• Holdem Poker Kicker Online
• Kicker Holdem Poker

A - if two or more players are holding the same type of hand, the kicker card helps in determining the winner. For example – if player A has 10-5, B has 10-8 and the board comes 2-4-J-10-k, both players have a pair of 10s. In this situation, player B will win as the kicker card ‘8’ is higher than player A’s ‘5’. Top pair/Top Kicker means that you have pair with the top ranking card on the board, along with the best possible kicker. For example, if you hold AJ and the flop comes J-2-3, you have TPTK with a pair of jacks and an ace kicker. Today's hand comes from early in a $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament and features a commonly faced situation — you make top pair, top kicker, but the board is coordinated so that your. A “kicker” in poker is a side card that can break ties. It is the 2nd characteristic to look at when determining rankings during a poker hand. (The first would be to determine the initial rank of a hand.).

A kicker, also called a side card, is a card in a pokerhand that does not itself take part in determining the rank of the hand, but that may be used to break ties between hands of the same rank.^[1][2] For example, the hand Q-Q-10-5-2 is ranked as a pair of queens. The 10, 5, and 2 are kickers. This hand would defeat any hand with no pair, or with a lower-ranking pair, and lose to any higher-ranking hand. But the kickers can be used to break ties between other hands that also have a pair of queens. For example, Q-Q-K-3-2 would win (because its K kicker outranks the 10), but Q-Q-10-4-3 would lose (because its 4 is outranked by the 5).

Kickers in draw poker[edit]

Holdem Poker Kicker Online

The term is also used in draw poker to denote an unmatched card (often an ace) retained by a player during the draw in the hope that either it will be paired on the draw, or else play as a kicker (in the first sense) on the showdown. A kicker may also be retained in order to deceive an opponent, for example, to represent a three-of-a-kind when the player has only a pair.

Kickers in Texas hold 'em[edit]

Kickers take on special importance in Texas hold 'em, because a common winning hand is one card in a player's hand matched with a card on the board, while the player's second card acts as a kicker. For example, if one player holds A-8, a second player holds A-7, and the board isA-K-6-5-4, the player with the A-8 will outkick the player with the A-7, since A-8's best hand is A-A-K-8-6, while the A-7's hand is A-A-K-7-6.However, if the board held A-K-Q-J-3, the players would tie, because both would play the hand A-A-K-Q-J; in this case it is said that the players' kickers 'don't play', or that the 'kicker on the board plays'. In this case, there would be a split pot.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Krieger, Lou (2006). The Poker Player's Bible. Struik. p. 249. ISBN978-1-77007-469-9.
2. ^Wolpin, Stewart (1990). The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle. New Chapter Press. p. 335. ISBN978-0-942257-19-9.

Do not underestimate the value of the kicker in Texas Holdem Poker. It may mean the difference between winning or losing. You will be suprised to find out how many times a Texas Holdem hand comes down to a tie with the kicker as the tie breaker.

Kicker Holdem Poker

Texas Holdem Poker strategy: The importance of the Kicker

A Kicker is a poker term used to describe the left over cards once players have made a hand. They are used to determine the winner of a hand where both players have the same cards but there are still cards remaining to make the best five card hand. Where two players have the same five card hand - most often a Flush, Straight, or Full House then a Split Pot situation arises and the Kicker does not apply.
Only the very inexperienced do not take the kicker into consideration when assesing the value of the hand. While you may live or die on the River you kicker can put a knife in your heart fast. The one and only time that you need not worry about your kicker is if you have flopped four of a kind. If you have four deuces and a trey kicker you are going to win the hand the greatest per centage of the time, by far.
That is why you do not waste time and money playing suited hands like [8d,2d] The eight is essentially your kicker in the flush draw. Even if you ignore the odds that over 90% of the time you will not end up with a flush by the end of the hand. Some poker player luckier than you may have come in with an [9d,3d] You loose.
In a tight game, the hand-domination perspective does lead you to the best course of action. You should check and call if someone bets. You should probably not call if there is a bet and a raise, although it actually turns out that checking and calling a raise rather than folding to a raise is not a large error. It only costs you a few pennies on average.
In very loose games, this popular wisdom just doesn't hold up. In a very loose game, betting the hand straightforwardly, and calling if anyone raises, makes almost twice as much money in the long run as checking and calling. This is not the popular wisdom. Most players would feel very uncomfortable if they bet this top pair with a weak kicker and got raised when the flop had no draws that someone may be raising on. Betting and calling is the right thing to do against a field of loose or very loose players.

The reason for this is that in very loose games you are more likely to have other players with 3s and 8s than Kings in their hands. In a loose game, your opponents are more likely to have two kinds of hands than are likely in a tight game. A hand such as Ks-2s is much more likely to be played by an opponent in a loose game, and a hand such as 8d-6h is also much more likely to be played. You'll get action, maybe even a raise from hands like that, if you bet out your top pair with a weak kicker in a loose game. In a tight game, players aren't likely to be holding those kinds of hands on the flop. Of course, even in a loose game, you are probably beaten if you get raised, but the chances are good enough that you are not beaten to make it worth calling a raise. The pot will be large enough to hold onto that hand because there are enough worse hands that loose players might raise with to make it pay off. Don't expect to win most of the pots by doing this, but do expect to win most of the money eventually.
In more typical games, the two plays, betting versus checking and calling, are about equivalent in terms of the amount of money made. The best play is to probably check and call in a typical game. It makes about the same money as betting and does so with a little less risk.
The general lesson here is to play your top pairs more aggressively in loose games while playing top pairs with weak kickers more passively in tight games. This is a major difference in how a common situation should be played different under different game conditions. I think it illustrates how important it is to think in terms of the game conditions and the kinds of hands you opponents are likely to have rather than thinking in terms of only your own hand.