- Action
- (1) Opportunity to act. If a player appears not
to realize it's his turn, the dealer will say
"Your action, sir."
(2) Bets and raises. "If a third heart hits the
board and there's a lot of action, you have to
assume that somebody has made the flush."
- Ante
- A small portion of a bet contributed by each
player to seed the pot at the beginning of a poker
hand. Most hold'em games do not have an ante;
they use "blinds" to get initial money into the
pot.
- All-In
- To run out of chips while betting or calling. In
table stakes games, a player may not go into his
pocket for more money during a hand. If he runs
out, a side pot is created in which he has no
interest. However, he can still win the pot for
which he had the chips. Example: "Poor Bob - he
made quads against the big full house, but he was
all-in on the second bet."
- Backdoor
- Catching both the turn and river card to make a
drawing hand. For instance, suppose you have As-
7s. The flop comes Ad-6c-4s. You bet and are
called. The turn is the Ts, which everybody
checks, and then the river is the Js. You've made
a "backdoor" nut flush. See also
"runner."
- Bad Beat
- To have a hand that is a large underdog beat a
heavily favored hand. It is generally used to
imply that the winner of the pot had no business
being in the pot at all, and it was the wildest of
luck that he managed to catch the one card in the
deck that would win the pot. We won't give any
examples, you will hear plenty of them during your
poker career.
- Blank
- A board card that doesn't seem to affect the
standings in the hand. If the flop is As-Jd-Ts,
then a turn card of 2h would be considered a
blank. On the other hand, the 2s would not be.
- Blind
- A forced bet (or partial bet) put in by one or
more players before any cards are dealt.
Typically, blinds are put in by players
immediately to the left of the button. See also
"Live blind."
- Board
- All the community cards in a hold'em game - the
flop, turn, and river cards together. Example:
"There wasn't a single heart on the board."
- Bottom Pair
- A pair with the lowest card on the flop. If you
have As-6s, and the flop comes Kd-Th-6c, you have
flopped bottom pair.
- Burn
- To discard the top card from the deck, face down.
This is done between each betting round before
putting out the next community card(s). It is
security against any player recognizing or
glimpsing the next card to be used on the board.
- Button
- A white acrylic disk to indicate who is the
(nominal) dealer. Also used to refer to the
player on the button. Example: "Oh, the button
raised."
- Buy
- (1) As in "buy the pot." To bluff, hoping to
"buy" the pot without being called.
(2) As in "buy the button." To bet or raise,
hoping to make players between you and the button
fold, thus allowing you to act last on subsequent
betting rounds.
- Calling Station
- A weak-passive player who calls a lot, but doesn't
raise or fold much. This is the kind of player
you like to have in your game.
- Cap
- To put in the last raise permitted on a betting
round. This is typically the third or fourth
raise. Dealers in California are fond of saying
"Capitola" or "Cappuccino".
- Case
- The last card of a certain rank in the deck.
Example: "The flop came J-8-3; I've got pocket
jacks, he's got pocket 8's, and then the case
eight falls on the river and he beats my full
house."
- Center Pot
- The first pot created during a poker hand. This
is as opposed to one or more "side" pots that are
created if one or more players goes all-in. Also
"main pot."
- Check
- (1) To not bet, with the option to call or raise
later in the betting round. Equivalent to betting
zero dollars.
(2) Another word for "chip", as in poker chip.
- Check Raise
- To check and then raise when a player behind you
bets. Occasionally you will hear people say this
is not fair or ethical poker. Piffle. Almost all
casinos permit check-raising, and it is an
important poker tactic. It is particularly useful
in low-limit hold'em where you need extra strength
to narrow the field when you have the best hand.
- Cold Call
- To call more than one bet in a single action. For
instance, suppose the first player to act after
the big blind raises. Now any player acting after
him must call two bets "cold." This is different
from calling a single bet and then calling a
subsequent raise.
- Come Hand
- A drawing hand (probably from the craps term).
- Complete Hand
- A hand that is defined by all five cards - a
straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, or
straight flush.
- Connector
- A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are
one apart in rank. Examples: KQs, 76.
- Counterfeit
- To make your hand less valuable because of board
cards that duplicate it. Example: you have 87 and
the flop comes 9-T-J, so you have a straight. Now
an 8 comes on the turn. This has counterfeited
your hand and made it almost worthless.
- Crack
- To beat a hand - typically a big hand. You hear
this most often used to apply to pocket aces:
"Third time tonight I've had pocket aces cracked."
