Getting a royal flush is the hardest hand to obtain when playing poker online or in a casino. If you’re wondering what your odds are of being dealt a royal flush and other hands, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve developed this page to equip you with all the information you need to know about your poker hand odds.

In this detailed guide about your odds of being dealt a royal flush and other hands while playing poker, we’ll provide you with tons of information. You can check out the preview below to get an idea of everything we’ll cover. Feel free to click on one of these section titles if you want to jump ahead.

Breakdown of Potential Poker Hands

Before we dive into royal flush odds and other hands, we wanted to first ensure you’ve got a good understanding of the different hands possible when playing poker. Check out the sections below to look over all the different poker hands. We’ve listed them in the order of their rank when playing the game.

No Pair

This one should be pretty obvious. In casino poker and online poker, if you don’t have a single pair or higher in your hand, you have what’s considered a “no pair” hand. In this case, your hand’s value will depend on the highest card you’ve got.

The number of possible poker hands is a combinations in probability problem. N = 52, r = 5: (n!) / (r!. (n − r)!) is how you calculate the number of groups of 5 cards in a 52 card deck. This turns out to be: 2,598,960. Since there are 4 ways to get a royal flush. The probability is 4/2,598,960. Or reduced: 1/649,740.

Up next, we wanted to provide you with royal flush odds and other poker hands when playing seven-card versions of poker. If you’re into games like Seven-Card Stud and No Limit Texas Hold’em, this is the section for you. While the addition of two extra cards to work with doesn’t sound like much to some, it creates a dramatic difference. If you stood besides this table for 100 hands, the probability of witnessing at least one royal flush is already 2.7%. Still unlikely, but not unheard of. If you stood there for 2,500 hands (or roughly 100 hours of live poker) this probability increased to almost 50%. All Important Royal Flush Probabilities. A Royal Flush is the highest possible hand in Poker and the odds are 649,739: 1 The above is true for 5 card poker, but not true for Holdem. Because there are 7 cards, the odds go way down. So - what are the odds of hitting a royal flush? In Texas Hold'em, there are a total of 2,598,960 different five card poker hands. This includes the four royal flushes (Diamonds, Spades, Clubs and Hearts). So - the odds of hitting a royal flush would be 4/2,598,960, which would work out to 1/649,740.

Single Pair

If you end up getting a one pair hand, it means you’ve got two card values that match in your hand. For example, if you have two 4s, you have a single pair of 4s. While this isn’t a powerful poker hand, it does outrank anyone who has a no pair hand.

Two Pair

Kicking things up a slight notch from a single pair would be a two pair hand. In this scenario, you have two sets of matching card values. As an example, if you have two Ks and two 10s in your hand, it would be a two pair hand. In turn, it would outrank any players with just a single pair or no pair.

Three of a Kind

As the name implies, a poker hand that counts as three of a kind has three cards of the same value. For example, if you have three jacks in your hand, this would create a three of a kind poker hand. If you end up with the three of a kind hand, you’ll have a better hand than no pair, single pair, and two pair hands.

Straight (Not Royal or Flush)

Up next on the poker hand rank scale is a straight. Here, we’re only focused on standard straights, which means we’re not counting straights that are either flush or royal in nature (more on those in a moment). To make a straight, you’ll need all five cards in your hand to be in sequential order. As an example, if you had A, 2, 3, 4, and 5, you’d have a straight poker hand.

Flush (Not Straight or Royal)

Topping out straights and the other hands below it, a flush is another form of a poker hand. With a flush, you’ll have all five cards of your poker hand of the same suit. As an example, if all five cards in your hand are spades, you have a flush. For this particular hand, your cards do not count as a straight flush or a royal flush. We’ll touch on each of those below.

Full House

The next hand up the poker hand ranking scale is a full house. To make a full house with your hand, you’ll need to have a three of a kind paired with a two of a kind. If you have three 10’s and two 5’s, you’d have a full house.

Four of a Kind

One of the toughest hands to get when playing poker is a four of a kind. Here, you’ll need to have four cards of the same value in your hand. As an example, if you had four queens in your hand, you’ll have made a four of a kind poker hand. With four of a kind, there are only two other poker hands that can beat you.

Straight Flush (Not Royal)

Second from the top of the best poker hands possible is the straight flush. The flush portion of this name implies you’ll need all your cards to be of the same suit. However, to make a straight flush, they also must be in sequential order. For example, having 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the same suit would provide you with a straight flush poker hand.

