Poker glossary
Action: The betting on the table.
Active player: A player still in the pot.
Ante: A compulsory bet paid by players to seed the pot at the beginning of a stud poker game.
All-in: To bet the remainder of your chips.
All in protection: A term applied in online poker play. If a player loses internet connection during a hand he will be considered all in with the chips that he has previously contributed to the pot. He will be eligible to collect winnings based on his previous contribution should he have the best hand. There is no all-in protection in pot limit and no limit games.
Backdoor: To hit cards on the turn and the river and make a drawing hand. E.g. You have A hearts and 7 hearts. The flop comes Ad, 10c, 7s. You bet and are called. Then the turn is the Q hearts, which everybody bets/checks, and the river is the J hearts. This is a backdoor flush.
Bad beat: To have a heavily favoured hand beat by an underdog which players generally agree should not have been a hand that was played.
Big blind: A compulsory bet played in hold’em games to seed the pot at the start of the first betting round. The big blind is paid by the player two seats to the left of the dealer.
Big slick: A slang name for AK (suited or not).
Blank: A community card that doesn't affect a player’s hand.
Blind: A forced bet paid before any cards are dealt, paid by the two players to the left of the dealer.
Board: Another name for the community cards in a hold'em game: the collective name for the flop, turn, and river.
Bot: Short for "robot". In a poker terms, a program that plays poker online with no human intervention.
Bottom pair: A pair made with the lowest card on the flop.
Bubble: To bust out of the tournament in the position before prize money is awarded. Also used for the person that finished in that position.
Burn: To discard the top card from the deck, face down, before dealing as an anti cheat measure.
Button: A white disc marked with the letter D which marks the dealer.
Buy the pot: To bluff, hoping to win the pot without being called. You can also "buy the button" when you bet or raise, trying to make players between you and the button fold, in turn allowing you to act last in the following betting rounds.
Buy-In: The amount of money needed to join a tournament. The buyin is the amount that goes towards the prizepool. It is usually followed by a second amount which is the fee charged by the operator for hosting the tournament; this does not go towards the prizepool.
E.g. $100+9. Total cost to play tournament: $109. $100 goes towards the prizepool, and $9 to the house.
Call: To match a bet or raise by a previous player.
Cap: To make the last raise allowed in a betting round in a fixed limit game.
Centre pot: The main pot during a poker hand; this name is used when side pots have been created if one or more players go all-in.
Chat: An instant message facility which enables online players to talk to each other whilst playing.
Check: The option to stay in the hand without paying any further money when no bet has yet been made.
Check-raise: To check a hand and then raise it when a player behind you bets.
Cold call: This means to call a bet and a raise. An example would be if it is preflop and you are in late position, a person in earlier position raises the blinds and you call two bets flat.
Complete hand: A hand that requires all five cards; a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush or royal flush.
Connected or connectors: When your hole cards are consecutive.
Crack: To beat a strong hand.
Crying call: A call that you make because of the pot odds, but that you expect to lose.
Cut-off: The name given to the player or position who acts one before the button.
Dead money: Money that has been put in the pot by a player no longer in the hand, or a player in a tournament who doesn’t have much chance of winning.
Draw: To play a hand that has potential but is not yet a winning hand; a hand that relies on community cards yet to be dealt.
Draw Dead: To try and make a hand which wouldn’t even win the pot. If you're drawing a flush, and your opponent already has a full house, you are "drawing dead."
Extra Blind: The blind paid by a player to enter a ring game, return to a game or to change his position at the table. See also "blind" and "post."
Family Pot: A pot in which most or all players call before the flop.
Fast Play: To play a hand aggressively, betting and raising as much as possible with the intent of scaring players out of the hand that are waiting to catch a better hand. E.g. If you flop a set but there's a possible flush, you would play this way in the hope of eliminating your opponents.
Fish: A poor quality player who gives his money away easily with foolish play. A rule among good players is to not upset the bad players. If the bad players leave there will be less for the better players to win. Hence the phrase, "Don't tap on the aquarium."
Flop: The first three of the five community cards to be dealt face up on the table.
Fold equity: The extra value you get from a hand when you force an opponent to fold through your betting pattern. If you don't make it to a showdown your hand has more value than if you do.
Freeroll: A tournament which has no buyin or entry fee.
