The twelve questions that actually come up at real tables — answered with the standard ruling, not table folklore. Deeper detail is one click away on each linked page.
The kickers decide: compare the non-pair cards of each player’s best five, highest first. If the full five cards are identical, the pot splits evenly. Suits never enter into it.
Yes — and a full house beats a flush, and four of a kind beats a full house. The full ranking chart lists all ten hands in order.
Everyone still in the hand “plays the board” and the pot is split between them. Careful in live games: show your cards (or clearly declare you play the board, where required) before releasing them — a mucked hand is dead and collects nothing, even its share of a split.
Never for money. No Hold’em pot is ever awarded by suit — identical hands split. Suit order (spades high) is used only for procedures such as drawing for the first dealer button.
Not deliberately: a raise must at least match the size of the largest bet or raise of the round — the min-raise rule. The only legal “under-raise” is going all-in for less, and a short all-in doesn’t re-open the betting for players who already acted.
If there was betting on the river, the last player who bet or raised shows first. If the river checked through, the first active player left of the button shows first. Losing players may muck unseen in cash games; tournaments usually require all-in hands to be shown.
No. You call all-in for your stack; the excess is played in a side pot you can’t win (or returned if nobody else is in). You can never be bet out of a hand for lack of chips.
A-2-3-4-5 — “the wheel” — is a real straight, the lowest one. K-A-2-3-4 is nothing: straights never wrap around the ace.
Yes — blinds are live. The money counts toward calling, and if the pot is unraised when action returns preflop, the big blind may check or raise (the “option”). More on the blinds.
A raise made in instalments — pushing out chips, then returning to your stack for more without having announced the raise. It’s not allowed in live play: only the first motion counts, so the action is ruled a call. Announce “raise to X” first and the problem never arises.
Compare the five flush cards top-down: highest card first, then the next, through all five. The suit itself is irrelevant (all suits are equal). If the best flush is entirely on the board and neither player improves it, the pot splits.
Completely. Checking and then raising after someone bets is legal in every cardroom and every tournament — the idea that it’s banned is a persistent home-game myth. If your home game forbids it, that’s a house rule, not poker.