Tie-Breaking Almost Identical Hands

Breaking the Tie

Not always are the hand rankings of players clearly the winning one; thus it is essential to know the ways to break ties to win the pot. In most of the cases, when two players are having almost identical hand rankings, the highest rank card is considered and it can proceeded to next highest card till the tie is broken. For instance, if player 1 has K♦ K♣ Q♦ 9♥ 2♠ and if player 2 has K♠ K♥ 9♠ 7♦ 4♦ then player 1 is the winner as queen is the higher rank when compared to 9. The card that is present next to the “made hand” (in this case, the pair of kings) is the “kicker” card which decides the winner of tie breaking. Thus a pair of Kings with a Queen kicker will beat a pair of Kings with a Nine kicker.

For Different Hand Rankings

The same rule stands good for other hand rankings where the possibility of identical cards is high if community cards and wild cards are included. For instance, in case of Five of a Kind hand ranking, more than one player can have five cards of same kind. In this case, the person with the cards of highest rank will win the pot.

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