Have you been playing poker for a while? Well, you would already be familiar with poker hands rankings that help you to determine the strength of the hand that you possess. There is a long list of such hands, and ‘full house’ is one such hand that is quite powerful. But how powerful is the full house in poker?

To put things in perspective, there are just two other possible hands, straight flush, and four-of-a-kind, that can beat a 'full house'. So, it is very powerful and can help you win bets/games in different poker variations.

So, what exactly does the full house in poker indicate? How can you identify full house cards while playing poker tournaments? Let us know more details about the same here.

What is a Full House in Poker?

The main objective of Poker is to produce the best 5-card hand. When you play Texas Hold 'em, the most played Poker variant in the world, you are dealt two cards (hole cards). As the game progresses, the dealer will unveil five more cards, aka the community cards, using which you must make the best possible hand.

Now, Full House is one of the hand possibilities, and as stated, only three other combinations can beat the Full House hand.

If you are new to this card game, you may wonder what a Full House in Poker is? Well, this hand comprises three cards belonging to the same rank, and two remaining cards of the same rank, but dissimilar from the previous three cards. Once you achieve this meld, you have a Full House.

Where Does Full House Stand in Poker Rankings?

Landing a Full House in Poker can benefit a player, as it is considered one of the strongest hands. In the list of Poker rankings, it stands at fourth position and can beat six other combinations in the card game.

Only a Royal Flush, Straight Flush, and Four-of-a-Kind hand trumps it. You get a Full House when you have three cards of the same rank paired with two different cards of the same rank.

More than one player can form this meld. In such a scenario, the individual with the best Three-of-a-Kind will be declared the winner. For example, the combination AD-AC-AS-6C-6D will always beat a KH-KD-KC-7S-7C.

Other names for Full House are 'Full Boat' or simply 'Boat'.

Basic Rules of Full House in Poker

In Poker, there is a possibility of getting 10 versions of a hand, one of them being Full House. Despite being fourth on the list of hands, a Full House is considered a strong hand and you should be an optimist if you get this meld, especially in Poker tournaments where the probability of landing it is rare.

So, what exactly are the Full House rules? Your objective in the game is to produce the best 5-card hand superior to other players' cards. To achieve a Full House, your cards should be a combination of Three-of-a-Kind and Pair hands.

How do you make a full house in poker? You simply must form it by combining three cards of the same rank with two cards of another rank.

You may also wonder whether there exists an unbeatable hand. Yes, there is, and it is called 'Aces Full of Kings'. To achieve this combination with the least probability, you should be targeting Aces and Kings. A-A-A-K-K is known as Aces full of Kings.

Let Us Understand Full House as per Poker Rules, with Examples Below:

  • AAAKK
    This hand represents the best possible full house or strongest full house. It comprises three aces of the same rank along with two kings of another rank. In terms of full house language, such a hand is called 'Aces Full of Kings' as per the convention ‘full of his hand represents the best possible full house or strongest full house. It comprises three aces of the same rank along with two kings of another rank. In terms of full house language, such a hand is called 'Aces Full of Kings' as per the convention ‘full of’.

    Do remember that 'Aces Full of Kings' is the strongest full-house hand possible which can beat any other full house hand. As the naming convention used for full house talks about the three cards first and then the pair, it will always be 'Aces Full' for the strongest full house hand.

    Please note that the most important criteria here are the rank/denomination. There is no relevance to the order of the suits. So, you will always have 'Aces Full' beat 'Kings Full' or 'Queens Full' in a full house.p

Let us consider another example to get more clarity about how to understand the rank of a full house hand. Say you are playing poker with another player and both of you manage to get a full house as under:

You (Player 1) – KKKQQ

Opponent (Player 2) – QQQAA

Who do you think has the stronger full house hand? It is you. How? The ‘Kings Full’ always beats the ‘Queens full’, i.e. the stronger ‘three of a kind’ gives you the edge even though the opponent has a pair of aces. So, it is always the ‘three of a kind’ that is considered first, followed by the ‘pair’.

