Which Poker Hand Wins Calculator
When you start to play Texas Hold’em, reading the board and figuring out the winning hand can be confusing. Even after repeated looks you still might not be able to tell which poker hand wins. Or even what your own best 5-card poker hand is.
Calculate Which Poker Hand Wins
To put an end to the confusion, and to help those who cant memorize the hand rankings, we built the ultimate Texas Hold’em winning hands tool. Let us present to you the Which Poker Hand Wins Calculator. This custom made poker hands calculator allows you to simulate different scenarios with different poker hand combinations and at the touch of a button, it calculates the winning poker hands.
Try our poker hand winner calculator and you’ll soon master the mystery of “What hand do I have?” or “Which poker hand wins?” in poker. These are two of the most common questions we get asked on PokerListings. But dont worry, even a professional poker player gets confused sometimes and we have all sat down at a poker table playing without really understanding the poker rules.
The first step to determine the winning Texas Holdem hand is of course to memorize the official poker hand ranking order. Once you know that a flush beats a straight and three of a kind beats two pair, you’re off to a good start. After memorizing the proper order of poker hands, you’ll need to practice reading the board. And figuring out which 5-card hand is your best from any combination of your hole cards and the community cards. From there you’ll then need to determine which of those 5-card poker hands wins the pot.
How Do You Use the Which Poker Hand Wins Calculator?
If you need some help figuring out just how to use the poker hand calculator, there’s a simple guide and frequently asked questions below:
- Pick the number of poker players in the hand. Players 1 and 2 are automatically included.
- Click “Deal In” below the greyed-out cards to add more players.
- Select each player’s hole cards by clicking on the card icons below the table.
- When all players have hole cards, click on the card icons to create the board.
- Click the yellow “Which Hand Wins” button in the bottom-right corner.
- Click the black “Reset” button on the left-hand side to clear all of the cards and start over.
After clicking the “Which Hand Wins” button, each player’s best five-card hand will appear in the right-hand column ranked from best to worst with the winner at the top. An explanation of what the best 5-card poker hand the player holds will show below the cards. The cards that make up the winner’s best poker hand are also highlighted in yellow on the table.
If two or more hands are “winners,” it’s a split pot and the chips should be split among the winners. Make sense? Great! Give it a go; let us know what you think. And if you’re still unsure why his full house (K K 6 6 6 ) beats your full house (A A 3 3 3 ), check out our dedicated chart with all poker hands ranked.
The Golden Rule to Determine the Best Poker Hand
The majority of poker hands are fairly easy to determine a winner from. If one player has a flush and no one else has a flush or better, it doesn’t take much thought to figure out which hand is the winner. It’s once things get a little bit more complicated that people start to get confused. So you want to remember the golden rule for determining winning poker hands:
All five cards are used in deciding the strength of the hand. No cards outside of the best five have any bearing on the strength of the hand.
If you’re playing Texas Hold’em poker players are allowed to use any combination of cards from their hand and/or the board cards to make their best poker hand. This means if the absolute best five-card hand a player can make is by using the five cards on the board, then that is his or her final hand (this is known as playing the board). A player can also use one or two of his or her hole cards in compiling their best 5-card hand.
Texas Holdem Hands in Order
If you need a quick refresher as to the comparative strength of Texas Holdem hands, see the list below ranked from strongest to weakest:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four-of-a-Kind (aka “Quads”)
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three-of-a-Kind (aka a “Set” or “Trips”)
- Two Pair
- One Pair
- High Card
For a complete rundown of Texas Hold’em rules, check out our guide on how to play Texas Hold’em poker.
