| Ace |
Any face card with an "A". |
| Ace-High |
Ace down card. An advantage that your opponents don't know about. |
| Aces Full |
A Full House with three aces and any pair. |
| Aces Over |
A Full House with aces for the pair (Example: K-K-K-A-A or "Aces over Kings". |
| Act |
To do something when it's your turn, do one of the following: check, call, fold, open bet, and raise. See also action. |
| Active Player |
Any player who is still in the hand. |
| All-In |
When a player puts the last of their chips into a pot, that player is said to be all-in. When playing table stakes (as in most places), an all-in player is not eligible to win any money bet above their final bet (the side pot). However, the all-in player will be eligible for the main pot, and therefore cannot be forced from the hand. |
| Announced Bet |
A verbal declaration by a player of the amount of his bet, or that he is betting. |
| Ante |
A small forced bet that all players at the table are required to pay before each hand. In games with an ante, these bets constitute the initial pot. When used as a verb, it means to post this bet. |
| Bankroll |
The total amount of money a player is willing (and able) to risk. Many players keep poker bankrolls separate from their other finances. An adequate playing bankroll for a particular game (assuming positive expectation) is an amount large enough to survive the expected swings due to variance. For a negative expectation game, an adequate bankroll is one which doesn't run out before you die. Some players also limit their risk on a per-session basis, in effect playing with a session bankroll. Whether a bankroll is for poker in general, for poker this week, or for poker today, depends on how you manage your money. To bankroll someone is to provide some or all of the money they use to gamble. In effect, you assume part of the risk in return for part of the profit. |
| TOP |
| Bet |
To bet is to put money into the pot |
| Bet the Limit |
To bet the maximum allowed. |
| Bet the Pot |
When a player bets the amount of the pot. |
| Blank |
Any card that doesn't look like it's going to help anyone. |
| Blind |
Is a forced bet that must be posted before a player sees any cards. |
| Bluff |
A bet with a weak hand (typically a busted hand), usually intended to get other players to fold. A bluffing player usually has little or no chance of winning a showdown, but may suspect that other players will fold if they have not made strong hands either. In limit play, bluffing is more often a good idea against weak, tight players, who may fold even if they think they have a chance of winning. Bluffing is a bad idea against players who call too often, because it's unlikely to scare them out of the pot. Bluffing is also a much more significant factor in pot-limit and no-limit play, where the bluffer can make calling an expensive proposition. |
| Boardcards |
The cards that are dealt face-up in a poker game for all players to see. In flop games, five cards are dealt face-up in the center of the table. In Seven-card stud, four cards are dealt face-up in front of each player. |
| Burn |
In order to reduce the chances of players getting advance information about cards to come, in many games the top card on the deck is discarded at certain pre-determined points in the dealing process (e.g., in Hold 'em, before the flop, turn, and river). These cards are the burn cards. In general, any time a card is discarded from the top of the deck it's called a burn card. |
| Button |
A button is a marker, usually a plastic disc, used to mark a particular position at the table. Usually "the button" refers specifically to the dealer button, used to mark the dealer position, or the player playing in that position. |
| Buy |
To buy a pot is to make a bet large enough that other players would be extremely unlikely to call. |
| TOP |
| Call |
To call is to match the current bet. If there has been a bet of $10 and a raise of $10, then it costs $20 to call. Calling is the cheapest (and the most passive) way to remain in a hand. |
| Cash Out |
To leave a game and convert your chips to cash. |
| Center Pot |
Refers to the main pot as opposed to any side pots. |
| Check |
If there has been no betting before you in a betting round, you may check, which is like calling a bet of $0, or passing your turn. If all the players at a table check in turn in the same round, it is said to be checked around, resulting in a free card. |
| Check-Raise |
A check-raise is just what it sounds like -- a raise after you have already checked within a betting round. Check-raises can be used to trap a player who, for example, would have folded to a single bet, but who will open if it is checked to them. |
| Chip |
