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tiebreakers

TieBreakers for Poker


For Illustrated Poker Hands and Rankings, Click Here.

 
 

Tie Breakers for Poker Hands:

  1. Royal Flush

  2. Straight Flush

  3. 4 of a Kind

  4. Full House

  5. Flush

  6. Straight

  7. 3 of a Kind

  8. Two Pair

  9. One Pair

  10. High Card 

What happens when you and another player both hold flushes?  Does a hearts flush beat a clubs flush?  What about other hands of identical rank?  How are poker tie breakers determined?  

Usually it is the highest card not being held in common (the kicker) that determines the winner,  but sometimes a kicker card comes into play, and sometimes it doesn't.  Explanations of poker hand tiebreakers are supplied below.  (GotToGet's editor is a recreational poker player who has been involved in the online poker industry since its inception in 1999. If you disagree with any of his conclusions below or would like to contribute comments of your own, email editor@gottoget.com.) 

The most important factors to remember when determining a tie breaker in poker are:

  1. The suit does not matter.  Hearts do not beat diamonds and clubs do not beat spades and so forth.  There is no strength factor in the suits. 

  2. Only five cards can be used in any poker hand, including the card used for the tiebreaker.   

Royal Flush: A Royal Flush is the highest hand in poker. Between two royal flushes, there can be no tie breaker.  If two players have Royal Flushes, they split the pot.  The odds of this happening though are about equivalent to that of winning the lottery, unless the royal lands on the table (community cards) in a game of Texas Holdem.
 

Straight Flush: Staright flushes come in varying strengths from five high to a king high.   A King high Straight Flush loses only to a royal.  If more than one player has a straight flush, the winner is the player with the highest card used in the straight.  A queen high straight flush beats a jack high and a jack high beats a ten high and so on.  The suit does never comes into play - a nine high straight flush of diamonds will split the pot with a nine high straight flush in clubs.
 

Four of a Kind: This one is simple, four Aces beats any other four of a kind, four Kings beats four queens or less and so on. The only tricky part of a tie breaker with four of a kind is when the four falls on the table in a game of Texas holdem and is therefore shared between two (or more) players. A kicker can be used, however if the fifth community card is higher than any card held by any player still in the hand, then the hand is considered a tie and the pot is split.
 

Full House:  When two or more players have full houses, we look first at the strength of the three of a kind to determine the winner.  For example, Aces full of deuces (AAA22) beats Kings full of Jacks (KKKJJ).  If there are three of a kind on the table (community cards) in a Texas Holdem game that are used by two or more players to make a full house, then we would look at the strength of the pair to determine a winner.
 

Flush: A flush is any hand with five cards of the same suit. If two or more players hold a flush, the flush with the highest card wins. If more than one player has the same strength high card, then the strength of the second highest card held wins. This continues through the five highest cards in the player's hands.
 

Straight: A straight is any five cards in sequence, but not necessarily of the same suit. If more than one player has a straight, the straight ending in the card wins. If both straights end in a card of the same strength, the hand is tied.
 

3 of a Kind: If more than one player holds three of a kind, then the higher value of the cards used to make the three of kind determines the winner. If two or more players have the same three of a kind, then a fourth card (and a fifth if necessary) can be used as kickers to determine the winner.
  

Two Pair: The highest pair is used to determine the winner. If two or more players have the same highest pair, then the highest of the second pair determines the winner.  If both players hold identical two pairs, a fifth card can be used to break the tie.
 

One Pair: If two or more players hold a single pair, then highest pair wins. If the pairs are of the same value, the highest kicker card determines the winner. A second and even third kicker can be used if necessary.
 

When no player has even a pair, then the highest card wins. When both players have identical high cards, the next highest card wins, and so on until five cards have been used. In the unusual circumstance that two players hold the identical five cards, the pot would be split.

 

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