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. Aces can be high or low. Straight Flush This hand has any five cards, all of the same suit, in order, such as the 4-5-6-7-8 all of hearts. It doesn't bring quite the adrenaline rush of a royal flush, but it's still a reliable winner.

• What Beats A Flush In Cards
• Does Straight Beat Flush
• What Beats A Straight Flush In Cards Game
• What Beats A Straight Flush In Cards Meaning
• Straight Flush In Cards

A Guide to Hand Rankings and How to Know When You are Beaten

There are many poker formats with different rules. One thing they have in common is the poker hand rankings. This is a standardized list of what beats what when it comes to the end of a hand. Note that certain ‘low hand’ or split pot games have different rankings for the strong low hands.

This page explains how the hand rankings work. It then goes further, adding an element of poker strategy. In poker hand strength can change throughout the hand. For example, you might have a pair of red aces and be ahead on the flop. If you face a big bet after the community cards have 4 clubs – those aces are unlikely to be the best hand.

Here is how the information on what beats what is laid out:

• Detailed Poker Rankings: What hand beats what, and how to decide the winner for tied-hands.
• When Your Good Hand is Beaten: Basics of situations where you should play strong hands cautiously.
• Special Notes for Hi-Lo Poker Games: Not all poker games award the pot to the highest hand.

Detailed Poker Hand Rankings: What Beats What at Showdown

All standard poker games use 5 cards to determine the winner. This applies in Texas Hold’em, where you have 7 cards in total (2 in your hand, 5 on the board). Only 5 cards are used as showdown, with the 6^th and 7^th card completely irrelevant.

Here are the standard rankings, with notes on deciding the winner where more than one player has the same hand:

Royal Flush / Straight flush

Consecutive cards which are all the same suit make a ‘straight flush’. This is a super-powerful hand, and only comes up occasionally. A Royal Flush (ace, king, queen, jack and ten of the same suit) is simply the highest possible straight flush. This hand is unbeatable.

Where two players have a straight flush, the highest ranked card comes into play.

For example, if one player holds the 6 of hearts and another player the jack of hearts – and the board comes out including the 7, 8, 9 and 10 of hearts – both players have made a straight flush. In this case, the pot gets awarded to the player holding the jack.

4 of a Kind

Also known as Quads, this hand can be of any rank, with 4 aces being the best hand. There are situations in Hold’em where 4 identical cards will hit the community card board. When this happens, the highest 5^th card comes into play.

Where the 5^th community card is a king, the pot would be split. If that community card is a low one, then the pot is awarded to the player with the highest unique card. For example, one player holds a pair of 7’s, and the other holds jack-queen.

Here the highest hand is A-A-A-A-Q.

Full House

This hand is 3 of one rank, along with two of another. An example is 4-4-4-K-K. There are some situations in which more than one player can have a full house.

If there are 3 of a kind on the community card boards (assuming nobody made quads), then the highest pair to go with it will determine the winner.

For example, if the board comes Q-Q-Q-3-J, a player holding A-A will have the biggest full house. Pairs can also be made with single hole-cards. If a player holds a single jack, and another holds a pair of tens, then the highest full house becomes Q-Q-Q-J-J.

There are also situations where pocket pairs create full houses of different strength.

If one player holds aces and another one queens, and the board comes A-Q-2-2-7, two full houses have been created. In this case the best one is A-A-A-2-2. It is the highest 3-card combination that will win the pot.

Flushes

Five cards of the same suit make a powerful poker hand – it will beat trips, straights and all hands 2-pair and under. Many players will ‘chase’ flushes, calling big bets to try and hit that 5^th suited card. You will also find a lot of novice players who play any two suited cards pre-flop – hunting for a flush.

Where two players have a flush, the pot goes to the player with the highest ranked unique card. There are situations where the 5 cards on the board are the same suit. If nobody has a higher card then these 5 in their hand, the pot would be shared. For example, 9-10-Q-K-A of the same suit on the board would be split if one player held and 8 and the other a 7 of that suit. Note that in this spot, a player with a jack of this suit would have an unbeatable Royal Flush!

If the board comes out with 4 hearts, in this case 3-9-Q-K (with one unsuited card), then players holding a single heart will both make a flush. Here the rank of the hole cards come into play. A player with the 7 of hearts has a higher flush than the one holding the 4.

Straights

Five cards of consecutive rank are is called a straight in poker. One common misunderstanding from new players is that straights wrap around from high to low. For example, K-Q-J-A-2 is not a straight!

Where two players have straights, the highest unique card again comes into play. The best straight. 10-J-Q-K-A is known as a ‘Broadway’ straight. Aces can count as low or high. In addition to making the best possible straight, A-2-3-4-5 is also a straight.

3 of a Kind

Three cards of the same rank can appear in three ways. All 3 cards can be on the community card board, a player can hold a pocket pair and hit their 3^rd card, or there might be a pair on the board, with a player holding one matching card. Where a player holds a pair, the hand is known as a ‘set’. Where the player holds a single card, this is known as ‘trips’.

