A boat in poker is a slang term for a full house : any five‑card hand made of three cards of one rank plus two cards of another rank (three of a kind + a pair).

Quick definition

  • A boat = a full house.
  • Structure:
    • Three cards of the same rank (for example, K-K-KK\text{-}K\text{-}KK-K-K).
* Two cards of another rank (for example, Q-QQ\text{-}QQ-Q).
  • Example: K-K-K-Q-QK\text{-}K\text{-}K\text{-}Q\text{-}QK-K-K-Q-Q is “kings full of queens,” which is a boat.

How strong is a boat?

  • A boat is a very strong made hand in most poker variants that use five‑card hand rankings, like Texas Hold’em and Omaha.
  • It only loses to:
    • Four of a kind
    • Straight flush
    • Royal flush

Common phrases at the table

  • Players often say things like:
    • “I’ve got a boat” → they have a full house.
* “Full boat” or “boated up on the river” → they completed a full house on the last card.

Why people care about boats

  • Boats win many big pots because opponents may have strong but worse hands like flushes or straights.
  • In casual and home games, “boat” is more common slang, while in more formal or instructional contexts people usually just say full house.

TL;DR: In poker, a boat = a full house = three of a kind plus a pair in the same five‑card hand.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.