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Have you ever found yourself watching a stream of a big poker tournament and hearing the commentator say a player has “kicker problems” but unable to understand what they mean?
That’s perfectly fine if you are an inexperienced poker player, but if you strive to become a great player someday, you must learn all about poker kickers.
Poker kickers are used as tiebreakers in situations when two or more players have the same hand and can only exist in certain scenarios in the game.
In this guide to poker kickers, we will teach you what a poker kicker is, when it comes into play, and how to optimize your poker strategy around kickers.
In the simplest of terms, a kicker is a poker card that stands alongside your made hand to improve its value and help it win against other players who have the same hand.
For instance, imagine both you and your opponent hit the top pair on a Queen-high board. However, you hold AQ, and your opponent holds KQ.
In this case, your Ace acts as your kicker, while your opponent’s kicker is the King. Since your Ace is superior to their King, you would win the pot.
Of course, poker kickers are only taken into account when players have the same hand and can only be used with certain poker hands.
We just mentioned that poker kickers only apply to some poker hands. These hands include high cards, one pair, two pair, three of a kind, and four of a kind.
If your hand is anything other than these, such as a straight, flush, full house, or straight flush, you won’t have to worry about kickers, as your hand is already made up of five cards.
In the other examples, your hand is made of two, three, or four cards, while the other cards that go alongside it act as kickers.
If you happen to have one of those hands, having a good kicker will help you win more often against dominated hands with worse kickers.
When choosing the hands to enter pots preflop, you should consider your kicker and how it may help or hurt your chances of winning further down the line.
We are going to talk about kicker strategy a bit later, but for now, let’s consider a few examples of situations in which poker kicker comes into play.
The first example we are going to look at is also one of the most common ones you will encounter at the poker table.
In this hand, you are playing with AdKd against an opponent holding AsQs on a board of Ah7c4d, and you both have the top pair.
Both you and your opponent decide to bet all your chips on the flop, each believing you have the best hand.
Once the cards are turned over, it is clear that you both have a pair of Aces, but your opponent is in a world of hurt, as their kicker is completely outmatched.
Unless your opponent hits the miracle Queen on turn or river or finds another way to get lucky, you will scoop the pot with your superior kicker.
A somewhat similar scenario can happen when holding three of a kind on paired boards, popularly known as trips.
On paired boards, it is possible for more than one player to have the same trips, which means the kicker will come into play.
Imagine a scenario where you end up all-in with your KhJh against your opponent’s JsTd on a board of JdJc2s.
Before the cards were turned over, it was fair for both to assume you have the best hand. As things stand, however, you have a superior hand that is a huge favorite to win.
Your opponent can only win the pot by spiking a Ten or split it by finding a Deuce. In other cases, the pot will go to you.
This is another great example of how important poker kickers can be and how careful you should be in choosing the hands to start with.
Perhaps the wildest example of the impact of poker kickers is the one where multiple players have four of a kind in the same hand.
Imagine going to the flop five ways in a cash game holding AsJd. You and your four opponents see the flop of 8s8d8c, and the action checks through.
The turn brings the 8h, putting four of a kind on the board. Since everyone has four of a kind, it is easy to assume the pot will be split five ways, but this is wrong.
In Texas Hold’em Poker, your goal is to make the best five-card hand, which means you will need to add another card to the four Eights on the board.
Since you hold an Ace, you have the best possible hand and can never lose this pot. The only question is whether anyone else is willing to pay your bets without an Ace.
Good poker players will know what to do in a spot like this, but amateurs will often be willing to put extra money into the pot, completely confused by what’s going on.
Like most things in poker, kickers have an important part in how you are supposed to play the game, as they come into play in Texas Hold’em quite frequently.
For starters, kickers determine which hands you should play before the flop in different situations, as having high cards with medium and low kickers can get you into a lot of trouble after the flop.
On the flip side, low kickers can sometimes be used to your advantage, such as in scenarios when you are looking for hands to bluff with and prefer having a side card that is not in your opponent’s range.
Thinking about your kicker will be an important part of your strategy in many situations, so let’s look at some of the most frequent ones in more detail.
The first step in any poker hand is choosing which hole cards to enter pots with and which ones to throw into the muck.
If you look at most articles or strategy videos about poker, you will notice that good players typically prefer playing hands that have high kickers to start with, as this gives them the potential to win big pots when they have their opponents outkicked after the flop.
For instance, hands like AK, AQ, and KQ are preferred by players over hands like A9, KT, or Q9 because these hands often collide against each other and the one with the higher kicker ends up winning the pot.
Professional poker players know when to open each of these hand classes and when to fold it, and that’s partially what distinguishes them from the rest of the playing field.
Typically speaking, you will want to play only hands with premium kickers from early positions and expand your range as you get into the later positions and have an opportunity to steal more blinds and face fewer opponents.
One situation in which you should prefer to have a low kicker rather than a high one is when you are looking for hands to bluff with before the flop.
Facing a raise, you will want to re-raise with your strongest hands like AA, KK, or QQ. However, you need to balance this out by having some bluffs in your range as well, at least from a theoretical perspective.
In search of those bluffs, hands that top players often end up re-raising with are hands like A2s and A5s, which have a few things going for them.
For starters, these hands have an Ace in them, which makes it less likely the player who opened the pot has a hand like AA or AK.
Furthermore, the hands are suited, allowing them to make the nut flush in case the opponent gives you action, which adds a few percentage points to your equity.
Finally, the low kicker with your Ace is very unlikely to be a part of any hand your opponent might call the 3-bet with.
If the other player decides to continue with a hand like AQ or AJ, your low kicker will give you a chance to hit the bottom pair and sometimes win at showdown.
Finally, the low kicker also allows you to connect the two cards and make a straight, or at least flop a straight draw that will give you enough equity to keep bluffing with.
Sometimes, when playing in a live poker game, you will hear someone say that their kicker was counterfeit, but what exactly does that mean?
In the simplest of terms, a counterfeit kicker means that the board brought cards that made the player’s kicker no longer a part of their hand.
For example, imagine playing poker and holding As8s on a board of AcQdTd. At this point, you have the top pair and an 8 kicker.
The turn card brings the 5s, and your hand remains the same. However, the river brings the Qc, which now changes things quite a bit.
Your 8 kicker is no longer part of your hand, as you are now playing Ace and Queens with a Ten kicker from the board.
In some ways, your hand has now improved, as you now split the pot with a hand like A9. On the other hand, if your opponent had something like A3 or A2, they are now splitting the pot with you.
When playing hands with cards that include a low kicker, you must always be aware of the potential cards that could come and counterfeit your kicker and change the outcome of the entire hand.
The kicker card is a big part of the game of Texas Hold’em, as one pair hand is often a winner in this particular poker variation.
When playing the game, make sure to always be aware of your kicker and the way it interacts with the board in both positive and negative ways.
Your goal when playing Texas Hold’em should be to put yourself in the best possible situations by usually having the better kicker than your opponents in situations when you both have the same hand.
While some situations in which you are outkicked are bound to happen, avoiding these as often as possible and being on the other side of such scenarios will help you win more consistently and keep a steady bankroll at all times.
Now that you've learned what is a kicker in poker, it's time to assess your overall poker prowess. Take the Pokercode Poker Skill Quiz 2024 to evaluate your knowledge and receive free access to coaching videos and additional resources.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, this quiz will help you identify areas for improvement and take your game to the next level.
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