River
The fifth and final community card, followed by the last betting round. Also called fifth street.
Once the river is dealt there are no more cards to come. Every hand is now complete, so the final round of betting is about value betting strong hands and bluffing with missed draws.
If two or more players remain after the river betting, the hand goes to a showdown. A painful last-card loss is described as being "rivered", a classic bad beat.
Example
You hold KK on K882 and the river is 8. Your full house just lost to anyone holding the last 8 for four of a kind.
Questions players ask
- Why is the last card called the river?
- The origin is uncertain. A popular story ties it to Mississippi riverboat gambling, where a cheat caught dealing the last card was thrown "down the river". Historians treat this as folklore.