Four of a Kind in Poker: Rules, Rankings, Odds and Examples

Four of a kind is the hand most players remember making. It’s rare enough to feel special, strong enough to win almost every time, and common enough that anyone who plays regularly will make it from time to time. It’s also the hand behind two classic arguments at the table: whose kicker plays when four of a kind is on the board, and whether a hand that strong can ever lose.

This guide covers four of a kind from definition to showdown. It explains how quads rank and how two of them are compared, then gives the exact odds: in five cards, by each street in Texas Hold’em, for pocket pairs and every other starting hand, at tables of every size, and in Omaha, Short Deck, Seven Card Stud, draw poker and video poker. After that come the three ways quads are made in Hold’em, the kicker rules for four of a kind on the board, the rare coolers where quads lose, worked examples, how to play the hand, showdown and jackpot rules, common mistakes, a quiz and a quick-reference summary.

Every probability here was calculated by the TopSitesPoker.com editorial team, either exactly, by counting every possible combination of cards, or by large simulations where exact counting isn’t practical. The only exceptions are the video poker frequency and pay tables, which come from the Wizard of Odds. Each example was checked with a hand evaluator.

What Is Four of a Kind?

Four of a kind is a hand containing all four cards of one rank: four aces, four sevens, four deuces. Since a poker hand has five cards, the fifth card is simply whatever else you hold, and it’s called the kicker. J♠ J♥ J♦ J♣ 4♦ is “four jacks” or “quad jacks” with a four kicker.

There are 13 possible fours of a kind, one for each rank, and each can come with any of the other 48 cards as its kicker. That gives 13 × 48 = 624 different five-card four-of-a-kind hands, out of 2,598,960 possible poker hands.

Rank among quads	Four of a kind	Example hand
1 (highest)	Four aces	A♠ A♥ A♦ A♣ 5♦
2	Four kings	K♠ K♥ K♦ K♣ 9♣
3	Four queens	Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 2♥
4	Four jacks	J♠ J♥ J♦ J♣ 4♦
5	Four tens	10♠ 10♥ 10♦ 10♣ A♠
6–12	Four nines down to four threes	7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ K♥
13 (lowest)	Four deuces	2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ A♣

Every four of a kind is equally likely: each rank appears in exactly 48 five-card hands and, with seven cards, in exactly 17,296 seven-card hands. Four aces aren’t rarer than four deuces; they’re just better.

 

Four cards of one rank, plus any fifth card as the kicker.

Why it’s called “quads”

“Quads” is the most common nickname, and players often name the rank too: “quad aces,” “quad sevens.” Many players just say “four aces” or “four sevens.” The kicker has no special name; it’s just the fifth card.

Where Four of a Kind Ranks

Four of a kind is the third-best hand in standard poker. Only a straight flush and a royal flush beat it. The full order is royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card.

Hand	Five-card hands	About once in	Seven-card hands (best five)	About once in
Royal flush	4	649,740	4,324	30,940
Straight flush (excluding royal)	36	72,193	37,260	3,591
Four of a kind	624	4,165	224,848	595
Full house	3,744	694	3,473,184	38.5
Flush	5,108	509	4,047,644	33.1

Exact over all 2,598,960 five-card hands and all 133,784,560 seven-card hands. Seven-card counts are by the best five-card hand. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

In five cards, a full house is six times as common as four of a kind. With seven cards to choose from, the gap widens to more than 15 times, because seven cards give many more ways to combine a three of a kind with a pair, while four of a kind still needs all four cards of one rank. Either way, quads are far rarer, which is why they rank higher.

One neat consequence of the numbers: in seven cards, four of a kind and a straight flush can never appear together. Quads use four cards of one rank and a straight flush needs five cards of one suit, and those two sets can share at most one card, so you’d need at least eight cards. Every seven-card hand that contains four of a kind has it as its best hand.

What four of a kind beats, and what beats it

• It beats a full house, a flush, a straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card, every time.
• It loses to a straight flush, a royal flush and a higher four of a kind.
• It ties only with the same four of a kind and the same kicker, which can only happen when the four cards are shared, as on a Hold’em board.

Four of a Kind Rules: What Counts

A hand is four of a kind if the five cards that make up your hand include all four cards of one rank. The rules are short:

1. All four suits of one rank. Four cards of the same rank can only be one of each suit, so suits never need checking.
2. Any fifth card. The kicker can be any other card. It only matters when two players share the same four of a kind.
3. Cards you’re allowed to use. In Hold’em, any mix of hole cards and board cards counts, including all four on the board. In Omaha, you must use exactly two hole cards and three board cards, which changes what’s possible.

As always, only your best five cards count and cards speak at showdown: four of a kind wins even if you announce it as a full house, as long as you show your cards.

Is it four of a kind? Twelve hands that look close

Cards	Four of a kind?	What it actually is
9♠ 9♥ 9♦ 9♣ K♣	Yes	Four nines with a king kicker
9♠ 9♥ 9♦ K♣ K♠	No	A full house, nines full of kings
Hold’em: 7♠ 7♥ in hand, 7♦ 7♣ K♠ 4♥ 2♣ on the board	Yes	Four sevens using a pocket pair
Hold’em: A♠ 9♦ in hand, 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ K♦ 4♠ on the board	Yes	Four nines using one hole card, with an ace kicker
Hold’em: K♣ Q♣ in hand, 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ 5♥ on the board	Yes	Four sevens on the board, with your K♣ as the kicker
Hold’em: 3♣ 2♦ in hand, 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ K♠ on the board	Yes	Four sevens with the board’s king as the kicker; your cards don’t play
Hold’em: 9♥ 9♣ in hand, 9♠ K♣ K♦ K♥ 2♥ on the board	No	A full house, kings full of nines; anyone holding the K♠ has four kings
Omaha: A♠ A♥ 5♦ 2♣ in hand, 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ K♠ on the board	No	A full house, sevens full of aces; you can use only three board cards
Omaha: 9♠ 9♥ 5♦ 2♣ in hand, 9♦ 9♣ K♠ 4♥ 2♥ on the board	Yes	Four nines: two from your hand, two from the board, plus a board kicker
Omaha: 9♠ K♥ 5♦ 2♣ in hand, 9♦ 9♣ 9♥ 4♥ 2♠ on the board	Yes	Four nines: your 9♠ and K♥ with the board’s three nines
Seven Card Stud: J♠ J♥ down, J♦ J♣ 4♦ among your up cards	Yes	Four jacks, and nobody else can have them
Home game, jokers wild: 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ and a joker	Beyond it	Five of a kind, which many wild-card games rank as the best hand of all

Each hand was checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com; Omaha hands were evaluated with exactly two hole cards and three board cards.

