Trips is modern poker slang for a hand of three cards of the same rank. It means exactly the same as three of a kind, which is the more common and more official name. Any mix of suits will do, as long as the three ranks match.
In community-card games such as Texas Hold’em, each player has only two hole cards, so trips always involve at least one card from the board. Many players use “trips” specifically when the board shows a pair and they hold the third card, and say “set” when a pocket pair meets one matching board card; the difference matters because a set is much harder for opponents to spot.
Trips in house-banked games
The word also appears in casino poker variants. Ultimate Texas Hold’em, for example, has a side bet called Trips that pays for three of a kind or better, so check each version’s paytable when choosing table games.