Full House

What makes a full house in poker?

A Full House is any three cards of the same number or face value, plus any other two cards of the same number or face value. An example of a full house is , but is a full house as well.

For you to be able to have a full house in no-limit texas hold'em poker, there always needs to be at least one pair on the board. Since you only have 2 cards in your hand, and you need to make three-of-a-kind ánd a pair, there needs to be at least two of the same value cards on the table.

An Example of Full house:

The following five community cards are on the table:

Phil Ivey has in his hand, he now plays a full house. With the 2 cards his hand, and the 5 on the board, Ivey has 7 cards total to make the best combination of 5 cards. Ivey doesn't use the eight and the nine, and makes ; a full house.

Daniel Negreanu has in his hand, also have a full house. Negreanu doesn't use 2 of the cards and makes the best combination of five cards. In this case, Negreanu uses to make his full house.

The best full house is the one with the highest three-of-a-kind. If you and your opponent(s) have the same three-of-a-kind, you'll look at who has the higher pair to go along with it. The one with the higher pair, than wins the hand. If you have the same three-of-a-kind and pair, you split the pot.

In this example, Negreanu with wins from Ivey with . is higher than the of Ivey, and Negreanu wins the pot.

If you have the full house, you can call it "eights full of fours". In this expression, you always use the three-of-a-kind first, followed by the pair. Ivey, in this example, had "fours full of jacks".