A straight beats three-of-a-kind in poker in every scenario, as the hand requires five cards to make and is less frequent than any three-of-a-kind combo.
Unlike three-of-a-kind, which can be made with just three cards and two kickers, a straight can only be made with five particular cards, which must come in order of ranking. The sheer likelihood of making a straight is lower than that of making a set or trips, which makes the hand superior to any three-of-a-kind.
A quick glance at the poker hand rankings chart will tell you that a straight beats three-of-a-kind in poker, but we went deeper into the topic and found out exactly why this is the case.
Keep on reading and find out how likely you are to make a straight or three-of-a-kind in poker and how the two hands compare.
Why Does a Straight Beat Three-of-a-Kind?
If you don’t yet understand the poker hand rankings, it is worth noting that they are entirely based on the likelihood of making certain poker hands.
For example, one pair is a very common poker hand, which is why it sits near the bottom of the rankings, while a straight flush is very rare, which is why it sits near the top.
Both a straight and three-of-a-kind are near the middle of the hand rankings chart, with both hands beating two pairs and one pair but both losing to any flush or full house.
Yet, a straight is quite a bit less common than three-of-a-kind, which is why it outranks three-of-a-kind by one rank on the table.
While any two cards can make three-of-a-kind on the flop, you can only flop a straight with connected cards, which makes it a significantly more difficult task.
For reference, here is a quick look at the likelihood of making a straight or three-of-a-kind on the flop, turn, and river:
| Chances To | Straight | Three-of-a-Kind |
| Make it on the Flop | 0% – 1.29% | 1.35% – 10.8% |
| Make it on the Turn | 8.5% – 17% | 4.2% |
| Make it on the River | 8.7% – 17.4% | 4.3% |
How Often Will You Make a Straight?
A straight is one of the most versatile hands in poker, as it can be made in many different ways and with any starting hand.
If you want to have a chance at making straight on the flop, you will have to start with two cards that are at least remotely connected.
Connected cards like 98 and 76 have the highest chance of flopping a straight at 1.29%, while gappers like 86, 74, and even 62 all have a small chance of flopping a straight.
While a straight can be flopped a maximum of 1.29% of the time, up to 26% of all flops will give you a straight draw of some kind.
Straight draws can come in the form of gutshot and open-ended straight draws, with gutshots giving you four outs to a straight and open-enders giving you eight outs.
If you flop a gutshot straight draw, you will have an 8.5% chance to improve on the turn and an 8.7% chance to improve on the river, for a total of just over 17%.
If you flop an open-ended straight draw, you will have a 17% chance to improve on the turn and a 17.4% chance to improve on the river, for a total of 34.4%.
Keep in mind that your straight draws can also come with some extra help in the form of overcards, a pair, or a flush draw, which makes it important to play different straight draws in a different fashion.
It is worth noting that if you are lucky enough to make a straight at any point, you will beat any three-of-a-kind hand out there.
How Often Will You Make Three-of-a-Kind?
Three-of-a-kind is a slightly unique poker hand in that it can be made in two different ways depending on your starting hand.
If you start a poker hand with a pocket pair, you will be looking to hit a single card to make what’s known as a set, a three-of-a-kind combination made up of a pocket pair and a single community card.
Sets are well-hidden poker hands, and you will make one 10.8% of the time when you start with a pocket pair, which is quite a significant percentage.
The ability to make a set is exactly what makes playing smaller pocket pairs so enticing, especially as the stacks start to get deeper.
On the other hand, any poker hand that is not a pair can make three-of-a-kind on the flop as well by hitting two corresponding community cards. A three-of-a-kind combo made this way is known as trips.
You will flop trips with a random unpaired hand 1.35% of the time, which may not seem like a lot but is still a substantial number, considering you are not necessarily looking for trips when you enter a pot with two unpaired cards.
If you end up with nothing more than one pair on the flop, you will still have about an 8.5% chance to make a set or trips in Texas Hold’em before the showdown, with two more cards coming to help you and two outs available to three-of-a-kind.