The seventh row is a trap worth remembering. You hold a pair of nines and the board shows a nine, but it’s the board’s three kings that make your hand, kings full of nines, and the one player holding the last king has four of a kind.

Comparing Two Fours of a Kind

When two players both have four of a kind, there are only two steps:

1. Compare the ranks of the four cards. Higher quads win: four kings beat four queens, whatever the kickers.
2. If the four cards are the same, compare the kicker. This can only happen when the four cards are shared, which in Hold’em means four of a kind on the board. Each player’s kicker is the highest other card available to them, from their hand or the board’s fifth card. If the kickers match, the pot is split.

Situation	Example	Result
Different quads	K♠ K♥ K♦ K♣ 2♦ vs Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ A♠	The kings win; the ace kicker doesn’t matter
Hold’em, four of a kind on the board	Board 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ 5♥; A♣ 2♦ vs K♣ Q♣	The ace kicker wins
Hold’em, the board’s kicker plays for both	Board 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ K♥; 5♣ 4♦ vs 3♠ 2♥	Split pot: both play the king
Hold’em, quads over quads	Board 9♠ 9♦ K♣ K♦ 2♥; 9♥ 9♣ vs K♥ K♠	Four kings beat four nines
Hold’em, one player holds the fourth card	Board 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ K♦ 4♠; A♠ 9♦ vs K♠ K♥	Only the 9♦ makes four nines; the kings make a full house and lose

Each comparison was checked with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.

 

Two players can only share the same four cards when they’re on the board.

When the kicker matters, and when it can’t

The kicker only ever decides a pot when two players share the same four cards. In Hold’em, that means all four are on the board. If your quads use one or both of your hole cards, nobody else can hold the same four of a kind, because each card exists only once, so your kicker is irrelevant. In Seven Card Stud and draw games, where nobody shares cards, two players can never have the same quads, and the kicker never matters for four of a kind.

Suits never break a tie. There are no suit differences between two sets of four anyway, and a spade kicker is worth exactly as much as a heart kicker of the same rank.

Four of a Kind Odds

How often you make four of a kind depends on how many cards you can choose from and, in Omaha, on the rules for using them. Here are the exact odds for the situations players ask about most:

Situation	Four-of-a-kind hands	Probability	About once in
Dealt five cards (Five Card Draw before the draw)	624 of 2,598,960	0.024%	4,165 hands
Texas Hold’em, by the flop	624 of 2,598,960	0.024%	4,165 hands
Texas Hold’em, by the turn (6 cards)	14,664 of 20,358,520	0.072%	1,388 hands
Texas Hold’em, by the river (7 cards)	224,848 of 133,784,560	0.168%	595 hands
Seven Card Stud (7 cards)	224,848 of 133,784,560	0.168%	595 hands
Omaha, by the river (4 hole cards, exactly 2 used)	2,225,706,912 of 463,563,500,400	0.48%	208 hands
Short Deck, five cards (36-card deck)	288 of 376,992	0.076%	1,309 hands
Short Deck Hold’em, by the river	44,640 of 8,347,680	0.53%	187 hands
9/6 Jacks or Better video poker, optimal strategy	Sourced figure	0.24%	about 423 hands

Exact counts by TopSitesPoker.com, except video poker, which is the published figure for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better with optimal strategy (Wizard of Odds). Hold’em, Stud and Omaha figures assume the hand is played to the end. The Omaha figure counts every hand in which a player can make four of a kind.

 

More cards to choose from, or a shorter deck, mean far more quads. Log scale.

Where the numbers come from

Four of a kind is one of the easiest hands to count. In five cards, pick the rank (13 ways) and the kicker (48 ways): 624 hands. In seven cards, pick the rank and any three other cards from the remaining 48: 13 × 17,296 = 224,848. Each extra card multiplies the number of ways to fill in the rest of the hand, which is why a Hold’em player who sees the river makes quads seven times as often as a player dealt five cards.

Omaha almost triples the Hold’em rate. Each Omaha player holds four cards, so a pocket pair, or a single card that matches trips on the board, turns up much more often. Short Deck, with only nine ranks and 36 cards, makes each set of four a larger share of the deck: quads are about three times as common there as in the full deck, in both five-card and seven-card hands.

Street by street in Hold’em

Counting every starting hand and every board, a player who sees every card makes four of a kind about once in 4,165 hands by the flop, once in 1,388 by the turn and once in 595 by the river. So of all the quads a player holds on the river, 14% were already complete on the flop and 43% by the turn. The other 57% were completed by the river card itself.

How long you’ll wait for four of a kind

One in 595 is an average, and each hand is independent. Here’s the chance of making four of a kind at least once in Hold’em, if every hand is played to the river:

Hands played to the river	Chance of at least one four of a kind
100	15.5%
250	34.3%
412	50.0%
595	63.2%
1,000	81.4%
2,000	96.5%

Chance = 1 − (594 ÷ 595) raised to the number of hands. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Half of players will have made quads within about 412 hands played to the river, and more than a third still won’t have after 595. Real players fold most of their hands before the river, so in practice the wait is several times longer, and long gaps between four of a kinds are normal variance.

Four of a Kind Odds by Starting Hand

For four of a kind, only one thing about your Hold’em starting hand matters: whether it’s a pocket pair. Suits are irrelevant, and so is rank: pocket aces make quads exactly as often as pocket deuces, and A-K makes quads exactly as often as 7-2. We counted every starting hand against every possible board:

Your starting hand	Share of starting hands	Quads by the flop	By the turn	By the river	Share of all quads
Pocket pair	5.9% (78 combinations)	1 in 408	1 in 202	1 in 119 (0.84%)	29.5%
Any other hand	94.1% (1,248)	1 in 9,800	1 in 2,193	1 in 794 (0.13%)	70.5%
All hands	100% (1,326)	1 in 4,165	1 in 1,388	1 in 595	100%

Exact counts over all 19,600 flops, 230,300 four-card boards and 2,118,760 five-card boards for each starting hand, including four of a kind that appears on the board by itself. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

 

A pocket pair needs only the two remaining cards of its rank.

