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Flush
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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. We first pick one of four suits and then 5 cards from that suit. In other words, C(4,1)×C(13,5) = 5148. We then subtract the 4 possible Royal Flushes and the 36 possible Straight Flushes. Therefore, we have 5108 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")
In community card poker, this top-down tie-breaking can lead to unanticipated kicker-screw. For example, in Texas Hold 'em, a player with two low hole spades, when three out of four table cards are spades, may bet aggressively knowing she has the flush. If a fourth spade comes on the river, this player's hand is degraded from powerful to effectively useless.
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.
See also
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