The Poker Winning Hand

In poker, there are two ways of determining who might win the pot: if the player is the last one standing after a round of betting, or if a player's hand beats all of the other players' hands during a showdown. The showdown happens after the final round of betting has been completed and there is more than one player left. These remaining players show their hands; usually by revealing the cards that have been dealt to them face-down.

Most poker games are "high" games; which means that the highest hand is considered the winning hand. However, there are other ways of playing poker. Some poker games are "lowball," and some employ the "high-low split" to determine the winner. These variations on the winning hand can be applied to any poker game variant; be it Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Draw, Razz, or any other variant. It is possible, for example, to have a game of lowball Texas Hold'em.

"Lowball" is a way of playing poker where the winning hand is the hand determined as the lowest hand. As with high poker, players find out who has the winning hand when these hands are revealed during the showdown. Because of the fact that almost all poker games are "high," the hand rankings that almost all poker games share are constructed such that it is easier to determine the higher hand than it is to determine the lower hand. Usually, for example, in a "no-pair" hand, where all of the cards are unmatched, do not have the same suit or are not in numerical order, it is often necessary to look at the individual cards, rather than at the hand as a whole.

Most lowball games have "qualifiers" for what kinds of hands could be considered the lowest hand. This is usually a big help in determining whether or not someone is holding the winning hand in a game of lowball poker. Normally, a lowball qualifier means that a player does not have a hand that has cards any higher than an eight. The qualifier may vary from game to game and establishment to establishment though, so it is often a good idea to inquire, after the matter, just in case.

On the other hand, a high-low split is a sort of combination of "high" poker and "lowball" poker. It is sort of a form of compromise, where the pot is evenly split between the highest and lowest hands revealed during the showdown. Usually, there is a qualifier for the lower half of a high-low split too.