50 Fun Facts About Texas Hold 'Em

In Texas hold 'em, which community card is dealt last, just before the fourth and final round of betting?

The river, also known as fifth street, completes the five-card board. Players then build their best hand from the five shared cards and the two of their own.

Which 2006 James Bond film replaced the baccarat of Ian Fleming's novel with a game of Texas hold 'em?

Casino Royale pits Bond against the financier Le Chiffre at a hold 'em tournament in Montenegro.

Which accountant won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event after qualifying online for $86?

Chris Moneymaker turned that $86 entry into a $2.5 million first prize. The flood of amateurs who followed him to the tables became known as the Moneymaker effect.

Phil Ivey, one of poker's most successful tournament professionals, has been nicknamed after which dominant golfer?

Tiger Woods of Poker is one of several nicknames for Ivey, who won three World Series of Poker events in 2002 alone.

Texas hold 'em players call which pocket pair 'snowmen' because of the shape of the numeral on each card?

Eights resemble two stacked snowballs, so a pair of them becomes snowmen. The same pair is also called piano keys, after the 88 keys on a piano.

Which Russian tennis star's name is Texas hold 'em slang for an ace and a king as hole cards?

Anna Kournikova shares her initials with the two cards, A and K. The same starting hand is more widely known as Big Slick.

What piece of jewellery has gone to the winner of every World Series of Poker event since 1976?

A bracelet is the most coveted prize in poker apart from the money, and championships won before 1976 are counted as bracelets too.

Which actor played law student and Texas hold 'em prodigy Mike McDermott in the 1998 film Rounders?

Matt Damon's character loses his entire $30,000 bankroll in a single hand to a Russian mobster, then spends the film rebuilding it.

In no-limit Texas hold 'em, what two-word phrase describes a bet of every chip a player has on the table?

All in is the move that defines the no-limit game: a player may push every chip forward at any time, so a whole stack can be lost in one hand.

Which social gaming company launched its Texas hold 'em app on Facebook in July 2007, two years before FarmVille?

Zynga built its business on the poker app, which went live only three months after the company itself was founded in April 2007.

Which American cable network televised the 2003 World Series of Poker, won by an amateur who qualified online?

ESPN followed an internet qualifier all the way to the title, and the number of entrants in the Main Event tripled the following year.

In Texas hold 'em, a flush beats a straight but loses to which of these hands?

A full house, three cards of one rank and two of another, sits one step above a flush and one step below four of a kind.

Which term describes the side card that settles a Texas hold 'em pot when two players hold the same pair?

Kicker cards decide many hold 'em pots because the board is shared: with an ace on the table, ace-king beats ace-queen on the strength of the king alone.

What term describes Texas hold 'em played between only two players, as at the end of every tournament?

Heads-up play reverses the usual order: the player on the dealer button posts the small blind and has to act first before the flop.

Which starting hand, nicknamed the beer hand, has the worst chance of winning at a full Texas hold 'em table?

Seven-two offsuit cannot make a straight or a flush unless four helpful community cards arrive, so anyone who wins with it is said to owe the table a beer.

Which Texan won back-to-back World Series of Poker Main Events in 1976 and 1977, both times holding ten-two?

Doyle Brunson won the last hand of both tournaments with the same unlikely starting cards, and ten-two has carried his name ever since.

Which Canadian professional, born in Toronto to Romanian parents, has played online with the screen name KidPoker?

Daniel Negreanu's first move to the casinos of Nevada ended badly: he lost his money and had to go home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.

Which American, known for his 'Poker Brat' personality, won the 1989 World Series of Poker Main Event aged 24?

Phil Hellmuth was the youngest champion the Main Event had seen, a record that stood until a 22-year-old won in 2008.

Joe Hachem, a former chiropractor, became which country's first World Series of Poker Main Event champion in 2005?

Australia's Hachem, born in Lebanon and raised in Melbourne, took a first prize of $7.5 million, then the largest ever paid in a tournament.

Before dealing the flop in Texas hold 'em, what does a casino dealer do with the top card of the deck?

Burns it: the card is discarded face down, so nobody who spotted a mark on its back can profit when the next community card appears.

Which deceptive Texas hold 'em play means declining to bet, then making it more expensive once an opponent bets?

Check-raise tactics are a standard part of casino strategy, yet they are barred from some home games and low-limit rooms.

What do Texas hold 'em players call the unseen cards that would turn a drawing hand into a likely winner?

Outs give a quick estimate of a player's chances: multiply their number by four on the flop, or by two with one card to come, for a rough percentage.

Which Texas hold 'em term describes the ratio between the money already wagered and the cost of a call?

Pot odds show whether a call pays: with $30 in the middle and $10 to call they are 3 to 1, so a draw has to come in only one time in four.

In Texas hold 'em strategy, a player who is last to act in a betting round is said to have what?

Position matters because later players have already seen what everyone else did, which is why strategy guides advise entering fewer pots from early seats.

What is a qualifying tournament called when its prize is entry to a bigger event such as the World Series of Poker?

A satellite is how the world champions of both 2003 and 2004 reached the Main Event: each won his seat in a small online tournament.

