Poker Terms & Definitions: Complete Poker Glossary

We present you with an all-encompassing poker glossary where we share all the poker terms and definitions you need to learn by heart. Knowing these is a gateway to becoming a good poker player, as these help you understand the common lingo around the poker table, no matter if you play in a poker tournament, in a brick-and-mortar casino, or play poker online at your favorite online casino:

Credit: 20Bet

A

• Ace in the hole – when one of your hole cards is an Ace
• Ace-to-five – the best low hand in Razz or Hi-Lo poker
• Act – to make an action in poker, like check, bet, raise, call or fold
• Act out of turn – the intentional or unintentional action by a poker player where they announce their action
• Active players – the players that are involved in the pot
• Aggressive play – a playing style where the player tends to play aggressively, often betting or raising
• All-in – the action when a player places all their chips on a single bet
• Ante – the forced bet players must pay to enter the poker game

B

• Back raise – a re-raise from a player who called in the same betting round
• Bank – the house (casino) or the person who distributes chips and keeps track of the player’s actions
• Bankroll – the amount of money the player has at their disposal to play poker
• Bankroll Management – managing the amount of money/chips one has at their disposal
• Barreling – refers to c-betting, when the preflop raiser continues to bet on the flop and bets again on the turn
• Bet – any money wagered during the poker game; the opening bet in a betting round
• Betting Structure – the set rules on betting in poker, like forced bets, limits, raises, and re-raises
• Big Bet – the larger bet amount in fixed-limit poker games
• Big Blind – the larger forced bet amount in Texas Hold ‘em and other poker variants
• Big Stack – a large stack of chips, usually the biggest stack on the table, also referred to as deep stack
• Big Full – the best possible full house in Texas Hold ‘em and other community card poker
• Blind Defense – the action of calling or raising at an opponent’s raise to defend your big blind and take advantage of aggressive opponents
• Blind Steal – a raise from a late position with a weak hand with the goal to win the blinds and antes
• Blocking Bet – a minimal bet you make when playing out of position to discourage your opponents from making a larger bet
• Bluff – a bet you make to try to outplay your opponents, usually with a weaker hand
• Bluff Catcher – a hand that can beat a bluff
• Board – the set of community cards in Texas Hold ‘em or other community card poker games; all face-up cards in a Stud poker game
• Boat – full house
• Bottom Pair – a pair of hole cards in Texas Hold ‘em poker with low-ranking cards
• Bounty – a rule rewarding players who eliminate other players in some cash poker tournaments
• Brick-and-mortar – a land-based casino or physical casino, as opposed to an online casino
• Button – the marker indicating the dealer’s position at the poker table
• Buy-in – the amount of money/chips required to enter a poker game or a tournament

C

• Call – the action to match a bet
• Calling Station – a player who often calls the bets and rarely raises; a loose passive player
• Cap – the limit of the number of raises in a betting round
• Cash Game – a poker game where players play for real money instead of playing with chips in a tournament
• Cash Out – leaving the game and taking the chips/money from the game
• Check – passing the action to the next player without putting money in the pot
• Check-Raise – check with the intention to raise if another player makes a bet; a deceptive play allowing another players to open the betting round
• Chip – a small coin-shaped disks used by casinos in place of money, usually made from clay, composite, or ceramic
• Click Raise – the minimum raise in online poker games
• Collusion – the action where two or more players work together, cheating the other players on the table
• Combination Draw – a poker hand with a flush draw and a straight draw
• Community Card – the face-up cards on the table available to all the players
• Connectors, connector cards – two or more cards of consecutive or very close rank
• Continuation Bet, C-Bet – a bet made after the flop by the player who acted last in the pre-flop
• Cutoff – the seat on the right side of the button, usually the strongest position on the table

D

• Dead Man’s Hand – a hand with two pairs, Aces and eights
• Deuce – a common term for the “2” card in poker
• Deal – the action of dealing the cards to the players on the table
• Deep Stack – a relatively large stack of chips, also called a big stack
• Defense – the action of making defensive moves against a bluff
• Donk Bet – the bet made in early position by a player who didn’t make an initiative in the previous round
• Door Card – the first face-up card in Stud poker game; the first visible card on the flop in Texas Hold ‘em poker
• Draw, Drawing hand – the chance for the player to improve their hand to a stronger hand by drawing the best cards at the flop, turn and river
• Drop – fold, leave the poker game
• Dynamic Board – a board where many draws are possible, and the hands can change based on the future streets

