The Weekly PokerNews Strategy Quiz: It’s Always 50-50

04-30-2016 73766 responses Top results

I have two favorite poker forum non sequitur responses. I’m talking about contributions to an ongoing discussion that tend not to contribute anything whatsoever other than to make everyone stop and laugh for a moment.

One of them comes from the poster who jumps in to agree with something someone has just said, but does it this way: “This is correct. I have independently confirmed it by thinking about it.”

The other is when someone asks a legitimate strategic question about the odds of something happening in poker, and a responder gleefully chimes in: “It’s always 50-50. Either you win or you lose.”

Picking up on that latter bit of irreverence, this week’s installment of The Weekly PokerNews Strategy Quiz presents eight true/false questions regarding various poker-related scenarios. None are actually “50-50” propositions — that is to say, in each case one answer is 100% correct and the other completely wrong.

But if you have no idea what the answer is, well, then your chance of getting it right is, in fact, 50-50.

Getting at least six of eight right earns a passing grade, and at the end you’ll also see how your results compare to others. If you don’t have one already, click here to create a PokerNews account, and you’ll see your name listed, too.

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Question 1

Even though a flush ranks higher than a straight, mathematically speaking in most poker variants you are actually more likely to make a flush than a straight.

Question 2

On a 9d-8h-2h flop, a player holding Jh-Th (jack-high) is a favorite over someone with As-Ad.

Question 3

Two players go all in on the flop with the board showing 9h-5h-2h. One has Qh-Jh for a flush while the other has Ks-Kc. Two other players each say they folded a king, which means the player with pocket kings is now drawing dead.

Question 4

Of the 13 pocket pairs in hold’em, the most frequently dealt pair is 2-2 while the least frequently dealt is A-A.

Question 5

In hold’em you have a better chance of being dealt pocket aces than ace-king suited.

Question 6

If you’re dealt Ad-Jc in a nine-handed game, it is a better than 50-50 chance someone else has also been dealt an ace.

Question 7

With the board showing As-9s-9c-Kd, two players are all in, and one has Ad-4s and the other Ac-6d. The outcome of this hand has already been determined -- that is, no river card can change it.

Question 8

The largest preflop disparity in equity between starting hands in hold’em is K-K vs. K-2 offsuit.