A pocket pair needs only the two remaining cards of its rank anywhere on the board, which happens on 17,296 of the 2,118,760 possible boards, and another 552 boards bring four of a kind in some other rank. Any other hand needs three more cards of one of its ranks, which only 2,162 boards do, plus 506 with four of a kind in another rank. In all, a pocket pair makes four of a kind about 6.7 times as often. Pocket pairs are only 5.9% of starting hands, but they make 29.5% of all Hold’em quads.

That still leaves 70.5% of quads for everything else, simply because there are 16 times as many non-pair hands. Most of those come from a single hole card matching three of a kind on the board, which the next section looks at.

From pocket pair to quads, street by street

Take any pocket pair, say 7♠ 7♥. Here’s how its four-of-a-kind chances develop:

Stage	Chance	About once in
Flop four of a kind (both remaining sevens on the flop)	0.245%	408 flops
Flop exactly one more seven (a set, or a full house on a paired flop)	11.5%	8.7 flops
From a set on the flop, make quads by the river	4.26%	23.5 hands
From a set on the turn, make quads on the river	2.17%	46 hands
Four of a kind by the turn	0.495%	202 hands
Four of a kind by the river	0.842%	119 hands

Exact. The last two rows include the rare boards with four of a kind in another rank. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

The flop is where it happens or doesn’t. About one flop in nine gives a pocket pair a set, and from there the one remaining card of your rank arrives by the river about once in 23.5 hands. Flopping four of a kind outright, with both remaining cards on the flop, happens only once in 408 flops.

That set-to-quads number is worth putting in context. With a set on an unpaired flop, you have one out to four of a kind on the turn but seven to a full house or better: the last card of your rank and the three remaining cards of each of the other two flop ranks. If the turn misses, you have ten on the river. Counting both cards, a set improves to a full house or better about 33.4% of the time, and four of a kind is only 4.3 percentage points of that.

The Three Ways to Make Quads in Hold’em

In Texas Hold’em, four of a kind can use two hole cards, one hole card or none. Counting every combination of two hole cards and five board cards gives a strikingly simple split:

How the four of a kind is made	Example	Share of all Hold’em quads	Can anyone else have the same quads?
One hole card, with three of a kind on the board	A♠ 9♦ on 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ K♦ 4♠	4 in 7 (57.1%)	No
A pocket pair, with a pair on the board	7♠ 7♥ on 7♦ 7♣ K♠ 4♥ 2♣	2 in 7 (28.6%)	No
All four on the board	Any hand on 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ 5♥	1 in 7 (14.3%)	Yes: everyone still in the hand

Exact over all 2,809,475,760 combinations of two hole cards and five board cards; 4,721,808 of them contain four of a kind. For each rank, 207,552 use one hole card, 103,776 use a pocket pair and 51,888 are on the board: exactly 4 : 2 : 1. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

 

The split is exactly 4 : 2 : 1 for every rank.

More than half of all quads use a single hole card. That surprises players who think of four of a kind as a pocket-pair hand, but the arithmetic is clear: there are 16 times as many non-pair hands as pocket pairs, and each of them can make quads whenever the board brings three of a kind in one of its ranks.

Why the route matters

The three routes lead to very different hands, and different pots:

• One hole card on a board with three of a kind. Everyone at the table can see the board’s trips, so many opponents have a strong hand too: every opponent has at least three of a kind, and anyone holding a pair or matching the board’s other cards has a full house. These tend to be the quads that win the biggest pots.
• A pocket pair on a paired board. The board shows only a pair, so your hand is well hidden. The flip side is that opponents rarely have much: often just the board pair, sometimes two pair. Getting paid takes patience.
• Four of a kind on the board. Everyone has it, and the pot goes to the best kicker. The next section covers how that works.

Counting every hand one opponent could hold makes the difference concrete:

Opponent’s river hand	You: 7♠ 7♥ on 7♦ 7♣ K♠ 4♥ 2♣	You: A♠ 9♦ on 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ K♦ 4♠
Full house	0.9%	30.9%
Three of a kind	0%	69.1%
Two pair	40.9%	0%
One pair (the board’s)	58.2%	0%

Exact over all 990 possible opponent holdings on each board. Real opponents who reach the river hold stronger hands than a random two cards. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

With the pocket pair, fewer than one opponent hand in a hundred has a full house. With the single nine, every opponent has at least trips and almost a third have a full house. The same four of a kind can be worth a few bets or a whole stack, depending on how it was made.

Four of a Kind on the Board: Who Wins?

About once in 4,165 Hold’em deals that reach the river, all four cards of one rank land on the board. Every player still in the hand then has the same four of a kind, and the pot goes to whoever has the best fifth card. This is the one situation where a four-of-a-kind kicker decides a pot, and it’s more often decisive than players expect.

How the kicker works

Each player’s kicker is the highest card among their two hole cards and the board’s fifth card. On 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ 5♥, a player holding A♣ 2♦ has four eights with an ace kicker; a player holding K♣ Q♣ has four eights with a king; a player holding 4♠ 3♥ plays the board’s 5♥. The ace wins the pot outright.

If nobody can beat the board’s fifth card, everyone plays it and the pot is split. And two players who hold the same highest card, say one ace each, split with each other.

How often the board’s kicker holds up

Whether a board four of a kind ends in a split depends almost entirely on the board’s fifth card. Here are the exact heads-up figures for a board of four deuces with each possible fifth card:

Board	Ranks that beat the board’s kicker	Heads-up: split pot	Heads-up: one player wins
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ A♦	None	100%	0%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ K♦	A	71.3%	28.7%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ Q♦	A, K	50.0%	50.0%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ J♦	A to Q	34.6%	65.4%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ 10♦	A to J	24.0%	76.0%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ 9♦	A to 10	17.1%	82.9%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ 8♦	A to 9	12.8%	87.2%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ 7♦	A to 8	10.5%	89.5%
2♠ 2♥ 2♦ 2♣ 6♦ down to 3♦	A to 7 or lower	8.8% to 9.3%	90.7% to 91.2%

Exact over every pair of two-card hands from the 47 unseen cards. Over all possible four-of-a-kind boards, a heads-up hand ends in a split 29.7% of the time. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

 

With a low fifth card, a split needs both players to hold the same highest card.

