Pokeriad / Learn / Royal flush
What is a royal flush in poker?
Updated November 2026
A royal flush is the ace, king, queen, jack and ten of one suit, and it's the best hand in poker. There are only four of them, one for each suit, and nothing beats one.
Most players go years between them. Dealt five cards, you'd see one 1 time in 649,740.
| Cards | A K Q J 10, one suit |
|---|---|
| Rank | 1st of 10 hands |
| Dealt five cards | 1 in 649,740 |
| By the river | 1 in 30,940 |
| Starting hands using both cards | 40 of 1,326 |
The only four
What counts as a royal flush?
All five cards have to be there and all five have to share a suit. Change one suit and you're left with a straight. Swap the jack for a nine and you have a flush.
The order you're dealt them in makes no difference, and in Hold'em you can use both hole cards, one, or none.
Close doesn't count
How rare is it?
With five cards dealt, 4 hands out of 2,598,960 are royal flushes. In Hold'em you get seven cards to choose from, so it jumps to 1 time in 30,940, and that's if you stay in every hand until the river.
Playing 30 hands an hour live and seeing every river, you'd wait about 1,031 hours on average. You'll fold most hands, so your real wait is longer. Our page on royal flush odds has the numbers for other games.
One royal flush every
Which starting hands make one most often?
Two cards from ten through ace in the same suit, so that both of them play. That's 40 of the 1,326 possible starting hands, about 3 in 100. Holding one, the three cards you need arrive on the flop 1 time in 19,600, and by the river 1 time in 1,960.
- Ace-king suitedThe hand most people picture.
- Queen-ten suitedIt counts just the same, needing the ace, king and jack.
- Ace-queen offsuitOnly one card can play, so the other four have to land on the board.
Can two players have a royal flush at once?
In Hold'em, only when all five cards are on the board, and then everyone left in the hand splits the pot. Suits have no rank, so no royal flush is better than another. Two different royal flushes can't happen in one hand, since the board would need three cards of two suits.
Can you tell which hand wins?
Twelve spots in three rounds.
Questions players ask
Is a royal flush just a straight flush?
Yes. It's the highest straight flush possible, and it has its own name because nothing else ranks with it.
Does the suit matter?
No. A royal flush in spades and one in clubs are equal.
Is it the best hand in every kind of poker?
In games where the high hand wins, yes. Lowball games such as Razz reward the lowest hand, so the ranking works differently there.
How the numbers on this page were worked out
We counted all 2,598,960 possible five-card hands and all 133,784,560 seven-card deals. The totals match the published tables on Wikipedia's poker probability page. "By the river" assumes you stay in until all five community cards are out, and in a real game you fold most hands long before that.
Know someone who's still waiting for one?
Send them this page.