Flush Beat A Full House In Poker
Flush beats a full house in short deck Poker because it is more likely to hit a full house when the 2’s-5’s have been removed from the deck. Level 1 5 points 1 year ago. Straight Flush & Royal Flush - Five cards in numerical order in the same suit This is the best possible hand you can get in poker, with the best possible straight flush available being a Royal Flush. A Royal Flush would be: ace, king, queen, jack and a ten of a suit. There is no possible hand that can beat a Royal Flush.
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Certain poker hands can give a player a jolt of adrenaline, including the powerful straight flush and the mighty full house. But which one wins? Does a straight flush beat a full house?
Use our poker hands reference chart until you are 100% certain of hand rankings. Poker hands from strongest to weakest Royal Flush: Five card sequence from 10 to the Ace in the same suit (10,J,Q,K,A). As far as poker hand values go, a Flush is in the middle of the list. It beats a fair amount of hands but loses to hands like Four of a Kind and a Full House. An ace-high straight flush, commonly known as a royal flush, is the best possible hand in many variants of poker. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot.
The simple answer is: yes, a straight flush does beat a full house.
Now that you have an answer, let me explain why a straight flush beats a full house.
Why Does a Straight Flush Beat a Full House?
When you’re holding a hand like a full house or a straight flush, you know you’ve made one of the strongest possible hands. But why exactly does one topple the other? The answer lies in the math.
Straight flushes occur much less frequently than full houses, which is why the straight flush is higher on the hand rankings. While there are 3,744 possible ways to make a full house, there are just 36 ways to make a straight flush using a traditional 52-card deck.
Let’s dive deeper into the math.
The Math Behind a Full House
A full house (aka full boat) occurs when a player makes both three-of-a-kind and a pair in the same hand. An example of a full house is:
This hand qualifies as a full house, jacks full of deuces. The three-of-a-kind part of a full house determines the strength of the hand against other full houses. For example, the hand above would beat 5-5-5-A-A (fives full of aces) in a head to head match-up.
Using a standard 52-card deck, there are 156 distinct ways to draw a full house. This doesn’t take suits into account.
For example, our JJJ22 full house from the examples above represents one distinct full house, regardless of the suits. Taking suits into account, there are 24 different ways to draw any individual distinct full house.
Multiplying 156 distinct full house hands times 24 possible suit combinations gives us 3,744 possible ways to draw a full house out of a 52-card deck.
The Math Behind a Straight Flush
Let’s take a look at an example of a straight flush. This hand occurs when a player holds five cards in sequential order that are all of the same suit:
The above hand qualifies as an eight-high straight flush. The straight flush is truly one of the most rare hands you can make in most poker games. It’s one of the strongest hands in poker, second only to the royal flush in hand rankings.
A 52-card deck yields nine ways to draw a distinct straight flush. The four suits give us four different versions of a distinct straight flush, and overall there are 36 ways to draw a five-card straight flush.
The straight flush, with 36 possible combinations, is a far more rare hand than a full house, with 3,744 possible combos.
A straight flush beats a full house in the standard poker rankings. In Texas Hold’em, you have a 0.0279% chance of making a straight flush with all five community cards on the board. This excludes the royal flush, which is an ace-high straight flush (like A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠).
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What beats what in Poker?
Need a reminder of the rankings in an easy to print format? Click the image below to get a printable poker hand rankings chart pdf (opens in new tab).
Poker Hand Rank #1 - Royal Flush
The highest of all Poker hands, a Royal Flush is 10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit:
Poker Hand Rank #2 - Straight Flush
A Straight Flush is five cards in consecutive numerical order, all of the same suit.
If there are two Straight Flushes at the same table, the one which runs to the highest value card wins.
Poker Hand Rank #3 - Four of a kind
Four of a kind means four cards of the same value and any other card.
If there are two hands with Four of a kind in the same game, the highest ranking Four of a kind wins i.e. four Ks beats four 9s.
Poker Hand Rank #4 - Full house
Full House Flush Poker Hands
A Full House is three cards of the same value and another two cards that form a pair (same value).
If two players have a Full House (with the joker), the rank is decided first by the Three of a kind, then by the pair.
Poker Hand Rank #5 - Flush
A Flush is five non-consecutive cards of the same suit.
The Flush is named after the highest card, so the example below is a Jack Flush.
If two players have the same Flush, the rank is decided by the second highest card. In the unlikely event of the first two cards in two Flushes being the same, the rank is decided by the third card, then the fourth, then the fifth.
Poker Hand Rank #6 - Straight
A Straight is five consecutive cards, but not of the same suit.
As with the Straight Flush, in the event of a tie, the winner is the flush which runs to the highest value card.
A 'Straight to'means the highest card in the run, so 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 is a 'Straight to 9'
Poker Hand Rank #7 - Three of a kind
Three cards of the same value, and two supporting cards that are not a pair:
Poker Hand Rank #8 - Two pair
Does A Flush Beat A Full House In Poker
Two sets of pairs, and another random card.
In the unlikely event of two players having the same two pairs, the highest supporting card is used to determine the winner.
Poker Hand Rank #9 - Pair
Two cards of the same value and three random supporting cards.
If two players have a pair, the highest pair wins. In the event of a tie, the highest supporting cards determine the winner.
Poker Hand Rank #10 - High card
Flush In Poker
A hand with none of the above rankings.
The hand is named after the highest card, 7 high being the lowest, Ace high the highest. The example below is therefore a King high.