Texas Hold 'Em: Tie Hands
When it comes to the term “Tie Hands” in Texas Hold ‘Em, it doesn’t mean to restrain ornery players and sneaky cheaters (although some would like it to be!)
What is means is that when playing a game, two hands can tie (have the same value) and both players (and more, if there are more) will split the pot.
Now, in Texas Hold ‘Em, there are no tiebreakers outside of the five cards used, so two hands of equal value must rely on the strength of the five cards in the hand. Now, the “no tiebreakers” applies to the extra cards – like any other poker game, there ARE tiebreakers within the five card hand (high card, etc) to determine which hand is highest.
To give an example, all pairs are not equal – a pair of aces beats a pair of kings. Fair enough, right? Same for two pair – the highest single pair wins (kings and sevens beats queens and jacks.) For a straight or flush, the hand with the high card will take home the pot – a straight of 4,5,6,7,8 beats 3,4,5,6,7. And for flushes, the high card rules – a flush with an ace beats a flush with a king as the highest card.
For a full house, the highest three of a kind takes it.
Royal flushes… well, that would be impossible to tie on a royal flush. Think about it…
In cases of a true tie in the hands, (say there were two pairs of kings that were the highest), then high card from the remaining three is the winner. K,K,9,8,7 beats K,K,8,7,6 – in this case, the nine beats the 8. This goes down the line: K,K,9,8,7 beats K,K,9,8,6.
However, because of the community card nature of the game, there are still many cases where there will be ties (especially with straights and the like.) In that case, all hands that are tied will split the pot. We’ve even seen cases where the best hand is the entire five card board – that means that everyone who stayed until the end shares the wealth (imagine how it must feel to have folded on a game like that?) Certainly the people at the end of the game would be happy that they stayed.
As always, make sure you know the rules of the game you’re about to sit down to before you start betting your money. It will keep you from walking away empty-handed (or with your hands tied!)
