Poker
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70 free Poker trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
63 free poker trivia questions with answers. Think you're a poker expert? Test your knowledge with our comprehensive 70-question poker trivia quiz covering everything from basic rules to famous tournaments and legendary players. Whether you're a casual player or a serious enthusiast, this quiz will challenge your understanding of the game's history, terminology, and strategic elements.
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Q 01Hidden 'lipstick' cameras first showed viewers face-down cards on Late Night Poker in which year?
1999
Late Night Poker premiered on Britain's Channel 4 in 1999; tiny under-table 'lipstick' cameras beneath a glass table showed viewers each player's face-down cards, the innovation that made televised poker watchable.
Q 02What term describes a poker player who plays few hands but bets aggressively when they do?
Tight-aggressive
Tight-aggressive (TAG) players enter few pots but bet and raise hard when they do; the loose-aggressive LAG style plays many more hands with the same force.
Q 03Which poker variant deals four private cards, exactly two of which must be used with three community cards?
Omaha Hold'em
Omaha Hold'em deals each player four private cards and requires exactly two of them to be combined with three of the five board cards; Pot-Limit Omaha is its most widely played form.
Q 04What is a 'tell' in poker?
A change in behaviour that hints at a hand
A tell is a change in behaviour that hints at a hand: a trembling hand, a glance at the chips, sudden stillness. Players sometimes fake one, which is why most cultivate a poker face.
Q 05Once suits are disregarded, how many distinct hand ranks exist in standard five-card poker?
7,462
Ignoring suits, the 2,598,960 possible five-card hands collapse into 7,462 distinct values across nine categories; 2,860 of those values are one-pair hands, the most of any category.
Q 06What specific two-pair hand is historically known as the 'Dead Man's Hand'?
Aces and Eights
Aces and eights, both black, form the Dead Man's Hand, the cards Wild Bill Hickok supposedly held when shot from behind in a Dakota Territory saloon in 1876; Frank Wilstach's 1926 biography fixed the pairing in popular lore.
Q 07What poker term describes short-term results swinging away from long-term expected value?
Variance
Variance in poker refers to the statistical measure of how a player's actual results will vary from their expected outcome over a specified period, leading to both upswings and downswings.
Q 08What poker concept refers to future bets a player can win if they complete their drawing hand?
Implied Odds
Implied odds count the extra bets a player expects to win later if a draw completes, so a flush draw can be worth chasing even when the immediate pot odds look short.
Q 09What is the commission fee taken by a cardroom or casino from the pot of a poker cash game?
Rake
The rake is the cardroom's cut, typically a few percent of each pot up to a fixed maximum; some rooms take nothing when a hand ends before the flop, a policy known as 'no flop, no drop'.
Q 10What is it called when a player with a statistically strong hand loses to an opponent who catches an improbable card?
Bad Beat
A bad beat is losing with a hand that was a heavy favourite when the money went in; a one-outer arriving on the river is the textbook case.
Q 11What term describes a player's share of the pot, calculated from their probability of winning it?
Equity
Equity is a player's share of the pot in expectation: the probability of winning times the pot, plus, when a split is possible, the chance of a chop times its size.
Q 12What is the term for a draw that needs helpful cards on both of the last two streets?
Backdoor
Also called runner-runner, it is a long shot; a flush needing both cards comes in roughly one time in 24.
Q 13Who was voted the first World Series of Poker Main Event champion in 1970?
Johnny Moss
Johnny Moss was elected champion by his fellow players at the 1970 event, really a series of cash games among a handful of invited pros at the Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas; his prize was a silver cup.
Q 21What is the term for discarding your hand and forfeiting any claim to the pot?
Fold
To fold is to surrender your cards and any claim to the pot; in stud games it is signalled by flipping your face-up cards over, and chips already committed stay in the pot.
Q 22Which structure plays like a big-bet game up to a per-player maximum, after which the rest is dealt with no betting?
Cap
A cap sets a per-player maximum for the hand; once that ceiling is reached, everyone left is treated as though they had put in their whole stack and the remaining cards are dealt without betting.
Q 23What is the poker betting stage after private cards are dealt but before any community cards?
Preflop
Preflop is the first betting round in hold 'em, taken once each player holds two private cards and before the three-card flop is spread.
Q 14Chris Moneymaker's 2003 Main Event win followed an online satellite costing how much?
$86
PokerStars' records show the qualifying satellite cost $86; Moneymaker's own book title remembered it as $40. The 2003 Main Event was his first live tournament.
Q 15Which town does the Texas Legislature officially recognise as the birthplace of hold 'em?
Robstown
Robstown, near Corpus Christi, was declared the birthplace of Texas hold 'em by a 2007 Texas Legislature resolution; Corky McCorquodale carried the game to Las Vegas in 1963.
Q 16In seven-card stud, what name is given to a player's first exposed card?
Door
The door card is the first face-up card each seven-card stud player receives; in hold 'em the same name goes to the first flop card the dealer exposes.
Q 17What term describes a player betting all of their remaining chips in a single hand?
All-in
Going all-in means wagering every remaining chip; under table-stakes rules a player who does so for less than the full bet can only win the portion each opponent matched, the rest forming a side pot.
Q 18Who shot Wild Bill Hickok in the back of the head during a poker game in 1876?
Jack McCall
Jack McCall shot Hickok from behind at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon No. 10 on 2 August 1876; acquitted by an impromptu miners' court, he was retried in Yankton and hanged in 1877.
Q 19In hold 'em, what are the forced bets made left of the dealer before cards are dealt called?
Blinds
The blinds are forced bets posted by the two players left of the dealer before any cards arrive: a small blind of about half a bet, then a big blind of a full bet.
Q 20What is the title of Doyle Brunson's influential, originally self-published 1978 poker book?
Super/System
Super/System, first self-published in 1978 as How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker, sold for $100; Brunson later said it cost him money by teaching amateurs how pros played. Mike Caro and David Sklansky contributed chapters.
Q 24What is the term for the top card of the deck being discarded face down before community cards are dealt?
Burn
The burn card is the top card dealt face down into the discards before each community-card deal, so a marked or glimpsed top card cannot be exploited.
Q 25In poker, what does the term 'Bullets' commonly refer to?
A pair of Aces
Bullets means a pair of aces as your two private cards; American Airlines and pocket rockets are the other common nicknames for the strongest starting hand.
Q 26What is a voluntary blind bet before the deal, typically double the big blind, giving last action pre-flop?
Straddle
A straddle is an optional blind bet, usually twice the big blind, placed before cards are dealt, which gives the straddling player the right to act last before the flop.
Q 27Who created the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979 as a tourist attraction for his Horseshoe Casino?
Benny Binion
Benny Binion founded the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979 to draw visitors to his Horseshoe; its first class included Wild Bill Hickok, and Barbara Enright became the first woman inducted in 2007.
Q 28Which downtown Las Vegas casino was for several years the only one in the city to offer hold 'em?
Golden Nugget
In 1969 the professionals were invited to play at the entrance of the Dunes on the Strip, and a year later the game's championship moved to the Horseshoe.
Q 29Which poker betting structure uses set bet sizes that cannot vary, smaller in early rounds and larger later?
Fixed-Limit
Fixed-limit play sets every bet and raise at a preset size: in a $2/$4 game the bet is $2 for the first two rounds and $4 after that, the larger amount being the big bet.
Q 30Which 1998 film about underground high-stakes poker stars Matt Damon and Edward Norton?
Rounders
Damon's Mike McDermott loses his whole $30,000 bankroll in one hand to Russian mobster Teddy KGB in the opening act.