Does a Flush Beat a Straight in Omaha?
Yes, a flush beats a straight in Omaha, just like every poker game. Omaha's use-exactly-two-hole-cards rule only changes how you build one.
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Picture a diamond-heavy board and two players convinced they’re ahead. One turns over a straight; the other shows a flush. In Omaha, the flush wins — and it wins for the same reason it wins in Texas Hold’em, seven-card stud, and every other standard game. A flush beats a straight in Omaha, full stop. The flush is #5 on poker’s ten-hand ladder and the straight is #6. What Omaha changes is not which hand wins but how you’re allowed to build one, and that distinction is where a lot of money quietly changes hands.
Same rankings as Hold’em
Omaha borrows Hold’em’s hand rankings wholesale. Nothing is reshuffled:
- Flush = five cards of the same suit, e.g.
A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 2♦. - Straight = five cards in sequence, mixed suits, e.g.
10♠ 9♦ 8♥ 7♣ 6♠.
The flush beats the straight here exactly as it does elsewhere. If you’ve internalized the standard order, you don’t relearn anything about who beats whom. The general, variant-agnostic version lives in does a flush beat a straight.
Why the flush ranks higher
The order is set by rarity — the fewer ways a hand can be made, the higher it sits:
| Hand | Ways to make it (5-card) | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Flush | 5,108 | #5 |
| Straight | 10,200 | #6 |
A straight is nearly twice as common, so it ranks below. That gap is the entire justification. There’s no separate “Omaha rule” bending this; the deck is the same 52 cards, and the counting comes out the same way.
The two-card rule is the real subject
Here’s what actually trips up players moving over from Hold’em. In Omaha you’re dealt four hole cards, but you must use exactly two of them together with exactly three community cards. Not one, not three, not four. Always two and three. This rule is absolute, and it quietly rewrites how flushes and straights get made.
The classic Omaha mirage: the board shows three or even four cards of one suit, and a newcomer holding a single card of that suit announces a flush. They have nothing of the sort. A flush in Omaha requires two suited hole cards that match the board’s suit. One suited card plus a suited board is not a flush — it’s a hand that beats nothing extra.
A hand that shows the trap
The board reads K♦ 9♦ 6♦ 7♣ 2♠ — three diamonds on show.
- Player A holds
A♦ Q♦ 8♣ 4♠. PlayingA♦ Q♦withK♦ 9♦ 6♦givesA♦ K♦ Q♦ 9♦ 6♦— an ace-high flush. - Player B holds
10♦ 8♥ 5♣ 5♠. The tempting thought is a flush off that lone10♦, but one diamond isn’t enough. B’s best legal hand is10♥/♦ 9 8 7 6— using10and8from hand with9 7 6… except the board isK 9 6 7 2, so B pairs10♦ 8♥with9♦ 7♣ 6♦to make10-9-8-7-6, a ten-high straight.
Player A has a flush (#5), Player B has a straight (#6), so Player A scoops it. The instructive part is Player B’s 10♦: it looked like a flush card and delivered zero flush, because Omaha wanted a second diamond in hand. The two-card rule is precisely why B came up a notch short.
How ties break in Omaha
Tiebreaks are identical to the rest of poker — the variant doesn’t touch them:
- Flush vs. flush: compare the highest card, then the next, on down. In Omaha both flush cards come from your hand, plus three from the board; the best five ranks win. Suits never break a flush tie.
- Straight vs. straight: the higher top card wins. Two straights that resolve to the same five ranks split the pot.
Full detail on how flushes are scored and compared sits in poker flush rules.
More draws, same verdict
Because you’re holding four cards, you have six two-card combinations to work with instead of one, so flush and straight draws surface far more often than in Hold’em. That’s why Omaha feels like a game of constant big draws and coolers. But frequency is all that changes. Flush-over-straight, and flush-over-flush, come up again and again at Omaha tables — and every single time, the higher-ranked hand wins.
Where both hands sit
Top to bottom: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. So in Omaha a flush beats a straight, but both fall to a full house, quads, or any straight flush. And a straight flush — five suited, sequential cards, built here from two hole cards plus three board cards — tops a plain flush.
If you want the universal write-up, start with does a flush beat a straight; to nail flush scoring, read poker flush rules; and for other formats where the rankings shift, browse the other variants hub.
Frequently asked
Can you make a flush with one suited card in Omaha?
No. Omaha forces you to use exactly two hole cards and exactly three community cards. A flush needs two suited hole cards matching three board cards of that suit. One suited card in hand makes nothing, even if the board shows four of that suit.
Does Omaha make flushes more common than Hold'em?
Draws appear more often because you hold four hole cards and more two-card combinations, so flushes and straights clash more frequently. But that changes how often, never which hand wins. The flush still beats the straight every time.
Does a straight flush beat a flush in Omaha?
Yes. A straight flush is the second-highest hand and beats a plain flush, a straight, and everything below. In Omaha it must be built from exactly two suited, sequential hole cards plus three matching board cards.