The pattern is simple once you see it. With an ace as the fifth card, nothing can beat the board, and the pot is always split. With a king, only an ace wins, and the pot is still split more than 70% of the time heads-up. But with a low fifth card, a split needs both players to hold the same highest card, which happens only about one time in ten.

The quad rank matters in one way: when the four cards on the board are aces, a king is the best possible kicker, because no aces are left. A board of A♠ A♥ A♦ A♣ K♦ is always a split.

More players, fewer splits

With more players in the hand, it becomes more likely that somebody holds a card that beats the board’s kicker. Counting from each player’s point of view when four of a kind is on the board:

Players seeing the river	You win outright	You split	You lose on the kicker
2	35.2%	29.7%	35.2%
3	23.2%	26.4%	50.4%
6	9.4%	23.0%	67.6%
9	4.4%	22.4%	73.1%

Exact calculations by TopSitesPoker.com, confirmed by simulations of up to 2,000,000,000 deals, with every player seeing the river; each figure is averaged over every player in every hand with four of a kind on the board.

At a full table, four of a kind on the board is a kicker contest you usually lose unless you hold a high card yourself. If your best card is lower than the board’s fifth card, you can only split or lose.

Playing four of a kind on the board

• If you hold the best possible kicker, such as an ace when the quads aren’t aces, you have the nuts. Bet: opponents holding a king or queen will often call.
• If the board’s fifth card is your kicker, you can’t win the whole pot. Check, and think hard before calling a big bet, because a bet from an opponent often means they hold the card that beats the board.
• Never fold when you can’t lose. If the board’s fifth card is an ace, or you hold the best possible kicker, you can’t be beaten.
• Show your cards. Even when the board plays, you must show your hole cards to claim your share of the pot in most cardrooms.

In Omaha, board quads play for nobody

In Omaha, you must use exactly two hole cards and three board cards. With four of a kind on the board, you can use only three of those four cards, so nobody has four of a kind. The best possible hand is usually a full house made with a pocket pair, such as A♠ A♥ on 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ K♠ for sevens full of aces.

Four of a Kind at the Table: How Often, and How Often It Loses

Your own chance of four of a kind in Hold’em is 1 in 595 per hand played to the river. With more players at the table, somebody makes quads far more often. Our simulations dealt every player to the river:

Players seeing the river	Someone has four of a kind, about once in	Quads lose to higher quads, about once in	Quads lose to a straight flush, about once in
2 (heads-up)	320 deals	4.8 million deals	3.2 million deals
3	219	1.6 million	1.1 million
4	167	804,000	529,000
5	134	482,000	324,000
6	113	322,000	218,000
7	97	230,000	155,000
8	85	172,000	115,000
9	76	134,000	91,000
10	68	107,000	72,000

Every player seeing the river. The quads-over-quads column is exact; the other columns come from TopSitesPoker.com simulations of 500,000,000 to 4,000,000,000 deals per table size, except the heads-up straight flush figure, which is an exact count. “Someone has four of a kind” includes four of a kind on the board, which gives it to every player. Losses on the kicker when quads are on the board aren’t counted as losses here.

 

Every player seeing the river; includes four of a kind on the board.

At a full nine-handed table where everyone saw the river, somebody would have four of a kind about once every 76 deals. In real games far fewer players see the river, so quads show up much less often, but the numbers explain why quads somewhere at the table are far less rare than quads in your own hand.

Quads almost never lose

From the point of view of the player holding them, four of a kind made with at least one hole card is close to a sure thing:

Players seeing the river	Your quads (using a hole card) win	They lose
2	99.98%	0.02%
6	99.91%	0.09%
9	99.86%	0.14%

TopSitesPoker.com simulations of 2,000,000,000 deals per table size, every player seeing the river; excludes deals with four of a kind on the board.

Split pots are impossible here, since nobody else can hold the same quads, and the rare losses come from just two hands: higher quads and straight flushes. At a full table, one of the two beats you roughly once in 700 hands.

The two coolers

Quads over quads. Two players can both have four of a kind only if the board helps both. There are two ways: a board with three of a kind and a pair, where one player holds the last card of the trips and the other the matching pocket pair (about 57% of these hands), or a board with two pairs and each player holding one of the matching pocket pairs (about 43%). On 9♠ 9♦ K♣ K♦ 2♥, a player with 9♥ 9♣ has four nines and a player with K♥ K♠ has four kings. It’s one of the rarest showdowns in poker: heads-up, about once in 4.8 million deals.

Quads against a straight flush. A board with three of a kind and suited, connected cards can give one player quads and another a straight flush. On 9♥ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 9♣, the player holding the 9♠ has four nines, but a player holding J♦ 10♦ has a jack-high straight flush, and 10♦ 6♦ or 6♦ 5♦ would also make a straight flush. Heads-up, it happens about once in 3.2 million deals.

Some cardrooms run bad-beat jackpots that pay out for beats like these, if the hand meets the room’s posted qualifying rules. More on that below.

Four of a Kind Examples

These examples cover each way of making quads in Texas Hold’em, the kicker rules, both coolers, and how the rules change in Omaha, Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw. Every hand was checked with a hand evaluator.

Example 1: a pocket pair on a paired board

You hold 7♠ 7♥. The flop is 7♦ 7♣ K♠, and you’ve flopped four sevens. The turn is the 4♥ and the river the 2♣. No straight flush or flush is possible, so nothing can beat you. The problem is getting paid: an opponent with a king has two pair, kings and sevens, and only pocket kings, fours or deuces make a full house, just 9 of the 990 hands an opponent could hold.

Example 2: one hole card and trips on the board

You hold A♠ 9♦. The board runs out 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ K♦ 4♠. Your 9♦ completes four nines, with your ace as the kicker. Your opponent holds K♠ K♥ and has kings full of nines, a monster in almost any other spot, and loses. Every opponent on this board has at least three nines, and almost a third of possible hands have a full house.

