How to Determine the Winning Poker Hand

By: Sean Lind

When playing poker with your family or friends, one of the things you're going to need to know is how to determine the winning hand in all scenarios.

Before we go any further, first you need to memorize or print out the order of poker hands.

Once you know that a flush beats a straight and three of a kind beats two pair, you're off to a good start.

The majority of poker hands are simple to determine a winner from.

If one player has a flush, and no one else has a flush or better, it doesn't take much thought to figure out who's the winner.

It's once things get a little bit more complicated that people start to get confused. First, you want to remember these rules of poker hands:

You must make the best hand possible using exactly five cards
All five cards are used in deciding the strength of the hand
No cards outside of the best five have any bearing on the strength of the hand

If you're playing Texas Hold'em poker, players are allowed to use any combination of cards from their hand and/or the board cards.

This means if the absolute best five-card hand a player can make is by using the five cards on the board, then that is his or her final hand (this is known as playing the board).

Some Common Areas of Confusion

Here's a quick rundown of a couple common areas of confusion, and how to resolve the winner:

Two Players (or More) Have a Flush

If more than one player has a flush, you award the pot to the player with the highest flush. This includes all five cards, for example:

Board:

Player 1:

Player 2:

In this scenario, Player 1 wins the pot. The reason is that when you look at all five cards, Player 1 has the higher flush:

Player 1:

Player 2:

All the cards are the same, until the final fifth card. Since 7♦ is higher than 6♦, Player1 wins the entire pot.

If instead of the 2♠ on the board, that card was the T♦, both players would have the same flush (playing the board) and the pot would be split.

Two Players Have Two Pairs

When two players have two pairs, it can sometimes be confusing for people to know who won.

Take this example:

Board:

Player 1:

Player 2:

In this scenario, Player1 wins the entire pot. Two pair is always ranked by the value of the highest pair first, and only if that pair is the same for both players do you rank by the second pair.

If both of two pairs are identical, it will be the kicker that will decide the winner (the highest-value fifth card is the kicker).

In this scenario because the two paired on the river, Player 1 has two pair - A♦ A♣ 2♠ 2♣ with the kicker K♦.

Player 2 has the lower two pair - K♦ K♥ Q♠ Q♥ with the kicker 3♥. Aces are higher than kings, so Player 1 wins the entire pot.

Who Wins?

Board:

Player 1:

Player 2:

Take a second to figure it out. This is a very bad beat, as once the river falls both players now have four of a kind with nines.

Only Player 1, who up until this point had nothing special, has the highest kicker with an ace.

Even though Player 2 flopped a full house - K♠ K♣ K♦ 9♠ 9♣ - once the fourth nine fell, he was now playing four-of-a-kind nines with a king kicker.

Player 1 wins the whole pot.

The Omaha Rule

The rules in determining the best hand in Omaha are exactly the same as in Texas Hold'em with one additional rule:

Every player must make the best five-card hand using exactly two cards from his hand (you're dealt four cards in Omaha) and three cards from the board.

This means that if there are four hearts on the board and you only have one in your hand you do not have a flush.

You must always use exactly two cards from your hand.

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Comments

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Lee
2012-02-07

Player 1 ... J, A

Player 2 ... J, 4

Board ...... J,5,5,K,2

Must the K be used as the kicker for both or does each player pick their kicker independently?

Thanks,
Lee
Hrishikesh
2012-01-14

Sorry For earlier one..

