In the link to Robert's Rules in the FAQ, it says this:

"A tie is broken by position, with the player who received cards first acting first."

However, I know it also common to settle a tie by suits with spades being highest then hearts, diamonds, then clubs are the lowest.

The latter method seems more confusing in later rounds when there are more cards and possibly pairs on board. (for example who acts first between As 2c 2h and Ac 2s 2d ??) However, it is quoted in many places as being the rule.

I'm writing a poker computer game and need to know this for sure.

Thanks!

Ties are only broken by suit in stud on 3rd street. On all other streets ties are broken by the first-dealt-cards rule.

So it is. That's indeed what it says in Robert's Rules as well. I should learn to read better, or not stay up til 3 AM programming before reading... either one.

that and when they draw for the button at the start of a game is the only time they use suits in standard poker.

Just to confirm... I've not seen it, but I don't play a lot of stud live... But does this mean two people with, say, ace-high flushes, chop the pot and not some other sort of silliness with suits?

Suits do NOT help determine the winner in Stud high or Stud8, but with regards to flushes, RANK does help determine a winner. So if player 1 shows AK965 for his/her best 5 cards, and Player 2 shows AK972 for his/her best 5 cards, then player 2 wins because his/her first 3 cards match player 1 in rank and the 4th card is higher in rank.

In reality, this stud/stud8 dabbler may have gone to the 3rd card once or twice, but that's as far as it has gone.

Now that you mention it, I HAVE seen that in a live stud game... thx

so is it better to sit in seat 8?

Probably. It's strange that it absolutely never seems to be a concern/issue. I've never noticed anybody try to avoid an early seat and most stud players I know sit in the middle if presented with an empty table.

Sitting in the 3 seat of a HORSE game last night, and straining my eyes (20/20 with correction) to see Seat 8's upcards, I get the "sitting in the middle thing".

And I never even considered this issue in stud until now. I'll probably sit closer to the 8 seat from now on. But it's only a small advantage on 4th at least, you'll match hands heads up about 0.7% of the time (ignoring hand selection and matching pairs; 9/1225). Probably closer to 1.5% (pure estimate) if you consider what you tend to fold.

suits dont matter and do not come into play for determining a winning hand.

if say low card brings it in then if two people have the same low card then the suit matters who is considered low.

I don't understand why it doesn't always go by rank and then suit on all streets instead of just 3rd. Going by seat makes no sense, when else does your seat # ever matter in poker rules?

Good luck getting a dealer and all the players to figure this out in under 10 minutes reliably. This comes up Very Very Rarely, so rarely that I frankly don't even give a damn.

it is just a throwback to old rules where the games were mostly small stakes and it made it less confusing.
plus it is one of those things that can go good for you as well as the other way so no big deal.

I agree that it's not a big deal, but once you figure out that two players have the same hand is it really that hard to figure out who has the the highest suit rank on their highest card?