Royal Flush

The king of all poker hands is the royal flush. With a royal flush, it’s essentially a very specific straight flush. For starters, all your five cards must be the same suit. On top of that, it must be the 10, J, Q, K, and A of a particular suit to complete the royal flush.

Poker Hand Odds for Five-Card Games

Up first, we wanted to start by presenting you with your odds of being dealt a royal flush and other hands when playing five-card games of poker. Most notably, this will include Five-Card Stud Poker. We’ve included a chart below which showcases your odds of being dealt each hand in conjunction with the potential combinations and associated probability.

One thing worth noting is that the chart below showcases your odds of having one of the hands in a five-card poker game. This data does not account for any possibilities of wild cards or draws, which may be present in select games like Five-Card Draw.

Chart Labels

• Odds: The odds of being dealt the particular poker hand in a five-card game.
• Combinations: How many different ways the poker hand can be made using all 52 cards in the deck.
• Probability: The statistical probability of being dealt the hand in a five-card poker game.

As you can see from the chart above, you’ve got the highest chance of being dealt a no pair or single pair hand when playing a five-card variant of poker online or in a casino. Interestingly, there’s roughly a 50% chance you won’t have a pair or better.

However, you can see just how tough it can be to get some of the other higher-ranking poker hands. Even two pair hands only happen about 5% of the time. And if you’re hoping for a royal flush, the odds of it happening are minuscule.

Things More Likely to Happen Than Being Dealt a Royal Flush

Chance Of Flopping A Royal Flush In Texas Holdem

Since the royal flush is the hardest poker hand to achieve, we wanted to provide you with some visualizations to help you grasp just how rare it is. Check out the list of things below, which are more likely to happen to you than being dealt a royal flush when playing a five-card variant of poker.

Probability Of A Royal Flush In Texas Holdem In Texas Hold Em

Getting in a Car Accident
1 in 103

Getting Audited by the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
1 in 175

Winning an Academy Award
1 in 11,500

Losing an Appendage
in a Chainsaw-Related Accident
1 in 4,464

Going to the ER
With a Pogo Stick-Related Injury
1 in 103

Poker Hand Odds for Seven-Card Games

Up next, we wanted to provide you with royal flush odds and other poker hands when playing seven-card versions of poker. If you’re into games like Seven-Card Stud and No Limit Texas Hold’em, this is the section for you.

While the addition of two extra cards to work with doesn’t sound like much to some, it creates a dramatic difference. Instead of just 2,598,960 potential hand combinations, playing poker with seven cards brings the possibility of 133,784,560 hands. That means there are more than 50 times as many possible hand combinations thanks to those extra two cards in play!

This chart focuses on your odds of being dealt one of these hands in a game of seven-card poker. As with the previous five-card section, the poker probability and odds below do not take into account wild cards and draws from specific versions of poker.

Chart Labels

• Odds: The odds of being dealt the particular poker hand in a seven-card game.
• Combinations: How many different ways the poker hand can be made using all 52 cards in the deck.
• Probability: The statistical probability of being dealt the hand in a seven-card poker game.

Immediately, you’ll probably notice how much better your odds of getting most hands are. In the next section, we’ll provide you with even more information about how much better your chances are for each of these hands if you play a seven-card variant instead of a five-card one.

Thanks to the additional two cards, offering you the chance to make your best five-card hand, there are more potential combinations which can help you improve your starting hand.

How Much Better Your Odds Are Playing Seven-Card Poker

Now that we’ve broken down the difference in royal flush odds and other poker hands between five- and seven-card poker games, we wanted to help you visualize just how much better your odds are when playing a seven-card game. Check out the chart below to see why you might opt to choose a seven-card game if you’re hoping to land a significant hand like a royal or straight flush.

As you can see from the chart above, there’s a 2000% greater chance you’ll get a royal flush when playing a seven-card poker game instead of a five-card game. Other hands which have an increased chance of happening when you’re playing a seven-card variant of poker include the straight flush, full house, flush, and straight.

Interestingly, there’s one hand where you have a lower chance of getting it when playing a seven-card game of poker instead of a five-card game. That hand is the no pair hand. Intuitively, this makes sense since there are increased chances you’ll make at least a pair thanks to the expanded cards you’re playing with. In this case, your chance of getting a no pair hand is 65% less when playing a seven-card game as opposed to a five-card one.

Wrap Up

Thanks for stopping in to check out this page about poker probability and the odds of being dealt a royal flush when playing online poker and casino poker. If you’re planning to play poker soon, don’t miss our complete guide to real money poker. In it, you’ll find all sorts of helpful information, including terminology, strategies, and so much more.

