New Poker Player

[JBuckman]

Hi, Im new to texas holdem poker and would like to know in a hand recently I had A,7 and was playing heads up against a guy who had A,6 on the board was a Q,9,8,3,A. So both of us had a pair of A's. I argued that i should win the hand because I had the higher kicker card (7)!! The guy I was playing against said that the pot is split because there are higher community cards?? Can someone clear this up! coz i thought i should win the pot and not split it???

Thanks

[ballbp]

Your friend was right. Both of your hands were A A Q 9 8. Best 5 card hand using ALL 7 cards.

[Replic]

Rule of thumb: best 5 card hand. We get 90 billion gazillion posts a day asking the same question. BEST 5 card hand, it includes kickers from the community card. For instance, this hand actually happened on the WPT

1: A10
2: KK

Flop

772

Turn

7

River

7


The KK lost only because the single ace was higher. And yea, he slow played it way too long.