What beats a straight flush?
A straight flush is beaten by a royal flush.
What beats a straight flush?
A straight flush is a powerful hand and wins the large majority of showdowns, but it is not unbeatable. A handful of rarer hands sit above it on the rankings, and any one of them takes the pot when it appears. Knowing exactly which hands beat a straight flush tells you when to push and when to fold.
Try it yourself: use our free poker equity calculator to compare any two hands and see the exact odds.
Why
Only one hand in the entire deck beats a straight flush outright: the royal flush, which is itself simply the highest possible straight flush — ace, king, queen, jack, ten of one suit. That makes this the shortest “beaten by” list in the entire ranking chart. It is worth knowing the finer point too: among straight flushes themselves, a higher-ranked one beats a lower-ranked one the same way flushes compare (top card first), so a king-high straight flush beats a queen-high straight flush — but neither beats the ace-high version, the royal flush, which sits alone at the top. This two-layer structure — one hand type, ranked internally by top card, with a single exception at the very peak — is unique to the straight flush and royal flush pairing.
Example
Your hand: 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ (a straight flush). An opponent turns over A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ (a royal flush). Even though a royal flush is the weakest hand that outranks a straight flush, it still wins the pot.
A second example
Player A holds K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠ 9♠, a king-high straight flush — about as strong as a hand gets. Player B holds A♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦ T♦, the royal flush. Even the second-best possible hand in poker loses here, because the royal flush is simply the top of the same category. In a third scenario, if Player A instead held Q♥ J♥ T♥ 9♥ 8♥ (a queen-high straight flush), the king-high version from the first example would beat that one too — rank always decides it inside the category.
In real play
A straight flush is dealt about once every 72,193 five-card hands, so losing one to a royal flush is a genuine once-in-a-career event for most players — the royal flush itself is roughly nine times rarer again, at about 1 in 649,740. In practice, a straight flush is close enough to a lock that you should be getting maximum value with it almost always. See what beats the hand just below it in our what beats a full house guide, or see the full poker hand rankings chart. There is no meaningful strategy adjustment to make here beyond betting for maximum value — the only hand that can hurt you is the rarest hand in the deck.
How each hand is built
Here is exactly what the hand requires to be made:
- Straight Flush: five sequential cards, all one suit.
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):
- Straight Flush: 1 in 72,193
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
A common mistake is overvaluing a straight flush; it is a good hand, but always check the board for the stronger holdings that beat it before committing chips. 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, or test any matchup in the poker equity calculator.
