Does a flush beat a straight? The most-asked poker matchups

Updated November 11, 2026

Yes, a flush beats a straight. It's the question that stops more home games than any other, usually with one player holding each hand. Below are short answers to that and the other matchups people mix up, and the simple reason the order is what it is.

Quick answers

The type of hand always comes first. The ranks of the cards only matter when both players have the same type. So the lowest possible flush beats the highest possible straight, and three twos beat aces and kings.

Why a flush beats a straight

Poker hands are ranked by how rare they are in a five-card deal: the harder a hand is to get, the more it beats. There are 2,598,960 different five-card hands in a 52-card deck, and you can count how many of them make each type.

Every answer in the quick table falls out of this one. A straight can be made 10,200 ways and a flush only 5,108, so the flush wins. A full house (3,744) is rarer than a flush. Three of a kind (54,912) is more than twice as rare as two pair (123,552).

It feels the wrong way round to a lot of people because a straight looks harder: five cards in exact order. But a straight can use any suits, and each of its five cards can be one of four, while a flush needs all five from the same thirteen cards.

The mix-ups, one at a time

Full house vs flush

The full house wins. A useful way to hold the middle of the list in your head is the phrase "straight, flush, full house", lowest to highest. If you remember only that, you'll settle most disputes.

Straight vs three of a kind

The straight wins. Three of a kind feels strong, and in Hold'em it often is, but any straight beats it, including the lowest one, A-2-3-4-5.

Three of a kind vs two pair

Three of a kind wins. People count cards and think two pair uses four of them while trips use only three, so two pair should be better. Rarity is what counts, not the number of cards involved.

Two pair vs one big pair

Two pair wins. 3♠3♦2♣2♥ beats A♠A♥. A pair of aces is the best starting hand in Hold'em, but by the river it is still one pair.

Three pair

There's no such hand. Only five cards play, so with three pairs among your seven cards you have your two highest pairs and one kicker.

Five of a kind

It doesn't exist in a standard deck. It only appears in games with wild cards or jokers, which Texas Hold'em doesn't use.

When both players have the same type of hand

• Flush vs flush: the highest card in the flush wins, then the next highest. A♥7♥6♥4♥2♥ beats K♥Q♥J♥9♥8♥. The suit itself never matters.
• Straight vs straight: the higher top card wins. A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest straight, because the ace is playing as a one.
• Full house vs full house: compare the three of a kind first. 5-5-5-2-2 beats 4-4-4-A-A.
• Three of a kind vs three of a kind: higher rank wins. If both players have the same trips (possible when a pair is on the board), kickers decide.
• Two pair vs two pair: the higher top pair wins, then the second pair, then the kicker. Aces and twos beat kings and queens.
• Exactly the same five cards by rank: split the pot.

The full poker hand rankings chart has an example of every hand and more on kickers.

Two things that surprise people

In Hold'em, "nothing" is rarer than a pair

The ranking was set by five-card odds. Texas Hold'em gives you seven cards to pick from, and that changes how often hands show up. By the river you'll have exactly one pair about 44% of the time and two pair about 23%, but no pair at all only about 17%. High card is rarer than both and still loses to them. The rules don't change with the game: the five-card order is used everywhere.

Short-deck poker really does change the order

There is one well-known game where a flush beats a full house: short-deck Hold'em (also called six-plus), played with the twos to fives removed. With only nine cards in each suit, flushes become harder to make than full houses, so the two swap places. If someone at your table insists a flush beats a full house, that may be where they saw it. In normal 52-card poker, the full house wins.

Settle it without the argument

At a kitchen table, the hand is whatever the players agree it is, which is how these debates start. Online, the software reads the cards. On One Room Games each player sees their current hand in words as the board comes out ("Flush, King high", "Full House, Jacks full of Eights"), and the table awards the pot to the best hand at showdown, split pots included. If your group is still learning the rules of Texas Hold'em, it's an easy way to play correctly from the first hand.