Poker Terms

Action
The placing of money into the pot. If there are lot of bets and raises, there is said to be a lot of action.

Advertise
Showing down a weak hand in order to give the false impression that you are a loose and/or poor player.

Aggressive
A player that bets and raises often, trying to buy pots and intimidate players.

All-in
When all your chips are in the pot, you are said to be all in. When you are all in you can only win as much as you have put into the pot from each player. Any further bets put in by other players go into a side pot.

Ante
A small, forced bet which everyone in the hand is required to put in the pot before any cards are dealt.

Back Door
A hand which is made using the last two cards. Making a back door hand is often unintentional.

Bad beat
When a player with a weaker hand, hits a lucky card to beat a far superior hand.

Bankroll
An amount of money a poker player has which is kept separate from day to day spending and other costs, and is used solely for funding poker.

Bet
To bet is to be the first to put any chips into the pot in each betting round. This person "opens the betting".

Blank
A card which appears to have no effect on a hand. For example; with a flop of KhQh9d, the 3c would be considered a blank. Also known as a brick.

Blind
A compulsory bet made by a designated player or players before the initial deal. A blind becomes part of that player's bet if they come into the pot. In Texas Hold'em there is the small blind equal to half the small bet and the big blind equal to the small bet.

Bluff
To bet a weak hand in hopes of causing your opponents to fold.

Board
The five community cards in Texas Hold'em or the player's four exposed cards in Seven Card Stud.

Boat
A full house.

Broadway
An ace to ten straight.

Bust
To run out of money or chips, often used in tournament play.

Button
The button is a round plastic disc used to indicate the position of the dealer, mainly for use when there is an assigned dealer who is not in the game.

Call
To match the current bet made by the players before you. If one player has bet $1 and another has raised by $1 then it costs $2 to call.

Calling Station
A player who calls far too many hands is known as a calling station. These players rarely bet, raise or fold. Bluffing against these players is not advisable.

Capped
When a betting round has a maximum number of bets/raises. This is used mainly in fixed limit structures, and the cap is usually 1 bet and 3 raises.

Case
The fourth and final card of a particular rank.

Check
If no one has bet before you in a betting round, you have the option to check. This means that the action moves past you and the next player decides what to do (it is the equivalent of calling a bet of $0).

Check-raise
To check initially and then raise an opponent who has bet behind you.

Chips
Chips are round discs typically made of plastic or clay which are used in place of money in most poker games.

Cold Call
Calling more than one bet at once.

Connectors
Cards sequenced in rank, such as a nine and an eight or a queen and a jack.

Community Cards
The cards that are dealt face up on the table and which any player may use.

Dealer's Choice
A format where the dealer selects which particular poker game will be played each hand.

Dominated
When two hands share a card of a particular rank, the hand with the lower 2nd card (or kicker) is said to be dominated.

Double Gutshot
A hand in which a player has two inside straight draws. For example, with the hand 35679, a straight can be made by hitting either a 4 or an 8. This hand has the same number of outs as an up-and-down straight draw, but is more deceptive.

Drawing Dead
When there is no possible card which can make your hand a winner, you are drawing dead.

Expected Value
Is the average amount one "expects" as the outcome of the random trial when identical odds are repeated many times.

Family Pot
When all players at the table play a hand, it is said to be a family pot.

Fill Up
To draw to, and make, a full house from either two pair or three of a kind.

Fish
A poor poker player, who throws their money away at the tables.

Flop
The first three cards community cards in Texas Hold'em or Omaha.

Fold
When faced with a bet, choosing to abandon your cards instead of putting more money into the pot.

Free card
When a player sees the next card without paying a bet to do so.

Gutshot straight draw
When a player needs an exact card in order to make a straight. Also known as an Inside Straight Draw.

Hi/Lo
In Hi/Lo games, the pot is split with half going to the best high hand, and half to the best low hand. Many hi/lo games have a qualifier for low which means hands must be at least 8-low to be in contention for the low half of the pot.

Hole Cards
Any cards dealt face-down to a player and which are for that player's use only.

Heads Up
Playing one-on-one.

Inside Straight Draw
When a player needs an exact card in order to make a straight. Also known as a Gutshot Straight Draw.

Joker
These are sometimes used as wild cards, particularly in home games.

