Novice needs help with hand rankings

[kona]

Still learning poker the game of texas hold’em and need help with a hand ranking. Played tonight with mostly family and had a problem on one hand. The pot had been bet up quite a bit and it ended with two players having hands of two pair. Both players had the same high pair which was queens with one having sevens and the other fives. The problem is that the player with QQ 55 said he should win because the hands were tied at two pair queen high and that his ace kicker beast the QQ 77 with an 8 kicker. The person with the 8 kicker said they won because their second pair of 77 out ranked the 55. I really don’t know which is correct. They both seemed to have valid points. I am a converting craps player and am still learning the game of poker. Which player is correct?

[tech]

The player with queens and sevens wins. Kicker doesn't matter here.

[PocketsRA]

the ace and the eight would only matter if they both had queens and sevens or queens and fives. the queens and sevens had a better two pair then the queen/5's ace kicker.

[PotatoStew]

You're basically looking first at each players top pair. If they are the same (as they are in this case -- both queens) then you look at each players second pair. Only if they are also the same do you then look at the kicker.