Poker Terms
A Game - A player’s best possible performance.
Act - Check, bet, raise, or fold.
Ace High - A hand with no pair where the high card is an Ace.
Action - As in getting action from a player who wants to play you, or the action is on you as in
it’s your turn.
Active Player - A player still in the pot
Add-on - Additional chips that may be bought to “add on” to your chip stack in a rebuy
tournament.
Alias - A player’s online screen name.
All-in - A player bets all of their remaining chips
Angle Shoot - Refers to a shady move to gain an unfair advantage while not breaking the rules.
Ante - A forced mandatory payment made by all players at the table before any cards are dealt.
Tournaments often make use of antes in the later stages.
Backdoor – Refers to a draw that needs to catch two consecutive cards in order to complete.
See the glossary entry for examples on how backdoor equity works.
Back Raise – A reraise made after only calling earlier on the same street.
Bad Beat - When a player has the best of it and loses to a long shot.
Bankroll - Money a player has set aside to gamble with that is separate from money for living
expenses.
Barrel – A bet on the next street after making the last bet/raise on the previous street.
Behind - A player still to act after another player in a betting round
Belly Buster - A gutshot straight draw - AKA an inside straight draw.
Benjamin - A $100 bill (Benjamin Franklin’s image appears on a U.S. $100 bill)
Best of It - The player who currently has the odds on their side
Bet - The first chips to go into the pot on one street.
Big Bet - The larger of the two designated bet sizes in fixed limit games employed on the later
rounds of betting.
Big Blind - The bigger forced bet pre flop in community card games like Hold’em and Omaha.
Big Hand - A very strong hand.
Big Slick - Ace-King
Blank - A card that comes on the turn or river that doesn’t look likely to change the situation.
Blind - To perform an action without checking your holecards.
Blocker - A card that has a card removal effect on your opponent’s range range.
Blocker Bet - A small bet made when you don’t want to face a bet of a larger size from your
opponent.
Bluff - A bet or raise that represents a good hand when the player’s hand is much weaker.
Bluffcatch -To call with a hand that can only beat a bluff.
Board - The community cards that sit in the middle of the table.
Boat - A full house
Bot - A computer program that plays unattended online.
Bounty - A prize that can be collected after knocking a player out of a tournament. Sometimes a
specific player such as a top professional in a small event can have a bounty.
Brick - A card that doesn’t complete any possible draws. Another name for a blank.
Brick and Mortar - A real life casino.
Bring-in - A forced bet made by the player with the worst upcard on the third street in stud
games.
Broadway - An ace-high straight.
Bubble - One place away from making it to the money in a tournament.
Burn Busted - Flat broke or out of the tournament.
Button - AKA the Dealer - The button position is dealt the last card and is last to act in each
betting round post flop.
Buy-In - the amount of chips a player must buy in order to enter a card game whether a cash
game or tournament.
Buying the Pot - A big bet as a bluff to scare players into folding.
C-Game - A player’s worst possible performance.
Call - To match the size of the current bet to stay in the hand.
Calling Station - A player who rarely folds.
Cap - A game with a limit placed on the maximum amount of chips that can be wagered or the
most money that you can buy into a cash game with.
Case Card - The last card of a given rank left in the deck
Cash Game - Poker where the chips are cash and there is no prize pool.
Chasing - Drawing to a certain card(s)
Check - Choosing not to bet when there has not yet been a bet on that betting round.
Check Raise - To check and then raise when another player bets.
Chip Dumping - Deliberately losing chips to another player.
Chop - A pot that is shared equally at showdown when no player has the best hand.
Coinflip - When all the chips go in and the players have roughly equal chances to win.
Cold-Call - A call of a bet when it is that player's first action on a betting round.
Combo Draw - A draw with multiple components, such as a flush and straight draw.
Community Cards - The board
Complete - When the small blind only calls pre flop with no raise from any player.
Connectors - Two or more cards in sequence, such as 54 or 98
Continuation Bet - A bet on the current street after being the last aggressor on the previous
street.
Cooler - A situation where our hand is expected to win almost every time but ends up being
beaten by an even stronger hand.
Counterfeit - In Omaha Eight or Better, when the board pairs one of your low cards
Cracked - When you lose a hand you were favored to win, as in “My pocket aces got cracked!”
Cripple - When your hand hits the board so hard your opponent is unlikely to have any kind of a
strong hand.
Crying Call - A call you make expecting to lose but the pot odds might justify it.
Cutoff - A position at the table to the right of the button.
