How to Make a Flush in Texas Hold'em
To make a flush you need five cards of one suit. Here's how to build one in Texas Hold'em, the flush-draw odds, and a worked example.
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To make a flush you need five cards of the same suit. In Texas Hold’em you build it from your two hole cards plus the five community cards, so any five of those seven that share a suit — hearts, diamonds, clubs, or spades — give you a flush. The cards don’t have to be in order; five of one suit is all it takes. If they are in sequence, you’ve made the stronger straight flush instead.
The main ways to make a flush
In Hold’em, flushes come together a few standard ways:
- Two suited hole cards + three on the board — the classic route. You hold
A♥ 9♥and three more hearts appear. - One suited hole card + four on the board — you hold
K♣and four clubs land. Careful: everyone shares those four clubs. - Five suited cards entirely on the board — anyone in the hand plays the board flush; whoever holds the highest matching card of that suit wins.
The strongest and safest is the two-suited-cards route, because it’s the hardest for opponents to read and gives you the best chance at the nut flush. For the exact card count and rules, see how many cards in a flush.
The flush-draw odds
Say you hold two suited cards and the flop gives you two more of that suit — you have four to a flush, needing one of the remaining nine cards of your suit (the “outs”). Here’s how likely you are to complete it:
| Situation | Chance to make the flush |
|---|---|
| On the turn only (one card to come) | 9 in 47 ≈ 19.1% |
| On the river only (missed the turn) | 9 in 46 ≈ 19.6% |
| Flop to river (two cards to come) | ≈ 35.0% |
The two-cards-to-come figure comes from 1 − (38/47 × 37/46) ≈ 0.350. So a flopped flush draw completes roughly 35% of the time — about a 2-to-1 underdog. Learn to turn these into decisions at the odds and math hub.
A worked example
You hold Q♦ 8♦. The flop is K♦ 6♦ 2♠.
- You have four diamonds and need a fifth. Nine diamonds remain in the deck (13 total − 4 seen), so you have nine outs.
- The turn is
9♣— no diamond, no flush yet. Now one card is left, and you’re about 19.6% to hit. - The river is
4♦→ your best five:K♦ Q♦ 8♦ 6♦ 4♦= king-high flush. You made it.
Had a diamond come on the turn or river, you’d complete — which is why the combined chance across both streets is about 35%, not 19%.
How rare is a flush?
Dealt at random in five cards, a plain flush shows up only 5,108 times out of 2,598,960 hands — about 1 in 509. That rarity is why a flush beats a straight, three of a kind, two pair, and a pair. It loses only to a full house, quads, and the straight-flush family. Hold’em improves your practical odds because you see seven cards instead of five, but the flush stays a premium holding.
The nut flush and why suit choice matters
Not all flushes are equal. When two players both make a flush, the one with the highest card wins — so the “nut flush” (the ace-high flush of that suit) beats every other flush on the board. This is why starting with suited cards that include an ace or king is so valuable: if you complete, you’re likely holding the best flush, not the second-best. Getting your whole stack in with a jack-high flush against an opponent’s ace-high flush is one of the most expensive mistakes in the game.
If your suited hole cards are small — say 6♣ 4♣ — you can still make a flush, but treat it with caution. On a three-club board, a bigger club in someone else’s hand outranks you, and you may be drawing to second best without realizing it.
Flush vs straight flush
One more distinction: if your five suited cards also happen to run in sequence, you don’t have a flush — you have a straight flush, a far rarer and stronger hand that beats four of a kind. For example, 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ is a straight flush, not a plain flush. It’s a happy accident, but worth recognizing so you don’t undervalue it. A plain flush, by contrast, is any five of a suit with the ranks scattered.
Putting it together
To make a flush: get five cards of one suit across your seven available cards, favor suited hole cards with a high card for nut potential, and price your draws against the roughly 35% chance of completing from the flop. Do those three things and the flush becomes one of the most reliably profitable hands you can chase.
Bottom line
Making a flush means gathering five cards of one suit, and in Texas Hold’em the reliable path is two suited hole cards catching three more on the board. A flopped flush draw completes about 35% of the time by the river, so play it by the price you’re getting. Keep sharpening the fundamentals at the hand rankings hub, review the flush rules, and run the numbers at the odds and math hub.
Frequently asked
How do you make a flush in Texas Hold'em?
You need five cards of the same suit among your two hole cards and the five community cards. The most common way is holding two suited cards and catching three more of that suit on the board.
How many cards do you need for a flush?
Exactly five, all of the same suit. They don't need to be in sequence — if they are, it's the stronger straight flush instead.
What are the odds of completing a flush draw?
With a flush draw after the flop (four to a suit, nine outs), you complete it by the river about 35% of the time — roughly a 2-to-1 underdog.
Can you make a flush with one hole card?
Yes. If four of your suit are on the board, one matching hole card makes a five-card flush. But beware — opponents can use the same four board cards.