Important Poker Strategies For Flush Poker And Straight Poker

One of the first things that you need to master if you intend to be fascinated by the various poker game variants is the poker hand rankings. These are nothing but the best possible poker hand combinations that can help you to win the pot against other players. The top 10 poker hand rankings include royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair, and high card, in that order.

Your poker strategy to win more games will revolve around how well you understand these hand rankings and can use them during real game time. Remember that getting some of the favourable cards to form these combinations might depend on luck, but how smartly you can form the best possible hand combination depends on your skills. In this article, let us develop a better understanding of the fifth and sixth-best poker hand ranking.

Flush Poker

You will have a flush poker when all the five cards you hold, belong to the same suit. These need not be in consecutive order or sequence. For example, a combination of Ace, Jack, 9, 7, and 6 of spades is a flush poker combination. If these cards of the same suit are of consecutive order, then it becomes a straight flush. And if this straight flush is the highest possible one, then it becomes a royal flush.

Coming back to flush poker, which is the fifth strongest poker hand ranking or sequence, the order of the cards is non-consecutive. There are around 5108 possible combinations of flush rankings in a 52-card deck. If more players hold a flush poker sequence, then the winner amongst them is the one whose highest card is greater. If even their highest card is the same, then their second-highest card is compared.

While this is an intense sequence, you cannot be entirely sure to win the pot with a flush poker hand. You need to depend on the odds and the implied odds, along with the playing style of your opponent players. During the earlier betting rounds, you may aim to go aggressive and get as many players to fold as possible to increase your chances of winning the pot with a flush draw. However, if you are against players who may not fold easily or are aggressive till later stages, you may decide to take a careful approach by doing a ‘check’ or ‘call.’ You may not want to add a lot of money in the pot when you are not sure of your chances of winning.

Straight Poker

In straight poker, you hold five cards in consecutive order, but which belong to different suits. When you hold such a poker hand combination of the same suit, it will result in a much higher hand ranking (straight flush). In case of a tie, the same conditions for high cards apply as in case of flush poker. When the highest card is Ace, the straight poker sequence is known as the ‘broadway’ as it is the highest possible straight poker combination.

There are around 10,200 possibilities of straight poker sequence in a 52-card deck. Your approach or strategy to play this combination can be pretty like the one discussed above for flush poker, as both these hand rankings are one below the other.

You will get better at using better poker tricks to play with hand rankings like flush poker and straight poker, which are not the strongest but are strong enough to beat several hands at the poker table. Your style of play needs to be adopted based on the opponents, stage of the poker game, and even your table position.