starting hands covers which four-card combinations produce the most wraps.
Common mistakes with straights
- Counting K-A-2-3-4 as a straight. The ace does not wrap around. It is high or low, never both.
- Playing the low end of a four-straight board as if it were the nuts. Check which end of the sequence you hold before committing chips.
- Forgetting that suits do not matter. A straight of mixed suits and a straight with four cards of one suit are the same hand.
- Calling large bets with a gutshot against bad pot odds. Four outs is 16.5% with two cards to come; the price has to justify it.
- Overvaluing a straight on paired or three-flush boards. The absolute rank of your hand does not change, but its rank among the hands opponents can hold does.
FAQ
Is A-2-3-4-5 a straight?
Yes. It is called the wheel or bicycle, and it is the lowest possible straight. The ace plays as a 1, below the 2.
Does a flush beat a straight?
Yes. Flushes are about twice as rare as straights (5,108 combinations versus 10,200 in five-card poker), and poker ranks hands by rarity, so the flush wins every time the two hands meet.
What is the highest straight in poker?
Broadway: 10-J-Q-K-A. When two players both hold Broadway, the pot splits, since no straight ranks higher and kickers do not apply.
What are the odds of being dealt a straight?
Dealt five cards, about 0.39%, or 1 in 255. In Texas Hold’em, where you see seven cards total, roughly 4.6% of hands finish with a straight as the best five-card holding.
Can an ace be high and low in the same straight?
No. The ace sits at one end of the sequence or the other: below the 2 in a wheel, above the king in Broadway. Sequences that wrap through the ace, like K-A-2-3-4, are not straights at all.
