### Example Poker Hand

This section walks carefully through a complete hand of Texas Hold'em.

Alice: Bob: Carl: Dave: Eddie: | Imagine a five player game of $10/$20 hold'em, with the following five players: Alice, Bob, Carl, Dave, and Eddie. Alice has the dealer button so Bob posts the Small Blind of $5 and Carl posts the Big Blind of $10. The cards are dealt, two to each player, face-down: Now it is Dave's turn to act. Dave has three options. He may fold if he does not like his hand. He can call the outstanding $10 bet made by Carl as the Big Blind. Or he may raise the stakes by $10 by putting a total of $20 into the pot. Dave looks at his hand and sees Pocket Eights, which he thinks are worth playing. Dave calls the $10 bet. Now it is Eddies turn to act. He has the same options that Dave had. He may fold, call, or raise. Having a weak starting hand, Eddie decides to fold, and tosses his hand away. Eddie will spend the rest of the hand as an observer. Now it is Alice's turn to act. She quickly calls the $10 bet as well with her two face cards. Since Bob has already put $5 in the pot as the Small Blind, he only needs to put $5 more to call, or $15 more in to raise the bet by $10. Bob, having a small suited-connector hand decides to call as well, and puts $5 more into the pot. Now the action is on Carl. Since no one re-raised his Big Blind, he can check, or if he wishes he can raise $10 more. Carl, having a weak hand, decides to check. Technically, he also has the option to fold, but it would be a very silly thing to do since by checking he will get to see the flop for free. The pre-flop betting round is now over since everyone had a chance to call the outstanding bet (Carl's Big Blind). All of the chips in front of each player are swept up by the dealer and placed into the center of the table.

### The flop is dealt:

The first active player after the button is Bob, so Bob is first to act on the flop. Bob has a decent drawing hand. If the turn card is an eight or a three, it will give him a Straight. Bob doesn't know that his draw is much weaker than it appears. Three of the eights and one of the threes are being held by Carl and Dave. Bob decides to try and get to the Turn as cheaply as possible to see if he makes his draw. Bob checks.

Carl has a draw as well. Any deuce will make him a straight as well. Carl checks. Dave has the pair of eights in the hole. He is a little worried about the Ace on the flop, which would give a bigger pair to anyone holding a single Ace. There is a high free-card danger here as well with possible straight draws and a spade flush draw. Dave decides to bet to protect what may be the best hand. He can't allow the other players to draw against him for free.

Next to act is Alice (Eddie is skipped since he folded earlier). Alice can fold, call the $10 bet made by Dave, or raise another $10. Alice decides to call the $10. It is back to Bob again, who is now faced with the option to fold, call, or raise. Bob decides to call the $10 in hopes of drawing to a straight. Carl is next, and decides to fold.

The flop betting round is now over since all players have acted since the last betting action made by Dave.

### The turn card is dealt:

Bob is first to act since he is the first active player to the left of the button. Bob has not made his straight draw, but he still can hope to make his straight with the river card. He has also picked up a flush draw. Any diamond on the river will give him a flush. Bob can check, or bet $20. Recall that on the turn and river, all bets must be $20. Bob checks, hoping to draw cheaply to the river.

It has been checked to Dave, who decides to bet again. Alice can now fold, call the $20 bet by Dave, or raise another $20, making it $40 to go. Alice has made a pair of Kings so she decides to be aggressive and raises $20. The action is back on Bob, who must now pay $40 to continue in the hand. Bob does some quick mental arithmetic to decide if he should fold or call:

Bob figures that there are 15 cards in the deck that would make his hand very strong.Any eight or three would make a straight, and any diamond would make a flush. There are 9 remaining diamonds in the deck and 4 threes and 4 eights. He can't count the three of diamonds or eight of diamonds twice since those would make the flush, not the straight, so that gives 9 outs to the flush and six outs to the straight. Bob can see 6 of the 52 cards in the deck, so there are 46 possible cards that could be dealt on the river. This means that 32% of the time (15/46), the next card will make his hand very strong, and likely to win the showdown. Bob counts the money in the pot, which totals $130. If he calls, the pot will be $170. 32% of the time his $40 investment will win a pot of at least $170. The remaining 68% of the time his hand stays weak, and he knows he will fold to any bets made in the next round, so 68% of the time he will lose $40. The expected value for calling is (32 x $170) - (68 * $40) = $5440 - $2720 = +$2720. It is clearly profitable in the long run for Bob to call the $40.

With this knowledge, Bob decides he must call.

Dave must still call $20 to stay in the hand. Dave is knows that his hand is in trouble. With Alice raising him, and Bob calling, his pair of eights is no longer a contender. His only hope would be to hit one of the two remaining eights in the deck to make three of a kind. Little does he know that that would give Bob his straight. With so few outs left, he decides to give up and fold.

### The river card is dealt:

Bob is first to act, being the first active player after the button. Bob can check or bet. Since his draw did not materialize, and his hand is very weak, he checks. Alice decides to check as well. The river round is over, and Alice and Bob must now showdown for the pot. Since Alice acted last, Bob must show his hand first. He reveals his 7d6c. His best 5-card hand is a pair of fives (5s 5c As Kd 7d). Alice reveals KhJd. Her best 5-card hand is two-pair, Kings and Fives (Kd Kh 5s 5c As). Alice is awarded the $170 pot, and the hand is over.