Hi everyone,

New to Poker and really love playing at Poker i will more enjoying with a better understanding.

There are three differents examples that i have been playing lately.

Game number 1

99Q46
Player A: KQ
PlayerB: Q6

I thought Q6 will win cause this a pair but turn out not really.
So I discovered the meaning of the 5 best cards and since i tried to calculate but I need your help to tell me what IÂ’m doing wrong.

KQ>>>> QQ 99 6
Q6>>>> QQ 9 66

So KQ win cause he has a pair of nine beat the pair of six is it right ?
____________________________

Game number 2

Q7684
Player A: A8
Player B: 86

A8>>>> Q 88 76
86>>>>>Q 88 66

Turn out that 86 won and when i calculated the 7 beats on of the 6 so should be A8 but not.

So why for the game number 1 K6 beat Q6 but for the game number 2 86 beat A8 ?
Totally lost

For me when you have a pair you won but differents games differents results.

Game number three

9AK25

Player A: A8
Player B: 5K

A8>>>> AA K 95
5K>>>>A KK 55
>>>> one the A beats one of the K and 9 beats one the double 5 so should be A8
Of course 5K because It’s a pair but again why not for the game 1 with Q6 ?


Thank you for the answers.

The first hand, the best 5 cards are:

KQ = QQ99K
Q6 = QQ996

They are both 2 pair, Queens and nines, the pair of 6s does not play. So the kicker plays, and the K is higher than the 6.

Second hand:

A8 = 88AQ7
86= 8866Q

The 8 and 6 both pair, so that hand is 2 pair, the A8 hand has only 1 pair. 2 pair beats 1 pair.

Third hand:

A8= AAK98
K5= KK55A

again, K5 has 2 pair and A8 has 1 pair. 2 pair is better than 1 pair.

Sounds like you need to learn the order of hands. We do not just list cards in rank order and highest card wins. That only is the case when the hand is the same, like one pair vs one pair or two pairs vs two pairs, etc.

A hand of AKQJ2 for example would lose to AKQ22, despite the first having a J as the fourth highest card vs a 2. Why? The second hand is a one pair hand while the first is a high card hand. ANY one pair hand beats any high card hand. In like manner any hand higher on the list of hands beats any lower hand

Straight flush
Four of a kind
Full house
Flush
Straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card

When picking the five best cards always try to make the highest hand on this list FIRST before picking the highest remaining cards. A board of 5678K when you hold A9, for example results in a hand of 56789; you don’t use the A or K. You beat KK (KKK87), or 44 (87654 - since you both have a straight, your 9 beats the opponents 8). You lose to T9 (6789T - same reason his T beats your 9)

Thank you so much for your answer help me so much to understand how to calcutate 5 best cards and with the two pairs about game number 1 too.

Do you mind help me for these please ?


Game A
6 10 6 10 3

Player A: Q5
Player B: 22

Q5 = 101066Q
22= 1010 22 6 OR 1010 66 2 ?

22 it's a double but not that's strong as 66 so i don't know if i have to count in 5 best cards...
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Game B
9 10 3 K K

Player A: 5Q
Player B: 66

Q5= KKQ109
66= 66KK10 ?
-------------------------------------------------
Game C

9 2 Q Q 9

Player A: J6
Player B: 77

J6= QQ 99 J
77= QQ 99 7 ? OR QQ 77 9 ? when we have a double does it count as strong cards too ?

Thank you too for your answer.
i do know the rank it's why i was surprised that Q6 lost to KQ and i discovered the 5 best cards rules.

Still a rookie but love this game

See my reply inline in BOLD

Also for ease of reading, a ten is commonly notated as T.

Player A wins with QQ99J which beats player B who has QQ997


Now I will add a question for you.

Board: A K Q J T (no possible flush)

Player A: AA
Player B: 32

Now you tell us who wins.

I think I see your issue. There is no such thing as a three pair hand since that would be six cards and we must pick five to make a hand. When faced with three pairs, you always pick the two highest pairs to make the best hand. Generally if there is a pair in the hand and two on the board, if both pairs on the board are higher, then the pair in the hand is worthless. It will get beat by someone without a pocket pair, but with a higher card. That’s why on a board like QQ665 someone with KJ would beat 44, but not 77. The player with no pair will obviously play the two pairs on the board. The player with 77 would play QQ776 as their hand, which beats QQ66K. The player with 44 would play QQ665, which is lower than QQ66K.

In general for two pairs we compare the higher pair first, then the lower pair of the higher pairs are the same, then the fifth unpaired card if both pairs are the same. Given that, who wins this one?

Board: KQ922. Player A: KQ. Player B: AA

Thank you so much for your answer. Now I get it with the double for the best cards.