In cases where both the players have the same ‘three of a kind’ in the full house, then, the ‘pair’ will become the deciding factor. Such situations can arise when you are playing any poker variant with two decks of 52 cards. Let us understand this with the same example as above with a different set of card combinations for the full house hand:

You (Player 1) – AAA99

Opponent (Player 2) – AAA88

In the above situation, both you and the opponent would feel confident about winning the bet with your full house hand because both of you have the strongest possible 'three of a kind' in your full house. But here the winner will be decided by who has the strongest possible ‘pair’ since it’s a tie for the ‘three of a kind’. As your pair of 9s is higher than the opponent’s pair of 8s, you will be the winner here!

Probability of Full House in Popular Poker Variants

It is comparatively harder to make a full house in Texas Hold’em Poker than in Omaha Poker. So, a full house poker hand is comparatively a stronger hand in Hold’em than in Omaha. This means that the strength of the full house does depend on the poker variant that you are playing.

Probability of Full House in Different Betting Rounds

You start with the following betting rounds (sequentially) in the game of poker:

  • Pre-Flop.
  • The Flop.
  • The Turn.
  • The River.

As you only receive the hole cards in the pre-flop round and are yet to receive the community cards, the chances of creating a full house here are minimal. With the flop round, your probability of creating the full house poker hand increases as compared to the pre-flop because you get a few community cards to play with. This probability increases further in the turn round and finally reaches the highest in the river round, as you get one additional community card in each of these rounds.

You need to be careful with placing a bet on a full house. While it is a strong hand in several poker variants because it can potentially lose to only two other hands, four of a kind and straight flush, there are chances of your full house hand losing to other stronger full houses managed by your opponents. This makes it critical for you to be cautious if the risks and bets involved are high. You should target having the strongest possible ‘three of a kind’ in your full house.

How Does a Full House Hand Rank?

Considering that there are 52 cards in a deck, there are 3,744 hand combinations of full house and 156 ranks of the full house. 
As per the poker full house rules, to judge the strength of full house, the first three cards are used. For example, there are two poker hands:

  1. KKKAA.
  2. AAAKK.

Which one from these two will win?’

The second poker hand will win because there are three aces in the second poker hand, whereas there are three kings in the first poker hand.
Now, let us consider another example. 

There are two Poker Hands:

  1. 888JJ.
  2. 444AA.

As we saw earlier, three cards are considered for judging the strength of a poker hand. In the two examples above, 8 is bigger than 4. Therefore, the first poker hand is stronger than the second poker hand.

The first poker hand has JJ, whereas the second poker hand has AA. Although the second poker hand has AA, which is bigger than JJ, it makes no difference. The three 8s are bigger than the 4s. Therefore, the first poker hand is the winning hand.

Poker Hands that Beat Full House

It cannot be stated enough how mighty a Full House hand is in Poker. Nevertheless, three other combinations can thump it. So, what beats Full House in Poker? The hands Four-of-a-Kind, Straight Flush, and Royal Flush do.

Below is the description of what these three hands are –

1. Four-of-a-Kind - A Four-of-a-Kind hand comprises four cards of the same value, but different suits and one random card. For example, KH-KD-KS-KC-7H

2. Straight Flush - You earn a Straight Flush when all five of your cards belong to the same suit and are sequentially arranged. For example, 7H-8H-9H-10H-JH

3. Royal Flush - When you have 10-J-Q-K-A that belong to the same suit sequentially arranged, the hand is called Royal Flush. Royal Flush is the highest hand in Poker and cannot be beaten

What Hands Are Beaten by a Full House?

As stated, Full House is really good hand to have in Poker. It is strong and beats six other hands that are inferior in comparison. Below are these hands listed from strongest to the weakest –

  • Flush : A Flush is a Poker hand wherein all 5 cards represent the same suit regardless of their face value; 3D-6D-7D-10D-KD

  • Straight : A Straight, on the other hand, is where cards are sequentially arranged but do not belong to the same suit; 3C-4H-5D-6D-7S

  • Three-of-a-Kind: A Three-of-a-Kind hand comprises three cards of the same value, but different suits, and two random cards; 3S-3H-3D-KH-AC

  • Two Pairs: As the name suggests, this hand has two different pairs of cards of the same value and one random card; KC-KH-5S-5C-6D

  • Pair: A Pair hand has two cards of the same value and three random cards; QH-QS-JD-5S-9D

  • High Card: It is the lowest hand in Poker and its highest card is often used as a determining factor in the event of a tie

How Does a Full House Hand Match Up?

The full house is an amazing poker hand. It is in the third position. The royal flush and straight flush are the top two poker hands. As per the poker full house rules, all the other poker hands are below the full house. Four of a kind, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, one pair, and high card are below the full house.

