Green’s Dictionary of Slang

of a person or a situation, a failure, a disappointment.

1909		‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 97: The precarious busted flush.
1916		J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 250: Git your own cold scraps like you was used to before I starts cookin’ for you, you busted fourflush.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 70: Poker’s ‘a busted flush’ pictured plan gone awry.
1938		R. Chandler ‘King in Yellow’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 69: To be inconspicuous in this town is to be a busted flush.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 33: Gertie says Morny took it over from a busted flush named Arthur Blake Popham.
2000		Sun. Times 6 Feb. 1: ‘Mo is a busted flush,’ he said.
2006		Sun. Herald (Glasgow) 30 Apr. 🌐 Whatever, do not wait up. Vote unashamedly for the Z-z-z Factor. When you wake up, the chances are The Burst Sofa will have become a busted flush.
2023		M. Herron Secret Hours 119: The other possibility was Anthony Sparrow, but Sparrow was a busted flush.