Example 3: four of a kind on the board, won by the kicker

The board is 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ 5♥. You hold A♣ 2♦; your opponent holds K♣ Q♣. You both have four eights, but your ace outkicks their king, and you win the whole pot.

Example 4: four of a kind on the board, split

The board is 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ K♥. You hold 5♣ 4♦; your opponent holds 3♠ 2♥. Neither of you can beat the board’s king, so you both play four eights with a king kicker, and the pot is split. Had either of you held an ace, that player would have won.

Example 5: quads over quads

The board is 9♠ 9♦ K♣ K♦ 2♥. You hold 9♥ 9♣ for four nines; your opponent holds K♥ K♠ for four kings. The higher four of a kind wins. Only one hand in 990 beats yours here, and your opponent has it.

Example 6: quads lose to a straight flush

The board is 9♥ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 9♣. You hold 9♠ 2♣ for four nines. Your opponent holds J♦ 10♦ and has a jack-high straight flush. Only three opponent hands beat you on this board: J♦ 10♦, 10♦ 6♦ and 6♦ 5♦.

Omaha: three ways it goes

• A pocket pair and a board pair. You hold 9♠ 9♥ 5♦ 2♣ on 9♦ 9♣ K♠ 4♥ 2♥. You use your two nines with the board’s two nines and one more board card: four nines.
• One card and board trips. You hold 9♠ K♥ 5♦ 2♣ on 9♦ 9♣ 9♥ 4♥ 2♠. You use your 9♠ and K♥ with the board’s three nines: four nines with a king kicker.
• Four of a kind on the board. You hold A♠ A♥ 5♦ 2♣ on 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ K♠. You can use only three of the sevens, so your best hand is sevens full of aces, and nobody has quads.

Seven Card Stud: counting the fourth card

An opponent shows 6♠ 6♥ 6♦ face up. If you can see the 6♣ anywhere, in your hand or among the up cards, they can’t have four sixes, however strong they look. If you can’t, they may already hold it face down. In Stud, quads can’t be shared, so two players with four of a kind always have different ranks, and the kicker never matters.

Five Card Draw: drawing to quads

You’re dealt 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣ 2♦. Keep the three sevens and draw two: the 7♣ is among the 47 unseen cards, and you’ll catch it 2 times in 47, about 1 in 23.5. Keeping the king as a kicker and drawing only one card halves that, to 1 in 47. Starting from a pair and drawing three, your chance of four of a kind is 1 in 360.

How to Play Four of a Kind

With four of a kind, the question is almost never whether you’re winning. It’s how to win the most chips, and that depends on how you made the hand and what the board lets your opponents have.

Step 1: check the two threats

Only two hands can beat four of a kind that uses one of your hole cards, and the board shows whether either is possible:

• A straight flush needs at least three suited cards on the board within a five-card span, like the 8♦ 7♦ next to the trips in 9♥ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 9♣.
• Higher quads need a second, higher pair or three of a kind on the board that an opponent could complete, like the kings on 9♠ 9♦ K♣ K♦ 2♥, which pocket kings turn into four kings.

If neither is on the board, nothing can beat you. Even when one is, the chance that a particular opponent holds it is tiny: one hand in 990 for the higher quads above, three hands in 990 for the straight flushes.

Step 2: flopped quads with a pocket pair

Flopping four of a kind with a pocket pair, like 7♠ 7♥ on 7♦ 7♣ K♠, is the hardest version to get paid with. The board is paired, which makes opponents cautious, and most of them have almost nothing. Counting every hand one opponent could hold on that flop:

Opponent’s flop hand on 7♦ 7♣ K♠ (you hold 7♠ 7♥)	Combinations	Share
Full house (K♥ K♦, K♥ K♣, K♦ K♣)	3	0.3%
Two pair (a king with any other card, or another pocket pair)	198	18.3%
Only the board’s pair of sevens	880	81.4%
All holdings	1,081	100%

Exact over every two-card hand from the 47 unseen cards, with a hand evaluator by TopSitesPoker.com.

More than four in five opponent hands have nothing but the board pair, and there’s nothing they can do about it on this flop. Only pocket kings catching the last king, or rare runner-runner cards such as two more spades around the K♠ for a straight flush, can hurt you, so many players check or bet small here, giving opponents a chance to pair their card or to bluff, and build the pot on later streets. An opponent holding a king is the one you most want: with two pair or better, they’ll often call several streets.

Step 3: one-card quads on a board with trips

When your single hole card completes four of a kind with trips on the board, the situation flips. Every opponent has at least three of a kind, and anyone with a pocket pair or a card matching the board has a full house. These hands pay well, so bet them for value, and raise when you can. Players holding the case card are rare, so opponents with full houses often assume they’re good.

Step 4: when four of a kind is on the board

Here the kicker is everything. If you hold the best possible kicker, you have the nuts and should bet. If your best card is below the board’s fifth card, you can only split or lose, so avoid building a big pot. The section on board quads above has the numbers.

Before the flop: pocket pairs are for sets, not quads

A pocket pair flops a set or better about once in 8.5 flops, and makes four of a kind by the river only about once in 119 hands played to the river. The four of a kind is a rare bonus. Small and medium pairs are worth playing because a set wins big pots against strong one-pair hands and overpairs, not because of the occasional quads.

Could Your Opponent Have Four of a Kind?

The other side of the hand matters too. When you hold a full house and the board gives an opponent a chance at quads, how worried should you be? The board tells you exactly which cards they’d need, and simple counting tells you how often a random hand holds them:

Board (you hold neither card they need)	What an opponent needs for quads	One opponent holds it	Any of eight opponents holds it
A pair, such as 7♦ 7♣ K♠ 4♥ 2♣	The other two sevens, as a pocket pair	1 in 990 (0.10%)	1 in 124 (0.81%)
Two pair, such as 9♠ 9♦ K♣ K♦ 2♥	Pocket nines or pocket kings	1 in 495 (0.20%)	1 in 62 (1.6%)
Three of a kind, such as 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ K♦ 4♠	The last nine, with any other card	2 in 45 (4.4%)	16 in 45 (35.6%)
Four of a kind	Nothing: everyone has it	100%	100%

Exact, before accounting for how opponents have played the hand: 45 unseen cards, each opponent holding two of them. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Paired boards are far less dangerous than they feel: a specific opponent holds the exact pocket pair for quads only once in 990 hands. Boards with three of a kind are different. The case card is a single card, and any hand containing it has four of a kind, so against a full table of players who all reached the river, it’s out there more than a third of the time.

