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Kicker (Poker)

A kicker or side card in poker is used to determine the winner of a hand when two or more players have the same rank of hand. For instance if both players after the river is dealt have a five in their hand, making a pair of fives, the winner would be decided by the next highest card that each player has (could be in hand or on the board - whichever is highest). If player A has A5 in hand and player B has K5 then player A would win as his kicker would be the Ace, compared to player B's King

To look at an example lets assume player A has 10-10-6-3-4 and Player B has 10-10-J-5-2 then player B would win with a pair of 10's with a Jack kicker. So although both player have a pair of 10's, player a only has a 6 high kicker which is less than the Jack.

Kickers are used in community card games such as Texas Holdem and Omaha, and also Draw poker games where a player might retain an ace in the hope that it will either pair or it will come into play as an ace kicker.