Poker Quiz: Test Your Fundamentals in 10 Questions

Player A wins.

Both players play the board’s two pair, eights and fours, so the hand comes down to the fifth card. Player A’s ace outranks the king on the board and becomes the kicker. Player B’s queen and jack are both worse than that king, so B plays the board and loses by one card. More on how the fifth card gets chosen: the best five-card hand rule.

Player B wins with nines full of fives.

A full house outranks a flush every time, and the ace inside a flush changes nothing about that order. Player B makes 9-9-9-5-5 using both hole cards. Player A’s A-K-9-5-3 of spades is the second-best hand at the table. The full order lives on what beats what in poker.

Player A wins with the ten-high straight.

Straights are compared by their top card, not by how many board cards they borrow. Player A makes 10-9-8-7-6 and Player B makes 9-8-7-6-5, so A is one rank higher and takes the whole pot. Pocket fives losing to a lone ten is the normal shape of a four-straight board. Ranking order and tie-breaks: the poker hand rankings chart.

Eight.

Any queen gives you Q-J-10-9-8 and any seven gives you J-10-9-8-7. Four queens plus four sevens is eight cards, which is the standard count for an open-ended straight draw. Nothing on this flop kills one of them, so all eight are clean. Practice separating clean from dirty: counting outs, clean vs dirty.

About 25 percent of the time.

You risk $30 to win the $90 already out there, which is 3 to 1. Break-even is your call divided by the pot once your call is in it: 30 divided by 120 is 25 percent. A half-pot bet always asks for 25 percent, a pot-sized bet asks for 33 percent, and knowing those two by heart settles most river spots. Worked examples: how to calculate pot odds.

Call.

Calling $20 into a pot that will hold $140 needs to be right about 14 percent of the time. Your eight outs are worth roughly 16 percent with one card to come using the rule of 2, and a shade over 17 percent exactly. Being behind is what a draw always is: the price is what decides it, and this price is cheap. The shortcut in full: the rule of 2 and 4.

You act first on the flop, the turn and the river.

The button acts last on every betting round after the flop, and that order does not reset street to street. Raising from the cutoff wins you the pot uncontested plenty of times, but when the button calls you are speaking first for the rest of the hand. Late position is about the seat, not about who raised. Every seat and its order: poker positions explained.

On the button.

On the button you watch everyone else act before every postflop decision you make, so you fold cheaply when the pot turns dangerous and bet when it does not. Under the gun you commit first before the flop with eight players still to speak, and you stay early on every street after. Same cards, different price on every mistake. The seat-by-seat breakdown: poker positions explained.

Raise.

First into the pot, the choice is raise or fold, and the button is the seat that opens widest. Raising can win the blinds now, and when you get called you have position for the rest of the hand. Limping gives up both of those and tells observant players exactly what kind of hand you hold. What opening ranges look like: poker ranges explained.

Raise.

Aces are at their best heads-up and lose value against every extra player who sees a flop, because one pair holds up less often as the field grows. Raising narrows that field and builds the pot while you hold the best hand. Slowplaying aces in a four-way limped pot is how a monster turns into a guessing game on the turn. Preflop hand selection in context: poker ranges explained.