Does a Flush Beat an Ace-High Straight?

You turn over A♠ 10♥ on a board of K♦ Q♦ J♦ 4♣ 2♠ and read the nuts: A-K-Q-J-10, the best straight there is, nicknamed Broadway. Then your opponent flips 8♦ 5♦ for a king-high flush, and you lose.

That is the answer up front: a flush beats an ace-high straight, every time. The flush sits at #5 on the ten-hand ladder and every straight — the highest one included — sits just below at #6. Broadway is the strongest straight you can hold, yet it still folds to any flush at all.

Why the top card doesn’t rescue you

You never compare the high card across different hand categories. First you decide which category is higher on the ladder; only if both players share the same category do you look inside it. Since flush outranks straight, the matter is settled before card ranks ever come up.

That’s why a seven-high flush (7♣ 5♣ 4♣ 3♣ 2♣) still beats an ace-high straight, and a jack-high flush beats Broadway just the same. The flush being small and the straight being maximal makes no difference — category first, always.

The reason behind the ladder is rarity. Counting five-card combinations in a 52-card deck, there are 5,108 flushes against 10,200 straights. A straight is roughly twice as common, so it ranks lower, and Broadway is simply one particular straight out of those 10,200. This is the same principle covered in the general flush versus straight case — Broadway is just the toughest version of the losing side.

Reading the danger before you commit

An ace-high straight is a monster on most boards. Two textures put it at risk, and both are easy to spot:

• Three or more cards of one suit on the board. Any opponent holding two of that suit completes a flush. A Broadway made on a K♦ Q♦ J♦ board is far more vulnerable than it feels — that was exactly the trap in the hand above.
• A paired board. A pair on the board makes a full house or quads possible, and both of those also beat your straight.

On a rainbow, unpaired board like K♠ Q♦ J♥ 4♣ 2♠, no flush or full house can exist and your Broadway really is the nuts. Train yourself to check suits and pairs first.

Don’t mistake Broadway for a straight flush

An ace-high straight is not a straight flush. The difference is entirely in the suits. A♠ K♦ Q♥ J♣ 10♠ is a plain straight (#6). Make those same five cards one suit — A♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦ 10♦ — and you have a royal flush, the single best hand in poker. If your A-K-Q-J-10 happen to share a suit, you’re holding far more than a straight.

For the full mechanics of the run, see what is a straight in poker, or take the rankings to the felt in Texas Hold’em.