{"id":2534092,"date":"2024-07-18T12:55:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T12:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/?page_id=2534092"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:12:21","slug":"does-a-straight-beat-three-of-a-kind","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/poker-hands\/does-a-straight-beat-three-of-a-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Does a Straight Beat Three-of-a-Kind?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> or trips<\/a>, which makes the hand superior to any three-of-a-kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\"tournament<\/a>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Why Does a Straight Beat Three-of-a-Kind?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t yet understand the poker hand rankings<\/a>, it is worth noting that they are entirely based on the likelihood of making certain poker hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chances To<\/strong><\/td>Straight<\/strong><\/td>Three-of-a-Kind<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Make it on the Flop<\/td>0% – 1.29%<\/td>1.35% – 10.8%<\/td><\/tr>
Make it on the Turn<\/td>8.5% – 17%<\/td>4.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Make it on the River<\/td>8.7% – 17.4%<\/td>4.3%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Often Will You Make a Straight?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A straight<\/a> is one of the most versatile hands in poker, as it can be made in many different ways and with any starting hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight draws can come in the form of gutshot and open-ended straight draws, with gutshots<\/a> giving you four outs to a straight and open-enders giving you eight outs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Often Will You Make Three-of-a-Kind?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Three-of-a-kind<\/a> is a slightly unique poker hand in that it can be made in two different ways depending on your starting hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you start a poker hand with a pocket pair, you will be looking to hit a single card to make what\u2019s known as a set, a three-of-a-kind combination made up of a pocket pair and a single community card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability to make a set is exactly what makes playing smaller pocket pairs so enticing, especially as the stacks start to get deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> before the showdown, with two more cards coming to help you and two outs available to three-of-a-kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n
\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t

Why does a straight beat three-of-a-kind?<\/strong><\/h3><\/div>

A straight beats three-of-a-kind in poker because it is a less common hand and harder to come by. A straight ranks higher on the poker hand rankings chart and is a superior card combination.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t

How often will you make a straight?<\/strong><\/h3><\/div>

There are many different ways to make a straight in poker. You will flop a straight with 1.29% of your connected hands, while gappers will make a straight on the flop at varying frequencies. You will also flop a straight draw up to 26% of the time and turn or river a straight up to 34.4% of the time.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t

How often will you make three-of-a-kind?<\/strong><\/h3><\/div>

Three-of-a-kind can be made with a pocket pair or with an unpaired hand. You will flop a set 10.8% of the time and flop trips 1.35% of the time. If you still hold just one pair after the flop, you will have about an 8.5% chance of making your set or trips on the turn or the river.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t

What does a straight beat in poker?<\/strong><\/h3><\/div>

A straight is a mid-value hand in poker, and it beats all three-of-a-kind, two pairs, and one pair combinations. At the same time, a straight loses to any flush, full house, quads, straight flush, or royal flush.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t

What does a three-of-a-kind beat in poker?<\/strong><\/h3><\/div>

Three-of-a-kind only beats two pairs<\/a>, one pair<\/a>, and high card<\/a> combos in poker. Despite losing to all straights, flushes, full houses, and better, three-of-a-kind is still often the winner in poker hands and sometimes even the best possible hand on certain boards.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"parent":2532176,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"right-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2534092","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"author_image":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Tadas Peckaitis","author_link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/author\/tadas-peckaitisgmail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"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 […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2534092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2534092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2536084,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2534092\/revisions\/2536084"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2532176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}