If you enjoyed this page about the odds of getting a royal flush, you might also enjoy other pages we’ve developed in this series. Check out the choices below to explore some of our other “What Are the Odds?” pages.

I disagree with the 1 in 2.7 billion figure too. As you said, they seemed to calculate the probabilities independently for each player, for just the case where both players use both hole cards, and multiplied. Using this method I get a probability of 0.000000000341101, or about in 1 in 2.9 billion. Maybe the one in 2.7 billion also involves compounding a rounding error on both player probabilities. They also evidently forgot to multiply the probability by 2, for reasons I explain later.

There are three ways four aces could lose to a royal flush, as follows.

Case 1: One player has two to a royal flush, the other has two aces, and the board contains the other two aces, the other two cards to the royal, and any other card.

Example:

Player 1:
Player 2:
Board:

In most poker rooms, to qualify for a bad-beat jackpot, both winning and losing player must make use of both hole cards. This was also the type of bad beat in the video; in fact, these were the exact cards.

Case 2: One player has two to a royal flush (T-K), the other has one ace and a 'blank' card, and the board contains the other three aces and the other two cards to the royal.

Example:

Player 1:
Player 2:
Board:

Case 3: One player has one to a royal flush (T-K) and a blank card, the other has two aces, and the board contains the other two aces and the other three cards to the royal flush.

Example:

Player 1:
Player 2:
Board:

The following table shows the number of combinations for each case for both players and the board. The lower right cell shows the total number of combinations is 16,896.

Bad Beat Combinations

However, we could reverse the cards of the two players, and still have a bad beat. So, we should multiply the number of combinations by 2. Adjusting for that, the total qualifying combinations is 2 × 8,448 = 16,896.

Probability Of A Royal Flush In Texas Holdemlush In Texas Hold Em

The total number of all combinations in two-player Texas Hold ’Em is combin(52,2) × combin(50,2) × combin(48,5) = 2,781,381,002,400. So, the probability of a four aces losing to a royal flush is 8,448/2,781,381,002,400 = 0.0000000060747, or about 1 in 165 million. The probability of just a case 1 bad beat is 1 in 439 million. The simple reason the odds are not as long as reported in that video is that the two hands overlap, with the shared ace. In other words, the two events are positively correlated.

You are absolutely right, according to the paper Telling the Truth about New York Video Poker. The player’s outcome is indeed predestined. Regardless of what cards the player keeps, he can not avoid his fate. If the player tries to deliberately avoid his fate, the game will make use of a guardian angel feature to correct the player's mistake. I completely agree with the author that such games should warn the player that they are not playing real video poker, and the pay table is a meaningless measure of the player's actual odds. It also also be noted these kinds of fake video poker machines are not confined to New York.

Mini Royal: 50 to 1
Straight flush: 40 to 1
Three of a kind: 30 to 1
Straight: 6 to 1
Flush: 4 to 1
Pair: 1 to 1

I am curious how it impacts the overall house edge.

That is not bad for a side bet. I show the house edge is 2.14%.

The probability of an event with probability p happening x times, out of a possible n, is combin(n,x) × p^x × (1-p)^(n-x). In this case, p=4/9, x=4, and n=20. Here is the probability for all possible number of number of field rolls out of 20:

Bad Beat Combinations

Taking the sum for 0 to 4, the probability is 2.12%. So, this could have easily happened in a fair game.

You’re welcome. If there are only two pirates left, then the one chosen to make a suggestion has no hope, because the other pirate will vote no. The one drawn will get zero, and the other all 1000. So, before the draw, the expected value with two pirates left is 500 coins.

Probability Of A Royal Flush In Texas Holdemas Hold Em

At the three pirate stage, the drawn pirate should suggest giving one of the other pirates 501, and 499 to himself. The one getting 501 will vote yes, because it is more than the expected value of 500 by voting no. Before the draw, with three pirates left, you have a 1/3 chance each of getting 0, 499, or 501 coins, for an average of 333.33.

At the four pirate stage the drawn pirate should choose to give 334 to any two of the other pirates, and 332 to himself. That will get him two ’yes’ votes from the pirates getting 334 coins, because they would rather have 334 than 333.33. Including your own vote, you will have 3 out of 4 votes. Before the draw, the expected value for each pirate is the average of 0, 334, 334, and 332, or 1000/4=250.

By the same logic, at the five pirate stage, the drawn pirate should choose to give 251 to any two pirates, and 498 to himself. Unlike the original problem, it isn’t necessary to work backwards. Just divide the number of coins by the number of pirates, not including yourself. Then give half of them (rounding down) that average, plus one more coin.