What happens when two or more players have the same hand? How do you determine the best hand when two or more individuals both have a full house? In this segment, I will guide you trough all the poker hands and show you how to determine the winner and when to declare a tie. This article assumes you already know about how poker hands are ranked. If you don't, please read about it here before going any further.

Royal Flush:

Since all suits are equal, all royal flushes are equal. The probability of seeing two royal flushes played on the same hand are likely comparable to the probability of getting struck by lighting!

Straight Flush:

If there are two straight flushes, the one with the higher top card is the best. The suit of the flush does not count in determining the wining hand as all suits are considered equal. If two flushes are ranked in the same sequence, then it's a tie.

Four of a Kind:

If two people have fours of a kind, the player with the higher ranking set of four cards has the winning hand. Thus, the player with four jacks has a better hand than the player with four tens. The fifth card is irrelevant.

Full House:

A hand with three cards of the same rank and two cards of another rank. An example is, three Aces and two 2s (called Aces full of 2s). If two players have full houses, the one with the higher ranking three cards is the winner. For example, tens full of 3s beats fours full of Aces. In Texas Hold'em, wild cards are not used so a tie cannot occur. Someone will always have the better Full House hand.

Flush:

If two players have flushes, the highest card determines which is the winning poker hand. If the highest cards are equal then the second highest card is used to determine the winner. If those are equal too, then the third highest card is used, all the way to the end. For example Q-10-9-5-2 all in spades beats Q-10-3-6-5 all in clubs because the nine beats the six.

Straight:

When comparing two straights, the one with the highest ranking top card is better. An Ace can ONLY count high or low in a straight. For example, A-2-3-4-5 does not beat 10-J-Q-K-A. Also, Q-K-A-2-3 does not count as a straight because the ace doesn't coutn as either the low card or the high card. This last hand is actually just a high card hand, which is the weakest hand in poker (explained below).

Three of a kind:

The highest three of a kind when comparing two hands is ranked better. For example the hand 8-8-8-3-2 beats 5-5-5-A-Q. In Texas Hold'em, wild cards are not used so a tie cannot occur. Someone will always have the better Three of a Kind hand.

Two pair:

If both players have two pairs, the hand with the highest pair has the winning poker hand and the smaller pair is irrelevant. For example, Q-Q-5-5-3 beats 10-10-7-7-A because the queens beat the tens. If the higher pairs are the same then the smaller pair is used to determine the higher ranking hand. If both pairs are the same then the odd cards are compared, thus 8-8-2-2-A beats 8-8-2-2-J.

Pair:

The higher pair determines the best hand. If two players have the same pair then the highest card is used. If this card is the same, then the second highest card is compared and finally the third if it comes down to it.

Examples:

1. 8-8-3-2-5 wins over 5-5-A-K-J
2. 10-10-A-2-5 wins over 10-10-K-Q-10
3. J-J-K-10-5 wins over J-J-K-9-8

High Card:

If two players have none of the hands above, the highest card wins. If the highest cards are the same then the second highest are compared and so on.

Examples:

1. A-8-3-2-5 beats K-Q-J-10-3
2. A-K-3-2-5 beats A-Q-J-9-5

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