A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | Y | Z

 

A

• Active Player:
• A player still in contention for a pot.

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• Aggressive:
• Pertaining to a style of play characterized by heavy betting, raising, and reraising.

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• All In:
• Action of putting all of one's chips into current pot, while other active players still have chips and have the option of further betting.

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• Ante:
• A forced bet put into each pot by each player before the cards are dealt. An ante is not counted toward a player's next bets or raises, as opposed to a blind, which usually is.

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B

• Bad Beat:
• The situation in which a strong hand is beaten by a long-shot or hand that is unlikely to win.

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• Bet for Value:
• A bet made by a player whose intention is to be called, as opposed to a bluff or protection bet. Typically done when a player has a superior hand, wants to raise the pot equity, and expects to win. Also, known as a value bet.

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• Bet on the Come:
• Make a bet on a drawing hand; that is, when holding four cards to a flush or straight.

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• Big Blind:
• The player two positions to the left of the button puts chips into the pot equal to size of the limit of the game. Those chips (and the player who puts the chips in) are called the big blind.

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• Big Slick:
• A-K as one's holecards.

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• Blank:
• A card, usually turn or river, that doesn't help your hand. Also, this term refers to a card that doesn't appear to help anyone. For example, if the board is K-Q-J-9 of mixed suits, a 2 on the river would usually be considered a blank.

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• Blind:
• A forced bet put in by a player before he gets his cards. A blind is part of that player's bet if he comes into the pot, as opposed to an ante, which just "belongs to the pot." See also small blind and big blind.

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• Blind Thief:
• Someone who steals the blinds; that is, bets into the pot preflop — usually when no one else has shown aggression — without having good cards. Player hopes the blinds will throw their cards away and the he or she can win the chips represented by the blind or blinds without having to see a flop.

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• Break (a table):
• When a table gets short-handed, particularly in a tournament, moving the players from that table to fill up other tables.

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• Button:
• The disk or other marker that indicates the dealer position in a game. Also known as dealer button.

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C

• Call Someone Down:
• To check and/or call all bets to the river.

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• Calling Station:
• A term that describes a player who rarely bets or raises, but calls a lot during the game. Often this player is chasing long-shot hands or playing marginal hands very passively.

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• Cap:
• The maximum number of raises in a round of betting.

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• Chances:
• The likelihood of a particular hand forming a stronger hand. Usually expressed as a ratio or percentage.

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• Chase:
• Try to complete a draw with a hand suspected to be inferior.

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• Check:
• Players' choice to make no bet and pass the action to the next player. Essentially a bet of zero.

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• Check-Raise:
• Players' choice to check, often with a good hand, and then when another player bets and the action returns to the player who checked, they raise.

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• Coin-flip Situation:
• A situation in which both players have approximately equal chances of winning the pot.

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• Come Over the Top:
• A player makes a large raise or reraise.

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• Community Cards:
• The up-cards dealt to the center of the table, including the flop, turn, and river..

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• Complete Hand:
• Five cards that constitute a straight or better. Also called pat hand.

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• Counterfeited:
• Having a good hand turn into a hand more likely to tie or lose based on the appearance of a board card that causes your holecards to have less meaning. For instance, holding A-K on a board of Q-J-10-4-K, the king on the river counterfeited your hand into a tie with anyone else holding an ace, whereas your hand was beating a lone ace on the flop. Or, when you hold 7-5 on a board of J-7-5 and the turn brings another jack, you now have a better two pair, but someone holding an high pocket pair now also has two pair, thus counterfeiting your original two pair on the flop (your pocket 5 is now meaningless).

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• Curiosity Call:
• A call from someone who is positive he is beat but just wants to know what you had, often accompanied by a statement such as, "I knew you had me beat, but I just had to see it," or, "I knew you had me beat, but the pot was too big to fold."

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D

• Dead Money:
• Previous bets abandoned in the pot by the players who made those bets and have folded, resulting in them not being able to win the pot. Dead money includes folded blinds.

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• Dealer Button:
• See button.

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• Deep:
• Pertaining to how many chips a player has compared to the blinds. Specifically, having a lot of chips.

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• Discards:
• The cards that players have thrown away. Sometimes called muck.

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• Dominated:
• The situation in hold'em when one hand is significantly ahead of the other, often because of having the same card in common plus a higher card (the other card often being called a "kicker"). For example, K-Q is dominated by A-K. Also, any pair is dominated by any higher pair.