These are starting points, not answers. Real opponents who put a lot of money into the pot on a board with trips are more likely than a random hand to hold the case card, while an opponent who checks and calls is less likely. If you hold the case card yourself, or can see it, nobody can have quads in that rank, and your full house is much safer.

Full house against quads

Full house against four of a kind is the classic cooler, and it’s the losing hand in many bad-beat jackpots. It usually happens on exactly the boards in the table above: a player with a pocket pair or a matching card makes a big full house on a board with trips or two pair, and the one opponent holding the case card or the right pocket pair has quads. When the pot is large and the action heavy on a board like that, even a very strong full house deserves a moment’s thought.

Four of a Kind in Other Games

Four of a kind ranks third in every standard high-hand game, but how often it appears, and whether the kicker can matter, changes from game to game.

Omaha

In Omaha, you must use exactly two of your four hole cards and three board cards. That leaves two ways to make four of a kind: a pocket pair with a matching pair on the board, or one card matching three of a kind on the board, with another hole card as the kicker. Four of a kind on the board plays for nobody. Even so, the extra hole cards make quads far more common: a player who sees the river can make four of a kind about once in 208 hands (whether or not you require it to be the player’s best hand), almost three times as often as in Hold’em. Because quads are more common in Omaha, so are the coolers where quads meet higher quads or a straight flush.

Short Deck (6+ Hold’em)

Short Deck removes the 2s through 5s, leaving nine ranks. Quads become about three times as common: 1 in 1,309 five-card hands and about once in 187 hands played to the river. Four of a kind still ranks below the straight flush and above the flush and full house, even though Short Deck reverses those two (a flush beats a full house there).

Seven Card Stud

A Stud player who stays to seventh street makes four of a kind with the same frequency as a Hold’em player who sees the river, 1 in 595. There are no shared cards, so two players can’t have the same four of a kind and the kicker never matters. Watch the up cards: if you can see a card of some rank anywhere outside an opponent’s hand, that opponent can’t have four of a kind in that rank.

Five Card Draw

You’re dealt four of a kind once in 4,165 hands. The draw helps only when you’re already close:

You hold	You draw	Chance of four of a kind	About once in
Three of a kind	2 cards	4.26%	23.5
Three of a kind plus a kicker	1 card	2.13%	47
One pair	3 cards	0.28%	360
Two pair	1 card	0%	Never

Exact over every possible draw from the 47 unseen cards. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com.

Lowball games

In deuce-to-seven lowball and in ace-to-five games like Razz, where the lowest hand wins, pairs count against you, and four of a kind is one of the worst hands you can hold.

Wild-card games

With jokers or deuces wild, four of a kind is much easier to make, and five of a kind becomes possible. Many house rules rank five of a kind as the best hand; some rank a natural four of a kind above one made with a wild card. Agree on the rankings before the first deal.

Video poker

On a full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better machine, four of a kind pays 25 for 1 and comes about once in 423 hands with optimal strategy, supplying about 5.9 percentage points of the game’s 99.5% long-run return. Bonus games pay much more for some quads and even pay extra for the kicker: on 9/6 Double Double Bonus, four aces with a 2, 3 or 4 kicker pay 400 for 1, four aces with any other kicker 160, four 2s, 3s or 4s with an ace-to-four kicker 160, other four 2s to 4s 80, and four fives through kings 50.

That raises a natural question: when you’re dealt three of a kind and a possible kicker, should you keep the kicker? We worked out the average return of both options, counting every possible draw:

Game	Dealt hand	Hold three of a kind, draw two	Hold three of a kind and the kicker, draw one	Best play
9/6 Jacks or Better	7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣ 2♦	4.30	3.85	Discard the kicker
9/6 Double Double Bonus	A♠ A♥ A♦ 2♣ K♦	12.49	11.83	Discard the kicker
9/6 Double Double Bonus	3♠ 3♥ 3♦ A♣ K♦	7.46	6.72	Discard the kicker
9/6 Double Double Bonus	7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣ 2♦	5.37	4.38	Discard the kicker

Average coins returned per coin bet at maximum coins, exact over every possible draw. Jacks or Better pays 800, 50, 25, 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1; Double Double Bonus pays as described above, with 9 for a full house, 6 for a flush, 4 for a straight, 3 for three of a kind and 1 for two pair or jacks or better. Calculated by TopSitesPoker.com; pay tables and the four-of-a-kind frequency are from the Wizard of Odds.

Drawing two cards doubles your chance of four of a kind, from 1 in 47 to 1 in 23.5, while keeping about the same chance of a full house (6.1% against 6.4%). Even in Double Double Bonus, where the right kicker can multiply a four-aces payout, keeping three of a kind alone returned more in every case we computed.

Showdown, Promotions and Bad-Beat Jackpots

At showdown

• Show all your cards. Cards speak, so four of a kind wins even if you call it a full house. Under the TDA rules and in most cardrooms, you must show all your hole cards face up to win any part of the pot, and that includes playing four of a kind on the board.
• Read the kicker when quads are on the board. The dealer awards the pot to the best kicker, but check it yourself: the difference between “split” and “lose” is often a single card in someone’s hand.
• Keep your cards out of the muck. Under TDA rules, cards are dead once the dealer pushes them into the muck or they can no longer be identified and retrieved, and most rooms work the same way.
• Don’t slow roll, and don’t miscall on purpose. Taking your time to show a hand you know is best is poor etiquette, and deliberately announcing the wrong hand to get an opponent to muck can be penalized under TDA rules and in most cardrooms.

High-hand promotions

In cardrooms that run high-hand promotions, four of a kind is often good enough to win, though a straight flush or royal flush beats it. The conditions vary: many promotions require both hole cards to play, which rules out four of a kind made with one hole card, 4 in 7 of all Hold’em quads, and four of a kind on the board, another 1 in 7. Only pocket-pair quads, 2 in 7, meet a strict both-cards rule. Some rooms also set a minimum pot or rank, and the floor usually has to verify the hand before the cards are mixed. Read the posted rules before you play.