Dealer - The person who deals the cards out to players; however, see also, Button
Dead Man Hand- Black eights and black aces
Deep Stack - A stack of chips that is relatively high in relation to the blinds.
Deuce - Common nickname for a card with a rank value of two.
Dog - An underdog.
Dominated - A hand that is a heavy underdog due to shared cards. For example, AQ is
“dominated” by AK.
Downswing - A prolonged period of losses.
Draw - A hand that needs additional cards to become a stronger hand
Drawing Dead - When there are no cards left in the deck that will make your hand into a winner.
Draw Poker - A game where players can draw new cards to their hand on every betting round.
Dry - A board texture where there are few possible draws.
Duck - A deuce, a 2 ranked card.
Early Position - The first 2-3 players to act in a hand in a full ring game, or first in a 6-max
game.
Effective Stacks - The smaller of two stacks in play.
Equity Calculator - A computer tool used to calculate the equity of hands/ranges against each
other.
Expectation - How much you expect to win in a particular line.
Expected Value - Expectation.
Face Down - Cards that are unexposed to other players.
Face Up - Cards that everybody can see.
Family Pot - A pot where most of the players play post flop.
Fast Play - An aggressive line with no slow playing.
Favorite - The player with the most equity.
Fish - A weak player with no skill.
Five-Bet - The fifth bet in a betting sequence.
Flat - Another word for call.
Float - A call made with no made hand post flop.
Flop - The first three community cards.
Flush - A hand containing five cards of the same suit
Fold - To indicate you are no longer playing in the hand.
Four-Bet - The fourth bet in a betting sequence.
Four-Flush - When four cards of the same suit are on the board.
Free Card- A betting round where all players check.
Freeroll - A poker tournament with no entry fee.
Four-of-a-Kind - A hand containing four cards of the same rank.
Full House - A hand with two of one rank and three of another.
Gap - A gap between cards of consecutive rank.
Grinding - Playing poker for long hours thinking more about volume than profit.
Gutshot - An inside straight draw or a gutshot.
Hand - The cards a player holds combined with any community cards, to make the best five
card combination.
Head-to Head - Heads Up.
Hero Call - A crying call.
Hi/Lo - A type of poker where the highest hand and the lowest hand split the pot.
Hijack - A position at the poker table.
Last Longer - A bet made between two players in a tournament setting. The player who busts
out first loses the bet.
Hit - You hit when a card falls that gives us a better hand.
Hold’em - The most popular poker variant, sometimes referred to as the “Cadillac of Poker”.
Hole Cards - The cards held by a player, unseen by other players.
ICM - Independent Chip Modelling -a mathematical technique of assigning real monetary values
to tournament chips.
Implied Odds - Pot odds that factor in any future profit.
In Front Of - A player who acts before another player
Inside Straight Draw - A draw where only one card will complete the straight.
Isolate - To raise a limper pre flop with the intention of playing them heads up post flop.
Jackpot - A bad beat jackpot when an extremely strong hand gets beat giving the loser and
maybe some of the table a prize that builds up week after week.
Jam - To bet all your remaining chips.
Kicker - The other holecard when you have a pair. Used to break ties when other players have
the same pair.
LAG - Loose Aggressive - a player who plays many hands in an aggressive style.
Late Position - The cutoff and button.
Laydown - To fold
Levelling - Thinking on different levels when playing a hand. “He thinks that I think that he
thinks etc.”
Limit - The most that can be bet or raised at any time.
Limit Poker - Games with limits betting or raising, as opposed to no-limit.
Limp - To just call pre flop, matching the size of the big blind.
Live Card - A holecard that could turn your hand from a loser into a winner of the pot.
Live One - A wild player.
Lock - A hand that cannot be beaten whatever the run out.
Lock Up My Seat - A commitment to take a seat that is reserved for you.
Longshot - A drawing hand that is a huge underdog
Look Up - To call a player on the river, as in “I’m gonna look you up.”
Loose - A playing style that plays a lot of hands pre flop.
Made Hand - A pair or better.
Maniac - A crazy, loose player who bets too often as a bluff and with marginal value.
Mental Game - All about a player’s mindset and preparation for learning and performance.
Misclick - To accidentally click the wrong button when playing online.
Monotone - A board texture where all of the cards are the same suit.
Middle Position - The seats between early position and late position.
Monster - A big hand that is almost certainly the best hand and will win the pot.
Muck - To fold and throw your cards into the muck pile of discarded cards.
