Why does a flush beat a straight?

[Stile2]

The probability of dealing five cards and making a flush is .0019807 and the probability of dealing five cards and making a straight of .000085367.

If you have four to a flush then you have 9 outs.

If you have four to a open ended staight then you have 8 outs, gut shot straight then you only have 4 outs.

So why does a flush beat a straight?

[Gullanian]

You have 7 cards in poker hands usually. So with 7 cards, a straight is more likely than a flush.

[dkgojackets]

Where are you getting your numbers from?

Try

http://www.poker1.com/mcu/tables/Table12.asp

[jesse8888]

[ QUOTE ]
The probability of dealing five cards and making a flush is .0019807 and the probability of dealing five cards and making a straight of .000085367.

[/ QUOTE ]

This can't be right. Without doing any actual math, the odds of making a straight with just 5 cards must be higher than this. The probability given here is less than 1 in 10,000, which would mean you'd flop a straight like once every 300 hours of live play.

[_D&L_]

In order from lowest hand to highest (hi-card, 1 pair, 2 pair, 3 kind, straight, flush, full house, four kind, to straight flush).

23294460 - hi card
58627800 - pair
31433400 - 2 pair
6461620 - 3 of a kind
6180020 - Straight
4047644 - Flush
3473184 - Full House
224848 - 4 of a kind
41584 - Straight Flush


As you see straights are more frequent than flushes. That's not even including the fact that if you have both a straight and a flush, but not a straight flush, its counted as a flush hand. E.g. (Ts 9s 8s 7s 6h 2s 3d) - is a flush, Ten high.

----Dirty_&_Litigious----