A test ? love that

So both player win(split) cause the board is a straight. ( for this one I have to be honest I saw a similar question but with a flush on reedit)

Thank you too

Like that i will say AA cause the both beat KQ but let’s see

Player A: KKQQ9
Player B: AAKQ9

Is it correct ?

Correct

With the board of KQ922, and Player A: KQ. Player B: AA

Player A has AA22K and wins
Player B has KKQQ9

If those hands were correct then player A would win. Player A would have two pairs, player B has one pair in the hands you posted. You are correct that player B wins, but his hand is AA22K, which is two pairs, the higher pair (AA) being higher than player As higher pair (KK).

Had the board been KQ932 instead, then your hands posted would be correct and player A would win.

I know you didn't ask this question, but here is a situation that has confused some beginners (('ve read about people getting in big arguments about it).

It is when two people have a flush, and often, in particular when two people have an Ace high flush.

Board

As Ts 4s 5c 2c (so 3 spades on the board)

Player A: Qs J s -
Player B: 9s 8s -

They both have a flush, and in both cases it is Ace high (using the ace on the board). In this case you go to the 2nd card - so player A has a flush of AQJT4, player B has a flush of AT984. The Aces are the same, the Q is higher than the T - so player A has the higher flush. This also happens when the board is a flush:

Let's say AQ985 all spades.

If there are 2 players and they both have NO spades, it is a tie and they chop the pot. If they both have a spade higher than the 5 (or if one player does and the other doesn't), then the one with the higher spade wins. If they both have a spade lower than the 5, it is still a chop. In other words, you work your way down card by card until one person has a higher spade than the other, and that person wins. But is one has the 4 and the other has a 3 - the best 5 card flush is still AQ985 and the 4 and 3 don't matter.

Since I've been playing variations of poker since I was 12, I've never thought this was tricky or complicated. But I've come across enough people who don't understand that, that I realize it isn't obvious.

I hope this makes sense.

It took me about 10 mim to realize why i didn’t get the same result as you. I forgot about the 22 count as a pair so belong in the 5 cards. ><

Lately i have been playing and i got this.

Board= JKKJ8
Player A: A2
Player B: 99


So at first, I thought will be the player with the pair of 99 winning but not was player A, so I took a screenshot to calculate by myself.

Player A: KKJJA
Player B: KKJJ9

Correct ?

Thank you for your time and help

Yep, the 99 got counterfeited

I don’t mind at all and i really appreciate for that. Especially about the split thing that i was supposed to create a new post but there we go.

So i have a lot questions lol and wow you have been playing since 12 it’s so amazing I chose the good forum ^^ Have you played for tournaments ?

About the first example with flush i’m very surprise this is not a split or at least player A has a little more than player B. Is it tricky yes.

I have a few screenshot that need to check and come back to write if you don’t mind to look at it because sometimes the chop things it’s not very clear for me, i’ll try to do this tomorrow .

I remember a game we were 4 players and the board was a flush diamonds and i was the only one with a card with diamonds so I won and no chop pot. Like you explained. And it’s very good to know so thank you.


Sometimes when i have time i like watching GoPoker and it’s so amazing that they have the ability to see immediately when they win or not, it’s like automatically for them. For me it’s screenshot or pause and write to calculate


Thanks again

Once i did all-in with AA i lost so from now im careful.

AA not always a winner. Poker is all skills but all luck too

I have played poker since I was 12, but haven't played Holdem that long - when I first learned poker nobody knew anything about Holdem. I think I already had learned about hand rankings, but then I was at a friend's house and his dad taught us a bunch of different games. For many years I played a wide range of games that included a lot with split pots and a lot with wild cards. Usually the maximum bet was 25 cents, so you really couldn't bluff very successfully. But you definitely learned quickly how to recognize winning hands - when sometimes a royal flush would lose to 5 of a kind (because of the wild cards). Compared to those games, Holdem is very easy when it comes to determining what hands are possible and which hand wins. With time, this will become easy for you, too.

Thank you for sharing


I never heard of wild card neither of 5 of kind and I though royal flush was the top of the top. Poker is like a magician hat never stop to surprise me.

I have a few example of chop the pot.

Game 1

Board= 4 J A 5 2
Player A: Q3
Player B: 32

Player A: A2345
Player B: A2345

I thought Q will be determined the winner but no was split. Split for a Straight

Game 2

Board= 7 3 10 Q 3
Player A: 74
Player B: 76

Player A: Q10733
Player B: Q10733

Split for a Pair

Game 3

Board= 10 10 Q 9 q
Player A: 1010
Player B: 107

Player A: QQ101010
Player B: QQ101010

Split for a full house

The last two I donÂ’t understand at all and i was frustrated to not win all the pot because i got two flush.