Poker chips are small round discs used instead of money at the poker table. The ones used at casinos are typically made of clay, while home poker games often substitute cheaper plastic chips. Using chips instead of cash has a number of advantages, mostly just that they're easier to count and manipulate. Color designations for chips are arbitrary, but many casinos use white for $1 chips, red for $5 chips, green for $25 chips, and black for $100 chips. If someone asks for a rack of white, they'd like $100 in $1 chips. |
| Cold Call |
Cold calling is calling more than one bet at once. If one player bets, another player raises, and a third player calls the two bets, this is a cold call. This is in contrast with the situation in which a player calls one bet before the raise, and then calls the raise. |
| Cold Deck |
A new deck introduced for cheating purposes. |
| Community (Cards) |
Face-up cards that are shared by all players in a hand. Flop games have five community cards. |
| Complete Hand |
A hand that is defined by all five cards. |
| TOP |
| Deal |
To deal is to give out the cards during a hand. The person who does this is called the dealer. At most public cardrooms, a dealer is hired for this purpose (and for generally running the game). At most private games, players take turns dealing. |
| Dealer |
A Casino employee who handles the cards, gives out the pots, and monitors the game. |
| Deck |
Stack of cards. |
| Down Card |
Hole cards. Cards that are dealt face down. |
| Drawing hand |
A hand with which you expect to be on a draw is a drawing hand. Suited connectors in hold'em (e.g., QhJh) are drawing hands, since while they make strong hands |
| Drop |
To fold is to drop. To drop is to fold. |
| Early bet |
A small bet after the first card in stud. |
| Early Position |
Being one of the first players to act in a betting round. |
| Entry Fee |
Cost to enter a tournament. |
| Equity |
Your mathematical share of a pot, based on the amount in the pot and your chances of winning it. If the pot is $100, and your chances of winning are N%, then your equity in that pot is $N. If the pot is $200, your equity is $2N. |
| TOP |
| Exposed Cards |
Cards dealt face up as in stud. |
| Face Card |
A jack, queen or king (a card with a face on it, not joker). |
| Fish |
A bad player. A terrible player. A player who will tend to give away lots of money. |
| Fold |
To abandon your hand, usually because someone else has made a larger bet than you are willing to call. Usually, one folds by mucking one's cards. |
| Free Card |
Whenever you get to see an additional card without having to call a bet, it's a free card (usually this means it's been checked around). Generally speaking, you'd like to get free cards when you need to improve, and you'd like to avoid giving free cards when you're ahead. |
| Hole |
Your first two down cards in seven card stud or your down cards in Hold'em or Omaha. If they're both jacks, you have a pair of jacks "in the hole." |
| House |
The cardroom (management, owners, etc.) is the house. The house rakes money from the pot, has house rules, and when someone walks in, you might say they're "in the house" If you're so inclined. |
| Implied Odds |
Implied odds are similar to pot odds, except that the money in the pot is not actually there yet. In an extreme case, if you're first to call a bet, and you know for a certainty that the eight players to act after you will all call (and not raise), you have great implied odds. Similarly if you know that several players in the hand will pay you off when you make your flush - you can act as though the pot were larger. In general, implied odds is just a way of referring to odds that require some estimation. |
| Inside straight |
A broken sequence of four cards, such as three, five, six, seven. An inside straight draw is a draw to straight that's missing one of the cards in the middle (as opposed to on the end.) 4578 is an inside straight draw, 4567 is an outside straight draw. also called a gutshot. |
| Joker |
A joker is an additional card in the deck that is used in some games. The jokers isn't often used in serious poker, but when it is it's usually considered a wild card. See also bug. |
| TOP |
| Key Card |
A card that gives you a big draw or makes your hand. |
| Kicker |
The highest unpaired card in your hand that doesn't participate in a straight or flush - i.e., the card that does not contribute to the strength of your hand except by itself. For example, if you hold AA743, you have a pair of aces with a 7 kicker. Five card hands - straights, flushes, and full houses, - don't have kickers per se. In games with community cards, kickers are especially important, because it's easy for two players to make similar hands. For example, if you hold A8 and someone else holds A7, and the flop is AK642, you have your opponent out-kicked. Your hand is AAK86 while theirs is AAK76. And you both lose to the guy playing 53 off suit under the gun. |
| Knock |
Check. |
| Late Position |
Position on a round of betting where the player must act after most of the other players have acted (usually considered to be the two positions next to the button). |
| Lead |