Kicker
The highest unpaired card in your hand. Five card poker hands (straights, flushes, full houses etc) do not have kickers.

Lock
In hi/lo games, you have a lock if you are guaranteed to win at least part of the pot. Similar to the nuts.

Loose
A player who plays too many hands, and isn't frightened of throwing money away.

Lowball
A poker game (usually five card draw) played for low only.

Monster
A very powerful hand, almost guaranteed to win the pot.

No Limit
A betting structure in which the size of a player's bet is unlimited.

Nuts
The best possible hand at any point in the hand.

Offsuit
Two cards of different suits, used particularly in reference to Hold'em starting hands.

Open-Ended Straight Draw
When a player needs has four cards in a row, and needs to hit a card at either side in order to make a straight. Also known as an up-and-down straight draw.

Open Pair
In Seven Card Stud, a pair contained in a player's upcards.

Outdraw
To beat your opponents made hand by drawing cards.

Outs
The number of cards you can catch that will make your hand into a winner.

Overpair
A pocket pair higher than all the community cards. For example: QQ on a J-7-4 flop.

Paint
A picture card (Jack, Queen or King)

Passive
A player who bets and raises infrequently, preferring to call or fold when faced with a bet.

Pay off
Calling a bet when you think you are unlikely to have the best hand, but have a chance to catch a bluff.

Pocket Pair
Two hole cards of the same rank, used mainly in Hold'em.

Position Bet
A bet made on the strength of one's position, rather than the strength of one's cards.

Pot Limit
A betting structure in which the size of a player's bet is limited only by the current size of the pot.

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. For example, if the pot contains $10 and you must call a $5 bet; this gives you pot odds of 2 to 1.

Play the Board
In community card games, when a player's best hand does not use any of his own cards, he is said to be playing the board.

Quads
Four of a kind.

Rabbit Hunting
When a hand ends with more cards to come, the act of looking to see which cards would have come down. This is frowned upon, and is prohibited in some card rooms.

Raise
To increase the amount of the previous bet. For example, if the tables betting limit is $1 and player A bets $1, player B can fold, call $1, or raise by $1 (making the total bet by him in that round $2).

Rake
A small percentage of the pot, removed from each hand by the house.

River
The fifth and final community card. Also used as a verb for being beaten by a hand that an opponent makes on the river card. For example "I got rivered by the flush!"

Rock
A player who plays a very tight and patient game is called a rock.

Rolled Up
In Seven Card Stud, three of a kind using the first three cards.

Scoop
To win the entire pot, used mostly in hi/lo games.

Semi-Bluff
Bluffing with what is probably the worst hand just now, but with outs which could turn the hand into a winner.

Set
When a player has a pair in the hole and a third card of the same rank appears on the board, giving him three of a kind, he has a set. If the third card comes on the flop, he is said to have "flopped a set."

Slow-playing
To play a very strong hand weakly in order to fool your opponents into thinking you have a weak hand. Also known as sandbagging.

Shark
A good, solid player taking a lot of money from poorer players.

Showdown
The point in a hand when all the cards are out and all betting is over. The remaining players turn their cards face up to determine the winning hand or hands.

String Bet
A player wishing to raise must do so with one continuous motion. Someone putting in some chips and then going back to his stack for more (unless it was verbally declared) is said to be making a string bet.

Suited Connectors
Cards of the same suit sequenced in rank, such as a nine and an eight of hearts or a queen and a jack of clubs.

Tell
Any behaviour (normally unconscious) which gives away the strength of a player's hand.

Tight
Players who fold most of their hands and wait for premium cards to get involved in a pot, and will fold if the action indicates they are beaten.

Tilt
When a player is not playing his best game because of factors such as desperation to get even, or suffering a bad beat, where the players mind gets in the way of his game.

Top pair
When a card in your hand pairs the top card on board.

Turn card
The fourth community card to be revealed in Texas Hold'em.

Under The Gun
The player to the left of the big blind in a game of Texas Hold'em, this player acts first pre-flop, and is said to be under the gun.

Video Poker
A casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar to a slot machine.

Wheel
An ace to five straight.

Wired
Starting with a pair in the hole in stud or Hold'em. Three of a kind in 7-stud is also known as 'wired trips'.