Examples of Which Poker Hand Wins
Here’s a quick rundown of a couple common areas of confusion poker players often experiences and how to determine the winning poker hand in some specific scenarios:
Example 1 – Two Players (or More) Have a Flush
If more than one player has a flush you award the pot to the player with the highest-value flush card. This includes all five cards. For example:
Player 1:
A
A
6
6
Player 2:
K
K
J
J
Board:
8
8
5
5
10
10
Q
Q
2
2
Player 1’s Best Hand is:
A
A
Q
Q
8
8
6
6
5
5
Player 2’s Best Hand is:
K
K
Q
Q
J
J
8
8
5
5
Even though Player 2 has more high flush cards than Player 1, the Ace is the highest flush card so Player 1 takes the pot.
Example 2 – Another flush example where the board has most of the flush cards:
Player 1:
A
A
7
7
Player 2:
Q
Q
6
6
Board:
9
9
J
J
2
2
K
K
A
A
In this scenario Player 1 wins the pot. The reason is that when you look at all five cards Player 1 has the higher flush:
Player 1:
A
A
K
K
J
J
9
9
7
7
Player 2:
A
A
K
K
J
J
9
9
6
6
All the cards are the same until the final fifth card. Since 7 is higher than 6 , Player 1 wins the entire pot. If instead of the 2 on the board that card was the 10 , both players would have the same flush (playing the board) and the pot would be split.
Example 3 – Two Players Have Two Pairs
When two players have two pairs, it can sometimes be confusing for people to know which poker hand wins. Take this example:
Board:
K
K
Q
Q
2
2
3
3
2
2
Player 1:
A
A
A
A
Player 2:
K
K
Q
Q
In this scenario Player 1 wins the entire pot. Two pair is always ranked by the value of the highest pair first and only if that pair is the same for both players do you rank by the second pair. If both of two pairs are identical it will be the kicker that will decide the winner (the highest-value fifth card is the kicker). In this scenario because the two paired on the river, Player 1 has two pair – A A 2 2 with the kicker K . Player 2 has the lower two pair – K K Q Q with the kicker 3 . Aces are higher than kings so Player 1 wins the entire pot.
What is My Poker Hand?
To figure out your best 5-card poker hand in Texas Hold’em poker you have to remember a few things. Both when determining your final poker hand and the poker hand that wins the pot.
- Figuring Out Your Hand:
In Hold’em your final best 5-card hand can use both your hole cards (the two cards dealt to you face down at the beginning of the hand), one of your hole cards or none of your hole cards to make up your final hand. That means your best 5-card hand at the end of the hand can be made up of all 5 cards on the shared community board and not use your hole cards at all. - Both Have Two Pairs:
There is no such thing as “three pair.” Your two highest pairs are your best two-pair along with the next highest “kicker” card from either the board or your hand. If two players each have two-pair hands, the player with the highest pair has the best hand, even if the other pair is lower than both of the other players two pairs. - Splitting Pots and Same Hands:
If two players at showdown have the exact same hand, it’s a split pot. And the money is distributed evenly. If two players each have a Full House, the player with the higher three of a kind wins the hand. - The Best Poker Hands Ever:
The Royal Flush is always ranked as the top winning hands in poker. A straight flush is the next highest followed by quads (four-of-a-kind), a Full House and so on.
Which Poker Hand Wins?
Take a second to figure this hand out yourself before reading the answer below.
Board:
K
K
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
Player 1:
A
A
2
2
Player 2:
K
K
K
K
This is maybe the worst bad beat you can get holding KK. Once the river falls both players now have four of a kind with nines. Only Player 1, who up until this point had nothing special, has the highest kicker with an ace. Even though Player 2 flopped a full house – K K K 9 9 – once the fourth nine fell he was now playing four-of-a-kind nines with a king kicker K 9 9 9 9 . Player 1 wins the whole pot with A 9 9 9 9 .
Common Texas Holdem Winning Hands Scenarios, Explained!
We’ve all been there. We flip our cards over, call out ‘two pair’ thinking we have the best hand only to see the dealer push the pot to the other side of the table. What just happened? How did we miss the actual winning hand? And, now that we think about it, why did that other hand win anyway? Here are a few of the most common Holdem Hand mishaps explained.
Who Has the Highest Two Pair?
