Pokeriad / Learn / Three of a kind
What is three of a kind in poker?
Updated November 2026
Three of a kind is three cards of the same rank plus two unmatched cards, such as three sevens with a king and a four. It beats two pair and loses to a straight, which makes it the seventh-best hand in poker.
In Hold'em it goes by two names, depending on how you made it, and the difference is worth money.
| Cards | Three of one rank, two others |
|---|---|
| Beats | Two pair and below |
| Loses to | Straight and above |
| Dealt five cards | 1 in 47 |
| By the river | 1 in 20.7 |
Set or trips?
What's the difference between a set and trips?
A set is a pocket pair plus one matching card on the board. Trips are one card in your hand plus a pair on the board.
A set is hidden and usually better. With trips the pair is in plain sight, so anyone holding the same card has trips as well, and your side card can lose you the pot.
Same three sevens
What if two players have three of a kind?
The higher three wins. If the three are shared because the pair is on the board, compare side cards, starting with the higher one.
How often does a pocket pair get there?
You flop a set or better 11.76 times in 100, a little less than 1 time in 8. By the river it's 19.18 times in 100.
That's why small pairs are worth seeing a flop cheaply. Our guide to small pairs goes through the price.
With a pocket pair
Why does a straight beat it if they're almost as common?
Because hand rankings come from five-card poker, where three of a kind has 54,912 combinations and a straight has 10,200. Over seven cards the two come out almost equal, at 4.83 and 4.62 times in 100, and nobody changed the order.
Chance of each hand by the river
Every 7-card deal counted
Can you tell which hand wins?
Twelve spots in three rounds.
Questions players ask
Is a set better than trips?
The cards rank the same. A set is better to play, because nobody can see it and kicker trouble doesn't come into it.
Does three of a kind beat two pair?
Yes, every time.
Can two players have the same set?
Not in Hold'em. There aren't enough cards of that rank left, since a set takes three of the four.
How the numbers on this page were worked out
We counted all 2,598,960 possible five-card hands and all 133,784,560 seven-card deals. The totals match the published tables on Wikipedia's poker probability page. "By the river" assumes you stay in until all five community cards are out, and in a real game you fold most hands long before that.
Know someone who says set and trips like they mean the same thing?
Send them this page.