Game 1

A♠️ 6♥️K♠️2♠️9♦️

Player1: A♦️5♣️
Player 2:9♠️7♠️

The pot (chips) was 29 916
Player 1 got 14 831 and player 2 (me) 15 085. Why ? I had a flush !


Game 2

5♥️7♣️8♥️9♥️J♠️

Player 1: 4♥️2♥️
Player 2: K♠️J♠️

Again i have a flush and there is split. The pot was 4332 player 1 (me) 1089 chips and player 2 3243 chips. Why ?

Thank you for sharing


I never heard of wild card neither of 5 of kind and I though royal flush was the top of the top. Poker is like a magician hat never stop to surprise me.

I have a few example of chop the pot.

Game 1

Board= 4 J A 5 2
Player A: Q3
Player B: 32

Player A: A2345
Player B: A2345

I thought Q will be determined the winner but no was split. Split for a Straight

Game 2

Board= 7 3 10 Q 3
Player A: 74
Player B: 76

Player A: Q10733
Player B: Q10733

Split for a Pair

Game 3

Board= 10 10 Q 9 q
Player A: 1010
Player B: 107

Player A: QQ101010
Player B: QQ101010

Split for a full house

The last two I donÂ’t understand at all and i was frustrated to not win all the pot because i got two flush.

Game 1

A♠️ 6♥️K♠️2♠️9♦️

Player1: A♦️5♣️
Player 2:9♠️7♠️

The pot (chips) was 29 916
Player 1 got 14 831 and player 2 (me) 15 085. Why ? I had a flush !


Game 2

5♥️7♣️8♥️9♥️J♠️

Player 1: 4♥️2♥️
Player 2: K♠️J♠️

Again i have a flush and there is split. The pot was 4332 player 1 (me) 1089 chips and player 2 3243 chips. Why ?

Sorry i posted the message twice

How much did you put in the pot?

If you were both all in, you can only win 1089 of his chips.

Some split pots that you described aren't actually split pots because both people have the same hand - they are pots with 2 winners, one for the main pot and the other for what is called the side pot (some times there are multiple side pots).

This has to do with all-in situations and multiple players putting in chips.

Suppose you have 4000 chips, player B has 4000 chips and player C has 2000 chips. All the money goes in the pot, so there is a total of 10000 chips in the pot.

If you have the best hand, all 10000 chips go to you. But what if Player C has the best hand? He can't win 4000 from you, because he only bet 2000, so 2000 is the most he can get from any one player. Since you both put in 2000 to match him, he can win that much from each of you. So he will win 6000. What happens to the other 4000 that is in the pot? It becomes a side pot, and goes to the best hand between you and player B.

So if C has a flush and you have a straight and B has two pair - C gets 6000, you get 4000 and B gets 0.

In the hands without the flush you got game 1 right, but messed up games 2 and 3 a bit. Game 2 you got the right result, it is a split, but you got the hands wrong. Both players have 7733Q for two pairs, not QT733. In game 3 you got the result wrong. They do not have the same hand. Player A has TTTTQ, which beats player B with TTTQQ - four of a kind vs full house.

If you were programming a computer to do this, you would have it check for the highest possible hand and then work its way down the hand rankings. That is, check for royal flush. No royal? Check for straight flush. No, then check for four of a kind, and so on until you find the hand you are checking for. That is the correct hand. You can implement this strategy when doing it yourself. For Hold em there are some shortcuts. If there are not three Broadway cards of the same suit on the board, a royal is not possible. Likewise if there are not three cards of the same suit that connect, a straight flush is impossible. If the board doesnÂ’t have three cards of one suit a flush is impossible.

Similarly if there are five different ranks on the board, four of a kind and full houses are not possible. Thus if you see suited boards, check for flushes. If the suited cards are connected check for straight flushes. If there is a pair on the board make sure to check for full houses and quads. Obviously that applies to boards with three of a rank as well. If there are four of a rank on the board we know the best hand will be four of a kind, you only have to compare kickers.

Just as an aside (and to show that this isnÂ’t only theoretical), probably the most unlikely hand I ever won came on a board like that. It was a live tourney and I got all in pre flop with AK vs an opponent with 77 (a perfectly standard play for both of us). Flop was 733 giving him a full house and making me almost dead. I was thinking only running aces or kings would help. The turn was not an ace or king, it was another 3. I actually stood up and started walking away from the table thinking I had no chance. Someone actually called me back and told me I won. I was shocked and honestly couldnÂ’t figure out how until I looked and saw the final 3 on the river. I had 3333A vs my opponent with 33337!