What Beats A Flush In Texas Holdem
A flush Poker Hand Beats everything but a straight flush and royal flush. The only time a flush beats another flush is when 2 or more players at the same showdown hand have flushes. If so the one with the highest card overall in his flush hand wins. Is 'six plus' the same as short deck (like regular texas hold-em, but with all 2s, 3s, 4s & 5s removed from the deck)? In that game a flush does beat a full house due to the change in relative probabilities caused by card removal. A flush is a hand that contains five cards all of the same suit, not all of sequential rank, such as K ♣ 10 ♣ 7 ♣ 6 ♣ 4 ♣ (a 'king-high flush' or a 'king-ten-high flush'). It ranks below a full house and above a straight. Under ace-to-five low rules, flushes are not possible (so J ♥ 8 ♥ 4 ♥ 3 ♥ 2 ♥ is a jack-high hand). 1.8 Preflop Texas Hold’em Odds; 1.9 Odds of connecting with the Flop in Hold’em; 1.10 Odds On the Flop in Texas Hold’em. 1.10.1 Outs; 1.10.2 Straight and Flush Draw Odds; 1.10.3 On the flop, when you have: 1.11 Odds of hitting a hand by the river from the flop. 1.11.1 On the flop, when you have: 1.12 All-in One-on-One in Texas Hold’em. So, I don’t break a royal flush out into its own listing either. Starting Hand Rankings in Texas Holdem. I could write about poker hand rankings all day, but for now, let me just address starting hands in Texas holdem. Your starting hand in a game of Texas holdem consists of the two cards you get face down at the beginning of the game.
- Royal Flush Odds Texas Holdem
- Texas Holdem Flush Rules
- Hosting A Texas Holdem Game
- What Beats A Flush In Texas Hold'em
I ran into a friend of mine yesterday who was jealous because a bunch of our mutual friends were playing Texas holdem Saturday night. She was bummed because she never learned to play poker.
I told her it was easy to learn, and the first thing she needed to do was learn about poker hands and poker hand rankings.
And that gave me the subject for my latest blog post.
Poker Hands Are Almost Always Made Up of Five Cards
In fact, I’m not sure of an exception to this rule. Poker isn’t one game, of course, it’s multiple games that have a couple of things in common:
- They have a betting structure where you can decide to continue to play or not
- They use five-card hands that usually win based on the standard poker hand rankings
If you’re playing Seven-Card Stud, for example, you get seven cards, but you use the best five-card hand you can make to determine the winner.
If you’re playing Texas holdem, you have two cards in your hand and five face-up cards that you share with other players. You make the best five-card hand you can using any combination of those seven cards.
If you’re playing Omaha, you have four cards in your hand and five face-up cards that you share with the other players. But you still make the best five-card hand that you can, using two cards from your hand and three cards from the community cards.
Ranks and Suits
Poker is almost always played with a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. Each card has two attributes:
Royal Flush Odds Texas Holdem
- A rank
- A suit
You have four suits—clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. In each of those suits, you have 13 ranks—2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace. The ace is unusual because it can be the highest OR the lowest card. It can rank above the king, but it can also count as a “1.”
Flushes, Straights, and Straight Flushes
The ranks and suits become important when you have a flush, a straight, or a straight flush.
A flush is just five cards of the same suit. They can all be clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades, it doesn’t matter. If you face an opponent who also has a flush, the player whose flush has the highest ranked card wins. An ace would be the highest card in any flush.
A straight is just five cards where the ranks are in succession. It doesn’t matter what suit the cards are, it only matters that the cards are made up of consecutive ranks.
For example, an A2345 is a straight, but so is a 10JQKA.
In the prior example, the ace counts as 1, but in the second, the ace counts as the highest card in the hand, above the king.
If multiple opponents have a straight, the one with the highest card in the straight wins. But if the ace is used as a 1 to make an ace to 5 straight, it counts as a low card for this purpose.
A straight flush is a hand where the cards are all consecutive, AND they’re all of the same suit.
Pairs, Trips, Quads, and Full Houses
All the other possible poker hands you can make have nothing to do with consecutive ranks or suited cards. They have to do with how many cards of a specific rank you have.
