Does a flush beat a house?

A flush does beat a full house in poker. A full house consists of three cards of the same rank and two cards of another rank. For example, a hand with three kings and two queens would be considered a full house. On the other hand, a flush is a hand that contains five cards of the same suit, but not in sequential rank.

To understand why a flush beats a full house, let’s delve into the poker hand rankings. In most standard poker games, including Texas Hold’em and Omaha, the hand rankings follow a specific hierarchy. The highest-ranking hand is a royal flush (A♣ K♣ Q♣ J♣ 10♣), followed by a straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and finally, a high card.

A full house ranks higher than a flush, but it is surpassed by a flush in the hierarchy. This is because a flush is considered more difficult to obtain than a full house. In a standard deck of 52 cards, there are only 4 cards of each suit (hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades). Therefore, the probability of getting five cards of the same suit is lower than the probability of getting three cards of the same rank and two cards of another rank.

To illustrate this, let’s imagine a scenario where two players are competing in a poker game. Player A holds a full house consisting of three kings and two queens (K♥ K♦ K♠ Q♣ Q♠), while Player B has a flush with five hearts (A♥ 10♥ 8♥ 6♥ 4♥). In this situation, Player B’s flush would beat Player A’s full house since a flush ranks higher in the hand hierarchy.

It’s worth noting that there are different variations of poker, and some may have different hand rankings. For instance, in certain lowball or low hand games, like Ace-to-Five lowball, flushes are not considered valid hands, and a full house would indeed beat a flush. However, in most popular poker games, a flush outranks a full house.