To bet first, even when one had the option to check. |
| Leak |
Winning poker players often lose back part or all of their winnings through other gambling habits, either at the casino or elsewhere (e.g., sports betting, craps, or golf). These are often referred to as leaks. |
| Lid |
The top card of the deck. |
Limit
(Limit Poker) |
Limit poker is any game in which there is a fixed limit on how much you can bet or raise in any round. Limit games usually offer either fixed-sized bets for different betting rounds or spread limits, in which there is a minimum and maximum bet for each round. For example, a 5-10 hold'em game usually requires $5 bets and raises on the first two rounds and $10 bets and raises on the last two. |
| Limp |
To flat call an opening forced bet is to limp into a hand. |
| Limper |
The first player who calls a bet. |
| TOP |
| Liner |
A face card. |
| Little Blind |
The first and smallest blind bet. |
| Live Card |
A live card is a card that has not been seen. |
| Live Hand |
A live hand is a hand that is still eligible to win the pot |
| Loose |
Playing loose simply means playing more hands and holding on to them longer. |
| Low Limit |
Small stakes game. |
| Mechanic |
Cheater. |
| Meet |
Call. |
| Middle Position |
The least amount you can start a game with. |
| Muck |
The pile of discarded cards in front of the dealer, or the act of putting cards in this pile (and therefore taking them out of play). |
| TOP |
| No-Limit |
As you might guess, any game in which there is no limit on the sizes of bets and raises. Note that in table stakes games, players are still limited to the amount of money they have in front of them. |
| Odds |
A ratio of two probabilities, usually the probability of making a hand to the probability of not making the hand. Thus if you have a 25% chance of making a hand, the odds are 3 to 1 against your making it. In poker, this is especially important in considering pot odds. |
| Off-suit |
Not of the same suit, especially in reference to hole cards. Sometimes abbreviated to just "off." |
| On the Button |
Last to act in turn. |
| On the Come |
A situation where the player does not have a complete hand but hopes to make one if the right cards come up. |
| On tilt |
Playing worse than usual because a player has become emotionally upset. |
| Open |
To open, or open betting, is simply to make the first bet in a round. |
| Open-handed |
A category of games characterized by a part of each player's hand being exposed. |
| Open Card |
A card that is dealt face-up. |
| Opener |
The player who opens the betting, especially in draw poker. A hand may have no openers, in which case it is PASSED OUT, i.e., new hands are dealt. |
| TOP |
| Out |
An out is a card that will improve your hand, usually one that you think will make it a winner. |
| Out Button |
A disc placed in front of a player who wishes to sit out a hand(s) but remain in the game. |
| Over Button |
In some games, players can take "over" buttons that mean they're willing to play at higher limits. Any time everyone left in the hand has an over button, the limits go up. |
| Overcall |
Any additional call after a bet is first called. Player A bets, player B calls, player C overcalls. |
| Overcard |
In flop games, a card higher than the highest card on the board. If you hold AJ and the flop is J92, you have top pair with an overcard. If the flop is T92, you just have two overcards. |
| Passed Out |
A hand in which nobody opens. What happens next is a function of the game being played. |
| Pay Off |
To call a bet by a player you're reasonably sure has you beat. Usually you ought to have some sort of reason to do this, other than just generosity. Weak players pay you off more often than other players. |
| Picture Cards |
Face cards (Jack, Queen and King). |
| Pigeon |
Losing player. |
| Play |
To play a hand in poker means to make it past the initial round of betting. |
| TOP |
| Poker |
Poker isn't just a card game - it's many card games. While no definition is going to satisfy everyone, the majority of poker games do share some common features, especially betting in rounds and the ranking of hands. Poker is commonly played in cardrooms (often within casinos) and in private home games (illegally in many states). The games played in cardrooms seem to divide into stud games, draw games, and flop games. In home games, however, anything goes, including games that seem to have no reason to be called poker. The varieties played in home games probably number in the hundreds, or even the thousands. Some common cardroom games include Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, Omaha, Razz, Lowball, Pineapple, and Anaconda. (Okay, just kidding about the anaconda.) |
| Position |
Position refers to your place at the table, especially with respect to the order of betting within a particular betting round. |
| Pot |
