Poker School
Poker Terminology
Since learning the language of poker is essential to becoming a better player, we recommend that novices spend some time with our poker glossary. Each term listed is common and should become part of your own poker terminology—these words will come in handy whether you’re playing online or in a circle of friends.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Aces Up - Two pairs. A pair of Aces and another of any rank.
Action – The betting. A call, check, raise, or fold.
Ante – A small, fixed fee put into the pot by players for the right to play the round.
All Blue – A flush containing all clubs or spades.
All-In – A player bets all his money on the table.
All Pink – A flush containing all hearts and diamonds.
B
Back Door – Making a hand other than the one intended.
Bad Beat – When a seemingly losing hand beats a highly-favored hand. A classic underdog story.
Bet – The money of chips put into the pot.
Blank – A card that has very little or no value to the hand.
Blind – A forced bet made before any cards are dealt.
Board – (1) The poker table. (2) All-faced up up or community cards.
Bottom Pair – A pair with the lowest card on the flop.
Bull – A player who raises frequently.
Burn – (1) To discard the top card from the deck, face down. (2) A full house. (3) To lose a hand.
Button – A marker (white acrylic disk) to indicate who is the (nominal) dealer.
Buy – (1) To bluff, hoping to “buy” the pot without being called. (2) To call bets in order to draw cards.
C
Calling Station – A player who calls almost any bet and doesn’t fold or raise very often.
Cap – The maximum number of allowed raises in a limit game.
Case Card – The last available card of a certain value or suit.
Center Pot – The first pot created during a poker hand. Also called “main pot.”
Check – (1) To pass without betting. (2) Another word for “chip”, as in poker chip.
Check Raise – To check and then raise in the same round of betting.
Coffee Housing – To discuss current hand being played with the intent of providing misleading information.
Cold Call – To call more than one bet in a single action. When a player bets, another player raises, and a third player calls the two bets. This is a cold call.
Come Hand – A drawing hand (probably from the craps term).
Complete Hand – A hand defined by all five cards – a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, or straight flush.
Connector – Pocket cards of consecutive ranks.
Counterfeit – To make your great hand worthless because of board cards that duplicate it.
Crack – A powerful hand is cracked when it is beaten.
Cripple -To cripple the deck. Meaning that you have most or all of the cards that somebody would want to have with the current board. Foe example, you have pocket kings, and the other two kings flop, you have then crippled the deck.
D
Dominated Hand – A hand that will almost always lose to a better hand that people usually play.
Draw – The exchange of cards for new ones.
Draw Dead – A draw hand that will lose even if it hits its draw because someone already holds a hand that will beat what you are drawing to.
E
Equity – Your “rightful” share of a pot, based on the amount in the pot and the chances of winning it.
Expectation – The rate of profit or loss you expect to make.
Exposed Cards – Cards dealt face up in a stud.
F
Family Pot – A pot in which all (or almost all) of the players call the bet.
Fast – A game with fast betting pace.
Flop – The first three community cards in Holdem poker.
Fold – To drop out of a hand without calling a raise or bet.
Foul – A hand containing the wrong number of cards.
Free Card – It’s a free card when you get to see an additional card without having to call a bet, i.e when all the players check instead of making a bet.
Free Roll – A chance to win something at a low or no risk.
G
Gunshot Straight – An straight filled “inside”. For example, f you have 9s-8s, the flop comes 7c-5h-2d, and the turn is the 6c, you’ve made your gunshot straight.
H
Heads Up – Only two players are involved in a play.
Hit – A draw or catch that improves one’s hands.
Hot Pot – A special pot played for higher stake.
House – A person or organization running a poker house for profit.
I
Implied Odds – Pot odds. Except the money in the pot is not actually there yet.
Iron Duke – An unbeatable hand.
J
Jackpot – A special bonus paid to the loser of a hand if he gets a very good hand beaten.
Jack Up – To raise.
Jog – An unevenly stacked deck used by a cheater to indicate where his partner should cut the deck.
Joker – A 53rd card added to a deck.
K
Kicker – When a player makes a pair with one of his hole cards, the other card is called kicker. If another player holds the same pair, the highest kicker wins the pot.
Ku Klux Klan – Three Kings.
L
Lay Down – Revealing of cards after the last bet.
Live Blind – A blind bettor with an option to raise.
Live Card – A card that has not been dealt or exposed.
Lock – A hand that cannot lose.
Loose – Playing more hands than normal.
M
Make Good – To pay money owed to the pot.
Maniac – A player who plays extremely loose and aggressive.