Bad-beat jackpots

Bad-beat jackpots pay when a very strong hand loses at showdown, and four of a kind is often the key hand. Many jackpots use a losing four of a kind (sometimes of a minimum rank) or a high full house as the qualifying hand, and many require both of the losing player’s hole cards to play. The details vary widely, so check the posted rules.

The numbers show why these jackpots can grow so large. Even with every player seeing the river, four of a kind loses to higher quads about once in 134,000 nine-handed deals and to a straight flush about once in 91,000. Heads-up, the two together happen about once in two million deals. In real games, most hands never reach the river, so qualifying beats are rarer still.

Common Four of a Kind Mistakes

Four of a kind is easy to recognize, so the mistakes are mostly about kickers, Omaha rules and how the hand is played.

Mistake	Example	What’s actually true
Thinking board quads are always a split	Board 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ 5♥; you hold K♣ Q♣ against A♣ 2♦	The best kicker wins; the ace takes the whole pot
Thinking a kicker helps when your quads use a hole card	“My four nines have an ace kicker, so I’m safe”	Nobody else can hold your four nines; only higher quads or a straight flush can beat you
Folding a board four of a kind	Board A♠ 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ 8♣ facing a bet	With an ace on the board, everyone splits; you can’t lose
Calling a full house “quads”	9♥ 9♣ on 9♠ K♣ K♦ K♥ 2♥	Your hand is kings full of nines; the K♠ makes four kings
Using four board cards in Omaha	A♠ A♥ in hand, 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ on the board	You can use only three board cards: sevens full of aces
Using one hole card with a board pair in Omaha	9♠ in hand, 9♦ 9♣ on the board, no second nine in hand	You need both remaining nines in hand, or three nines on the board
Ignoring a straight flush board	Quad nines on 9♥ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 9♣	J♦ 10♦, 10♦ 6♦ and 6♦ 5♦ all beat you
Betting flopped quads so hard that everyone folds	Overbetting 7♠ 7♥ on 7♦ 7♣ K♠	81% of opponent hands have only the board pair; give them a chance to catch up
Playing small pairs “for quads”	Calling big raises with 2♣ 2♦	Quads come about once in 119 hands to the river; pairs are played for sets
Keeping a kicker with three of a kind in video poker	Holding 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣	Drawing two doubles your quads chance; in 9/6 Jacks or Better it returns 4.30 against 3.85
Assuming quads qualify for every promotion	One-card quads under a “both hole cards must play” rule	Only pocket-pair quads, 2 in 7 of all Hold’em quads, meet that rule

The most expensive of these is the first one. When four of a kind is on the board, it’s a kicker contest, and your pair of face cards is only as good as the highest card anyone else is holding.

Test Yourself: Four of a Kind Quiz

Ten questions on reading, comparing and playing four of a kind. Decide before you read the answer. Every hand was checked with a hand evaluator.

#	Question	Answer	Why
1	Which wins: four threes with an ace kicker, or four fours with a deuce kicker?	Four fours	The rank of the four decides first; the kicker only matters between identical quads
2	Hold’em: the board is 6♠ 6♥ 6♦ 6♣ Q♠. You hold A♥ 2♣; your opponent holds K♦ K♣. Who wins?	You do	Both have four sixes; your ace kicker beats their king
3	Hold’em: the board is 6♠ 6♥ 6♦ 6♣ A♠. You hold K♥ K♣; your opponent holds 3♠ 2♠. Who wins?	Split pot	The board’s ace is the best possible kicker, so both play it
4	Hold’em: you hold J♠ J♥ and the board is J♦ 5♣ 5♠ 5♥ 2♦. What do you have?	A full house, jacks full of fives	Three jacks and two fives; any opponent holding the 5♦ has four fives
5	Omaha: you hold K♠ K♥ 9♦ 2♣ and the board is K♦ K♣ 7♠ 4♥ 3♥. What do you have?	Four kings	Two kings from your hand, two from the board, plus one more board card
6	Omaha: you hold 7♠ A♥ Q♦ J♣ and the board is 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ K♠ 2♥. What do you have?	Four sevens with an ace kicker	Your 7♠ and A♥ with the board’s three sevens
7	Omaha: you hold A♠ A♥ 5♦ 2♣ and the board is 9♠ 9♥ 9♦ 9♣ K♠. What do you have?	A full house, nines full of aces	You can use only three of the board’s nines; nobody has four of a kind
8	Hold’em: how often does a pocket pair make four of a kind by the river?	About once in 119 hands	It needs both remaining cards of its rank on the board; other hands manage it once in 794
9	Of all four of a kinds in Hold’em, what share use just one hole card?	4 in 7, about 57%	Two in seven use a pocket pair and one in seven is on the board
10	9/6 Jacks or Better: you’re dealt 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣ 2♦. Keep the king?	No, draw two	Holding the three sevens returns about 4.30 coins per coin bet against 3.85 with the king

Questions 2, 3 and 7 are the ones to remember for the table: with four of a kind on a Hold’em board, look at kickers; on an Omaha board, remember that nobody has it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is four of a kind in poker?

Four of a kind is a hand with all four cards of one rank plus any fifth card, the kicker, such as Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 7♦. It’s often called “quads.” It ranks third in standard poker, below the royal flush and straight flush and above the full house.

What beats four of a kind?

Only a straight flush, a royal flush or a higher four of a kind. When two players have the same four of a kind, which in Hold’em means it’s on the board, the higher kicker wins.

Does four of a kind beat a full house?

Yes, always. Four of a kind is much rarer: a full house is about six times as common in five-card hands and more than 15 times as common in seven-card hands.

Does a straight flush beat four of a kind?

Yes. Any straight flush, even the lowest, 5-4-3-2-A suited, beats any four of a kind, including four aces.

What are the odds of getting four of a kind?

1 in 4,165 in a five-card hand. In Texas Hold’em, a player who sees every card has four of a kind about once in 1,388 hands by the turn and once in 595 by the river. It’s 1 in 595 in Seven Card Stud too, about 1 in 208 in Omaha and about 1 in 187 in Short Deck Hold’em.

What are the odds of making four of a kind with a pocket pair?

About 1 in 119 by the river if you see every card, or 0.84%. You flop four of a kind about once in 408 flops, and with a set on the flop you complete four of a kind by the river 4.26% of the time, about once in 23.5.

