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Play the Board - In flop games, using all five community cards to make your best hand.
When showing down a hand in Hold'em where your hole cards don't contribute at all to make a hand any better than what
is shown on the board, you are “playing the board”.
For instance, if you have 5-5, and the board is 6-6-9-9-K, then you must "play the board". The best possible
hand you can make does not use any of your hole cards. Note that if you play the board, the best you can do is split the
pot with all remaining players.
Perhaps the most famous case of “playing the board” came in the final hand of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event
between Kevin McBride and Scotty Nguyen. On a final board of 8-9-9-8-8 (eights full of nines), Scotty bet enough to put
Kevin all in if he decided to call. Kevin’s hole cards were the QhTh. The best hand he could make was the full house
represented by the community cards showing, which of course is a very strong hand. Kevin did not heed Scotty’s infamous
warning (“You call, it’s all over Baby.”) and finally said, “I call. I play the board”, thinking it would be a split
pot. Scotty revealed a Jd-9c, giving him a higher full house than the board (nines full of eights) and became World
Champion.
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