All the money in the middle of the poker table that goes to the winner of the hand is the pot. Any player who has not yet folded is said to be "in the pot." A player who has called an initial bet is said to have entered the pot. |
| Pot-Limit |
Any game in which the maximum bet or raise is the size of the pot. For raises, the size of the pot includes the call, so if the pot is $100 and player A bets $100, player B can throw $400 out for a maximum raise (calling the $100 and then raising the size of the $300 pot). |
| Quarter |
To win one fourth of the pot is to be quartered. This is usually the result of splitting half the pot in a high-low split game. |
| Race |
In tournaments it is sometimes convenient to remove all lower- denomination chips from play, as the remaining players' stacks tend to grow. Small chips are converted to larger chips and any odd chips are "raced off" in the following way: each player with odd chips places them in front of his stack and is dealt one card for each chip. Highest card (rank and suit) takes all the small chips and converts them to higher-denomination chips. |
| Rag |
A card, usually a low card, that, when it appears, has no apparent impact on the hand. A flop of 7 4 2 is a rag flop - few playable hands match the flop well. If the table shows QJT9, all of spades, a 2h on the river is a rag. |
| Raise |
After someone has opened betting in a round, to increase the amount of the bet is to raise. For example, if the betting limit is $5 and player A bets $5, player B can fold, call the $5, or raise it to $10. Knowledgeable poker players sometimes get irritated when someone says raise to indicate an opening bet. But they usually know what you mean. |
| Read |
To read someone is to have a good idea from their play (or through tells) what their cards might be. To have a read on someone is to have a good understanding of how they play. Reading players is an important skill in poker, because... well, if you can't figure out why, it's going to be hard to explain here. |
| Re-raise |
Any raise after the first raise in a round. Player A bets, player B raises, player C (or A) re-raises. |
| TOP |
| River |
The last of five community cards in flop games (e.g. hold'em and omaha). Sometimes called fifth street. Sometimes "river" is used to refer to the last card in non-flop games, such as seven card stud. |
| Scare Card |
A card that when it appears makes a better hand more likely. |
| Seating Position |
The actual seat a player has, normally numbered sequentially starting with 1 as the first seat to dealer's left. |
| Short Stack |
A short stack is a stack that's too small to cover the likely betting in a hand. |
| Shorthanded |
A game is said to be shorthanded when it falls below a certain number of players. |
| Show |
Exposed cards. |
| Showdown |
When all the betting's done, if more than one player is still in the pot, showdown is the process of figuring out who wins. |
| Side Bet |
Any bet outside of the main pot. |
| Side Pot |
When an active player runs out of money during the course of a hand, the remaining players participate in a second or SIDE POT for the rest of the hand. |
| Splash (the pot) |
To throw your chips into the pot, instead of placing them in front of you, is to splash the pot. Doing so can make it difficult for the dealer to determine if you've bet the correct amount, or to keep track of the action. |
| TOP |
| Steal Position |
Try to get better position by raising. |
| Steal the Blinds |
Raise the blinds hoping they fold. |
| Suit |
Clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. |
| Table Cards |
Cards turned face-up on the table (community cards). |
| Texas Hold'em |
Texas Hold'em (or just "hold'em") is a poker game in which each player gets two pocket cards, while five community cards are dealt face-up on the table. The strength of a player's hand is the best hand that can be made with these seven cards. There is a round of betting after the pocket cards are dealt, after the first three community cards (the flop), after the fourth, or turn card, and after the final, or river card. |
| Tight |
Playing tight simply means playing fewer hands and folding them earlier. |
| Tournament |
The general idea behind poker tournaments is that a bunch of poker players sit down with the same number of chips, and eventually only one player has any chips left. In order to ensure that the event will finish in reasonable time, tournaments institute a schedule by which the blinds and/or antes increase. Tournaments are usually played with chips that have no value outside of the tournament. So a buy-in of $30 might get you $500 in tournament chips to play with, but you can't cash them out in the middle. The winner of a tournament (the last player to bust out) as well as several of the other top finishers are typically awarded prize money according to some predetermined schedule. |
| Up Card |
A card that is dealt face-up. |
| Wild Card |
A card that can serve as any other card in making your hand. |
| WSOP |
Acronym for World Series of Poker. |