Kicker in poker is the card, that doesn’t take part in making the combination but defines the winner of the hand between two or more players who have combinations of equal strength (if competing hands are similar in rank).

For example, if one player has     and the other player has     and the board is          , both players will have a poker combination - pair of tens. To define who the winner is, we have to look at the kicker. In this case the hand will be won by the first player as he will have a pair of tens with King as a kicker -           and the second player will have a pair of tens with Queen as a kicker -          .

Kicker is only available for combinations like High Card, Pair, Two pairs, Set and Four of a kind.

Synonyms: Side Card.

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