A pair, for example, is a hand where you have two cards of the same rank and three other cards. If you and your opponent both have a pair, the higher-ranked pair wins. A pair of aces beats a pair of kings, for example.
Texas Holdem Flush Rules
Two pair is a hand made up of two cards of one rank and two cards of another rank, plus a third card of still another rank. Three of a kind is a hand made up of three cards of the same rank and two other cards.
A full house is a three of a kind with a pair, three cards of one rank and two cards of another. And, of course, four of a kind is four cards of the same rank.
In all these examples, the highest-ranked card determines the winner.
The Standard List of Poker Hand Rankings
So far, I’ve discussed the various poker hands you can have in relation to the attributes of the cards. I haven’t given them a ranking. Almost all poker games use the same ranking system.
From best to worst, here are the poker hand rankings:
- Straight flush
- Four of a kind
- Full house
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- A pair
A straight flush always beats four of a kind or anything lower. A four of a kind always beats a full house or anything lower. And so on, through the end of the poker hand rankings list.
The first element of poker strategy any new poker player should master is the poker hand rankings. If you don’t know what beats what in poker, you can’t possibly make the correct decisions.
How These Hand Rankings Are Determined
The poker hand rankings are sorted this way based on the probability you’ll be dealt such a hand. The less likely it is to get a hand, the more it’s worth.
Also, most poker hand ranking lists include a separate listing for a royal flush, which is just the highest possible straight flush you can have. The only thing that makes it different from any other straight flush is how high your highest card ranks, but we don’t break four aces into a separate listing.
So, I don’t break a royal flush out into its own listing either.
Starting Hand Rankings in Texas Holdem
I could write about poker hand rankings all day, but for now, let me just address starting hands in Texas holdem.
Your starting hand in a game of Texas holdem consists of the two cards you get face down at the beginning of the game. These are the two cards you get to look at before deciding whether to play the hand at all.
The best possible starting hand in Texas holdem is a pair of aces. Often, a pair of aces can win a hand even if it doesn’t improve with the other cards. The rankings continue from there like this:
- Pocket aces
- Pocket kings
- Pocket queens
- Ace king suited
- Pocket jacks
- Pocket 10s
- Ace queen suited
- Ace king (not suited)
- Ace jack suited
- King queen suited
This might seem like a hard chart to memorize, but think about it like this… These are the best possible starting hands in the game. You should raise with any of them unless you have reason to believe that someone else has a better starting hand.
For example, if you have a pair of queens, you should raise with it, unless a couple of stingy players in front of you have already bet and raised. Even then, it often makes sense to raise with the queens.
Then, you have the suited aces. An ace and a king, an ace and a queen, or an ace and a jack are great hands if they’re of the same suit. You have the potential to make the best possible flush, the best possible straight flush, and the best possible straight.
And if you miss those, you still might catch another ace or pair one of the other big cards, in which case, you’ll have a big pair with the best possible kicker.
Ace king offsuit is prized mostly for its high pair potential, but also for its high straight potential. And king queen suited has lots of potential to make big flushes and straights.
Conclusion
Poker hands aren’t that hard to understand, but if you’re a beginner, it’s probably the first thing you should learn.
Of course, the second thing you should learn is your betting options at various points in the game.
Did you already know everything about poker hand rankings? Did I leave something out? Let me know in the comments.
Knowing what beats what in poker or Texas Hold’em is an important early step in learning the game. To help you out, I have provided for you an attractive printable or downloadable “cheat sheet” for both 5 card hand rankings as well as top 24 pre-flop starting hands.
Poker hands ranked from best to worst:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pair
- One Pair
- High Card
To make things easier on you, I have included some handy charts that can be used to reference during play or even printed out.
Poker Hand Rankings Chart
Never forget what beats what again. Feel free to save this to your phone/tablet/computer or print the chart out.
Click below to download a high-quality PDF that includes a printable copy of both the showdown and pre-flop hand rankings.
The Top 24 Hold’Em Starting Hand Rankings
To help you out, I have also included the top 24 no-limit hold’em starting hands to give you a further idea of what beats what in poker. I based this list on both raw equities as well as post-flop playability.
