Does a Flush Beat a Straight in 3 Card Brag?

So, no — a flush does not beat a straight in 3 card brag. Brag calls the straight a “run,” and the run ranks above the flush for one clean reason: with only three cards dealt, a run is rarer than a flush. That’s the exact reverse of five-card poker, and it’s the trap that catches newcomers every time.

Full 3 card brag hand rankings

The counting that flips the order

Card games rank the rarer hand higher, and brag runs on the same logic. Out of 22,100 possible three-card hands:

Hand	Ways to make it	Roughly 1 in
Prial (three of a kind)	52	425
Running flush	48	460
Run (straight)	720	31
Flush	1,096	20
Pair	3,744	6
High card	16,440	1.3

Only 720 runs exist against 1,096 flushes, so the run is scarcer and outranks the flush. To a Hold’em player it feels backwards, but a three-card deal simply flips the math — there are fewer ways to complete a short sequence than to match a suit. The five-card version of the rule is in does a flush beat a straight.

The prial and 3-3-3

This is where brag departs even from casino 3 card poker. In brag, three of a kind — the prial — is the top category, above the running flush. By raw odds a running flush (48 ways) is fractionally rarer than a prial (52 ways), yet brag tradition seats the prial on top anyway, and it crowns 3-3-3 as the single best hand in the game, ahead of three aces. After 3-3-3, prials fall in normal order: A-A-A, K-K-K, down to 2-2-2. Runs and running flushes rank by their top card, with A-2-3 traditionally the highest run, Q-K-A just below it, and 4-3-2 the lowest.

How ties break

• Prial: the higher three of a kind wins, 3-3-3 above all.
• Running flush / run: the higher sequence wins by its ranking card.
• Flush: compare the highest card, then the next, then the last.
• Pair: the higher pair wins; if equal, the third card (kicker) decides.
• High card: compare from the top down.

A hand at the table

You hold 9♠ 8♦ 7♣ — a run — and your opponent flips A♥ Q♥ 5♥, a flush.

• Yours is a nine-high run.
• Theirs is an ace-high flush.

The flush looks stronger, but the run beats it in brag, so you take the pot. A five-card player would call the flush the winner — which is precisely the trap. Any time you sit down at a three-card game, reset that one instinct before the first deal.

Brag vs. casino 3 card poker

Both games deal three cards, but they aren’t the same, and confusing them costs money:

Feature	3 Card Brag	Casino 3 Card Poker
Top hand	Prial (3-3-3 highest)	Straight flush
Three of a kind	Ranks #1 (prial)	Ranks #2
Straight vs. flush	Run beats flush	Straight beats flush
Style	Betting/bluffing vs. players	Bet against the dealer

The shared rule — straight over flush — holds in both, because the three-card math doesn’t change. What changes is the summit: brag lifts the prial over the running flush and crowns 3-3-3, a tradition the casino game drops. For that neighboring game, see 3 card poker hand rankings for beginners; for the five-card ladder, the hand rankings hub; and for more formats, other poker variants.