Middle Pair – Pairing the second highest card on the board.
Minnie – The perfect low hand.
Muck – The pile of discarded cards, or the act of throwing cards into this pile.
N
No-Limit – Sky’s the limit. Players are allowed to wager any or all of their chips in one bet.
Nuts – The best possible hand any player can have at any given time. Or a hand that is a certain winner.
O
Offsuit – Of different suits.
Openers – A hand with which the betting starts.
Outs – Cards that will improve a hand to win.
Outrun – To beat another hand.
Overcall – To call a bet after one or more others players have already called.
Overcard – A hole card that is higher than any other card on the board.
Overpair – Two hole cards paired and higher than any other card on the board.
P
Pay Off – To call a bet where the bettor is representing a hand that you can’t beat, but the pot is sufficiently large to justify a call anyway.
Play the Board – Using all five community cards for your hand.
Pocket – Cards dealt to you face down, as in the Texas Holdem and Omaha poker.
Post – To put in a blind bet, generally required when you first sit down in a cardroom game.
Pot – The area where antes, bets, and raises are placed.
Pot Limit – A version of poker in which a player may bet up to the amount of money in the pot whenever it is his turn to act.
Pot Odds – The amount of money it will cost you to call a bet according to ratio of the amount of money in the pot.
Protect – (1) To keep your hand or a chip on your cards. (2) To make a bet so as to reduce the chances of others outdrawing you by forcing them to fold.
Q
Quads – Four of a kind.
Quart – A four-card straight flush.
Quarter – To win one-fourth of the pot.
R
Ragged – A flop (or board) that doesn’t appear to help anybody very much.
Rainbow – Three or four cards of different suits.
Rake – Money taken out of every pot by the dealer – this is the cardroom’s income.
Rank – The relative value of hands.
Represent – To play as if to indicate you hold a certain hand.
Ring Game – A full game. Also referred to as a “live” game since actual money is in play instead of tournament chips.
River – The fifth and final community card dealt.
Rock – A player who plays extremely tight, not very creatively.
Runner – Typically said “runner-runner” to describe a hand which was made only by catching the correct cards on both the turn and the river.
S
Scare Card – A card which may well turn the best hand into trash.
Second Pair – A pair with the second highest card on the flop.
Sell – As in “sell a hand”. To bet less than the maximum when you have a very strong hand, hoping players will call whereas they would not have called a maximum bet.
Semi-bluff – Similar to bluffing, except that the bluffer could actually win a hand.
Set – Three or four of a kind.
Short Stack – A number of chips that is not very many compared to the other players at the table.
Showdown – The point at which all players remaining in the hand turn their cards over and determine who has the best hand.
Side Pot – A pot created in which a player has no interest because he has run out of chips.
Slow Play – To play a strong hand weakly so more players will stay in the pot.
Split Pot – A pot which is shared by two or more tied hands.
Spread Limit – Fixed minimum and maximum bet for every round.
Straddle – (1) A forced raise. (2) The right to buy the last-bettor position.
String Bet – A bet made in more than one motion without the declaration of a raise.
Stringer – A straight.
Structured – The typical definition of a structured game is a fixed amount for bets and raises before the flop and on the flop, and then twice that amount on the turn and river.
Suited – Cards are of the same suits.
T
Table Stakes – Stakes in which the betting and raising are limited to the amount of money a player has in front of him.
Tell – Characteristics, habits, behavior of a person that give away clues.
Tierce – A three-card straight flush.
Tilt – To play wildly or recklessly due to frustration over previous losses.
Time – (1) A request by a player to suspend play while he decides what he’s going to do. (2) An amount of money collected either on the button or every half hour by the cardroom.
Toke – A small amount of money given to the dealer by the winner of a pot. A tip.
Top Pair – A pair with the highest card on the flop.
Trips – Three of a kind.
Turn – The fourth community card.
U
Under the gun – The position to the immediate left of the big blind.
Underdog – A person or hand who is not y favored to win a pot. The first bettor.
Up Cards – Cards dealt face up.
V
Valet – A jack.
Value – As in “bet for value.” This means that you would actually like your opponents to call your bet because you have the best hand. However, it can also be a draw which, given enough callers, has a positive expectation.
Variance – A measure of the up and down swings your bankroll goes through.
Vigorish – The amount taken by the house for running a game.
W
Wager – To bet or raise. Or the chips (money) used for betting or raising.
Wash – To shuffle.
Weak – One who folds too many hands.
Wild Card – A card changeable to any value.
Wing – To have a winning streak.
Z