- Cripple
- As in to cripple the deck. Meaning that you have
most or all of the cards that somebody would want
to have with the current board. If you have
pocket kings, and the other two kings flop, you
have crippled the deck.
- Dog
- Shortened form of "Underdog".
- Dominated Hand
- A hand that will almost always lose to a better
hand that people usually play. For instance, K3
is "dominated" by KQ. With the exception of
strange flops (e.g. 3-3-x, K-3-x), it will always
lose to KQ.
- Draw Dead
- Try to make a hand that, even if made, will not
win the pot. If you're drawing to make a flush,
and your opponent already has a full house, you
are "drawing dead". Of course, this is a bad
condition to be in.
- Equity
- Your "rightful" share of a pot. If the pot
contains $80, and you have a 50% chance of winning
it, you have $40 equity in the pot. This term is
somewhat fanciful since you will either win $80 or
$0, but it gives you an idea of how much you can
"expect" to win.
- Expectation
- (1) A term referring to the amount of you expect
to gain on average if you make a certain play.
For instance, suppose you put $10 into a $50 pot
to draw at a hand that you will make 25% of the
time, and it will win every time you make it.
Three out of four times, you do not make your
draw, and lose $10 each time for a total of $30.
The fourth time, you will make your draw, winning
$50. Your total gain over those four average
hands is $50-$30 = $20, an average of $5 per hand.
Thus calling the $10 has a positive expectation of
$5.
(2) The amount you expect to make at the poker
table in a specific time period. Perhaps in 100
hours play, you have won $527. Then your
expectation is $5.27/hr. Of course, you won't
make that exact amount each hour (and some hours
you will lose), but it's one measure of your
anticipated earnings.
- Family Pot
- A pot in which all (or almost all) of the players
call before the flop.
- Fast
- As in "play fast." To play a hand aggressively,
betting and raising as much as possible. Example:
"When you flop a set but there's a flush draw
possible, you have to play it fast."
- Flop
- The first three community cards, put out face up,
all together.
- Foul
- A hand which may not be played for one reason or
another. A player with a foul hand may not make
any claim on any portion of the pot. Example: "He
ended up with three cards after the flop, so the
dealer declared his hand foul."
- Free Card
- A turn or river card on which you don't have to
call a bet because of play earlier in the hand (or
a reputation which you have with your opponents).
For instance, if you are on the button and raise
when you flop a flush draw, your opponents may
check to you on the turn. If you make your flush
on the turn, you can bet. However, if you don't
get it on the turn, you can check as well - seeing
the river card for "free."
- Free Roll
- For one player to have a shot at winning an entire
pot when he is currently tied with another player.
For instance, suppose you have Ac-Qc and your
opponent has Ad-Qh. The flop is Qs-5c-Tc. You
are tied with your opponent right now, but are
free rolling on him, because you can win the whole
pot and he can't. If no club comes, you split the
pot with him - if it does come, you win the whole
thing.
- Gutshot Straight
- An straight filled "inside". 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 pot that is being contested by only two
players - "It was heads up by the turn."
- Hit
- As in "the flop hit me." It means the flop
contained cards that help your hand. If you have
AK, and the flop comes K-7-2, it hit you.
- House
- The establishment running the game. Example: "The
$2 you put on the button goes to the house."
- Implied Odds
- Pot odds that do not exist at the moment, but may
be included in your calculations because of bets
you expect to win if you hit your hand. For
instance, you might call with a flush draw on the
turn even though the pot isn't offering you quite
4:1 odds (your chance of making the flush) because
you're sure you can win a bet from your opponent
on the river if you make your flush.
- Jackpot
- A special bonus paid to the loser of a hand if he
gets a very good hand beaten. In hold'em, the
"loser" must typically get aces full or better
beaten. In some of the large southern California
card clubs, the jackpots have gotten over $50,000.
Of course, the jackpot is funded with money
removed from the game as part of the rake.
- Kicker
- An unpaired card used to determine the better of
two near-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 hold'em.
- Live Blind
- A forced bet put in by one or more players before
any cards are dealt. The "live" means those
players still have the option of raising when the
action gets back around to them.
- Maniac
- A player who does a lot of hyper-aggressive
raising, betting, and bluffing. A true maniac is
not a good player, but is simply doing a lot of
gambling. However, a player who occasionally acts
like a maniac and confuses his opponents is quite
dangerous.
