Poker Flush Ranking
- The is the best possible hand you can get in standard five-card Poker is called a royal.
- A “ flush ” consists of five non-consecutive cards of the same suit. It doesn’t matter which suit you are holding, and the rank of the cards is only important if you are up against another flush. The “nut flush” is the name given to the highest possible flush, typically ace high.
Ace To Five Lowball Hand Ranks. This method of ranking low hands is used in traditional Hi/Lo games, like Omaha Hi/Lo and Stud Hi/Lo, as well as in Razz, the ‘low only’ Stud game. Note that suits are irrelevant for Ace to Five low. A flush or straight does not ‘break’ an Ace to Five low poker hand.
Knowing the hand ranks gives a player a quick signpost for their strength when betting into a pot. A successful online poker player needs a detailed knowledge of the hand rankings. When I say you need to know the poker hands, I’m not talking about whether a pair of aces beats a pair of kings.
I’m talking about that mass of card combinations between the best and worst hands. Whenever you hold any set of cards, a gambler needs to know its strength relative to the rest of the possibilities. To do this, card players should study hand ranking charts not much different than what you would study in blackjack.
Several experts have made tables which detail the playable hands in Texas hold’em, Omaha, seven-card stud, razz, and the various hi/lo 8-or-better variants of the games already mentioned. Study these for the game or variant you want to master. That way, you know which hands to play and which to fold.
Even if you decide to play a hunch or make a bluff, you do so with the knowledge that you’re diverging from classic poker strategy. Predicate all you do in poker on a firm understanding of the hand ranks.
Flush Poker Hand Ranking
Poker Flush Ranking
A flush is a hand that contains five cards all of the same suit, not all of the sequential rank, such as Q♣ 9♣ 7♣ 2♣ 3♣ (a king-high flush). It ranks below a full house and above a straight. Under ace-to-five low rules, flushes are not possible (so K♥ 8♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ is a King-high hand).
Each flush is ranked first by the rank of its highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its second highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its third highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its fourth highest-ranking card, and finally by the rank of its lowest-ranking card.
Example: K♦ J♦ 9♦ 6♦ 4♦ ranks higher than Q♣ J♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣, which ranks higher than J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 4♥ 2♥, which ranks higher than J♠ 10♠ 8♠ 6♠ 3♠, which ranks higher than J♥ 10♥ 8♥ 4♥ 3♥, which ranks higher than J♣ 10♣ 8♣ 4♣ 2♣. Flush hands never differ by suit alone. Here 10♦ 8♦ 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ and 10♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠, are considered as an equal rank.
A flush beats a straight. A flush is any five cards all of the same suit (i.e., all diamonds or all spades, etc.). If two or more players share a flush then the player with the highest card (all the way to the fifth card if necessary) in the flush wins.
Flush Probabilities
A flush consists of five cards which are all of the same suit. We must remember that there are 4 suits each with a total of 13 cards. Thus a flush is a combination of five cards from a total of 13 of the same suit. This is done in C(13, 5) = 1287 ways. Since there are four different suits, there are a total of 4 x 1287 = 5148 flushes possible.
Some of these flushes have already been counted as higher ranked hands. We must subtract the number of straight flushes and Royal Flushes from 5148 in order to obtain flushes that are not of a higher rank. There are 36 straight flushes and 4 royal flushes. We must make sure not to double count these hands. This means that there are 5148 – 40 = 5108 flushes that are not of a higher rank.
Chinese Poker Flush Ranking
We can now calculate the probability of a flush as 5108/2,598,960 = 0.1965%. This probability is approximately 1/509. So in the long run, one out of every 509 hands is a flush.