E

• Early Position – a player who sits near the button position and must make an action early in the betting round
• Eight or Better – the basic qualifier is high-low split games
• Equity – the mathematical expected value from the current deal, the result of multiplying the amount of money in the pot, and the probability of winning
• Expected Value, EV – the profitability of poker in the long run

F

• Field – all the poker players in a poker tournament
• Fifth Street – the last community card in Texas Hold ‘em poker, also known as the river
• Final Table – the last table in a multi-table poker tournament
• First Position – the position on the left of the blinds in community cards poker that is the first to make an action, also referred to as Under The Gun
• Fish – a poor poker player, a less- experienced poker player
• Flop – the dealing of the first three community cards in Texas Hold ‘em poker
• Flush – a poker hand with five cards in the same suit
• Flush Draw – when you have a hand with four cards in the same suit and only need one more to complete the flush
• Fold – to surrender your hand and leave the pot
• Forced Bet – the mandatory bet in the first round of betting
• Four-of-a-kind – a poker hand with four cards in the same rank
• Fourth Street – the fourth community cards in Texas Hold ‘em and other community card poker games
• Freezeout – the most common form of poker tournament where the players play until they have no ships, and the winner wins all the chips
• Full House – a poker hand with three cards in one rank and two cards in another rank

G

• GG – a poker slang used in online poker game chat rooms referring to a good game

H

• Hand – a ranking hand in poker
• Hand History – the documented history of the played hands in online poker
• Heads Up – playing against a single opponent
• Hero Call – when you make a call with a weak hand, suspecting your opponent may be bluffing
• High Card – a no-pair winning hand with the highest-ranking card
• High-Low, Hi-Lo – a split-pot poker game
• Hijack – the position on the right side of the cutoff seat, with relatively good strength
• Hole Cards – the face-down cards every player gets
• H.O.R.S.E. – an acronym for poker tournament poker varieties: Hold ‘em, Omaha, Razz, Seven-Cards Stud, and Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo split Eight or better

I

• Implied Odds – the odds that take into consideration the estimated future betting, where the players expect to fold if they miss the draw
• In Position – the last player who acts on the flop, turn, and river, playing with positional advantage
• Inside Straight – a situation where the player has a chance to make a straight but is missing the middle card
• Insurance – the deal where the players agree to split the pot instead of laying out the hand
• ITM – an acronym for In The Money, commonly mentioned in the online poker games

J

• Juice – the money collected by the house, also referred to as rake

K

• Kicker – the card used to break ties between equally ranking hands, usually the next highest card

L

• LAG – loose-aggressive style of playing poker, when the player plays a lot of staring hands and makes plenty of small bets
• Lead – the player who makes the last bet or raise in a betting round has the lead at the start of the next round
• Limit – the minimal and maximal amount of bets in some poker games
• Limp In – to enter the pot by calling a bet instead of raising
• Live Game – a poker game with a lot of actions
• Live Poker Game – a poker game that happens live, as opposed to video poker
• Loose – playing more hands than the average,
• Low – the low half of the pot in High-Low split poker games

M

• Made Hand – a poker hand that does not need any improvements to win
• Maniac – a loose and aggressive player who bets and raises very often
• Match the Pot – betting an amount that is equal to the value of the pot
• Middle Pair – making a pair with the middle-value cards in community poker games
• Middle Position – the position in the middle, that is after the UTG and before the late position
• MTT – Multi-table tournament

N

• No Limit – when all the players are allowed to bet any or all their money in a single bet
• Nothing – when you have only the possibility of a high card and nothing else
• Nut Low – the best possible low hand in High-Low split poker games

O

• Off-suit – cards that are not in the same suit
• On the Button – the player who plays the button position, the most advantageous position in the game
• Omaha – a variety of community poker game where the players get 4 hole cards and must use two of them and three of the five community cards
• Open-Ended Straight Draw – a straight draw with eight outs that needs one card to complete one end
• Out – any card that you can use to complete a winning poker hand
• Out of Position – the player who needs to act first, one that has a positional disadvantage
• Outside Straight Draw – a straight draw that can be completed from either side

