Recently at a low limit table game there were two players with flushes and I overheard one of the players jump out of their seat and yell, “two flushes who wins?”
For anyone that has played poker for a period of time, this is a pretty straight forward answer, but we’ll dive into how this works in this post.
A flush is a strong hand in poker. When you hit one, it’s safe to assume you will likely win the hand. It’s believed that flushes are easier to hit than a straight, but it’s actually the other way around as straights are twice as likely to hit.
Since it’s more difficult to hit though, the winrate is higher. But, what if there are two players with a flush?
What happens when both players hold two flushes who wins?
If two players have
For example, if Q♣ T♣, another has K♣ J♣, and the board comes out A♣ 9♣ 5♣ 8♦ 8♥ – the A on the board is the highest, but the player with a K will win since that’s higher than a Q.
Bigger cards are better for hitting a flush Click To Tweet
It
Having the AK nut flush is not always the best
One except to having big whole cards like AK for your flush is based on extracting value. When you have both the nut and second nut flush cards in your hand, it makes it less likely that your opponent is willing to engage in a big raise and therefore a little harder to extract value.
If you have AJ and they have KQ, they will have to make the determination if they think you have the one card that beats them and therefore they’ll be willing to pay more compared to if they don’t have a K in their hand.
You’ll at least get an idea of how high their flush is based on knowing you don’t have the second nut flush and how strong they are betting.
Hitting a flush isn’t easy, the chances of having the second nut flush in a losing hand is even harder to imagine.
Most of the time you want AK as the kicker is valuable, but it’s actually less profitable in the rare cases when two players both have a flush.
Usually you won’t worry about two players hitting a flush, but there are certainly times it happens. You have to be aware of a few scenarios in this case:
- A player will have a higher flush while the other has the lower end
- They both have a flush where the community cards contain the highest flush
- One of the players may have a straight flush (on the bottom end of it), while another player may have a higher flush, but not a straight flush.
- One player has a bottom end straight flush and another player has a top end straight flush.
Higher vs. Lower Flush
When playing poker, the rules are simple although there
The
The highest flush beats not only all lower flushes that might fold to our bets, but also any sets (trips), two pairs, or pairs. If you don’t
Who wins if both players have a flush of the same rank?
If
This way you might not get a clear winner, but it is to be noted that no one loses the game.
Straight flush vs. Ace-high flush
When
So if you’re lucky enough to have one of these powerful poker hands at the table, make sure you play it right!
Who wins if there is a flush on the table?
There is no clear answer to this question, as it depends on
There are two other scenarios where it might be confusing to determine the winning hand.
That is when both players have a flush, but the community cards are all higher.
Or in a really unlikely scenario two players both have straight flushes and one is on the bottom end whereas the other player is on the higher end (higher hand wins).
How Does a Flush Stack Up?
A flush holds a very strong poker hand ranking, to be precise fourth on the list. Click To Tweet
A Flush is the fourth best possible hand in the poker hand ranking system. A Full House ranks directly above it.
The flush ranks 5th in hand strength. A full house beats a flush, four of a kind beats a flush, straight flush, and then finally a royal flush all beat a standard flush.
Although it ranks 5th, it is rarely beaten. It beats a straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and certainly high card.
Next time you play the game, make sure you are clear about how the flush works. Good luck at the tables!