What Beats a Full House in Poker?

Three hands beat a full house: four of a kind, a straight flush and a royal flush. Everything else — flushes, straights, three of a kind and below — loses to it.

A full house is three cards of one rank plus two of another, such as K♠ K♥ K♦ 7♣ 7♠ (“kings full of sevens”).

The hands above a full house

Hand	Example	Chance in Hold’em (7 cards)
Royal flush	A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ T♠	0.003%
Straight flush	9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥	0.028%
Four of a kind	Q♣ Q♦ Q♥ Q♠ 4♦	0.17%
Full house	K♠ K♥ K♦ 7♣ 7♠	2.60%

You’ll make a full house about once every 38 hands you play to the river. Four of a kind is about 15 times rarer.

Full house vs full house

When two players both have a full house:

1. Compare the three-of-a-kind part first. Kings full of twos (K-K-K-2-2) beats queens full of aces (Q-Q-Q-A-A).
2. If those are the same — possible when the three are on the board — compare the pair. On a board of 8♠ 8♦ 8♥ K♣ 4♠, a player holding A-A has eights full of aces, and beats a player holding K-x, who has eights full of kings.
3. If both parts match, it’s a split pot.

Trips on board: watch out

If the board has three of a kind, everyone at the table has at least three of a kind, and a full house is easy to make — any pocket pair or any card pairing the other board cards does it. Don’t overvalue a small full house on those boards.

Related

• Poker hand rankings
• Does a flush beat a straight?
• Kicker rules

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