Two super newbie questions

Hi! I'm very new to poker playing, and I have two questions about Texas Hold 'Em.

1. It says that a betting round ends when everyone has had a chance to bet and "all bets are equal." What does this last part mean?

2. This book is telling me how to calculate odds, and it says that an open-ended straight has eight cards that complete that hand, or "outs", at the flop. I so do not get this. Can someone help me? Thanks!

Hi CFL, welcome to the forums

"All bets are equal" means everyone who is still in the hand has put in the same amount.

An open-ended straight is a 4-card straight, something like 8-9-10-Jack. However, this is not considered a hand in poker, instead you need a 5-card straight. In order to get a 5-card straight, you need to hit one of 8 cards, or outs. These 8 cards would be the 4 7s and 4 Queens left in the deck.

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1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

In this part, the book is refering to how the pot is divided. If you have more than two players the pot is divided according to how much was bet.

Outs are possibilities to make a hand.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for all your help! I'm still kind of puzzled by my first question, though. Wouldn't it be hard to keep track of how much every person has put in?

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The Carter Family is awesome!

That's why you don't push your bets into the pot until either you fold or the betting round is over - then it's easy to see Bob has put in $20 while Frank has put in only $10.

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1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

OHH! I didn't know that you kept the chips out of the pot. Thank you!

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The Carter Family is awesome!