FULL HOUSE POKER

Among the several hands in the game of poker is the ‘full house‘. In this post, we’ll explain everything that has to do with a full house, including its value within the game, how to make one, and the probability of it being dealt.

After understanding all there is to know about a full house, feel free to put your knowledge to the test in a poker game with your friends. If you want to really test your poker skills, you could pop by HotSlots and try a poker game for yourself!

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A FULL HOUSE IN POKER?

A full house — previously referred to as a ‘full boat‘ — simply consists of three cards of the same rank and another two cards of another rank. Alternatively, you could view a full house as a combination of a three of a kind and a one pair. For example, a hand forming three jacks and two kings is called a full house.

Seeing as a full house requires five cards, players have no choice but to use the community cards to form this hand. This could be done by contributing either one card or two cards to the community cards. In some cases, all the cards on the board make a full house without the help of any player cards.

Let’s take another example. Imagine having the following cards dealt on the table: 3 of hearts, 3 of spades, jack of diamonds, 6 of spades and a 9 of hearts.

Now, imagine being dealt the following hand: 3 of diamonds and a jack of hearts.

In this case, you would have formed a full house called ‘threes full of jacks‘ (consisting of 3 of hearts, 3 of spades, 3 of diamonds together with a jack of diamonds and a jack of hearts), and you would have used both of your cards to form it.

STRONGEST FULL HOUSE COMBINATIONS IN POKER

It is important to note that not every full house poker hand is equivalent. Although a full house is, in and of itself, relatively strong compared to other hands, there is such a thing as a weak full house hand. You can find the best full house hand combinations right below.

• Three aces and two kings
• Three aces and two queens
• Three aces and two jacks
• Three aces and two 10s

The list goes on, but the bottom line is that the best possible hand relating to a full house is one that includes three aces. Seeing as the ace is the highest-ranking card in the game, full houses of aces beat any other full house in the game.

After the ace, the king is the highest-ranking card in the game. This means that a full house consisting of kings is the second-strongest full house poker hand.

Another important note to consider when evaluating full house hands is that the three of a kind within the full house hand is considered first — with the one pair coming second. This means that the stronger three of a kind within two full house hands wins.

If the three of a kind is the exact same — for instance, when an ace full of fives and an ace full of threes locks horns — it is up to the one pair to decide the encounter. In this case, the aces full of fives wins (since fives outrank threes).

HOW TO GET A FULL HOUSE IN POKER

Although there is no secret way to form a full house, there are some ways to amplify your odds of forming one. With that said, going all-in and hoping for the best is not what we have in mind. That is just a quick way to lose all of your chips!

• Exploit pocket pairs: When playing a poker game, try to pursue pocket pairs if it remains feasible. This is because a pocket pair can not only help make a full house draw, but you could also have the edge over other players as a result. Your having a pocket pair means that, statistically speaking, the chances of other players having the same full house draw is significantly low.
• If your chip stack allows, stay in the game: A full house is sometimes made on the river, which is why you could end up regretting folding a potential full house draw. Sometimes, all it takes is one card to make a full house, and that card might be what separates your hand from the rest.

There aren’t many other things you could do to get a full house in poker. Luck plays a big role in this card game, but your decision during every street can be the deciding factor in whether you end up making a full house or not.

HOW DOES A FULL HOUSE POKER HAND RANK?

In this section, we’ll have a look at how a full house ranks against not only other hand combinations, but also against other full house hands.

First off, there are a total of 10 poker hand combinations: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and the high card. A full house gets beaten by a royal flush, a straight flush and a four of a kind.

On the other hand, a full house beats a flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and a high card. This goes to show that, although a full house is quite a strong hand, it can still get beaten by three other hands.

Secondly, there are 3,744 possible full house combinations which, when you think about it, isn’t very surprising considering that one rank makes for several full house combinations. As we’ve mentioned above, ace-full full house hands trump the rest, whereas kings-full full house hands come second. The list goes on in chronological order according to the card ranks.

PROBABILITY OF BEING DEALT A FULL HOUSE

The main reason why a full house is one of the best possible hand combinations in poker is that it is quite rare. If you want to know the exact probability of being dealt a full house, have a look at the tables below, where we’ve covered the probability of being drawn a full house in Texas hold’em and Omaha poker.

Texas hold’em
Street	Probability	Comment
Pre-flop	0,14%	Based on 5 cards randomly drawn from a full 52-card deck.
Flop	0,01%	When holding 3-of-a-Kind with a pocket pair.
Turn	12,77%	From a set on the flop.
River	19,57%	From a set on the turn.

Omaha
Street	Probability	Comment
Pre-flop	0,14%	Based on 5 cards randomly drawn from a full 52-card deck.
Flop	0,65%	When holding a three of a kind.
Turn	13,33%	When holding a three of a kind.
River	20,45%	When holding a three of a kind.

As you can see from the tables above, the probability of making a full house grows as the streets progress. This is precisely the reason why we recommended placing a bet and pursuing a full house draw if circumstances allow.