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No. A flush beats three of a kind. The flush is the fifth-strongest hand and three of a kind the seventh, with a straight in between — so five cards of one suit take the pot from any set of trips, and a straight does too. If you are holding three of a kind on a board with three cards of the same suit, you are behind more often than the hand feels.
Flush wins, and so does a straight — trips is two rungs lower
3.03% against 4.83%, the seven-card Hold'em numbers
How two flushes are settled, and why a small suited card is a trap
What beats what
Rank 7 of 10
Three cards of one rank
Rank 5 of 10
Any five, same suit
Flush beats Three of a Kind. The stronger hand class always wins, whatever the cards inside it are.
The straight sits between them, so a set of trips on a three-suited, connected board is in trouble from two directions at once.
Rank
5th
Hand
Flush
How often
3.03%
Beats trips?
Yes
Rank
6th
Hand
Straight
How often
4.62%
Beats trips?
Yes
Rank
7th
Hand
Three of a kind
How often
4.83%
Beats trips?
—
Rank
8th
Hand
Two pair
How often
23.5%
Beats trips?
No
Three hearts on the board is all a flush needs. Player A flopped a set of fives, which is normally worth a stack, and is up against a hand that was drawing at it from the first card and got there.
Board
Cards
Q♥ 9♥ 5♠ 4♥ 2♣
Best five cards
—
Result
Three hearts showing
Player A
Cards
5♣ 5♦
Best five cards
5♠ 5♣ 5♦ Q♥ 9♥
Result
Three fives — second best
Player B
Cards
A♥ K♥
Best five cards
A♥ K♥ Q♥ 9♥ 4♥
Result
Ace-high flush — wins the pot
Three of a kind is the seventh-strongest hand in poker. Both the flush and the straight rank above it. A set of aces loses to a five-high flush, which is the sort of sentence that costs somebody a stack the first time they meet it. The hand class decides the pot; the cards inside it never do.
Three matching cards is the first hand most players learn to get excited about, and it is genuinely strong — it beats two pair, one pair and high card, which together account for the large majority of all hands. The problem is that the three hands above it all come from the board rather than from your holding, so they arrive without warning if you are only looking at your own two cards.
A flush needs three cards of one suit showing. If the board is not three-suited, nobody has one. If it is, a lot of ordinary calling hands now have one, and betting big with trips into that board is how a good hand becomes an expensive one. Naming what the board threatens before you act is the whole skill here.
If you hold a pocket pair and hit a set, your hand is hidden and you can often get away cheaply when a flush arrives, because nobody is putting you on anything specific. If the board is paired and you hold one matching card, everyone else with that card has the same hand, and the flush is not even your main problem — the kicker fight is.
Compare from the highest card down. An ace-high flush beats a king-high one, and identical five-card flushes split the pot — suits never break a tie in Hold'em. This is why chasing a flush with a small suited card is dangerous in a way the draw itself is not: you hit the hand you wanted and lose to the person holding the ace of that suit.
Trips does have an escape route: if the board pairs, your three of a kind becomes a full house and beats the flush. That is the single card that flips the hand, and it is the reason a set is worth continuing with on a flushed board when the price is right. Counting how many cards do that for you is exactly what an outs calculator is for.
Say out loud what the board threatens before deciding what to do: three to a flush, four to a straight, a pair. Almost everyone who loses a stack with trips against a flush did so because they were reading their own cards and not the five in the middle, and that is a habit you can change on the next hand rather than a gap you have to study for.
This matchup usually produces a large pot and a rules question at the same time. Digital chips record the pot and every bet as they happen, so once the hand is over the only thing to settle is which five cards were best — and that answer is at the top of this page.
Unlike two pair against a flush, three of a kind has a genuine way out: ten cards pair the board and turn the set into a full house, which beats the flush. From the flop that is roughly a one-in-three shot by the river. It does not make calling a large bet correct on its own, but it does mean the hand has value worth calculating rather than a decision to be made on feel.
FAQ
01
No. A flush beats three of a kind. The flush is ranked fifth and three of a kind seventh.
02
Yes, always — including a five-high flush against three aces. So does a straight.
03
It is rarer. A flush is made in 3.03% of seven-card hands and three of a kind in 4.83%.
04
Highest card first, then the next, and so on. Suits do not break ties in Hold'em — identical flushes split the pot.
05
Yes. If the board pairs, three of a kind becomes a full house, which beats a flush.
06
Five. In Hold'em that means at least three of that suit must be on the board.
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