All the suits in poker are of equal value. It makes no difference whether someone has the ace of clubs or the ace of diamonds. If remaining players have exactly the same hand at showdown, only in different suits, the pot is split.
Hand Ranking
The value of poker hands is determined by how rare or common it is to be dealt them, with the most common hands valued lower than the rarer hands. The complete list of poker hands is as follows, in increasing order of scarcity:
- High card
- One pair
- Two pair
- Three of a kind (sometimes called “trips” or “a set”)
- Straight
- Flush
- Full house
- Four of a kind (sometimes called “quads”)
- Straight flush
Or, if the player holds four Twos, or four Threes, or four Fours and a fifth card, which may be an Ace, Two, Three, Four, they will earn 160 times the amount bet, instead of 80 times that amount. In case the player holds four Aces and the fifth card turns out to be a Two, a Three, or a Four, they will earn 400 times the amount bet. Straight Any five connecting cards, for example - Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five (worst straight) through to Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace (best straight). The probability of making this hand is 255/1. Straight Any five connecting cards, for example - Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five (worst straight) through to Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace (best straight). The probability of making this hand is 255/1.
High Card
If you have no pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, etc., then the highest card in your hand is considered to be decisive. The hand above, in which the best card is a king and there is no other combination of poker hand, is known as “king high”.
Ace high beats king high. King high beats queen high, and so on.
If the high cards in two players’ hands is the same, the second-highest card becomes decisive. If these cards are also the same, the third-highest card plays and so on. These cards are known as the kicker.
Poker Straight Queen King Ace Two Three Four A Straight
High card ace, king kicker:
Player 1 has A♠K♣
Player 2 has A♦Q♦
The board is 9♠6♥4♥3♠2♣
Poker Straight Ace Low
Both players have an ace, but Player 1 wins, because he has a king as his second highest card (kicker). His opponent only has a queen.