- Muck
- The pile of folded and burned cards in front of
the dealer. Example: "His hand hit the muck so
the dealer ruled it folded even though the guy
wanted to get his cards back." Also used as a verb
- "He didn't have any outs so he mucked his hand."
- No-Limit
- A version of poker in which a player may bet any
amount of chips (up to the number in front of him)
whenever it is his turn to act. It is a very
different game than limit poker. The best
treatise on no-limit poker is in Doyle Brunson's
Super/System.
- Nuts
- The best possible hand given the board. If the
board is Ks-Jd-Ts-4s-2h, then As-Xs is the nuts.
You will occasionally hear the term applied to the
best possible hand of a certain category, even
though it isn't the overall nuts. For the above
example, somebody with Ah-Qc in the above hand
might say they had the "nut straight".
- Offsuit
- A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are
of different suits.
- One-Gap
- A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are
two apart in rank. Examples: J9s, 64.
- Out
- A card that will make your hand win. Normally
heard in the plural. Example: "Any spade will make
my flush, so I have nine outs."
- Outrun
- To beat. Example: "Susie outran my set when her
flush card hit on the river."
- 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-8-3, you have
an overpair.
- 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.
Example: "He played it exactly like he made the
flush, but I had top set so I paid him off."
- Play the Board
- To show down a hand in hold'em when your cards
don't make a hand any better than is shown on the
board. For instance, if you have 22, and the
board is 4-4-9-9-A (no flush possible), then you
must "play the board" - the best possible hand you
can make doesn't use any of your cards. Note that
if you play the board, the best you can do is to
split the pot with all remaining players.
- Pocket
- Your unique cards that only you can see. For
instance, "He had pocket sixes" (a pair of sixes),
or "I had ace-king in the pocket."
- Post
- To put in a blind bet, generally required when you
first sit down in a cardroom 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.
- 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. Like no-limit, this is a very
different game from limit poker.
- Pot Odds
- The amount of money in the pot compared to the
amount you must put in the pot to continue
playing. For example, suppose there is $60 in the
pot. Somebody bets $6, so the pot now contains
$66. It costs you $6 to call, so your pot odds
are 11:1. If your chance of having the best hand
is at least one out of twelve, 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 make
your call correct.
- Price
- The pot odds you are getting for a draw or call.
Example: "The pot was laying me a high enough
price, so I stayed in with my gutshot straight
draw."
- Protect
- (1) To keep your hand or a chip on your cards.
This prevents them from being fouled by a
discarded hand, or accidentally mucked by the
dealer.
(2) To invest more money in a pot so blind money
that you've already put in isn't "wasted."
Example: "He'll always protect his blinds, no
matter how bad his cards are."
- Quads
- Four of a kind.
- Ragged
- A flop (or board) that doesn't appear to help
anybody very much. A flop that came down Jd-6h-2c
would look ragged.
- Rainbow
- A flop that contains three different suits, thus
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.
- Rake
- An amount of money taken out of every pot by the
dealer - this is the cardroom's income.
- Rank
- The numerical value of a card (as opposed to its
suit). Example: "jack," "seven."
- Represent
- To play as if you hold a certain hand. For
instance, 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 game as opposed to a tournament.
Also referred to as a "live" game since actual
money is in play instead of tournament chips.
- River
- The fifth and final community card, put out face
up, by itself. Also known as "fifth street".
Metaphors involving the river are some of poker's
most treasured cliches - e.g. "He drowned in the
river."
- Rock
- A player who plays very tight, not very
creatively. He raises only with the best hands.
A real rock is fairly predictable - if he raises
you on the end, you can throw away just about
anything but the nuts.
- 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 - "He made a
runner-runner flush to beat my trips." See also
"Backdoor."
- Scare Card
- A card which may well turn the best hand into
trash. If you have Tc-8c and the flop comes Qd-
Jd-9s, you almost assuredly have the best hand.
However, a turn card of Td would be very scary
because it would almost guarantee that you are now
beaten.
- Second Pair
- A pair with the second highest card on the flop.
If you have As-Ts, and the flop comes Kd-Th-6c,
you have flopped second pair.
- Sell
- As in "sell a hand". In a spread limit game, this
means 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
- A powerful concept first discussed by David
Sklansky. It is a bet or raise that you hope will
not be called, but you have some outs if it is. A
semi-bluff may be correct when betting for value
is not correct, a pure bluff is not correct, but
the combination of the two may be a positive
expectation play.