Does the kicker matter with four of a kind?

Only when two players share the same four cards, which in Hold’em happens when all four are on the board. Then each player’s best other card, from their hand or the board, is the kicker, and the higher one wins. If your quads use one or both of your hole cards, nobody else can have the same four of a kind, and your kicker can’t matter.

What happens when four of a kind is on the board?

In Hold’em, every player still in the hand has it, and the pot goes to the best kicker. If nobody can beat the board’s fifth card, everyone splits. Heads-up, about 30% of these hands end in a split on average, from 100% when the fifth card is an ace to under 10% when it’s a low card. In Omaha, four of a kind on the board plays for nobody, because each player must use exactly two hole cards.

Can two players both have four of a kind?

Yes, in two ways. With four of a kind on the board, everyone has it and the kicker decides. Or the board can give two players different quads, such as 9♥ 9♣ and K♥ K♠ on 9♠ 9♦ K♣ K♦ 2♥, where the higher four of a kind wins. Heads-up, that second case happens only about once in 4.8 million deals.

What’s the best four of a kind?

Four aces. Quads are ranked from aces down to deuces, and four aces beat every other four of a kind. They still lose to any straight flush.

How many ways are there to make four of a kind?

There are 13 fours of a kind, one per rank, and 624 different five-card hands containing one, because each can come with any of the other 48 cards. In seven cards, each rank appears as four of a kind in 17,296 hands, 224,848 in all.

Can four of a kind lose?

Rarely. Quads that use at least one of your hole cards lose only to higher quads or a straight flush: heads-up, they win about 99.98% of the time, and at a nine-handed table with everyone seeing the river about 99.86%. Four of a kind on the board is different, because it becomes a kicker contest you can easily lose.

Can you make four of a kind in Omaha with one card?

Yes, if the board has three of that rank: you use your one card, another hole card as the kicker, and the board’s three. With only a pair on the board, you need the other two cards of that rank in your hand. With four on the board, nobody can make it.

What are the odds of flopping four of a kind?

With a pocket pair, about 1 in 408 flops. With any other hand, about 1 in 9,800, since you need three cards of one of your ranks on the flop. Over all starting hands, a player has four of a kind after the flop about once in 4,165 hands.

Why is four of a kind called quads?

“Quads” refers to the four matching cards, the way “trips” or a “set” refers to three. Players use it constantly, as in “quad aces” or “I flopped quads.” You’ll also hear the rank alone, such as “four sevens.”

Does four of a kind qualify for bad-beat jackpots?

Many bad-beat jackpots use a losing four of a kind, or a high full house, as the qualifying hand, but the rules vary by room. The beats themselves are rare: at a nine-handed table with everyone seeing the river, four of a kind loses to higher quads about once in 134,000 deals and to a straight flush about once in 91,000.

Four of a Kind: Quick-Reference Summary

Question	Answer
What it is	All four cards of one rank plus a kicker
How many exist	13 ranks; 624 five-card hands
Rank	Third: beats a full house; loses to a straight flush or royal flush
Comparing two	Higher rank wins; identical quads (board quads) go to the best kicker; equal kickers split
Odds in five cards	1 in 4,165
Odds by the Hold’em river	1 in 595 (1 in 1,388 by the turn)
Pocket pair / other hands	About 1 in 119 / 1 in 794 by the river
How Hold’em quads are made	One hole card 4 in 7; pocket pair 2 in 7; on the board 1 in 7
Set on the flop to quads	4.26% by the river
Board quads, heads-up	Split about 30% on average; 100% with an ace as the fifth card
Someone at a nine-handed table (all to the river)	About once in 76 deals
Quads with a hole card, heads-up	Win about 99.98%
Omaha / Short Deck	About 1 in 208 / 1 in 187; Omaha board quads play for nobody
Video poker (9/6 Jacks or Better)	Pays 25 for 1, about once in 423 hands; with trips, draw two

About This Guide

This guide uses the standard poker hand rankings used in casinos, cardrooms and online, and the TDA 2026 rules (version 1.0, September 7, 2026) where showdown procedure is concerned. House rules, especially on wild cards, Short Deck, promotions and jackpots, vary, and the rules of the room or site where you play always apply.

Every probability except the video poker frequency was produced by the TopSitesPoker.com editorial team rather than copied from other sources:

• Exact counts: five-, six- and seven-card counts over all 2,598,960, 20,358,520 and 133,784,560 hands; starting-hand, street and route figures over all 2,809,475,760 combinations of two hole cards and five board cards; Omaha over all 463,563,500,400 combinations of four hole cards and five board cards; Short Deck over all 376,992 five-card and 8,347,680 seven-card hands; the board-quads kicker figures over every pair of opponent hands; and every example, draw and opponent-holding figure over all possible remaining cards.
• Simulations: the table-size and win-loss figures for two to ten players come from 500,000,000 to 4,000,000,000 simulated deals per table size, with every player seeing the river; the heads-up cooler figures, the quads-over-quads column and the board-quads outcomes are exact.
• Video poker: the hold values are exact over every possible draw. The four-of-a-kind frequency under optimal 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy, its share of the return and the Double Double Bonus pay table are published figures from the Wizard of Odds.
• Evaluator checks: every example, look-alike hand, comparison and quiz answer was verified with a hand evaluator, with Omaha hands evaluated using exactly two hole cards and three board cards.

Hold’em, Omaha and Stud figures assume every hand is played to the end. Real players fold often, so four of a kind, and the coolers around it, appear less often in real games than these figures suggest.

The Bottom Line

Four of a kind is four cards of one rank plus a kicker, the third-best hand in poker. Higher quads beat lower ones, and the kicker only matters in the one situation where two players share the same four cards: four of a kind on a Hold’em board. There, the fifth card decides everything, and the pot is split far less often than most players assume.

The numbers put the hand in perspective. A Hold’em player sees four of a kind by the river about once in 595 hands, a pocket pair about once in 119, and most quads use just one hole card. Quads made with your own cards almost never lose, so the skill is in getting paid: patience when you’ve flopped quads on a quiet paired board, big bets when board trips have given your opponents full houses, and a careful look at the kicker whenever all four cards are on the board.