Suit
A suit is one of the four card groups in a deck: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. In Texas Hold'em suits are never ranked; they only matter for flushes.
A suit is one of the four groups that make up a standard 52-card deck: spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (♣). Each suit contains thirteen cards, from the deuce up to the ace. In Texas Hold'em, a card's suit has exactly one job: deciding whether five cards of the same suit form a flush. Outside of flushes and straight flushes, suits are irrelevant to who wins the pot.
Suits are not ranked in Hold'em
The single most common beginner misconception is that spades beat hearts, or that some suit order breaks ties. In standard Texas Hold'em that is never true. If two players hold the same five-card hand, the pot is divided as a split pot. Two flushes are compared by their highest card, then the next highest, and so on, never by suit. Some home games and card rooms use a suit order for unrelated purposes, such as drawing for the dealer button or deciding who receives an odd chip, but that has nothing to do with hand strength.
When suits actually matter
- Flushes and straight flushes. Five cards of one suit make a flush; five consecutive cards of one suit make a straight flush.
- Suited starting hands. When your two hole cards share a suit, such as K♥ J♥, you have extra ways to win. Roughly 23.5% of starting hands are suited (4 out of every 17), and being suited adds a few percentage points of equity compared with the same ranks offsuit.
- Board texture. A flop like 9♠ 7♠ 2♦ is called two-tone and makes a flush draw possible. A flop like 9♠ 7♠ 2♠ is monotone, meaning a flush is already possible. A flop with three different suits is called a rainbow.
Example hand
You hold A♦ Q♦ and your opponent holds K♠ K♣. The board runs J♦ 8♦ 3♣ 5♠ 2♦. Your opponent made a pair of kings, but you hold five diamonds: A♦ Q♦ J♦ 8♦ 2♦. Your ace-high flush wins. Now imagine the board had been J♦ 8♦ 3♣ 5♠ 2♥ instead: you would have only four diamonds, so your suit would be useless and the kings would take the pot.
Common mistakes with suits
- Overvaluing suitedness. A hand like 9♣ 3♣ is still weak. Being suited does not turn a poor hand into a playable one.
- Ignoring flush blockers. Holding the A♠ on a board with three spades means no opponent can have the ace-high flush, which affects how you bet and bluff.
- Forgetting the board can make the flush. If all five board cards are hearts, everyone has at least that flush, and only a player with a higher heart improves on it.
Once suits make sense, move on to the full hand rankings to see exactly where a flush sits in the order of hands.
Frequently asked questions
Are suits ranked in poker?
Not in Texas Hold'em. All four suits are equal, and identical hands split the pot rather than being decided by suit.
What is the order of suits in poker?
Standard Hold'em has no suit order for hand strength. Some games use an alphabetical order (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades) only for side tasks like assigning the dealer button.
Does a spade flush beat a heart flush?
No. Flushes are compared by the rank of their cards, starting with the highest. If all five ranks match, the pot is split.
Related poker terms
- Flush — A flush is five cards of the same suit in any order. It beats a straight and loses to a full house, and flushes are compared by their highest card.
- Flush Draw — A flush draw is four cards of one suit needing one more to make a flush. It has 9 outs: about 35% to hit by the river from the flop.
- Hand Rankings — Poker hand rankings list the ten five-card hands from royal flush down to high card. A rarer hand always beats a more common one.
- Suited Connectors — Suited connectors are starting hands with two consecutive ranks of the same suit, such as 8♥ 7♥. They make straights and flushes but rarely strong pairs.
- Split Pot — A split pot happens when two or more players tie with the same best five-card hand at showdown, so the pot is divided equally between them.