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• Double Gut-Shot:
• A drawing hand that requires one of two middle-ranking cards to complete a five-card straight. For instance, if you have 10-8-7-6-4, you have a double-gutshot straight draw, as either a 9 or 5 — two cards from the middle of the straight — would complete a straight.

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• Downcard:
• An unexposed part of a player's hand, delivered face down by the dealer.

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• Draw:
• An unmade hand.

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• Drawing Dead:
• A hand for which no cards that could come would improve it to a winning hand. An example is drawing to a flush when an opponent already has a made full house.

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• Drawing Hand:
• Four cards to a straight or flush with cards to come, as opposed to a complete hand.

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• Draw Out:
• Beat someone's hand by drawing.

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E

• Early Position:
• The first few positions to the left of the dealer, or to the left of the blinds.

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• Extra Outs:
• Cards that improve a hand in more ways than the self-evident outs.

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F

• Family Pot:
• A pot with a lot of players, sometimes as many as all of the players at the table.

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• Fish:
• Easy-to-beat player, usually a loose-passive player.

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• Flop:
• The three community cards turned face up after the first round of betting.

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• Free Card:
• The situation in which there is no bet on a particular round, so players get extra cards without having had to risk additional money.

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G

• Go All In:
• Put all of your chips into the pot as a bet or call.

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• Go In the Tank:
• Sit and think, usually about an important decision, for a long time.

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• Gutshot:
• The card that makes an inside straight or, more commonly, the making of a straight by catching a card inside.

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H

• Hold'em:
• A form of poker with two cards dealt face down to each player, and five community cards dealt face up in the center of the table.

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• Holecard:
• Any one of the down cards.

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• House:
• A cardroom or casino, or the management of a cardroom or casino.

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• Human Card Rack:
• Someone who gets a lot of good hands.

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I

• Implied Odds:
• The ratio of what you should win — including money likely to be bet in subsequent rounds on a particular hand — to the current bet.

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K

• Kicker:
• The unpaired side-card that goes with a player's pair or set. For example, a player with A-K and a board of K-9-2 has a pair of kings with an ace kicker. Something known as top pair or top kicker.

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• Kicker Trouble:
• Having an inferior kicker (side card) to a likely better kicker held by another player. For example, if you have A-2 and an ace appears on the board, if there is any betting, there is a good chance that at least one opponent has an ace with a better kicker and that you have kicker trouble.

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L

• Late Position:
• Positions to the right of the dealer; that is, those who make their decisions after the first few players have acted.

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• Leave Money on the Table:
• Fail to extract as much as possible by not betting with what is almost certainly the best hand.

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• Limp:
• Betting the minimum, as opposed to entering the pot with a raise.

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• Live One:
• A very loose player.

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• Loose:
• Having relaxed playing standards and consequently playing more hands than other players. Opposite of playing tight.

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• Loose-Aggressive:
• See maniac.

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• Loose-Passive:
• A loose player who plays passively. A loose-passive player is often termed a calling station.

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M

• Maniac:
• Someone who bets and raises wildly and at every possible opportunity with little correlation to the value of his cards. Also known as a loose-aggressive player.

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• Middle Pair:
• The situation in which a player pairs one of his hole cards with something other than the highest or lowest card on the board.

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• Middle Position:
• Somewhere between early position and late position.

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• Move:
• [A] play. "In no-limit hold'em, going all in is a very powerful and important move."

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• Move All In:
• Bet all of your chips. Also, referred to as go all in.

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• Muck:
• The discards. To throw cards into the muck means to discard them.

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N

• Nut:
• The best possible hand for the situation. Thus, a nut flush is the best possible flush that can be made.

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• Nuts:
• See the nuts.

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O

• Odds:
• The likelihood or unlikelihood of a particular event, usually expressed in the form of a ratio.

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• Offsuit:
• Hole cards being of different suits, as opposed to suited.

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• One Gap:
• Describing starting cards in which the two cards are two apart in rank, like 7-5.

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• On the Button:
• In the button position.

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• On Tilt:
• Playing badly. See tilt.

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• Option:
• When the action is on the player who put in the big blind and the pot has not been opened for a raise, that player has the option to raise, if he desires. A house dealer may say "Your option," as a reminder.

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• Outkicked:
• Losing with a pair because an opponent has the same pair, but with a higher kicker (side-card). For example, you have J-T and the board is J-9-6-3-2. If you lose to a player with A-J, you have been outkicked.

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• Outs:
• Cards that improve a hand, usually used with reference to a hand that is not currently the best hand.

