Kicker

Also known as: Kickers

The side card that breaks ties between otherwise equal hands. With matching pairs or trips, the higher kicker wins. This is what makes AK beat AQ on an ace-high board.

What a kicker does

When two players hold the same rank of pair, trips or quads, the hand is decided by the highest unmatched side card: the kicker. Both players make the best five cards; if their made portion ties, the next card down resolves it.

Top pair, top kicker (TPTK)

Hitting top pair with A♠K♠ on a K♥ board gives you top pair, top kicker: the strongest non-set one-pair hand, because no worse kicker beats yours.

Kicker trouble & domination

The flip side is domination: A♠Q♦ is crushed by A♠K♦ when an ace flops, same pair, your kicker loses. This is why offsuit aces with weak kickers play poorly out of position and why kicker strength matters more than the overpair / set / trips tiers above one pair, where the kicker is often irrelevant.