Gap hand: A starting hand with cards more than one rank apart. For instance, T9 is a one-gap hand. E.g. 86 is a two-gap hand.
Gutshot straight: A straight filled inside. E.g. If you have 9s-8s, the flop comes 7c-5h-2d, and the turn is the 6c, you've made your gutshot straight.
Heads up: A game in which only two players take part or in a game of more players, when other players have been eliminated and only two remain they are said to be playing heads up.
Hit: When you get the cards that you needed to improve your hand you can say that you’ve hit.
House: The company that hosts the game on their software.
Implied odds: Pot odds that are non existent but may be included in your calculations because of bets you expect to win if your hand does hit. E.g. you might call with a flush draw on the turn even though your pot odds aren’t quite 4:1 (your chance of making the flush) because you're sure you can win a bet from your opponent on the river if you do hit your flush.
Kicker: The card used to determine the better of two almost equivalent hands. For instance, suppose you have AK and your opponent has AQ. If the flop has an ace in it, you both have a pair of aces, but you have a king kicker. Kickers can be vitally important in the game of hold'em.
Limp: To call a blind or bet. Generally it refers to preflop action.
Live: Cards that are not duplicated in an opponent's stronger hand. For example, if you have A9 and your opponent has AJ, then your ace is not "live" because making a pair of aces won't do you any good. If you make a pair of nines, this gives you the better hand.
Made hand: A hand to which you are drawing or that is good enough and does not need to improve.
Micro limit: These exist only at online poker sites. However, they couldn't be profitably dealt in a real cardroom. Games with a $.25-.50 and smaller limit would be referred to as "micro limit."
Muck: To fold your hand.
No limit: A version of poker in which a player may bet any amount of chips (up to the amount he has) whenever it is his turn to act.
Nuts: The best possible hand given the board. E.g. if the board is Ks-Jd-Ts-4s-2h, then As and any other spade is said to be the nuts. You more often hear the term applied to the best possible hand of a certain category, even though it isn't the overall nuts. From the example above, a player with Ah-Qc might say they had the "nut straight."
Off suit: Pocket or hole cards of different suits.
One-gap: A hold'em starting hand with two cards two apart in rank. Examples: J9s, 64.
Out: A card that will make your hand win. Normally heard in the plural
Outrun: To win further along in the rounds. When you hit on the turn or river gaining a better hand than your opponent who had previously held the best hand.
Overcall: To call a bet after one or more others players have already called.
Overcard: A card higher than any card on the board. For instance, if you have AQ and the flop comes J-7-3, you don't have a pair, but you have two overcards.
Overpair: A pocket pair higher than any card on the flop. If you have QQ and the flop comes J-8-2 you have an overpair.
Pay off: To call a bet when the bettor is representing a hand that you can't beat, but the pot is sufficiently large to justify a call anyway. Example: "He played it exactly like he made the flush, but I had top set so I paid him off."
Play the board: To take a hand to the showdown in hold'em when your cards don't make a hand better than is shown on the board. E.g. if you have 33, and the board is 4-4-9-9-A (no possible flush), then you must "play the board". The best possible hand you can make doesn't use any of your hole cards. If you play the board the best you can do is split the pot with all remaining players.
Pocket: Your hole cards that only you can see. A player might say for example that he had A-K in “his pocket” when referring to his hole cards.
Pocket pair: A hold'em starting hand with two cards of the same rank, making a pair.
Post: To pay the blind, normally required when you first sit down in a ring game. You may also be required to post a blind if you change seats at the table in a way that moves you away from the blinds. E.g. If a player leaves one seat at a table and takes another in such a way that he moves farther from the blinds he is required to post an extra blind to receive a new hand. This prevents players from skipping any blinds. See also "extra blind."
Pot committed: A situation when you are basically forced to call the rest of your stack because of your previous contributions, the size of the pot and your remaining chips.
Pot limit: A version of poker in which you can bet the amount of money in the pot whenever it is your turn to act.
Pot odds: The amount of money in the pot compared to the amount you must put in the pot to continue playing. E.g. If there is $60 in the pot, another player bets $6, so the pot now contains $66. It will cost you $6 to call, so your pot odds are 11:1. If your chance of having the best hand is at least 1 out of 12, you should call. Pot odds also apply to draws. For instance, suppose you have a draw to the nut flush with one card left to come. In this case, you are about a 4:1 underdog to make your flush. If it costs you $8 to call the bet then there must be about $32 in the pot (including the most recent bet) to justify your call.
