What Are the Odds of a Royal Flush in Texas Holdem?

The odds of hitting a royal flush in Texas Holdem are very slim, and they don’t get much better in other poker variants. In this article, I provide the exact numbers for Texas Holdem, Omaha Poker, 7-Card Stud, 5-Card Draw, or several popular video poker versions.

Let’s dive into the odds of getting royal flush in Texas Holdem, and how they compare to other popular poker games.

Odds of a Royal Flush in Texas Holdem

The odds of hitting a royal flush in Texas Holdem is 1 in 30,940 if you are still around to see the river. This equates to an overall probability of 0.00323% in Texas Holdem.

In comparison to the 1 in millions chance of hitting the Megabucks jackpot, a royal flush doesn’t look that out of reach. In any event, don’t expect to be dealt a royal flush often when playing at the top online poker sites or at your favorite in-person casinos.

On the bright side, a regular straight flush comes with a 1 in 3,590 chance, so you should see these if you play enough hands,

What Are the Odds of Flopping a Royal Flush

The odds of flopping a royal flush are even worse: a 1 in 649,740 chance at a royal flush after the first three community cards.

There are only four possible chances for a royal flush out of 2,598,960 combinations, hence the long odds of flopping a royal flush in Texas Holdem.

Royal Flush Odds in Other Poker Games

The odds of a royal flush hitting in any popular poker game are long, if you’re playing against other people.

But if you think those odds are long, they’re quite short when compared to how rare it is to hit a royal flush in casino poker games like Caribbean Stud at the top real money online casinos. Here’s a complete breakdown of the most popular options:

In short, it will be tougher for a royal flush to be dealt in poker games that have fewer cards for hands. As you can see above, the odds of a royal flush in 5-Card Draw are more difficult than Texas Holdem.

The same royal flush odds are true for 5-Card Draw and 5-Card Stud.

Moreover, the same mathematical probability is applied to video poker and Caribbean Stud Poker for the theoretical royal flush odds.

Players are dealt five cards in video poker and Caribbean Stud Poker. Therefore, the odds of a royal flush will remain the same at 1 in 649,740, or translated to a percentage 0.000154%.

Additionally, Let It Ride Poker includes a five-card poker hand, so the royal flush odds remain the same at 0.000154%. 

Odds of Royal Flush in Video Poker

Royal flush odds extend even longer in popular video poker games when compared to Texas Holdem. Most video poker variants see the odds of getting a royal flush at 1 in over 40,000 hands.

However, some video poker games feature wilds, such as Joker Poker, where there could be 1 or 2 jokers used as wild cards.

Other games, like Deuces Wild, allow the deuces (2s) to be used as wild cards. Both variations of video poker create additional opportunities to make strong hands. Therefore, in these games, the odds of getting a royal flush are substantially better.

However, the payouts for a royal flush that uses wilds are much lower as well.

Ready to Try and Hit a Royal Flush?

The odds of getting a royal flush are long, no matter the poker game you’re playing. With the odds of a royal flush being just 1/30,940 in Texas Hold’em and worse in other games, it won’t be easy. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to hit this big-paying hand.

If you’re up for the challenge of landing your first royal flush, we recommend checking out Bovada. The poker site serves up a solid welcome bonus to new players for up to $1,000, plenty of cool formats, and fairly soft opponents.

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