Where two players hold the same 3 of a kind, most commonly with a paired board, the side-cards (or kickers) come into play. Here the player with the highest unique side-card would win the pot. For example, if one player holds Ace-Jack and the other Ace-King, and two aces appear on the flop – the player holding the King has a higher kicker.

2 Pairs

Two individual pairs are a more common poker hand. Again, this can be hit in several ways. A paired board + a pocket pair, two pairs on the board, or two matches between a player’s hole-cards and the community cards are all possible.

Where two players hit two pair, the rank of the highest pair determines the winner. If players the same 2 pairs at the same time (a pair on the board, plus a match with one hole-card), then the side-card rank does come into play. Here the highest separate card might already be on the board. In this case the pot would be split.

1 Pair

While a pair can win a pot, it is rarely a hand to get all-in with – since everything covered above has a pair soundly beaten. Pairs can appear on the community card board, involve one card from a player’s hand – or both cards can be in the player’s hand.

It is more common to get identical pairs when an ace hits the flop (since many players will play any hand including an ace). In this case the highest unique side-card wins. For example, on a board of A-4-5-9-10 a player holding Ace-King beats a player holding Ace-Jack. Both side-cards might come into play where the pair is on the board.

High Card

Sometimes in a poker game, the player’s cards and community cards will miss all the poker hands explained above. In this case the highest unique card which can make a 5-card poker hand wins the pot. An example here is that A-6 would beat K-J on a board of 2-3-8-9-10.

Knowing When Your Good Hand is Beaten – Tips for New Players

Poker is a game of relative hand strength. Even the strongest hands can be beaten when certain community card runouts appear. Knowing when you are beaten holding a strong hand takes experience – though there are several ways you can see trouble coming.

The first thing to watch for is the ‘texture’ of the flop. If you hold a pair of aces, you’ll want to bet big. If the flop comes 9-10-J, all spades, and you hold 2 red aces – there is some danger. You might already be beaten by a flush or straight. The most likely scenario is that one or more opponents has a drawing hand. This means any 7, 8, Q or King (or a 4^th heart) could have you beaten.

Compare this to a ‘dry’ flop, for example 2-7-Q with 3 suits. Here there are no draws available, and unless you get unlucky and run into a small 3 or a kind, things are much safer for those aces.

Unfortunate board runouts are a good reason to play your good starting hands strongly. If you limp or bet small, you will encourage players with random holdings to see the flop. In this case, you might not know you are beaten (possibly by some random 2-pair) until the pot is very big. Raising to thin the field will also allow you to bluff at pots where everybody misses the flop.

Knowing when you are beaten is also opponent dependant. Some tight players will only wake up betting when they have 3 of a kind or better. Conversely, you’ll find some loose / aggressive types who will fire bets with as little as king-high. Take notes on your opponents, and watch how they bet with strong hands, draws and missed hands. Those patterns will allow you to work out whether you are ahead or behind on hands later down the line.

What Beats What in High-Low Poker Games

A quick note on split pot games. These include Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo. In these games, half of the pot goes to the highest ranked poker hand, and the other half to the ‘low’.

A low hand is 5 unique cards 8 and under. This makes the ‘best’ poker hand in a hi-lo game A-2-3-4-5. This hand is known as the ‘wheel’, it can win the high part of the pot as a straight – and will certainly win the low part too.

Where two players both have lows, it is the higher end of the low cards which determines the winner. For example, 2-3-4-6-7 would beat A-2-3-4-8 (the 8 is higher, meaning the 7-low wins).

Note that some games like 2-7 triple draw, which also use ‘low’ rankings, count straights and flushes as high hands!

As a boy, anytime the words “not fair” were uttered by me or my siblings the response from our father was an unwavering “The only fair is the State Fair and it only comes around once a year”.

Well, in the poker world “unfair” seems to come around plenty.

Sort of like death and taxes being certainties, in poker you’re certain to get bad beats. Also, similar to death and taxes because there goes your money and here comes that dead inside feeling in your stomach.

In elementary terms, a bad beat is when a poker hand that’s favored to win, loses to an underdog hand that catches cards to beat it.

For example, in a no-limit hold’em game or tourney, you go all-in pre-flop with the best possible at that moment; Ace, Ace.

Imagine one player wasn’t dissuaded by your huge bet and calls, going all-in behind you. They flip over 5 & 6 of clubs. The 5 & 6 of clubs isn’t a hand to go all-in with pre-flop. Of course they justify it in their mind because after all they’re suited.

So, we’ve got your aces against 5/6 suited. You are thrilled to see their hand, and because the pot is huge thanks to their call, you’re basically reaching to the middle of the table to start raking them up and stacking. What you fail to realize, being a beginner, is that it’s not over til it’s over.

Now, while your “pocket rockets’ look like a cinch and get pulse up, unfortunately they’re only about a 77% favorite to win. That means for every 4 hands you go all-in with pocket aces against a 5/6 of the same suit, you’re going to lose once.

Don’t Define Me

The term “Bad Beat” isn’t defined by Webster. What constitutes a bad beat in poker is therefore subject to interpretation. Generally a bad beat is considered to occur when a hand that is an overwhelming favorite loses to an inferior hand that gets needed cards to win.