There’s no doubt about it: “paint cards,” also known as Jacks, Queens and Kings, look good in Texas Holdem. When you get them in your hand – especially a few of them at one time – it can feel like you must have the highest hand, right? This can be a particularly confusing situation when you have two pair. The key thing to remember in Texas Hold’em poker is the HIGHEST PAIR in your two pair is the deciding (and final) factor in who has the best two-pair hand.
That means any player with two Aces (AA) has the higher two pair – even if the other pair alongside is just a meager 22. So, yes player 1’s:
A
A
A
A
2
2
2
2
4
4
beats player 2’s:
K
K
K
K
Q
Q
Q
Q
J
J
It doesn’t look like it with all of that paint in there but there’s no mistake. The Aces have it. If both players have the same highest pair, only then is the second pair used to decide who has the highest two pair.
Another common misconception? That if one of the pairs is in your hole cards (ie the two cards you were dealt), that makes your hand stronger.
Your best 5-card poker hand in Texas Hold’em is made up of ANY combination of your hole cards and the ones on the board so if they have an ace in their hand plus one on the board, it’s still a pair of aces.
Who Has the Highest Full House?
A similar level of confusion can occur with a pair of dueling Full Houses. When comparing the rank of Full Houses, the bigger three-of-a-kind is always the bigger full house. So player 1’s:
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
4
4
4
4
is higher than player 2’s:
J
J
J
J
K
K
K
K
If the highest three-of-a-kind is on the board and shared by each player, the highest pair in either hand is the deciding factor.
Who Has the Highest Flush?
A lot of high cards in a Flush look great but when comparing flushes it doesn’t matter. The player with the single highest card in any flush has the winning flush.
If anyone has the Ace, that’s always considered the Nut flush. So the following hand:
A
A
10
10
8
8
3
3
2
2
always beats
K
K
Q
Q
J
J
9
9
7
7
If neither player has the Ace of the flush suit, the King is next highest and so on. If the Ace is on the board, the player with the next highest card wins.
Winning Hands in Omaha
The rules for determining the best hand in Omaha are exactly the same as in Texas Hold’em with one additional rule:
You’re dealt four cards in Omaha and there five community cards. But you can only use two of your four and three cards from the board. This means if there are four hearts on the board and you have one in your hand you don’t have a flush. You must always use exactly two cards from your hand. This example is a very common mistake when new players play Omaha.
Test Your Poker Skills Online
If you now feel ready to play poker and want to test your new skills there are plenty of online poker sites offering low stakes and soft competition. We have a whole list of recommended online poker rooms. Playing Texas Hold’em Poker will always be the easiest way to learn the basic poker strategy. Remember to always play responsibly and only play with money you can afford losing.
More Poker Learning Tools
Which Hand Wins FAQs
Which hand wins in poker?
The hand that is higher in the poker hand ranking takes the pot:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Quads
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pairs
- One Pair
- High Card
Who wins in poker with the same hand?
With the exact same hand, the pot is split between the players. The only way this can shift is if one of the players also has a flush and in that case takes the whole pot.
Who wins in poker with two pairs?
If both players have pairs, the player with the highest pair takes the pot. Example: A pair of Aces will win over a pair of Kings.
Who wins in poker if both have 2 pair?
If both players hit two pair than the player who has the highest pair from their two pair hand will win. Example:
- Player A: AAKK3
- Player B: KKQQ3
In this case Player A will win.
Who wins in poker if no one has anything?
If no one has anything, the High Card will win – and hence the player who has it. Example if Player A has KQ on a A4527 board and Player B has J9. Then Player A has the high card – ‘K’.
Which flush wins in poker?
The ‘highest’ flush wins. So the player that has the highest card for the flush will take the pot. Example, Player A has AQ of hearts with 235 of hearts on the board. And Player B has JT of hearts with also a flush on the board. But Player A wins because Ace high flush beats Jack high flush. In fact, Ace-high flush is the best flush you can have. Also called the ‘nut flush’.
