The cards
Who wins
This poker hand winner calculator settles disputes at the table. Board reads K♠ 9♦ 9♣ 4♥ 2♠. One player has A♠K♦, another has 9♥8♥. Who wins? The 9-8 has trips, the ace-king two pair, so trips take it. Easy. Now try a board of 7♣ 8♦ 9♠ T♥ 2♣ with J♣3♦ against 6♥6♠: the jack makes a higher straight, J-high against T-high. Type in up to nine players’ hole cards and the five community cards, and the calculator names the winner and shows every player’s best five cards. It’s free and quick on a phone.
How the poker hand winner calculator decides
Each player’s best five-card hand is built from their two hole cards and the five on the board, in any combination, including using none of their own cards (“playing the board”). Hands are compared by rank first, then by the cards that make them, then by kickers. Suits never break a tie in Hold’em, so two identical hands split the pot.
The spots people get wrong
- Kickers only count to five cards. On a board of A-A-K-K-Q, a player holding J-J and one holding 2-2 split: both play A-A-K-K-Q.
- A wheel is the lowest straight. A-2-3-4-5 loses to 2-3-4-5-6.
- Flushes compare the highest card first, then the next, all the way down. Three suited cards on board and your K-high flush can still lose to a hidden A-high one.
- Two pair plays the best two. If the board pairs twice, a pocket pair below both of them may not count at all.
For hand order in general, see the poker hand rankings. If you want the odds before the river rather than the result after it, the poker odds calculator gives equity at every street.