Which community-card poker game, a close relative of Texas hold 'em, deals each player four hole cards instead of two?

Omaha adds a strict rule to its extra cards: a hand must use exactly two hole cards and exactly three from the board.

Which Texas hold 'em variant deals each player three hole cards, one of which must be thrown away?

Pineapple players throw away their unwanted third card before the first betting round; in the Crazy version they keep all three until after the flop.

In Texas hold 'em, what is a flop bet called when it is made by the player who raised before the flop?

Continuation bet, or c-bet for short, means keeping up the lead taken earlier in the hand, whether or not the three new cards helped.

In Texas hold 'em, what does the dealer declare if the very first card of the deal is accidentally turned face up?

A misdeal sends the cards back for a reshuffle and a fresh cut, but only the first two cards count: a card exposed later is simply replaced.

Texas hold 'em overtook which older game in the 2000s to become the most common form of poker in American casinos?

Seven-card stud lost its top spot as television, the internet and popular books sent hold 'em's popularity surging.

Which US state's card rooms offered Texas hold 'em only after a court ruling split it from banned 'stud-horse' poker?

California's card rooms had been limited to other forms of poker, and once the court ruled, rooms across the state added hold 'em almost at once.

Which British television series first let viewers see players' hole cards, using cameras beneath the table, in 1999?

Late Night Poker went out on Channel 4, and Dave Ulliott, who won its first series, became a poker celebrity in Britain as the Devilfish.

In which city did Benny Binion's Horseshoe casino stage the first World Series of Poker in 1970?

Las Vegas saw only seven invited players that first year, and the champion was decided by a secret ballot among them.

Which everyday phrase for facing pressure names the Texas hold 'em seat that must act first before the flop?

Under the gun is the seat directly to the left of the blinds, whose occupant has to commit chips before seeing what anyone else will do.

Which back-to-back world champion of 1987 and 1988 appears as himself in the poker film Rounders?

Johnny Chan came close to three in a row, finishing runner-up in 1989, and the film replays videotape of his 1988 final.

Which former professional magician won more than $18 million in a single Texas hold 'em tournament in 2012?

Antonio Esfandiari took it at the Big One for One Drop, a charity tournament that cost $1 million to enter; he had picked his first name as a stage name.

Chris Ferguson, the 2000 World Series of Poker champion, has which nickname thanks to his long hair and beard?

Jesus, as rivals call Ferguson, has a party trick too: he can throw a playing card hard enough to slice through bananas, carrots and even melons.

What name do poker players give to 15 April 2011, when US prosecutors seized the domains of PokerStars and Full Tilt?

Black Friday ended real-money play for Americans on both sites and froze the bankrolls of their players.

Libratus, the AI that beat four top professionals at two-player no-limit hold 'em in 2017, came from which university?

Carnegie Mellon's program played 120,000 hands against the four humans over 20 days and finished more than $1.7 million ahead in chips.

Which optional side bet in Ultimate Texas Hold'em can pay out whether the player's hand beats the dealer or loses?

Trips is settled on the value of the player's own final hand, whatever the dealer turns over, so it can win even when the main bets lose.

In Ultimate Texas Hold'em, what is the largest raise a player may make after seeing only the two hole cards?

4x the Ante is on offer only before the flop: wait for the first three community cards and the limit drops to 2x, then to 1x once all five are showing.

In 1969, professionals were invited to play Texas hold 'em at the entrance of which since-demolished Strip casino?

The Dunes offered a prominent spot after years in a sawdust-floored downtown room, and gamblers new to the game made it very profitable for the professionals.

Which 1983 Al Alvarez book on the World Series of Poker is credited with launching poker literature?

The Biggest Game in Town came from an English poet's visit to the 1981 tournament and showed general readers the world of the professional players.

Which player, nicknamed Treetop, won the 1982 World Series of Poker Main Event after being down to a single chip?

Jack Straus thought he was out until he found one chip left beneath a napkin, and his comeback is said to have inspired a favourite tournament saying.

Who in 1995 became the first woman to reach the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event?

Barbara Enright finished fifth, and 30 years passed before a second woman, Spain's Leo Margets, reached the same stage.

Which teenager won the first World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in 2007, the day before her 19th birthday?

Annette Obrestad, from Norway, also says she won a 180-player online tournament that summer while almost never looking at her cards.

Which gambler and showman won the 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event and then appeared on The Tonight Show?

Amarillo Slim, born Thomas Preston, turned his title into fame beyond the card room, with talk-show spots and a small part in a Robert Altman film.

Which American TV series, first shown on GSN in 2006, featured professionals playing no-limit hold 'em for real cash?

High Stakes Poker asked players to bring at least $100,000 of real money to the table, and some sat down with as much as $1 million.

What do Texas hold 'em dealers call the pile of discarded cards into which folded hands are tossed?

Muck is also a verb: to muck a hand is to throw it away face down, so that no opponent can tell which cards it held.

Which Texas hold 'em tactic, also called sandbagging, means betting weakly with a strong hand to lure opponents in?

Slow playing trades safety for profit: the trap keeps weaker hands in the pot, but it also gives them a cheap chance to improve.