P

• Paint – slang for any royal card, usually in lowball games where high cards are not useful
• Pair – two cards of the same rank
• Passive – a player who checks and calls and rarely raises
• Perfect – the best possible cards
• Play the Board – when the player’s best possible hand is on the board in Texas Hold ‘em poker
• Pocket Aces – a starting hand with two Aces
• Pocket Pair – a starting hand with a pair
• Poker Face – a neutral expression that does not reveal anything about the hole cards
• Poker Table – the table where the poker game is played
• Position – the playing position on the poker table
• Pot – the money in the center of the table that is up for grabs
• Pot Limit – a poker game where the players can’t place a bet that is larger than the size of the pot
• Pot odds – the ratio between the size of the pot and the necessary amount to call the bet
• Pre-flop – the moment the players get their hole cards and make the first betting round before the flop is dealt
• Purse – the total prize pool in a poker tournament

Credit: Karamba

Q

• Quads – a poker hand with four-of-a-kind
• Qualifier – a qualifying poker hand in high-low poker games, such as eight-high or eight-low
• Quartered – winning one-quarter of the pot in high-low split games

R

• Rake – the amount the house takes, referred to as juice
• Rainbow – four cards in different suits
• Raise – to increase the size of the existing bet in the same round
• Range – a list of possible hands the opponent may hold
• Razz – a type of lowball stud poker variety where the winning hand is ace-to-five
• Re-buy – the possibility to purchase extra chips in poker tournaments
• Re-raise – to raise again after an opponent has raised
• River – the final community card placed on the table that is followed by a final round of betting
• Rock – a very tight player, usually plays very few hands only when they have very strong hands
• Royal Cards – picture cards or face cards, the J, Q, and K in every suit
• Royal Flush – the highest possible winning hand, A, K, Q, J, T in any suit

S

• Satellite – a poker tournament where the prize is the free entry for a larger tournament
• Scoop – winning the high and low portions of high-low split pot games
• Semi-bluff – a bluff made with a hand that has a decent chance of improving but also intends to make the opponents fold in the current betting round
• Set – a poker hand with three-of-a-kind
• Shark – a professional poker player or someone playing high-stakes poker games
• Shoe – the container where the card deck is held from where the dealer draws the cards
• Short Stack – a stack of chips that is relatively small for the stakes that are currently played
• Shorthand – a poker hand that is played with six players or fewer
• Showdown – after two or more players remain after the last betting round, and they disclose and compare their hands to decide the winner
• Sit-and-go – a poker tournament that starts when the required number of players put down their money
• Small Blind – the small forced bet in some poker varieties
• Spread – the range between the minimum and maximum bets on the table
• Spread Limit – a variety of limit poker where the bets can be only between the set minimum and maximum value
• Stakes – the amount you can buy into the game and bet
• Starting Hand – the hole hand you start with
• Straight – five cards in a sequence, no matter the suit
• Straight Flush – any five consecutive cards in the same suit
• Street – a term referring to a betting round in poker
• Stud Poker – several variants of poker where the players get a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in several rounds
• Suited – cards in the same suit, like ♥, ♦, ♣, ♠
• Suited Connectors – connector cards in the same suit

T

• Table Stakes – a rule where you can’t bet more money than you’ve had at the beginning of the hand
• TAG – a tight-aggressive player who plays strong hands and plays aggressively
• Tell – a detectable change in the player’s behavior that gives clues into their hand
• Three of a Kind – a poker hand with three cards of the same rank, also referred to as set
• Tight – a poker-playing style where the player plays very few hands
• Top Kicker – the best possible kicker in a given hand in community card poker games
• Top Pair – a hand with a pocket pair of very high rank
• Turn – the fourth community card that is dealt on the board, followed by the fourth round of betting

U

• Under The Gun, UTG – the playing position to the left of the small and big blinds in community poker games
• Up Card – the card that is placed face up on the table
• Up the Ante – increase the stakes on the table

V

• Value Bet – a bet you make in order to have the other players call to build the pot
• Variance – the statistical data in how the actual results differ from the expectations

W

• Whale – a poker player who plays big pots and loves to gamble
• Wheel – the ace-to-five straight in lowball games
• WSOP – World Series of Poker