Do you know poker?

Poker is a very entertaining card game. To explain in simple terms you have 2 of your own cards and 5 community cards and you have to come up with the best hand of 5 cards with these 7 cards to win. The fun part is the community cards are not made public all at once. But first 3 cards (called flop), then 1 (turn) and then the last one. (river) After every round there is betting and the next card is delt only after all the players who are in the hand match some particular bet. The order of the hands from low to high is high card, pair, two pair, trips, straight, flush, fullhouse(and trip and a pair), four of a kind, straight flush, Royal flush(highest straight flush). Now the chances of you actually seeing a straight flush while playing a game is very very low. And as you can guess its pretty exciting when someone actually gets it.

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I was at atlantic city last semester to participate in a poker tournament at a casino called Tropicana. Fortunately or unfortunately me and one of my friends (Allen) lended up in the same table. So, we made a deal if one guy bets then the other one backs out. This would make sure that atleast we dont lose money to each other and possibly will stay longer in the tournament. In one round the dealer deals me two kings (Now this is the second most strongest hand to start with!!) so I call the minimum bet. As the bet goes around the table, I got a big shock as my friend went all in with his money. I was completely taken aback!! Now as the betting circle continued and I got my chance and now it was my friends turn to get a shock. Now this put me in a very difficult position as you can imagine. I had one of the best hands so I started thinking. My friend was really confused and he tried to remind me of our deal in all the subtle ways like coughing and making eye contact. :) But at the end, I thought to go all in so that even if I lose my friend will have a big stack to play with and that way there is more chance of one of us winning. The rest of the table backed out. So the dealer asked us to flip our cards. My friend flips his "Two queens" and there were few murmurs at the table. And then there was a loud gasp when I flipped my two kings. And I could hear my friend going nuts. As I doubled up my money my friend was left with the minimum money to play a hand. I mean he had the money to just bet the minimum to stay in so he had to put all his money in no matter what hand he has.

Bouyed by the hand win I went all in in the next hand also. One other guy called me and this one went to the last card when I managed a straight to his trips and won the money. But the fun was not over yet. As the whole table was busy looking at our cards everybody forgot that my friend is in the bet by default. My friend gets up and throws his cards on the table and says "Shit man!! I have a straight flush!!!!". The whole table was amazed and it was worth a big laugh as the best possible hand helped my friend win so little money. (You can only win the amount that was matched to your bet in this case it being the minimum possible bet) The fun part in this whole thing was the contrasting feeling of my friend on getting a straight flush to any other person. He was simply frustated and cursing on why he didnt get it in the last hand. Oh boy, I love poker!!