Poker Terms

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”.

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.

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.”

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.

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 clich�s – 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.”

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 ).

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