[Sp00n]

If all the players at showdown can not each show 5 uniquely ranked cards, the lowest pairing card(s) must be added to the 4 unique ranks of each others hands**. These pairs must be compared and the lowest is the winner. If two players share the same pair, the remaining 4 cards must be compared to determine the winner(or tie). The comparing of pairs must include the possibility all players at showdown have two pair, and that this will lose to any one pair hand.

**The worst 5 card hand, from the 7 dealt, someone can have is two pair. When the best possible 5 card hand is two pair, the number of uniquely ranked cards will be 3 and two pairing cards must be added to create a 5 card hand. The comparison of paired cards algorithm must be run twice if all parties at showdown can not represent a hand better then AA234(the best single paired hand).

Something I wrote not long ago in a report. This would be the way I would write a program.