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• Overcard:
• A card on the board higher than the rank of your pair.

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• Overcards:
• Cards higher than your pair, or cards higher than any on the board.

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• Overlay:
• Receiving a better return than the pot odds indicate. For example, if the odds against making your hand are 2-to-1 and the pot offers 9-to-1, your hand is an overlay.

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• Overpair:
• A player's pair higher than any card among the community cards.

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P

• Passive:
• Playing non-aggressively; that is, rarely originating bets and tending generally to call and not raise. Opposite of aggressive.

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• Pat Hand:
• Complete or five-card hand that is a straight or better.

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• Play Fast:
• Bet aggressively and make large bets.

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• Pocket Pair:
• A pair as one's starting hand.

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• Position:
• Where a player sits in relation to the dealer.

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• Pot-Committed:
• Having put so much money into a pot that one feels obligated to play the pot to the end, perhaps by calling any subsequent bet.

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• Pot Odds:
• The ratio of the size of the pot compared to the size of the bet a player must call to continue in the hand.

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• Put Someone on a Hand:
• Decide that a player has a specific hand. See read a hand.

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R

• Rag:
• A card, usually of low rank, that doesn't help or is unlikely to help a player.

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• Rainbow:
• All different suits.

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• Rake:
• A percentage of the pot usually taken by the house as a means of making money on the game.

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• Ram and Jam:
• Bet and raise frequently and aggressively. Also, play fast.

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• Read a Hand:
• Make a conclusion about another player's holdings based on that player's actions, remarks, betting patterns, and so on.

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• River:
• The fifth and final community card.

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• Rock:
• An extremely tight player, or one who takes few chances.

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• Runner-Runner:
• Flush or straight cards that arrive on the fourth and fifth cards. Appearing for someone who, on the flop, had only three cards contributing to that particular hand.

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S

• Scare Card:
• A scary-looking card for the situation. For instance, when two or three of a single suit are on the board, the appearance of another card of that suit may be a scare card for anyone who does not make a flush.

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• Second Pair:
• Forming a pair that consists of one of your starting cards and the second-highest card on the board.

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• Semibluff:
• A bet made on a hand that is probably not the best at the time of the bet, but that has two ways to win either by getting everyone else to fold or if called might improve on succeeding cards.

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• Set:
• Three of a kind. To flop a set means that (most often) one started with a pocket pair and one of those cards was among the flop.

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• Showdown:
• The point in a hand after all of the betting is over and the players turn their cards face up for comparison with all other active hands to determine which hand wins the pot.

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• Side Pot:
• An auxiliary pot generated when one or more players run out of chips (by going all in at some point during the hand), and which those who ran out of chips cannot win.

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• Slow-Play:
• Opting to not bet or raise with a good hand in the hope of trapping other players on this or subsequent rounds.

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• Small Blind:
• The player to the immediate left of the button puts chips into the pot usually equal to half the size of the big blind. Those chips and the player who puts the chips in are called the small blind.

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• Smooth Call:
• Call and specifically not raise on your turn.

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• Solid:
• Conservative, not likely to get out of line; said of someone's play or a player.

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• Steal position:
• In a game with blinds, a late position, often the cutoff (position one to the right of the button) or button; so used because it is most likely from this position that a player attempts to steal the blinds, that is, open with a raise in the hope of not getting called by either blind.

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• Structured Limit:
• Describing the betting structure of a limit game with bets before and on the flop, followed with twice that level on the turn and river.

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• Suited:
• Descriptive of the first two cards being of the same suit.

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T

• Tell:
• A mannerism that gives away your holdings.

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• Texas Hold'em:
• The "official" name for hold'em.

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• The Nuts:
• The best possible hand at a given point in a pot. See nuts.

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• Third Pair:
• Forming a pair that consists of one of your hole cards matching the third-highest card on the board.

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• Tight:
• Playing very conservatively; showing little gamble; not likely to take a chance; having stringent playing requirements.

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• Tilt:
• The state of playing poorly and acting irrationally due to emotional upset.

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• Top Pair:
• The situation in which a player pairs one of his hole cards with the highest card on the board.

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• Turn:
• The fourth card dealt to the center. Also known as fourth street.

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U

• Under pair:
• A player's pair lower than any card among the community cards.

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X

• X:
• Shorthand for any unspecified card. For example: A-x means an ace plus any other card.

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Z

• Zombie:
• A player who has previously registered for a tournament, but never logged in to actually play.

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