Who wins in poker with the same pair?
If both have the same pair, unless there’s a flush that comes into play, the players will split the pot.
Which suit wins in poker?
No suit wins over another in poker. Suits only come into play when flushes are involved.
Who wins in poker with two straights?
The player with the higher end of the straight will win here. So if Player A has A2 with 3456K on the board while Player B has 7J, then Player A has a 6-high straight, while Player B has a 7-high straight.
User Comments
chech this and tell me why single flush beat my full house.
i have A 8 and other man having Q 6 in heart
so on the table 9 A 8 8 7 where 9 A 8 7 in heart and another 8 in dimond , so he have 6 7 8 9 and A in heart … so is that streight flush, i think it is simple flush
@majid, In this case you have a Full House (Eights full). Your opponent has a flush (A-Q-9-8-7). Your Full House wins this hand.
They have 9,10,j of diamonds with q,k, of hearts and I have two A’s diamond and clubs and two Jack’s spades and clubs and a 4 of clubs so which hand is the winner plz help
Assuming this is 5-card draw, the first player wins with a straight versus the second player’s two pair.
Who wins??? I’ve 45678 all spades. They have2679j of hearts. ????
Pls help
@Cooper: You have a Straight Flush, your opponent has a Flush. Your Straight Flush beats a Flush.
When there is just two people left and I had a pair of 5 lost to ace 4 when I had an ace king I lost to a pair of fours..there was just 2 people left why did I lose is ace king a winner in the flop round or is a pair higer
Hey Mel,
The winner is the one who has the best combination of the cards on the board and hole cards.
A pocket pair will beat AK if AK hasn’t connected with the board up to the river.
If you had pocket fives and your opponent won with A4, then A4 must have connected with the board somehow.
Either with at least one more Ace on the board, or two more 4s (less likely), or with 2, 3 and 5 (to make a straight).
If A4 was suited, the board could have had 3 same-suited cards to make a flush.
In short, there are many ways a pocket pair can be cracked post-flop. Hope this helps!
Is a 7 8 9 10 and an A a straight
Hey Rosa,
No a straight would be:
6 7 8 9 10
OR
7 8 9 10 J
The calc has stopped working so can you tell me wich one of these has won? thanks…
Player 1. 8 Diamonds, J Clubs.
Player 2. 8 Hearts, A Clubs.
Table 9, 7 Diamonds, 10, J Clubs, 4 Hearts
Thanks.
i have a confusion on the card that we had played.. there was 2/2/2/10/10 on the table..player one had Q/9 player 2 had A/9 player 3 had 10/ 4. Who would win this?? also player 3 was all in and the other two players had put more in then player 3…we had 2 different pots. would player 3 only win what she put in?? how would that work or who would win what??
@Dianne
pocket 4’s wins because he has a full house: 4 4 4 7 7
while A7 only has a set of 7s with an A and a 6: 7 7 7 A 6
A4 vs AQ
board: 5 9 9 A A
Split Pot obviously.
I was watching poker on tv and the hands were….
1) Ace diamonds and 7 spades
2) 4 hearts and 4 clubs
The river:
7 clubs, 4 spades, 7 diamonds, 2 clubs, 6 spades
The guy with the pocket pair of fours beat the 7s and I do not see why?
what wins a 2 pairs or 1 pair and 5, 6, 7 of any suit or equal suit
@John – Assuming no one has a flush, (A4567) beats (23567) when ace is low, as you begin with the highest card and work backwards. Both have 7,6,5 but the next card for player 1 is a 4, beating player 2’s next card which is a 3.
On a Different note, if we’re checking hands for texas hold ’em here, wouldn’t a scenario of (666KK) vs (AA333) be impossible?
in high -low which low hand wins. ace 4567 or 23567 (ace is low)
How and where can I use my Gold coins on Zynga Texas Holdem
Poker ?
hope i have fun