Four of a kind
Every card in the deck has four versions – one of each suit. When a player ends up with all four cards of one rank in a hand of poker, the player is said to have a four of a kind. The four of a kind hand is also known as a “Quad” and the final or fifth card is not important as it can be any rank or suit.
5-5-5-5-10 is also considered as a four of a kind while 5-5-5-5-2 is also considered as one although when two or more players get four of a kind in their hands, then the winner is chosen on the basis of who has the highest rank in the four of a kind cards.
If player A, B and C, all get “four of a kind” hands with A’s hand being 2-2-2-2-A, B’s hand being 4-4-4-4-J and C’s hand being J-J-J-J-2, then despite all four being “four of a kind”, the winner is C, on the basis of the Jack being higher than the 2 or 4 which form the four of a kind hand for A and B respectively. Also, the value of the fifth card is immaterial as A has an Ace, while B has a Jack and C only has a 2. Even though A’s fifth card is the highest of the three, it does not affect the outcome of the round.
Four of a kind is the second highest hand that a player can get in the game of poker. While it loses to the straight flush, the four of a kind beats every hand that is at full house or below.
In the case of a variation game where some of the cards are being used as a wild card, then there is a possibility that two or more players may get the same flush. In such a case, the fifth card, which is otherwise dispensable becomes of utmost importance as the decider between the hands.
If a variation of poker is being played where the wild card, say 3, is stated to be equivalent of 6 across all the suits, then if player A gets a hand 3-3-3-3-10 and player B gets a hand 6-6-6-6-9, player A wins the pot. The reason is that although B’s four of a kind is higher than A’s, according to the rules of the wild card variation, A also holds the same four of a kind as B and therefore the winner is decided by the fifth card which is a 10 in A’s case while B has a 9 only.
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