Flush (poker)
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- The article flush redirects here; a flush is a poker hand. For other meanings of Flush, see Flush (disambiguation).
A flush is a poker hand such as Q♣ 10♣ 7♣ 6♣ 4♣, which contains five cards of the same suit, not in rank sequence. It ranks above a straight and below a full house. There are 5148 possible flushes, so the odds of getting a flush given a five card hand are 16627:33, or approximately 504:1.
Usually, two flushes are compared as if they were No pair hands. In other words, the highest ranking card of each is compared to determine the winner; if both have the same high card, then the second-highest ranking card is compared, etc. The suits have no value: two flushes with the same five ranks of cards are tied.
Examples:
- A♥ Q♥ 10♥ 5♥ 3♥ ("ace-high flush") defeats K♠ Q♠ J♠ 9♠ 6♠ ("king-high flush")
- A♦ K♦ 7♦ 6♦ 2♦ ("flush, ace-king high") defeats A♥ Q♥ 10♥ 5♥ 3♥ ("flush, ace-queen high")
- Q♥ 10♥ 9♥ 5♥ 2♥ ("heart flush") ties Q♠ 10♠ 9♠ 5♠ 2♠ ("spade flush")
Tie-breaking of flushes, or "flush-breaking", is a matter of controversy, especially in communal-card games such as Texas hold 'em. Some tables compare only the highest cards of the flush (if these are the same, the pot is split). This is known as top-only, as opposed to top-down, flush-breaking. The disadvantage of top-down flush-breaking is unanticipated kicker-screw. For example, a player with two low hole spades, when three out of four table cards are spades, may bet aggressively knowing he or she has the flush. If a fourth spade comes on the river, this player's hand is degraded from powerful to effectively useless. As the essential idea of poker is to bet on improving (or, at least, no worse than stagnating) hands, this is considered an undesirable situation. Top-only flush-breaking reduces the frequency with which such scenarios occur. Nevertheless, top-down flush breaking is standard in Texas hold 'em.
When Wild cards are used, a wild card contained in a flush is considered to be of the highest rank not already present in the hand. For example, in the hand (Wild) 10♥ 8♥ 5♥ 4♥, the wild card plays as the A♥, but in the hand A♣ K♣ (Wild) 9♣ 6♣, it plays as the Q♣.
Some home games and some casinos play the double-ace flush rule, in which a wild card in a flush always plays as an ace, even if one is already present. In such a game, the hand A♠ (Wild) 9♠ 5♠ 2♠ would defeat A♦ K♦ Q♦ 10♦ 8♦ (the wild card playing as an imaginary second A♠), whereas by the standard rules it would lose (because even with the wild card playing as a K♠, the latter hand's Q♦ outranks the former's 9♠). This rule is rare, and is an exception to standard practice, so it should be announced clearly if you intend to use it.
Some poker games are played with a deck that has been stripped of certain cards, usually low-ranking ones. For example, the Australian game of Manila uses a 32-card deck in which all cards below the rank of 7 are removed, and Mexican stud removes the 8s, 9s, and 10s. In both of these games, a flush ranks above a full house, because having fewer cards of each suit available makes flushes rarer.