What Is a Straight Flush in Poker? (And the Royal at the Top)
Level 2 · Lesson 11 of 113 min read
How do you spot a straight flush?
Both conditions at once: five cards that run in sequence, and all five in the same suit. A straight is one of those. A flush is the other. Getting both from the same five cards is what puts this hand at the top of the poker hand rankings.
The K♠ sits there doing nothing. Five cards is the whole hand, and these five are already the best available.
The near miss is worth knowing by sight: five hearts that do not run in order are only a flush, and five cards in order that are not all one suit are only a straight.
What makes a royal flush different?
Nothing structural. A royal flush is a straight flush whose top card is an ace — ace, king, queen, jack, ten, all in one suit. It is the highest member of the family rather than a separate hand.
That is why the two are never counted together. Every royal is a straight flush, so adding the two frequencies would count the same hands twice.
How often does a straight flush arrive?
About 0.03% of the time — one Hold'em hand in 3,200, counting royals among them. The royal on its own is one in 31,000. Poker hand probabilities puts both alongside every other finish.
Quick check
Roughly how often does a Hold'em hand finish as a straight flush?
Most players will never need the ranking. What they will need is the recognition — the cost of missing one is a pot you had already won.
Which straight flush wins when two players have one?
The one with the higher top card, exactly as two flushes are settled. There is no other tiebreak, and no kicker: all five cards are spoken for.
At the bottom of the family sits A-2-3-4-5 in one suit, where the ace plays low — the wheel with a suit attached. It is a straight flush and it loses to every other one.
You'll also run into…
The board making one. Five sequenced cards of one suit on the table belong to everyone still in the hand, which is one of the ways playing the board splits a pot.
"Steel wheel" — table shorthand for the suited A-2-3-4-5. It names the hand at the bottom, not a different one.
Any term here that is new to you is defined in the poker terms glossary.
Frequently asked questions
Does a royal flush have to be in a particular suit?
No. All four are equal, and spades carry no extra weight in Hold'em. Two royal flushes in the same hand would split the pot, which needs the board to hold three of the five cards and is rarer than either figure above.
Practice this in Vibe Poker
Name a straight and name a flush on sight — Levels 3 and 4 in Vibe Poker are the two halves of this hand. Free, play-money.
Free, play-money only. 18+.