Full House Poker Probabilities

Let us have a look at the full house poker probabilities now.

Probability of Full House in Texas Hold’Poker

Preflop 0.14% When 5 cards are drawn randomly from a pack of 52 cards.
Flop 0.09% When you hold three of a kind with a pocket pair.
Turn 12.77% Considering the set on the flop.
River 19.57% Considering the set on the turn.

Probability of Full House in Omaha Poker

Preflop 0.14% When 5 cards are drawn randomly from a pack of 52 cards.
Flop 0.65% When you hold three of a kind.
Turn 13.33% When you hold three of a kind.
River 20.45% When you hold three of a kind.

Tiebreaker in a Full House Situation

There is a possibility in Poker that two players or more will end with a Full House. Poker has rules set in place to address a tiebreaker scenario and declare the winner.

  • To determine the victor, the cards of all players with a Full House are evaluated; the winner is the one who has the best Three-of-a-Kind

  • If the Three-of-a-Kind cards are similar, then Pair is evaluated and the one with the highest is declared as the winner

  • In the rarest scenario where all five cards of the players are the same, the hand is concluded as a tie, and the pot is split equally among them

Strategies to Play Full House in Texas Holdem

In Texas Hold'em, you are required to form the best 5-card hand using 2 'hole' cards and the community cards.

  • One of the greatest aspects of Texas Hold 'em is that there is no restriction as to how many hole cards you can use or how many community cards you can use to form the meld. You have the option of using just one hole card and combine it with four community cards or use both hole cards and pair them with three community cards

  • Additionally, choose to limp instead of playing aggressively at the beginning of the game. Once you reach, River and Turn rounds, you can go for the kill. Basically, by using this strategy you are just trying to survive the round

  • Most of all, be patient, even if you possibly have the worst hole cards out of all the players at the table. Chances are that the community cards will come to your aid and turn the game around for you

Strategies to Play Full House in Omaha Poker

Omaha Poker is different compared to Texas Hold 'em regarding one rule, as in this Poker variant, players are dealt four 'hole' cards instead of two. You can only use two of these cards to make the best 5-card hand with help from the community cards.

  • With two additional hole cards in play, patience and care play a much important role in Omaha. Be sure of the two cards that you choose to make the 5-card combination

  • Though Omaha may appear similar to Texas Hold 'em barring a couple of rules, it is much different and you should not take the same approach as you would in Hold 'em

The Verdict

Making a full house could put you in a strong position in several games of poker. However, you need to consider that there are just two stronger hands possible than a full house. At the same time, there are many full house combinations that can possibly be higher than yours – so you could potentially lose to them. Thus, your aim should always be to create the strongest possible full house in poker by following the various poker full house rules discussed here.

Choose Spartan Poker to Play Poker Games

With Poker games available online, many sources have emerged offering cash rewards to the members playing on their platform. One such source is Spartan Poker. You can be assured that playing games on this platform is absolutely legal, and the rewards are progressive, too.

Spartan offers its members a variety of Poker gaming options, including Texas Hold 'em and Omaha. You have access to various rooms, with varying entry fees, where you can compete against seasoned players.

If you are unfamiliar with certain rules, check out the Poker Rules section for a detailed insight. The gaming graphics from the developers are second to none and are guaranteed to keep you occupied and entertained throughout your play.

Ensure that you note any update regarding tournaments and competitions, as the rewards to be won here are life-changing. For any technical issues in the game, get in touch with the 24/7 support team to get them resolved.

Upon choosing Spartan Poker the best real money poker app, your doors get opened to various reward structures, counting registration bonus and referral bonuses. So, if playing Poker is something that you like to do, register today and reap the rewards!

Frequently Asked Questions Full House Poker

What beats a full house in poker?

Four of a Kind beats a full house in poker.

Is a full house good in poker?

Yes. A full house is a good poker hand. It is the fourth-highest hand in poker. 

What if 2 players have a full house?

If 2 players have a full house, the player who has a higher three of a kind wins. For example, in two poker hands 7-7-7-8-8 and 4-4-4-J-J, the poker hand 7-7-7-8-8 wins.

Is 7 8 9 10 anything in poker?

7 8 9 10 is not a poker hand but if the fifth card is 6 or J,  a straight can be formed.