# Texas Hold Em Question (another one) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 6, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453 "2014-04-06T03:02:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/1 "2014-04-06T03:02:20Z")
The five community cards are K-10-2-3-4. Suits are irrelevant. Peter has K-9 Paul has K-8 Split pot, or Peter wins? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/2 "2014-04-06T03:20:57Z")
Peter has K-K-10-9-4. Paul has K-K-10-8-4. Peter wins. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/3 "2014-04-06T03:30:57Z")
> [@Mr.Greenjeans](#): > > Peter has K-K-10-9-4. > Paul has K-K-10-8-4. > Peter wins. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/4 "2014-04-06T20:06:55Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Agreed. Agreed with the agreement. All five cards in a player’s hand count. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/5 "2014-04-06T22:24:26Z")
Agreeing with all agreers, except, to be precise, suits are not irrelevant if Paul has a flush and Peter doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![wbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19adc/32.png) [@wbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wbuff)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/6 "2014-04-06T22:30:17Z")
Finalizing the agreement among all those who agree. Peter wins. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/7 "2014-04-06T23:56:34Z")
Poker is played under an amazing assortment of rules variations. But I’ve never heard of one where K-K-10-9-4 fails to beat K-K-10-8-4. (Leaving out wild cards - which everyone should). ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/8 "2014-04-07T02:56:30Z")
K-K-10-9-4 loses to K-K-10-8-4 in Lowball Poker. Once Lowball was the only variant legal in California. Apparently someone argued successfully that regular Poker is a game of chance (who gets a good hand?) but Lowball is a game of skill (it takes skill to win with a bad hand!) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/9 "2014-04-07T12:28:36Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > K-K-10-9-4 loses to K-K-10-8-4 in Lowball Poker. Right - if you agree to reverse the order of hands, then pretty much by definition smaller becomes larger. ---
**Author:** ![malaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@malaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malaka)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/10 "2014-04-07T14:49:33Z")
Unbelievably, Paul had a Royal Fizzbin. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/11 "2014-04-07T15:42:32Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Right - if you agree to reverse the order of hands, then pretty much by definition smaller becomes larger. Well, to be completely precise, lowball is often played with the “wheel” - an A to 5 straight - being the lowest hand. In fact, if you’re playing high-low poker, you can win both pots with a wheel (low) and a straight (high). For the OP, I concur with all the other answers. Perhaps the OP is thinking of a situation such like the community cards are: K-10-9-7-5 and Peter has K-4 while Paul has K-3. In that case, it’s a split pot, because in both cases, Peter and Paul can create the highest hand with K-K-10-9-7. In Texas Hold 'Em, you’re not required to use both–or any for that matter–of your own cards. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/12 "2014-04-08T05:00:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, to be completely precise, lowball is often played with the “wheel” - an A to 5 straight - being the lowest hand. This has always seemed to me a deeply illogical variant. Surely 6-4-3-2-A is the lowest possible hand, and thus should be the “wheel” in lowball. I’ve never yet heard a plausible reason why this anomaly should be used. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/13 "2014-04-08T13:04:57Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > This has always seemed to me a deeply illogical variant. Surely 6-4-3-2-A is the lowest possible hand, and thus should be the “wheel” in lowball. > > I’ve never yet heard a plausible reason why this anomaly should be used. Well, straights and flushes aren’t counted in ace-to-five lowball. In other lowball variants, they do. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-hold-em-question-another-one/685453/14 "2014-04-08T15:52:29Z")
I don’t know of any lowball games that play 6-4 as the best hand. In California Lowball, A2345 is the best hand. Flush doesn’t count. In Kansas City Lowball, also known as Deuce to Seven, 75432 is the best hand. Ace is always high and straights and flushes count. In PaiGow Poker and Chinese Poker, A2345 is the second highest straight. Highest is AKQJT, then A2345, then KQJT9.