How to Play High Card Flush
What Is High Card Flush?
High Card Flush is a poker variation that first started circulating across the USA casinos several years ago (around 2011), increasing in popularity after being introduced at the M Resort in Las Vegas. The game is a registered trademark of Galaxy Gaming Inc and has a structure similar to Caribbean Stud and Three Card Poker, but it employs a different hand-ranking.
What is a Flush?
There are three types of Flush hands in poker.
- Flush
- Straight Flush
- Royal Flush
Out of the 3, Flush has the lowest rank, and it consists of any 5 cards that have the same suit.
The Straight Flush hand is stronger, as it has 5 cards that are both suited and sequential, for example, suited Q-J-10-9-8. This would be called a Queen high straight flush.
The Royal Flush or Royal Straight Flush is the Ace high straight flush and the highest-ranking poker hand: A-K-Q-J-10.
Ah, the Royal Flush. Best damn poker hand you’re ever going to come across!
How to Play High Card Flush – Basic Rules and Table Layout
The rules are fairly simple. Unlike the Texas Hold’em where you must measure your hand against multiple opponents, you only have one rival in High Card Flush, and that’s the dealer. The session starts with the Ante bet, followed by the optional side bets: Flush Bonus and Straight Flush Bonus.
The dealer will then draw 7 cards for the players and 7 more for the house, placing them on the table face down. The objective is to land as many suited cards as possible – preferably all 7.
Once the cards are revealed, you will have the option to fold the hand and lose your Ante or proceed to stage 2 of the game and raise the bet.
The amount that can be added to your Ante will depend on the number of suited cards:
- Flush with 2 – 4 cards: x1 bet increase
- Flush with 5 cards: up to x2 bet increase
- Flush with 6 – 7 cards: up to x3 bet increase
The dealer will then reveal his hand and the bets will be settled accordingly. To qualify, the dealer must have a 3-card flush with at least one 9 (or higher card), otherwise, you will receive a payout on your Ante and the raise bet will push.
If both you and the dealer have the same number of suited cards, the rank of the cards will determine the winner. The flush hands of the same rank will be resolved as a tie.
Bonus Bets
Bonus bets are resolved independently from the Ante (1:1) and settled according to the different payout tables:
Flush Bonus:
- 4 cards: even pay
- 5 cards: 10:1
- 6 cards: 100:1
- 7 cards: 300:1
Straight Flush Bonus:
- 3 cards: 7:1
- 4 cards: 60:1
- 5 cards: 100:1
- 6 cards: 1,000:1
- 7 cards: 8,000:1
The players are allowed to play the flush hands separately, which means that if you hold a 4-card heart flush and a 3-card spade straight flush in a single hand, you can challenge the dealer with the 4-card flush, and win the Straight Flush Bonus bet on the 3-card spade straight flush hand at the same time.
High Card Flush Tips and Strategies
The High Card Flush strategy is extremely simple. According to the Charles Mousseau system, you should always raise on 10-8-6 or higher hand, betting the maximum stake. This will reduce the house edge to 0.6%.
For instance, if you decide to use this strategy, you would raise on J-3-2 but fold on 10-7-5.
There is also a more advanced strategy, primarily based on the ranking of the cards forming the flush:
- Raise on J-3-2 to A-K-Q
- Consider the non-suited cards on 10-3-2 to 10-9-8
- Fold on 4-3-2 to 9-8-7
If we were to compare the strategy for two hands that have the same 10-8-6 flush but different non-suited cards, we would find that the expected value or the average return on a dollar bet could, theoretically, be quite different:
- 10-8-6 (hearts) with J of spades, A of diamonds, Q of diamonds, and J of clubs – Call
- 10-8-6 (hearts) with 7, 4, and 2 of diamonds and 9 of clubs – Fold
The reason you should raise on the first hand is that the presence of high cards in your hand automatically reduces the potential value of the dealer’s hand.
In the second hand, the low cards weaken the 10-high flush, increasing the dealer’s chances of beating you with a higher-ranking flush combo.
Following the Charles Mousseau system, you would think for a split second to raise. Nope, nope nope. They’re nice and all, but not suited.
Finally, most players will advise you to simply avoid folding (if your budget can take it) and take a chance – losing hands are inevitable at times but taking a risk is what poker is all about, right?
Conclusion, and Where to Now?
As you can see from this article, there really isn’t a ton to High Card Flush. Just a couple easy to remember rules and you’ll be good to go, ready to clean up the tables yourself!
Speaking of cleaning up the tables…
We will only send you to sites where if you do win, you will get paid!
That is to say, we will only send you off to sites and casinos that are actually trustworthy, that we use ourselves, and have earned the respect of gamers everywhere. Keep that in mind while we tell you this.
None of the sites we support and back up offer High Card Flush.
Well, not at the time of this writing anyway. As soon as any of them do, we will update this immediately. We just want to make sure that if you run off and do your own thing and play this game ‘somewhere else’, that you’re still ready to go and have a good strategy under your belt and that you’re ready to go.
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Bovada
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Ignition
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MyBookie
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Don’t Go to Far Without Also Taking a Look At Some More in our Series of “How To”s –