If one player has 2 J , Player 2 has 10,6 & table has JQKA3 Who wins ?
Hrishikesh
2012-01-14

If one player has 2 J , Player 2 has 10,J,Q,A & table has JQKA3 Who wins ?
el 8ey
2012-01-06

Playing Omaha. Board KK AA 3. I have pair of 7 opponent has pair of 8 who wins
raymond
2012-01-01

Can a one pair of 7's beat a two pair of 5's & 4's?
D lewis
2011-11-30

If a player has a pair of 4's and the other player an ace and a 10. And the board has a pair of jacks, a pair of sixes and a 2 who whens the pot?
liz
2011-11-12

player 1 has a 10 and 6
player 2 has a 5 and 10
on the board is k 10 5 2 k
who wins
adam
2011-10-26

can you use a pair in a stright
let say
Player 1 had: 2 3
player 2 had: 3 6

4 5 K 2 Q
player one should lose because he has a pair and he can't use the 2 anymore right?
terrance
2011-10-21

the board is 2 queens 1 jack 1 nine 1 deuce
she have 2 jacks in her hand for a full house 3jacks and 2 queens
i have 1queen 1nine in mine for a full house 3 queens and 2 nines
berger man
2011-08-11

if its poker 6s on the board with a 2 a person has 2 tens and another has an ace and a four who win ?
anon
2011-08-08

Board: J 2 6 7 9
Hand 1: AA
Hand2: JA

Who wins?
bmac
2011-08-04

ok so in omaha I know that you HAVE to play two cards, but I thought you have to beat the board like in hold'em. I have looked and couldn't find info on this subject, for example I know in hold'em if a full house comes on the board and you do not have a playing card A A A K K and nobody has a playable card it is a split pot. However what if the board beats one of your cards in omaha? Here is the example in question that lead to quite and argument; board comes out K 7 7 Q 8 Player 1 plays the cards J J of his four cards player two (plays) 7 6 player 1 has 77's and JJ's K kicker player two has trip 7's KQ or trip 7's K 6? I thought that since the K Q and 8 are all higher then his 6 the 6 does not play. You help on clarification would be greatly appreciated
Xehpa
2011-07-28

Question
Board
5 5 Q Q J
Player 1
J 7
Player 2
A 2
Do you play the board and Ace high wins or that player 1 has the higher twonpairs???
Rita Pacchiana
2011-06-10

I play at pure play on linr I have question.Say 3 people go all in now the one that wins only has 2000 and I have 4000 and the other guy just called Now the guy with 2000 wins the hand I lost how come the guy that just went in to cover my 2000 gets the 2000 extra i lostSince when are there two winners in Hold em, Shouldn't I have gotten the 2000 over and the other guy get the 1000 over he bet cause the winner didnt bet the same amount ?
PokerListings.com
2011-04-22

@ Lori

Jacks and deuces beats sevens and nines. It has a higher pair.

@ logan

You have the best hand, two pair kings and tens. Your opponent has two pair jacks and tens.

@ pippy

The player with AdJd wins with two pair, aces and kings with a jack kicker.

@ Karen

Player one wins with his jack-high. Both players have the pair of sevens but the jack plays.

@ Joseph Wells

In Texas Hold'em you can never use an ace as a one.

@ AdZ

Player 1 wins with two-pair, queens and jacks with an ace-kicker.

@ Peter

With only five community cards in Texas Hold'em this can't happen. If it happens in another game then someone's stacking the deck. It will never happen to you ;)

@ Jeff

It looks to us like Player 5 has the best hand, a straight to the six.

Check out our "Which Hand Wins" Calculator to figure these out quickly and easily!
Jeff
2011-04-22

Here is my situation.

Community cards are
4H,6C,QC,3D,5S

Player 1 6H,JD
Player 2 9H,10H
Player 3 KS,4S
Player 4 9C,8S
Player 5 2H,8H
Player 6 5C,10S

Which player would win?
Sarah
2011-03-11

does 3 of a kine beat 2 pairs
trishannajones
2011-01-08

If the 5 cards showing is 34567 player 1 has 2, Q
Player 2 has 3, 10 player 3 had 6, J and player 4 has A, Q who wins
peter
2011-01-01

in royal flushes if 2 players both have one which suit wins?
AdZ
2010-12-24

who will win for this?

Player 1: A J

Player 2: 7 3

Cards flop: J Q Q
Cards Turn: 3
Cards River: 7

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