Does a full house beat a flush?

A full house is three of a kind plus a pair, and it is dealt less often than a flush, so it outranks one. Even an ace-high flush loses to the smallest full house. This is one of the most common big-pot clashes in Hold’em on paired boards.

Take a board of K♠ 7♦ 7♣ 4♦ 9♦. One player holds K♥ 7♥ for sevens full of kings, the other holds A♦ J♦ for the ace-high flush. The flush completed on the river and looks like the nuts, but the paired board means a full house was always possible, and it wins.

Paired boards are where this matchup decides the biggest pots. A flush on a paired board is never the nuts, so when a normally passive player raises the river on K 7 7 4 9 with three diamonds out, the full house is the hand to fear. On an unpaired board a full house is impossible, so there the flush is safe from this clash entirely.

Quick tip: A full house (a boat) sits one step above a flush. Boats beat flushes.