Put on: When you guess what your opponent may have from how he has played, you would say you “put him on a flush,” for example.
Quads: Four cards of the same value.
Ragged: A flop that on appearance is not very beneficial to any player. A flop that came down Jd-6h-2c would look ragged.
Rainbow: When the flop contains three different suits meaning no flush can be made on the turn. Can also mean a complete five card board that has no more than two of any suit thus no flush is possible for any player.
Rake: A type of fee taken out of every pot by the dealer. This is how the poker room makes its income.
Rank: The numerical value of a card.
Rebuy: The option to buy back into a tournament after you've lost all your chips and been knocked out. Tournaments may offer one or more rebuys or none at all.
Represent: To play as if you hold a certain hand in order to make your opponents think you have a better hand than you actually do. E.g. if you raised before the flop, and then raised again when the flop came ace high, you would be representing at least an ace with a good kicker.
Ring game: A regular poker cash game as opposed to a tournament. A ring game is played with actual money as opposed to chips in a tournament.
River: The fifth and final community card dealt face up by itself. Also known as "fifth street."
Rock: A very tight but uncreative player that will raise with only the best hands. A real rock is normally predictable, if he raises you on the river you can throw away just about anything but the nuts.
Runner: this is usually called "runner-runner" and describes a hand that was made by catching the right cards on the turn and the river.
Satellite: A tournament that awards seats to another tournament as its prize.
Scare card: A card that could turn the best hand into a terrible hand due to its potential to improve an opponent’s hand unexpectedly.
Second pair: A pair made from the second highest card on the flop.
Semi-bluff: This refers to when you bet or raise knowing you probably don’t have the best hand. You would semi bluff to try and scare others out of the pot, hoping it is not called. If a semi-bluff is called, however, the hand still offers you some chance to improve and make the winning hand.
Set: A slang term for three of a kind, when you have two of the rank in your pocket cards and one on the board.
Short stack: when you have a low number of chips compared to your opponents.
Showdown: The end point of a game where all remaining players show their cards so the winner can be decided. If there are only two players left in the game and the final bet or raise is not called, there is no showdown.
Side pot: this is when an additional pot is created because a player has gone all in. When a player has gone all in, they do not have any interest or claim on any side pots that are then created. This player is only eligible for the pot that they contributed to. If they have the winning hand on the table overall, they only collect from the pot they are eligible for. The next highest hand amongst the rest of the players would be awarded the side pot. Note: there can be multiple side pots. Players are eligible for any amount of pots that they could afford to contribute to.
Slow play: To play a strong hand in a week manner to force opponents to stay in the pot.
Small blind: The smaller of two enforced bets in hold'em game. The small blind is half of the big blind amount. It is paid by the player to the left of the dealer to get the action started.
Soft play: To go easy on other players at the table by not betting or raising. This is unethical play and can lead to penalties, which vary in accordance with the rules of where you play.
Split pot: When players share the pot because they have identical winning hands.
Structured: This refers to the betting structure in poker games. In a structured hold'em game the bets and raises before the flop and on the flop are set at the lower table limit. Bets and raises are then set at the higher table limit on the turn and river. E.g. In a $2/$4 structured hold'em game: bets and raises are limited to $2 before the flop and on the flop; $4 limits apply to bets and raises on the turn and river.
Suited: Refers to when both cards in the starting hand are of the same suit.
Suited connectors: When a player is holding consecutive cards of the same suit.
Tell: A clue or hint that a player accidentally gives which suggests the strength of his hand. This generally applies to live play only.
Tilt: This is when a player loses control of the game and plays wildly or recklessly, making bad calls.
Top pair: A pair made with the highest card on the flop.
Top set: The slang name for the highest possible three of a kind in that hand.
Trips: a slang name for three of a kind.
Turn: The name given to the fourth community card which is placed face up in the middle of the table.
Under the gun: The name given to the position of the player who acts first on a betting round.
Underdog: The person or hand least likely to win a pot.
Wheel: the slang name for a straight which goes contains Ace 2 3 4 5. This is the strongest hand in any hi/lo game.