What Is a Royal Flush in Poker?

betmac · Feb 28, 2024

Even though related to the straight flush, the royal flush is much more valuable. It’s the ultimate straight flush you can get in poker. So, every poker player dreams of getting a royal flush – the question is why? Simple: They want it because it is unbeatable in poker.
But what is the probability of getting a royal flush? When should you draw to roal flush? Let’s jump into the answers to these and more questions right away:

What Is a Royal Flush?

A royal flush is a player’s precious hand while playing poker. Royal flushes are better than any other hands a player may make in a poker game. They are ranked as the highest hand, and the probability of drawing them from a 52-card deck is minimal.
Officially, the royal flush is called a Straight Flush, Ten-to-Ace. This means you need to have matching suits for all the five cards with this broadway straight. In a standard 52-card poker deck, there are only 4 combinations of a possible royal flush.
How rare it actually is to hit a royal flush in Hold’em? In hundreds of thousands or even millions of poker hands, the royal flush may only appear once or not at all.

How to form a Royal Flush in Holdem

There are only four ways to make a royal flush in a standard deck of fifty-two poker cards. Getting the ace-to-ten is only possible in four suits – clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Your odds of hitting a royal flush are highest once your hole cards include two broadway cards of the same suit.
Let’s say you have the king and queen of spades as a starting hand. A straight flush in this case would be formed if ten, jack and aces of spades all landed in the five community cards.

What Beats a Royal Flush?

No hand can beat a royal flush in the rankings of poker hands in a poker game. It is the best possible hand in traditional poker games like Texas Hold’em, Stud, Short Deck Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha Hi, and many others.
That is not necessarily true in games using the hi-lo split like Stud Eight or Better, Omaha Eight or Better, and other poker game variants. Here, the best qualifying low hand can get a quarter or half a share of the pot.
However, in high hand games, the royal flush is always unbeatable. For example, in Pot-Limit Omaha and Texas Hold’em, two players cannot make a royal flush using their hole cards in the same hand.
Here are some popular hands and how they fair against the royal flush:

1. Five-of-a-Kind Vs. Royal Flush

Well, this is a bit tricky. You see, the five-of-a-kind hand does not work in games using the standard 52-card deck. Good examples include the Pot-Limit Omaha and Texas Hold’em, which do not use jokers. Additionally, these games do not allow wild cards that lead to five-of-a-kind.

2. Four Aces vs Royal Flush

With four aces, you will have one of the strongest hands in a poker game. However, your hand would not beat a royal flush. Four aces are the strongest possible four-of-a-kind a poker player can make.

3. Straight Flush Vs. Royal Flush

A royal flush wins against a straight flush. However, a straight flush will beat most other strong and weak poker hands, such as four-of-a-kind, three-of-a-kind, and full house, one pair, etc. Even though straight flush hands are the best possible you can have in a game of poker, the royal flush always prevails.

The Probability of Getting a Royal Flush

A standard poker deck has 52 cards. You can draw a royal flush from any of the four suits. So, there are four ways to get a royal flush in a poker game.
By randomly drawing cards from a deck of 52 cards, there is a 0.000154 percent chance of a royal flush. That means your odds of making a royal flush is 649,739 to one.
To win a Texas Hold’em game, you should make the best possible five-card hand from seven cards (five community cards plus two-hole cards). Thus, the chances of you making a royal flush are 0.0032 percent. Your odds are 30939 to 1.
That makes hitting the royal flush extremely rare even if you’re used to multitabling while playing on your favourite online poker site. Many poker rooms have added extra jackpots in their poker rules for hitting a royal flush in games like No-Limit Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha. Check each poker room for their specific campaigns for this info to not miss out!

How to Play Royal Flush in Texas Hold’em

All poker players dream of hitting the royal flush. But the probability of getting one in Texas Hold’em is very, very low. Many players never make a royal flush for their entire poker-playing careers. If you ever get one, you can be sure you have the most superior hand on the table.
To play a royal flush and win big, you need to represent a huge bluff or let other players think they have the best hand & pour a lot of money into the pot. Ultimately, the opponents and their styles at the table will determine how you can maximize the money you win from the hand.

Examples of a Royal Flush

There are four examples of the royal flush that cover all possible combinations. These are , A♠K♠Q♠J♠T♠, A♥K♥Q♥J♥T♥, A♣K♣Q♣J♣T♣, and A♦K♦Q♦J♦T♦.
You can only make a royal flush as a ten-to-ace of a single suit. Therefore, any of the four suits is enough to make a royal flush.

When to draw to a Royal Flush

Whenever you’re drawing to a royal flush, there are more outs for you to hit weaker hands like the nut flush, a straight flush or a jack high flush. Drawing just to the royal flush is not a scenario that you need to prepare for in No-Limit Hold’em, as the case for that is so infrequent and usually requires extremely deep stacks.
With four broadway cards of the same suit, your odds of making a royal flush on the turn or the river are one in 47.

The Bottom Line

In poker, the royal flush is the ultimate hand. All players hope to make the royal flush someday. Due to its rarity, the royal flush is so powerful that you can win the game once you get to showdown with it. No one can have a better hand if you’ve hit a royal flush.

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