Full house, full boat, full hand, full
A player is said to have a full house only when s/he has three cards of one rank and two of another. Also known as a full boat or a tight, a full house hand comprises of a trip and a pair, irrespective of the ranks of the cards. A full house can beat all hands that are ranked at or below a flush while all hands at four of a kind of above can beat the full house. A hand is said to be a full house if it is something like 3-3-3-7-7 or 6-6-6-J-J.
In the case of two or more players catching a full house, the winner is determined by comparing the set of trips that the players have. Therefore, in a case where player A has 4-4-4-T-10 and player B has 2-2-2-A-A, player A wins despite B having a pair of aces.
This situation can have a variation in the case of wild card games where a particular wild card’s rank is assigned as another rank. In a game of poker, if 5 is assigned as the wild card, with a value of 2, and if player A receives the hand 2-2-2-J-J and player B receives the hand 5-5-5-7-7, then player A and B tie on the trips.
Although B has a higher trip, due to the wild card rule, the value of B’s trips is the same as the value of A’s trips. In such a case, the difference between the pairs is considered and since A’s Jack-pair is higher than B’s 7-pair, A is declared as the winner of the hand.
The manner of describing a full house is often as “three full of pair”. This means that in the case of 5-5-5-A-A, the hand is described as “Fives full of Aces”.
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