A full house hand is one of the best possibilities in the ranking of poker hands, and it is basically a combination of a Three-of-a-Kind and a Pair using your cards and those on the table.
Knowing how to play with it and anticipate its occurrence, making the best decision based on what the other players are doing, is a must for a professional player. In this article, we hope to make it easier for you when playing poker!
How to Play With a Full House in Poker?
In order to play and win with a full house in poker, you need to understand that it is not invincible. It can still lose to Four-of-a-Kind, Straight Flush, Royal Flush, and, of course, Full House hands that include higher cards.
More importantly, you are probably going to figure out your Full House starting from the flop round. If you are not aware of how poker rounds are structured, check out our basic poker rules guide.
When you are certain or almost certain of a full house, there are different ways to approach it. First of all, you need to consider the relevance of your full house poker hand. Given that a full house is not too uncommon, you should at least guarantee yours could beat the other players.
Also, in Texas Hold’em, your full house needs to include a Pair from the board (community cards). In that case, keep in mind that it may open the way for a Four-of-a-Kind, which is a superior hand.
What Beats a Full House?
The poker ranking below identifies where the full house lies in the comparison of the strongest combinations. It is easy to understand that even the weakest Four-of-a-Kind beats any full house and that the strongest Flush can never beat a full house. Everything above it is a guaranteed loss, and the rankings below the full house in the table below are beaten by it.
| Rank | Name | Example | Composition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Flush | 10♣, J♣, Q♣, K♣, A♣ | The sequence 10, J, Q, K, and A of the same suit. |
| 2 | Straight Flush | 3♥, 4♥, 5♥, 6♥, 7♥ | A sequence of five cards of the same suit. |
| 3 | Four of a Kind | 3♥, 3♦, 3♣, 3♠, 7♠ | The same number or letter in four cards. |
| 4 | Full House | K♠, K♥, K♣, Q♠, Q♥ | The combination of a Three of a Kind and a Pair in the same hand. |
| 5 | Flush | 4♣, 5♣, 7♣, 9♣, 10♣ | Five cards of the same suit in any order. |
| 6 | Straight | 3♦, 4♣, 5♦, 6♥, 7♥ | A sequence of five cards of any suit. |
| 7 | Three of a Kind | 3♥, 3♦, 3♣ | Three cards of the same number or letter |
| 8 | Two Pair | 4♥, 4♦, J♥, J♦ | Two pairs of cards. |
| 9 | Pair | Q♦, Q♣ | Two cards of the same number or letter. |
| 10 | High Card | J♣ | The highest card in your hand. |
Poker Full House Odds
Knowing what a full house in poker is and how to plan your win with it is great, but only if you manage to be lucky enough to get the right cards. That makes us wonder about the probabilities and odds of forming a full house poker hand.
We separated the probability for each stage of poker, starting with Texas Hold’em:
| Stage | Probability | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-Flop | 0.14% | Drawing 5 cards that constitute a Three-of-a-Kind and a Pair. |
| Flop | 0.09% | Holding Three-of-a-Kind in your hand and finding a pair in the community cards (board). |
| Turn | 12.77% | Finding the last necessary card in the Turn stage. |
| River | 19.57% | Finding the last necessary card in the River stage. |
It is also valid to understand the different probabilities in another variation, Omaha Poker:
| Stage | Probability | How Does It Occur? |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-Flop | 0.14% | Drawing 5 cards that constitute a Three-of-a-Kind and a Pair. |
| Flop | 0.65% | Holding Three-of-a-Kind in your hand and finding a pair in the community cards (board). |
| Turn | 13.33% | Holding Three-of-a-Kind in your hand and finding a pair in the community cards (board). |
| River | 20.45% | Holding Three-of-a-Kind in your hand and finding a pair in the community cards (board). |
Now you hold all the knowledge you need to know what to do with a full house in poker. Choose the variation that you find the most fun, and remember that, even though poker is a game of skill, your combinations rely on luck alone like a game of chance would.
FAQs
In the case of a tie, it can be broken by comparing who has the Three-of-a-Kind with the highest card, and if it is also the same, the Pair is compared.
A straight flush is much higher than a full house, occupying the 2nd place in poker hand rankings.
There are 3,744 different ways of reaching a full house hand in poker, with an average probability of 2.60%.
