Poker Rule Question

blitzwing85

blitzwing85

blitzwing85

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Joined
11 Sep 2011
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Location
Reykjavik, Iceland
So we had a poker night at mine on Sat and although we've had a few this is the first time this came up. It happened 3 times in the end so I wondered if anyone could clarify the rule as I tried searching for it but didn't find much.


2 players have the same hand. Same straight, same pair, etc.
But 1 player has a higher card out of their 2 cards.

Cards drawn:
2, 3, 4, 8, K

Player 1:
2, Q

Player 2:
2, J


My opinion of this was that it's a split pot. The high card is not relevant once you have an actual hand. High card only comes into play when both players have nothing.

But my mates played the rule that High card counts and that player wins. Now I lost the first bet to my lass but the rule favored me twice later and I won overall but I wanted to clear it up for future games.
 
Can a Q be a Kicker?

If so then whoever had the Q shouldve one the pot.... I think!

Edit - Queen Kicker. Whoever had the Queen shouldve won the pot
 
Last edited:
It's one pair, then it goes to high card.

This works with other hands, so KKQQ7 will beat KKQQ5.

Look at the top 5 cards.
 
In texas hold 'em you always use the best combination of five cards.

In your scenario, in order of importance, their best hands are:

Player 1:
2, 2, K, Q, 8

Player 2:
2, 2, K, J, 8

A pair has 3 kickers, and Player 1 has the best kickers.
 
As people have stated -

In nearly all forms of poker its the best possible 5 card hand.

In the case of Texas Holdem - If a hand plays out to the river and the hands are shown, you have a possible 7 cards to utilise to make the best 5 card hand. You can't just assume you both have a pair of 2s therefore all other cards are dismissed; you must use 5 cards at all times, therefore as others have explained, your friend is correct.
 
Cheers for all the answers. That's cleared it up for me.

I haven't been playing that long and it has never came down to that before somehow even though it's likely quite common.

Those were not the cards we had just a random example but was a few instances where people had the exact same hand of two pairs or 1 pair or one 3 of a kind.

Using all 5 cards at all times makes it clear - should have thought of that.

Anyway, I lost that hand but won 2 more by that rule and maintained my 100% winning streak so all is good! lol.
My mates are actually awful at the game anyway. 1 of them just bets silly amounts too soon and once he's out the most cautious one is usually left with me and he is easy to bluff out of the game every time.

The other player is usually my partner so if she wins I still win. haha.


Been enjoying it more than I thought though it's a fun game. If I keep it up i'll play in Vegas in September. been 3 times but never played as i'd have looked like a right tool.
 
blitzwing85 said:
So we had a poker night at mine on Sat and although we've had a few this is the first time this came up. It happened 3 times in the end so I wondered if anyone could clarify the rule as I tried searching for it but didn't find much.


2 players have the same hand. Same straight, same pair, etc.
But 1 player has a higher card out of their 2 cards.

Cards drawn:
2, 3, 4, 8, K

Player 1:
2, Q

Player 2:
2, J


My opinion of this was that it's a split pot. The high card is not relevant once you have an actual hand. High card only comes into play when both players have nothing.

But my mates played the rule that High card counts and that player wins. Now I lost the first bet to my lass but the rule favored me twice later and I won overall but I wanted to clear it up for future games.
Click to expand...

2, Q wins

hand is pair of 2's with Q kicker

other player has J kicker so loses

both players share the K that is on the river so the best hand is made of 5 cards giving 2, Q the edge of 2, J
 
McGray said:
Ermmm there's no straight there....

Player with Q wins. Best 5 card hand innit.
Click to expand...

He knows that now. But why he asked a question about a straight then showed random cards, I've no idea. :confused:

Best 5 cards win, if both players have a straight ending on the same top card then the pot is halved, if one ends higher, simple, he wins.
 
Mr.E. said:
He knows that now. But why he asked a question about a straight then showed random cards, I've no idea. :confused:

Best 5 cards win, if both players have a straight ending on the same top card then the pot is halved, if one ends higher, simple, he wins.
Click to expand...

Apologies for the confusion, I didn't think about that when typing that part.
I wrote 'same straight, same pair etc' just to mean any hands that were the same but then if the high card came into play.

That sentence had nothing to do with the cards I then posted and I know there was no straight. I didn't mean there to be.

I just didn't realise the post was slightly ambiguous initially
 
Well you can't have same straight plus a kicker. A straight is 5 cards, so say one player has AQ, the other AK, and the board by the river is 2, 3, 4, 8, 5.

The best hand for both players is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 so it's a split pot. The Queens and Kings don't count as that would be 6 cards.
 
blitzwing85 said:
Apologies for the confusion, I didn't think about that when typing that part.
I wrote 'same straight, same pair etc' just to mean any hands that were the same but then if the high card came into play.

That sentence had nothing to do with the cards I then posted and I know there was no straight. I didn't mean there to be.

I just didn't realise the post was slightly ambiguous initially
Click to expand...

split pot then

P1 hold 4, K
P2 hold 4, J

Board holds

A, 2, 3, 5, 10

the best 5 cards available to both players is the A to 5 straight. Uses 5 cards thus no kickers involved, pot gets split. At least that is what I have observed when playing online at Poker Stars and when playing ring games in the casino
 
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