Official Poker Hand Rankings
In a nutshell, a hand consists of five cards. Poker hands fall into one of several categories, such as flush, straight, or two pair. The player with the highest-ranked hand is the winner.
Official poker rankings: ties and kickers
Poker is all about making the best five-card poker hand from the seven cards available (five community cards plus your own two hole cards). That means in the event of a tie with four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, or high card, a side card, or 'kicker', comes into play to decide who wins the pot.
For example:
Player A wins the hand with Q kicker.
With a three of a kind, one pair or high card tie, a second, third or even fourth kicker could come into play to decide the pot. If the kickers can’t decide one overall winner, those players involved are just going to have to share the pot.
Click here to download a printable version of the poker hand rankings order. You'll need Adobe Reader to view the guide, available here.