Say you go all-in before the flop with pocket 9s and are called by Ace and Queen of hearts.

In this scenario, you and your 9s will win 52% of the time. Even after the flop and turn are dealt, your 9s may be holding steady. Then bam, river card is a Queen and you lose.

That’s a common beat, incredibly common. It’s essentially a coin toss, so regaling your fellow poker players with the tale of your defeat will not garner any sympathy. Who am I kidding? Neither will tales of a legitimate bad beat.

Bad Beats need to be a slightly more miraculous and painful than simply losing when you’re a slight favorite to win. Going all-in with pocket 10s and losing to pocket 5s, would be a bad beat. Mostly because your 10s are an 80% favorite to win the hand.

It’s important to keep in mind, especially for your mental well-being, that even a somewhat strong hand of say, Ace/King against a Queen/Ten hand will only win about 66% of the time.

Particularly brutal bad beats come when you get all your money into the pot when you’re ahead on the flop or turn. After all, if four of the five community cards are already dealt and you’re way ahead, it’s easy to assume that one remaining river card won’t slaughter you.

Unfortunately, it can and it often does exactly that. Say you started the hand with a pocket pair, (say pocket 7’s), and end up getting three of a kind after the turn. And let’s say your opponent has a flush draw – he has two hearts in his hand, and there are two hearts on the board. With only the river card to come, your set of sevens, will win 84% of the time.

What Beats A Flush In Cards

Those times when that winning flush card comes for your opponent, which it will 16% of the time, can be so incredibly disheartening.

It’ll make you want to yell obscenities and storm out of the casino. When in reality, you were just a participant in a soulless, cold, uncaring mathematical string of probabilities.

Another devastating bad beat comes when a player goes “runner runner” on you. What this means is that you are well ahead after the flop, but the resulting turn and river cards give your opponent two cards they need to snatch victory away from you.

A runner-runner bad beat would be when you flop a full house, only to see your opponent go runner runner to catch the exact two cards he needs to make a full house that is higher than your full house.

More commonly, you’ll experience a runner-runner bad beat when someone catches running cards to make an odd straight, or a flush on you.

While losing cold hard cash to a bad beat in a regular game hurts, bad beats are especially painful when you experience one during poker tournaments.

One minute you’re sitting there Ace/Ace dreaming of that final table and significant check and the next you’re sulking in the parking lot asking yourself, “What happened?”.

Does It Hurt

“The bubble” is the term for when a poker tournament is at the point where all remaining players will be paid winnings. Consequently, the “bubble boy” or the person “on the bubble” is the player who finished just one spot away from the money.

In the World Series of Poker Main Event, they usually pay a certain percentage of the finishers – typically around the remaining 10% of the player pool.

So with, say, 8,000 entrants, the last 800 remaining players get paid. The guy with the unfortunate distinction of finishing in 801st place, the bubble boy, receives nothing.

As you can imagine, suffering a bad beat to become the bubble boy is not only rare, but perhaps the cruelest bad beat of all.

I’d like to note here that the most incredible and unique bad beats have their own name, “coolers.” The definition of a cooler hand in poker, is when a rock solid hand loses to an even more amazing hand.

As an example, one cooler would be when a player with 4 of a kind, loses to a straight flush. These are the bad beats that are typical qualifying hands to win the large bad beat jackpots found in poker rooms and casinos around the country.

A rare and especially hateful, but not impossible bad beat is a combination cooler/runner-runner hand in which a player flops 4 of a kind, only to see his opponent catch runner-runner cards to achieve a higher 4 of a kind.

Does Straight Beat Flush

While this is a bad beat, the sting will be lightened as the loser would win a big chunk of cash as part of the bad beat jackpot.

What if he loses this way in a card room without a bad beat jackpot? Well, he’s got a legitimate bad beat story to tell.

Conclusion

Bad beats have been around since poker’s humble beginnings and good or bad they’ll be here to the end.

Some professional players, see Phil Hellmuth, are notorious for his pronounced reactions to bad beats.

However, enduring a bad beat means that the losing player or victim was “getting the money in good” and in most instances would win by playing the same hand the same way.

Therefore, the more stoic poker players accept bad beats as an unpleasant but necessary drawback to a tactic that pays an overwhelming majority of the time.

There’s a line from possibly the most popular poker movie of all-time, Rounders that goes “Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.”

I can confirm that while I am in every sense a recreational player, I’ve won and lost some big pots and the ones I lost stay with me more than the wins.

In fact, I took a particular beat holding Ace/King suited and flopped the nut flush. My opponent called my all-in bet and hit a full house on the river. I walked straight to my car, drove the 8 hours home only stopping once for gas and didn’t leave my house for a week.

What Beats A Straight Flush In Cards Game

That loss hurt so bad that I didn’t step through the doors of another casino for over 4 years. You can learn from my misfortune and my mistakes.

What Beats A Straight Flush In Cards Meaning

Poker is fun, if it weren’t you wouldn’t play. So, for every bad break there’s a good break coming your way. That’s one of the beautiful sides of poker, the math never changes.

Straight Flush In Cards

Don’t go on tilt because an opponent caught a huge break. There are only 52 cards in a deck and one of them had to come up.