Nit - An extremely tight player who waits for premium hands pre flop and only commits chips
with a strong hand.
Nosebleed Stakes - Ultra high stakes poker.
No-Limit - A betting structure where the players are allowed to bet or raise any amount.
Nut-low - The lowball version of “the nuts”. It describes the best possible low hand in a lowball
or split pot variant of poker.
Nut Flush Draw - A draw to the highest possible flush.
Nut Flush - An ace high flush.
Nuts - The best possible hand, although this can change on later streets in many cases.
Offsuit - A starting hand where the holecards are of different suits.
Omaha - A poker variant structured similar to NL holdem but each player is dealt four cards and
must use exactly two of them to make a five card hand.
One-Gap - A starting hand where the hole cards have a gap of a numerical value of one.
Open-ended Straight Draw - An eight out straight draw where a player is drawing to four cards
at the higher end and four cards at the lower end.
Open-raise - To make the first raise pre flop.
OOP - An acronym standing for “out of position”.
Out - A community card that will improve your hand on the turn or river.
Overbet - A bet larger than the current size of the pot.
Overcall – To make a call when another player has already made a call before you on the
current street.
Overlay - When enough players enter a poker tournament that the prize pool is larger than the
guarantee.
Overlimp - Limping after another player has already limped in pre flop.
Overpair - When a player is dealt a pair that is higher than any card on the board.
One Pair - A hand that contains two cards of the same rank. Either both holecards or one in the
hole and one on the board.
Overcard - A holecard that is higher than any on the current board.
Play the Board - When the five community cards give you a better hand than what you can
make using your holecards.
Paint - The cards between jack and ace.
Pocket Rockets - A pair of aces in the hole.
Pocket Pair - When you have a pair in the hole.
Position - A player's position relative to another.
Post - To post your blind before a hand.
Post Flop - The betting rounds when the flop, turn, and river community cards come down.
Pot - All the chips in the middle that have already been bet.
Pot odds - The ratio between the size of the pot and the size of the bet.
Pot Limit - A betting structure where the maximum allowed bet or raise is a pot sized bet.
Preflop - The first betting round before any community cards are placed in the middle.
Premium Starting Hands - The best holecards possible, such as pocket aces and ace-king in
NL hold’em.
Probe - A bet by the out of position when the pre-flop raiser does not continuation bet.
Price - Another name for pot odds.
Protection - A small bet with a weak hand to avoid giving your opponent a free card.
Quads - Four of a kind
Qualify - In split pot games, a low hand must “qualify” before it is counted as a legitimate low
hand. This means the hand must be low enough such as no cards above an eight.
Rabbit Hunt - To check what community cards would have come after the hand is finished.
Ragged - A dry, non-coordinated board texture.
Rap - To tap the table indicating you check.
Rainbow - A board texture where every card is of a different suit.
Raise - When a player calls a bet and puts even more chips into the middle, reopening the
action back to everyone else still in the hand.
Rake - A small percentage taken from each pot each hand as payment for running the poker
game by the house or website.
Range - All of the hand combinations that you think a player likely holds.
Range Advantage - When one hand range is favoured on a specific board over another.
Rank - The value of a single card.
Ratholing - Buying in for a small amount in a game and then leaving when the stack becomes
big.
Razz - The lowball version of seven card stud.
Read - A read is information you have picked up on a player.
Rebuy - To buy back into a tournament you have busted out of, or to replenish your chip stack
in a cash game.
Redraw - A draw you pick up on the turn when the board texture changes.
Reraise - To raise another player’s raise.
Represent - When bluffing you are trying to represent a stronger hand than what you hold. Also
when an opponent bets he represents a certain range.
Reverse Implied Odds - Implied odds where you will lose money over the long run if you hit
your draw.
Ring Game - A cash game.
River - The final (and fifth) community card on the board.
River Rat - A player sucks out on the river after making bad calls earlier in the hand.
Rock - Another name for nit.
Royal Flush - An A-K-Q-J-10 all of the same suit. This is the best hand in poker.
Run - To run good or run bad describing your flow of luck.
Rundown - Connected starting hands in pot limit omaha. A starting of hand JT98 is called a
“jack-high rundown”.
Run it Twice - In all-in situations the players can sometimes choose to run the remaining
community cards out twice to reduce variance.
Runner Runner - When you make your draw using both the turn and river card.
Sandbagging - To deliberately not bet or raise with a strong hand in order to deceive your
opponent.
Satellite - A tournament where the prize is a ticket to a higher value tournament.
