In poker, a flush is a hand in which all five cards are the same suit. The ranks don't need to be consecutive, and its striking look makes it one of the easier high-ranking hands to remember. In Texas Hold'em, it occurs about 3.03% of the time—roughly once every 33 hands. This article lays out what a flush is in poker for beginners, covering how it's made, its place in the hand rankings, how often it appears, and how it differs from other hands.
What Is a Flush? Conditions for Making One
A flush is a hand in which all five cards are the same suit (spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs). The ranks don't matter—“as long as the suits match, it's a flush” is the key point.
For example, all of the following combinations are flushes.
259JK (a spade flush)
37TQA (a heart flush)
468TK (a diamond flush)
Even if the ranks are scattered, five cards of the same suit make a flush. The more high cards it contains, such as an A or K, the stronger the flush.
How Is a Flush Different from a Straight and a Straight Flush?
The hands most often confused with a flush are the “straight” and the “straight flush.” The key is to think about what each hand is judged by.
: all five cards are the same suit
: all five ranks are consecutive
: consecutive ranks and the same suit
In other words, when a hand satisfies both a flush and a straight at the same time, it is upgraded to the higher-ranking straight flush. evaluation always favors the stronger form.
How Strong Is a Flush? Its Place in the Hand Rankings
In Texas Hold'em, a flush ranks above a straight but below a full house. The hand rankings are as follows (stronger hands at the top).
Royal flush
Straight flush
Full house
Flush (here)
Straight
Three of a kind
One pair
Among the ten hand types, a flush is the fifth strongest. It is overwhelmingly strong against pair-based hands (one pair, two pair), but it can't beat higher hands like a full house. If you want to organize the relationships between all hands, check out the list of poker hand rankings as well.
When Two Flushes Meet, Which One Wins?
When two flushes collide, the winner is decided by comparing the highest card in each hand first, then working down.
A flush containing an A (the nut flush) > a flush up to K
If the highest cards are the same, compare the second-highest card
If the second-highest is also the same, compare the third, fourth, and fifth cards in order
If all five cards are identical in rank, the pot is split (a chop). No suit is stronger than another—hearts and spades are completely equal.
How Often Does a Flush Appear?
In Texas Hold'em, you make a hand by choosing the strongest five cards from the seven total cards: your two hole cards plus the five community cards.
Total number of ways to deal 7 cards from 52:
52C7 = 133,784,560Of these, the number of combinations that end in a flush is:
4,047,644 combinationsAs a probability:
4,047,644 / 133,784,560 ≒ 0.030255In percentage terms, that's about 3.03%—a hand that appears roughly once every 33 hands. Compared with a royal flush (about 0.0032%) or a straight flush (about 0.028%), a flush is a high-ranking hand you can realistically aim for. If you'd like to study probability calculations more systematically, see poker probability basics worth knowing.
How Do You Complete a Flush from a Flush Draw?
Having four cards of the same suit by the flop is called a flush draw. If one more card of the same suit hits on the turn or river, your flush is complete.
When you flop a flush draw, the chance of completing your flush by the river is about 35%. There are 9 outs (the future cards you need to complete the hand), making this one of the most frequent patterns in basic poker odds.
Keeping track of your draw win rates, including backdoor draws, leads to more accurate bet-sizing decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Flushes
Q. What's the difference between a royal flush and a flush?
A. A royal flush is the strongest hand, with “10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit” in consecutive order. A flush doesn't require consecutive ranks—it's simply five cards of the same suit.
Q. How many cards does it take to make a flush?
A. A flush requires five cards of the same suit. Having only four of the same suit is called a flush draw, and the hand isn't complete yet.
Q. Is there a difference in strength between suits?
A. No. Spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are all equal. Hand strength is determined only by the ranks of the cards.
Q. Are five same-suit cards with different high cards treated as different hands?
A. Any five cards of the same suit share the same hand name, “flush,” but their strength changes depending on the ranks they contain. A flush with an A is the strongest.
Summary
A flush is a high-ranking hand made of five cards of the same suit. In Texas Hold'em, it appears about 3.03% of the time, making it relatively common among strong hands. Remember it as “a hand judged by suit rather than rank” and learn it together with the straight (consecutive ranks) and the straight flush (both conditions), and hand recognition becomes much easier.
If you want to master poker hand rankings systematically, check out the list of poker hand rankings. And if you want to practice building hands without hesitation in real play, the poker learning app POKER Q'z is a great choice.