- Set
- Three of a kind when you have two of the rank in
your hand, and there is one on the board.
- Short Stack
- A number of chips that is not very many compared
to the other players at the table. If you have
$10 in front of you, and everybody else at the
table has over $100, you are playing on a short
stack.
- Showdown
- The point at which all players remaining in the
hand turn their cards over and determine who has
the best hand - i.e. after the fourth round of
betting is completed. Of course, if a final bet
or raise is not called, there is no showdown.
- Side Pot
- A pot created in which a player has no interest
because he has run out of chips. Example: Al bets
$6, Beth calls the $6, and Carl calls, but he has
only $2 left. An $8 side pot is created that
either Al or Beth can win, but not Carl.
Furthermore, any more bets that Al and Beth make
go into that side pot. Carl, however, can still
win all the money in the original or "center" pot.
- 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 players
because they have equivalent hands.
- Split Two Pair
- A two pair hand in which one of each of your
cards' ranks appears on the board as well.
Example: you have T9, the flop is T-9-5, you have
a split two pair. This is in comparison to two
pair where there is a pair on the board. Example:
you have T9, the flop is 9-5-5.
- Spread Limit
- A betting structure in which a player may bet any
amount in a range on every betting round. A
typical spread limit structure is $2-$6, where a
player may bet as little as $2 or as much as $6 on
every betting round.
- Straddle
- An optional extra blind bet, typically made by the
player one to the left of the big blind, equal to
twice the big blind. This is effectively a raise,
and forces any player who wants to play to pay two
bets. Furthermore, the straddler acts last before
the flop, and may "re-raise."
- String Bet
- A bet (more typically a raise) in which a player
doesn't get all the chips required for the raise
into the pot in one motion. Unless he verbally
declared the raise, he can be forced to withdraw
it and just call. This prevents the unethical
play of putting out enough chips to call, seeing
what effect that had, and then possibly raising.
- Structured
- Used to apply to a certain betting structure in
"flop" games such as hold'em. 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. Example: a $2-$4 structured hold'em game -
bets and raises of $2 before the flop and on the
flop; $4 bets and raises on the turn and river.
- Suited
- A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are
the same suit. Example: "I had to play J-3 - it
was suited."
- Table Stakes
- A rule in a poker game meaning that a player may
not go into his pocket for money during a hand.
He may only invest the amount of money in front of
him into the current pot. If he runs out of chips
during the hand, a side pot is created in which he
has no interest. All casino poker is played table
stakes. The definition sometimes also includes
the rule that a player may not remove chips from
the table during a game. While this rule might
not be referred to as "table stakes", it is
enforced almost universally in public poker games.
- Tell
- A clue or hint that a player unknowingly gives
about the strength of his hand, his next action,
etc. May originally be from "telegraph" or the
obvious use that he "tells" you what he's going to
do before he does it.
- Tilt
- To play wildly or recklessly. A player is said to
be "on tilt" if he is not playing his best,
playing too many hands, trying wild bluffs,
raising with bad hands, etc.
- Time
- (1) A request by a player to suspend play while he
decides what he's going to do. Simply, "Time
please!" If a player doesn't request time and
there is a substantial amount of action behind
him, the dealer may rule that the player has
folded.
(2) An amount of money collected either on the
button or every half hour by the cardroom. This
is another way for the house to make its money
(see "rake").
- Toke
- A small amount of money (typically $.50 or $1.00)
given to the dealer by the winner of a pot. Quite
often, tokes represent the great majority of a
dealer's income.
- Top Pair
- A pair with the highest card on the flop. If you
have As-Qs, and the flop comes Qd-Th-6c, you have
flopped top pair.
- Trips
- Three of a kind.
- Turn
- The fourth community card. Put out face up, by
itself. Also known as "fourth street."
- Under the gun
- The position of the player who acts first on a
betting round. For instance, if you are one to
the left of the big blind, you are under the gun
before the flop.
- Underdog
- A person or hand who is not mathematically favored
to win a pot. For instance, if you flop four
cards to your flush, you are not quite a 2:1
underdog to make your flush by the river (that is,
you will make your flush about one in three
times). See also "dog."
- Value
- As in "bet for value." This means that you would
actually like your opponents to call your bet (as
opposed to a bluff). Generally it's 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. Variance is not necessarily a
measure of how well you play. However, the higher
your variance, the wider swings you'll see in your
bankroll.