Scare Card - A card on the turn or river that might look scary for your opponent.
Semi-Bluff - A bluff when you hold a strong draw.
Set - Three of a kind when you hold a pocket pair.
Short Handed - A table with six players or less.
Short Stack - A player with few chips left in his stack compared to the starting pot.
Shove - To bet all-in.
Showdown - After all the betting has been completed and the players check who wins the
hand.
Side Pot - A second pot formed when one player is already all-in but there are still players left in
the hand with additional chips to play for. Check out the glossary entry for an example on how
this works.
Sit and Go - A type of poker tournament which starts as soon as a designated number of
entrants is reached.
Sizing - The size of a bet or a raise.
Slowplay - To deliberately not bet or raise with a strong hand in order to deceive your
opponent.
Slowroll - To take a long time to call when you are the last player to act and have the effective
nuts. Also applies to being slow to turn over your cards at a showdown when you have the nuts.
Small Bet - In fixed limit games it denotes the smaller of the two designated bet sizes.
Small Blind - A seat in between the button and the big blind.
Split - Split pot poker is where half of the pot is awarded to the best low hand and the other half
the best high hand.
Squeeze - A three bet made when there is an open raise and one or more callers.
Stab - To make a bet when your opponent has refrained from betting on one or more streets
intending to pick up the pot most of the time.
Stack to Pot Ratio - The ratio between the size of the pot and the size of a stack.
Stand Pat - In draw poker to not draw any cards.
Steam - To get angry and play badly making emotional decisions.
Steal the Blinds - A raise, normally from late position, aiming to win the blinds without a fight.
Straddle - An optional blind bet made before the holecards are dealt. Most often seen in high
stakes cash games.
Straight - Five consecutive cards in rank order.
Straight Flush - Five consecutive cards in rank order all of the same suit.
String Bet - Announcing a call and then attempting to raise. This action is illegal and would be
declared a call.
Structure - The different variables that describe a game such as blinds, number of players and
in a tournament the prize pool payout.
Stud - A poker variant without community cards where players are dealt cards a mixture of
cards visible to other players and some face down.
Suited - Two holecards of the same suit.
Suck-out - To hit a draw that was extremely unlikely.
Suited Connectors - Two holecard of consecutive rank and of the same suit.
Swing - The natural fluctuation of a player’s chip count or bankroll
Table Stakes - A player can only play with the chips they have on the table. A player cannot
buy or borrow more chips during a hand.
TAG - Tight Aggressive. A way of describing a player’s style.
Tank - To go into the thinking tank when making an important decision.
Tell - Another way of saying a read on a player.
Texture - Board texture.
Three-Bet - To raise the first bet on a street.
Three-of-a-Kind - Three cards of the same rank. Trips or a set.
Tie - When two or more hands at showdown are of the same strength.
Tilt - When a player gets angry and plays badly because of poor emotional control.
Time Bank - Extra time available to online poker players during a hand.
Tournament - A poker format with a fixed entry fee. Chips cannot be added throughout the
tournament unless the rules allow for it at specific times for all players.
Tracking Software - A database that keeps track of all hands played in online poker. Allows for
in-depth analysis away from the table.
Trap - To slowplay.
Trey - A card of rank “Three”.
Trips - Three of a kind using two cards of that rank from the board.
Turn - The third betting round in variants such as Hold’em and Omaha.
Two Pair - When both of your holecards make a pair with the board, or you hold a pocket pair
and the board is paired.
Two-tone - A flop with a flush draw possible.
Under the Gun - The seat to the left of the big blind. Acts first on every post flop betting round.
Underbet - A bet sizing less of than 50% of the pot.
Underdog - The player who is statistically less likely to win.
Upcard - A face up card dealt to a player in stud games.
Upswing - A prolonged period of profitable results.
Up the Ante - To up the stakes.
Value Bet - To bet when you expect to get called often enough by a worse hand to make a long
term profit.
Variance - The natural ups and downs of winning and losing.
Variant - A specific type of game in poker, such as NL hold’em and PLO.
Vulnerable - A hand that is susceptible to being outdrawn.
Wheel - A straight from ace to five.
Wet - A board texture that is coordinated with a lot of possible draws.
Whale - A terrible poker player.
Wired - A pair on third street in seven card stud where both of the cards are down cards.
Wrap - A large straight draw in PLO. Big straight draws in PLO can have as many as 20 outs.
WSOP - World Series of Poker. The most prestigious poker series in the world.
