What Are the Rules for a Straight in Poker?

A straight is a poker hand that contains five cards in sequence, but not all of the same suit. For example, a hand with the cards 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 would be a straight.

The hand with the cards 7, 8, 9, 10, and J would also be a straight. However, the hand with the cards 2, 3, 4, 5, and J would not be a straight because the suits are not all the same.

The highest possible straight is called a royal flush and it consists of the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of one suit. The next highest straight is called a straight flush and it consists of any five cards in sequence of the same suit.

For example, the hand with the cards 7, 8, 9, 10, and J of clubs would be a straight flush.

Straights are ranked by their highest card. So in our first example above (2-6), the 6 is the highest card and therefore this is the Lowest possible straight. In our second example (7-J), the Jack is the highest card and this is therefore a higher ranking straight.

PRO TIP:In poker, a straight is a hand consisting of five cards in sequence, but not all of the same suit. To qualify as a straight, the cards must be in numerical order (for example 5-6-7-8-9). The Ace can be used as either the high card or the low card, but it cannot “wrap around” (for example, Queen-King-Ace-2-3 is not a valid straight).

The Ace can be high or low in a straight but it can never “wrap around”. This means that an Ace-high straight (A-5) is always higher than a King-high straight (K-Q-J-10-9) but lower than a Five-high Straight (5-4-3-2-A).

There are no “rules” for making a Straight in poker as such – if you have five cards in sequence then you have a Straight regardless of what else is going on in your hand or on the board. However, there are some strategic considerations to bear in mind when you are making this type of hand.

Firstly, it is important to remember that Straights are often only going to be good enough to win half of the pot so you need to make sure that you are getting good pot odds before committing too many chips to the pot. Secondly, if there are two or more people competing for the same Straight then it is often worth considering how likely it is that one of your opponents will make their hand too.

If you think there is a good chance that someone has a better Straight than you then it might be wise to fold your hand rather than risk losing your entire stack.

In conclusion then, while there are no hard and fast rules for making a Straight in poker it is important to bear in mind some basic strategy considerations in order to give yourself the best chance of success.