Flush in poker

O que é flush no poker?

A flush is a combination of five cards of the same suit. The ranks do not need to be consecutive. A♥ J♥ 8♥ 6♥ 2♥ makes a flush. Five red cards that mix hearts and diamonds do not.

To see how community cards change a hand from street to street, try playing poker without real money. The free table identifies your hand and highlights your best five cards.

In Texas Hold’em, the best hand always uses five cards. Choose any combination from your two hole cards and the five community cards. You do not have to use both hole cards.

Flush with two, one or no hole cards

Two hole cards

With A♥ 6♥ and three hearts on the board, your two cards make five hearts. With only two hearts on the board, you can have at most four. That is not a flush yet.

One hole card

With four diamonds on the board, A♦ Q♣ can make a flush using only A♦. The queen of clubs does not matter for that flush. Each opponent can also use a single diamond.

No hole cards

If the board shows five clubs, everyone at showdown can play that flush. Before declaring a tie, check whether any hole card replaces a lower board card to improve the best five.

With six or seven cards of the same suit available, use the five highest unless you can make a straight flush. The sixth and seventh cards cannot break a tie.

Flush vs. flush: how to break a tie

Sort the five cards of each flush from highest to lowest. Compare the first card, then the second if tied, and so on through the fifth. The first difference decides the winner.

A flush uses all five cards for comparison. There is no extra kicker, and a second hole card cannot serve as a sixth tiebreaker.

In the same Hold’em hand, two players who make a flush use the same suit. A flush needs at least three community cards of that suit, and a five-card board cannot hold three cards of two different suits. Flushes of different suits can illustrate hand rankings in separate hands, but they cannot share this showdown.

When does a flush split the pot?

Players tie when their best five-card hands have exactly the same category and ranks. In Hold’em, this can happen when the entire flush is on the board and no one can improve it.

With A♣ J♣ 9♣ 6♣ 2♣ on the board, K♥ Q♥ and K♦ Q♦ tie. Neither player uses a hole card.

Já em Q♣ J♣ 9♣ 6♣ 2♣, A♣ melhora o flush para A-Q-J-9-6; K♣ melhora para K-Q-J-9-6. O ás vence. Cinco cartas do mesmo naipe no board, portanto, do not automatically mean a tie.

Suits have no ranking for breaking ties in poker. Spades do not beat hearts. If the pot cannot be divided into whole chips, the table rules determine who gets the odd chip.

Flush vs. full house, four of a kind and straight

Compare a categoria antes de comparar valores. Um flush de ás perde até mesmo para o menor full house, porque full house está acima na hierarquia.

• Contra sequência: the flush wins. Five consecutive ranks of mixed suits do not beat five cards of the same suit.
• Contra full house: flush perde. Um board pareado permite que cartas privadas formem uma trinca e um par.
• Contra quadra: flush perde. Quatro cartas de um valor pertencem a uma categoria superior.
• Contra straight flush: flush perde, mesmo que a maior carta do flush comum seja um ás.

A pair on the board makes a full house possible but does not guarantee one. Check the cards to see what each player can make.

Straight flush e royal flush

Um straight flush reúne cinco cartas consecutivas do mesmo naipe. 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠ T♠ é um straight flush até o dez. Se dois straight flushes forem comparáveis, vence o que termina na carta maior.

O royal flush is T-J-Q-K-A in the same suit, the highest straight flush. An ace and four arbitrary cards of that suit are not enough.

The ace can also play low: A♦ 2♦ 3♦ 4♦ 5♦ makes a five-high straight flush. K-A-2-3-4 cannot wrap around. In the table example, the low straight flush beats a regular ace-high flush.

If the entire royal flush is on the board, everyone at showdown plays the same best hand and splits the pot. No hole card can improve a royal flush.

Made flush, flush draw and backdoor flush

Flush pronto: you already have five cards of the same suit available. Flush draw: you still need to complete the flush. With two hearts in your hand and two on the flop, you know four hearts and need one more.

If the only known cards are your two hole cards and the three on the flop, 47 cards are unseen. Nine are of the suit you need. The chance of hitting one on the turn is 9/47, about 19%. The chance of hitting at least one on the next two cards is 1 − (38/47 × 37/46), about 35%.

Essas contas descrevem completar o naipe, rather than guaranteeing a win. An opponent may have a higher flush, a full house or another stronger hand. Knowing more cards also changes the calculation.

Uma possibilidade de backdoor flush no flop precisa acertar o naipe tanto no turn quanto no river. É diferente de um draw de quatro cartas, que precisa de apenas uma.

How to read a flush in play

How strong a flush is in practice depends on the suited cards on the board, your hole cards, whether the board is paired, and earlier actions. The nut flush is the highest possible flush on that board. It can still lose to a higher hand category when one is possible.

With four cards of the same suit on the board, one hole card of that suit makes a flush. The lowest card of that suit may have little relative value if opponents can hold higher cards. With three cards of the suit on the board, you need both hole cards to be of that suit.

These matchups are showdown snapshots that teach you how to read the result. They do not mean you should call any bet with a flush. In a full hand, bet sizes, stacks and what your opponent can hold still matter.

Check the rules of the variant

This guide uses standard Texas Hold’em. Omaha requires exactly two hole cards and three community cards. Four diamonds on the board and only one diamond in your hand do not make a flush in Omaha.

Some Short Deck rules rank a flush above a full house. That change does not automatically apply to the 52-card Hold’em shown here. Check the rules for the variant you are playing.

Quick questions about flushes