I recently got a great reader email asking to clarify the matter of kickers in Texas Hold'em. Here's the heart of his two questions:

1. If I have a pair of aces and so does someone else, what determines who wins the pot (assuming we both have the best hand)?....Say I have a pocket ace-seven and she has a pocket ace-eight; does she win? What if there is a king in the community? Do we split or does it go to the next card (can there be more than one kicker)?

2. I know the highest straight wins a hand, but what about a flush. What if I have pocket spades and someone else has one pocket spade, but four spades including the ace are in the community. What happens there?

To begin: The one thing that answers both questions is that in each and every case, the player who can make the best five-card poker hand from the cards on the board and his hole cards will win. But in both cases, it depends on what the cards are on the board if they will chop the pot or if one player takes it all. For more explanation, click "read more."

In case 1, one player has A-8 in the hole and the other has A-7.

• If the board is, for instance, A-K-Q-J-3, then each players' best hand is A-A-K-Q-J, using the Ace in the hole and the A-K-Q-J from the board.
• On the other hand, if the board is A-K-6-5-4, the player with the A-8 will outkick the player with the A-7, since A-8's best hand is A-A-K-8-6, while the A-7's hand is A-A-K-7-6. It's a small difference, but the 8 beats the 7.

In the case of two players holding a flush, the best flush wins.

• A flush of A-K-Q-10-8 beats a flush of A-Q-10-8-7. In other words, if player X has a K of spades and player Y has a 7 of spades, player X will win with A-K-Q-10-8. In most cases, he who holds the highest flush card in the hole will win.
• But lets say the board was A-K-Q-10-8 of spades and player X had the 7 of spades, while player Y had no spades at all. Even though player X has a spade, it doesn't matter, since both player's best hand is the board itself (A-K-Q-10-8) and both would play the board as their final hand.