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No — it is the other way round. A straight beats three of a kind. The straight is the sixth-strongest hand and three of a kind the seventh, so five cards in sequence take the pot from any set of trips, including three aces. This is the most-searched hand-ranking question in poker and the answer surprises people every time, because three matching cards look far more powerful than a run of five.
Straight beats trips — with both hands shown side by side
The frequencies that explain why: 4.62% against 4.83%
Set versus trips, and why the difference matters more than the ranking
What beats what
Rank 7 of 10
Three cards of one rank
Rank 6 of 10
Five in a row, mixed suits
Straight beats Three of a Kind. The stronger hand class always wins, whatever the cards inside it are.
The two hands are unusually close in frequency, which is exactly why the ranking is easy to forget. The straight is rarer, so the straight wins.
Rank
Straight
6th
Three of a kind
7th
How often
Straight
4.62%
Three of a kind
4.83%
Odds
Straight
1 in 21.6
Three of a kind
1 in 20.7
What it is
Straight
Five cards in sequence, mixed suits
Three of a kind
Three cards of the same rank
Beats
Straight
Trips and everything below
Three of a kind
Two pair and everything below
Loses to
Straight
Flush and above
Three of a kind
Straight and above
Three nines on a connected board is a hand most players will happily go broke with. The board is four cards inside a five-rank window, which means anybody holding a ten or a six has already made the straight and is not going anywhere.
Board
Cards
9♥ 8♣ 7♦ 3♠ 2♥
Best five cards
—
Result
Three to a straight, no pair, no flush
Player A
Cards
9♠ 9♦
Best five cards
9♠ 9♦ 9♥ 8♣ 7♦
Result
Three nines — a set, and second best
Player B
Cards
T♦ 6♠
Best five cards
T♦ 9♥ 8♣ 7♦ 6♠
Result
Ten-high straight — wins the pot
These two hands sit next to each other on the chart because they are nearly equally hard to make: 4.62% for the straight, 4.83% for three of a kind. The straight is very slightly rarer, so it ranks higher. It is the narrowest gap anywhere on the ranking, which explains both why people forget the order and why they should not.
Three of the same card is a striking thing to hold, and it is the first genuinely strong hand most new players ever make. A straight is five unremarkable cards that happen to run in order — it does not look like anything until you say it out loud. But poker ranks hands by rarity, not by how they photograph, and by that measure the run of five just edges it.
Both are three of a kind, but they play completely differently. A set is when you hold a pocket pair and the third card comes on the board; trips is when the board pairs and you hold one matching card. A set is nearly invisible to opponents, which is why it wins large pots. Trips is obvious — the pair is sitting on the board where everyone can see it — and everybody with the same card has the same hand, so you are playing a kicker fight you may not win.
Four cards to a straight on the board is the loudest warning in poker, and most home-game players still bet into it. If the board reads 9-8-7-6, anyone holding a five or a ten has a straight, and several of them may. Your set of nines is now second best against a hand your opponent could have been calling with from the start.
Compare the highest card in each straight. Ten-high beats nine-high, and if both are the same the pot is split — a straight is five specific ranks, so equal straights are genuinely identical. The trap is the ace, which plays high or low: A-2-3-4-5 is a straight, and it is the lowest one there is. Being told your ace-high straight loses to six-high is a memorable evening.
Set over set is a stack-off waiting to happen, and it is decided purely by which three of a kind is higher. Aces beat kings, kings beat queens, and the fourth and fifth cards never get looked at. When the board is paired and two players both have trips, the kicker does decide it — which is the practical difference between holding a pocket pair and holding one card that matches the board.
The habit worth building is to say what the board threatens before you decide what to do. Three to a straight, two to a flush, a pair — name them, then act. Almost every misread of this matchup at a home game comes from looking only at your own two cards, and it is a fixable habit rather than a knowledge problem.
The trips-against-a-straight pot is usually a big one, which means the disagreement arrives after the chips are already in the middle. Running the game with digital chips keeps the pot, the bets and the final stacks recorded as they happen, so when the hand is over the only open question is which five cards were best — and this page settles that in one line.
Being unsure whether trips beats a straight costs you one pot. Believing it does costs you a stack, because a set is a hand you commit chips with. The player holding three nines on that board is not making a small mistake — they are value-betting into a hand that has them drawing to the board pairing, and doing it confidently. That is why this particular ranking is worth learning before the session rather than during it.
FAQ
01
No. A straight beats three of a kind. The straight is ranked sixth and three of a kind seventh.
02
Yes, always — including a five-high straight against three aces. The hand class decides it, not the cards inside it.
03
Because it is rarer. A straight is made in 4.62% of seven-card hands, three of a kind in 4.83%. It is the narrowest gap on the whole ranking chart.
04
A set is a pocket pair that hits a third card on the board; trips is a paired board plus one matching card in your hand. A set is much harder for opponents to see coming.
05
By the highest card. Ten-high beats nine-high. Identical straights split the pot, and an ace can play low, so A-2-3-4-5 is the weakest straight there is.
06
A flush, a full house, four of a kind, a straight flush and a royal flush.
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