I have used over 10 years of experience in both tournaments and cash games to compile this info. You get to benefit from my hard work!
How These Hands Were Determined
I took a look at a few of the pre-flop hand ranking charts out there and, while most appeared to get it right for the most part, there seemed to be something off.
The thing is, everyone always does pretty well on the top 5 or 6 hands. However, after that things get a bit murkier
So, what really matters when it comes to weighing hand strength? I decided to take a close look at the problem. Using the knowledge I’ve gained over the past few years, I tried to come up with a better way of codifying hand rankings.
Determining the Overall Playability of Each Hand
I decided to go about it from a logical standpoint. When deciding whether to play a hand or not, what are the factors a strong player considers before acting
So, I decided that there are basically two main factors to consider in determining the strength of a particular pre-flop hand. And, since equity is the tool we use to rank the value of hands I just had to figure out what type of equities matter most and then apply it to each factor
Hosting A Texas Holdem Game
Once I was able to define which equities to consider, it just took a bit of math.
1. Pre-Flop Equity
The first equity I decided to factor in is a hand’s raw pre-flop equity. I mean, sometimes you need to get all-in before the flop, right?
Of course, some hands will get all-in more frequently than others but for the sake of simplicity, raw equity against a strong range will give us a decent enough metric to come up with a comparative ranking.
2. Post-Flop Equity
Secondly, we need to factor in how a hand does post-flop. There’s no doubt, that certain hands play much better after the flop than others.
To calculate how well a hand does after the flop I looked at what post-flop hands tend to get all-in most of the time in a post-flop scenario. This includes the strongest made hands, including top pair and better, as well as strong draws.
Once I was able to figure out what hands are likely to get all-in, I just had to figure out the equity of every hand versus that range on a random flop.
Compiling the Final List
Doing these kinds of calculations by hand would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Luckily, there is a software program called Cardrunner’s EV that does the math for me.
After I figured out both the raw pre-flop equity and the likely flop equity of each hand, I just used excel to average them. That data was used to compile the rankings.
Here are the final equity percentages:
Which Poker Starting Hand Ranges Should I Use?
Knowing which hands to open raise is important to your success. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Free Basic Poker Strategy Charts
I have built charts that provide you profitable opening ranges from every position. As a bonus, the charts also include what to do at every decision point possible for playing a 20 to 40 big blind stack
The guide will give you an excellent starting point for playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em and will get you off on the right foot by allowing you to play fundamentally sound poker right now!
FAQ
What if my opponent and I have the same hand at showdown ?
If more than one player has the same hand then you have to follow the tie-breaker rules to determine the winner.
If two or more players have a flush or straight
In the case where two players have a flush or straight, the person who has the highest card in their hand wins. For example, T9876 beats 76543.
If two or more players have a full house
In the case of multiple full houses, the player with the highest “trips” as part of their full house wins. For example, TTT22 beats 555AA.
What if two or more players have the same pair or two pair?
If multiple players have exactly the same two pair, the highest kicker is used to determine the winner. For example, JJ66Q beats JJ66T.
What Beats A Flush In Texas Hold'em
The same process is used for one-pair. The next highest kicker is used. If that is the same, you use the next highest kicker. So on and so forth until the tie is broken. For example, AAK85 beats AAK84.
Who wins if more than one person has the same high card?
Similarly to one pair and two-pair hands, you use the next highest kicker to determine the winner. You keep moving on to the next kicker until a winner is determined. For example, KT763 beats KT753.
Which is better, trips or two-pair?
Three of a kind beats two-pair. It also beats a pair and high card.
Which is better, a flush or a straight?
A flush beats a straight. It also beats three of a kind, two pair, a pair, and high card.
What is the worst hand in poker?
The worst hand against multiple players is 72 offsuit. The worst hand heads-up is 32o.
What are the odds of getting a Royal Flush in Texas Hold’em?
A royal flush is extremely rare. You can only expect to get a royal flush once every 650,000 hands. That doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed. Personally, I have played well over 5 million hands and have only had one royal using both cards.
Final Thoughts
I hope this article has helped you learn more about how hand rankings work in poker. If you want to learn about basic poker strategy, be sure to check out my detailed no-limit hold’em basic tutorial.