How Many Cards Make a Flush in Poker?

A flush is exactly five cards of the same suit. Not four, not six — five. Those five cards can be any ranks, in any order, as long as every one shares the same suit (all hearts, all spades, all diamonds, or all clubs). Four suited cards is only a flush draw, one card short of the real thing.

The exact answer: five same-suit cards

A made flush requires five cards of one suit. For example:

• K♦ J♦ 9♦ 6♦ 3♦ — five diamonds. That’s a flush.
• A♠ Q♠ 8♠ 4♠ — only four spades. That’s a flush draw, not a flush. It wins nothing on its own; you need a fifth spade.

The ranks are irrelevant to whether you have a flush — they only matter for comparing two flushes. What makes it a flush is simply five matching suits. For the complete ruleset, see poker flush rules.

How a five-card flush comes from seven cards in Hold’em

Texas Hold’em can confuse the count. You’re dealt two hole cards and share five community cards — seven total — but your hand is still only your best five. To make a flush, at least five of those seven cards must share a suit.

The board reads A♥ 9♥ 4♥ K♠ 2♣ and you hold Q♥ 7♥.

• Your seven cards contain five hearts: A♥ Q♥ 9♥ 7♥ 4♥.
• Your best five-card hand is that ace-high heart flush.

You used both hole cards plus three from the board. Only five cards form the hand; the other two (the K♠ and 2♣) are simply discarded from the final five. This is why a poker hand is always five cards even when you can see seven.

Why the suits alone decide it

A flush cares only about suits matching; the ranks don’t need to connect. That sets it apart from a straight (five consecutive ranks, suits mixed) and from a straight flush (five suited cards that are also consecutive). Add a rank sequence to a flush and it jumps way up the ladder — see flush vs straight flush.

When two players each have a flush, you compare the five cards by rank, highest first, so ranks matter then — but for the question of whether you have a flush at all, only the count of matching suits does.

How rare is a five-card flush?

Out of 2,598,960 possible five-card poker hands, flushes are uncommon but not rare:

You’ll be dealt a flush about once in every 509 hands off the top of the deck — roughly half as often as a straight, which is exactly why a flush ranks above a straight. See does a flush beat a straight for that matchup in detail.

Flushes across different poker games

The five-card count never changes, but the number of cards you choose from varies by game:

• Texas Hold’em: two hole cards plus five community cards (seven total). Any five same-suit cards among them make your flush.
• Omaha: four hole cards plus five community cards, but you must use exactly two hole cards. So a flush requires two suited hole cards matching three suited board cards — having four of one suit in your hand does not help you make a flush by itself.
• Seven-card stud: seven cards dealt to you individually; your best five same-suit cards form the flush.
• Five-card draw: you hold five cards, so a flush means all five you’re holding share a suit.

In every case, the made hand is five suited cards. Omaha’s “use exactly two” rule is the one that trips people up — a common misread when learning the game.

Quick answers to related counts

• Cards in a poker hand: always five, in every poker game.
• Cards to make a flush: five of the same suit.
• Four suited cards: a flush draw, not a made flush.
• Cards you see in Hold’em: up to seven (two hole + five board), but only your best five count.
• Ranks needed: none in particular — any five ranks work, as long as the suits match.

Bottom line

A flush is five cards of the same suit — and a poker hand is five cards, period. Four suited cards is just a draw. In seven-card games you build your best five from what you see, and any five matching suits make the flush. Learn the full ruleset at poker flush rules, see where it lands on the hand rankings hub, and put it into play at the Texas Hold’em tables.