Poker Glossary and Terms

Most of the language used in poker games is not commonly known by a lot of players. Learning the lingo of the game is essential to becoming a good player. Our Poker Glossary will help you with some of the most common terms and definitions ...

A - G

Action - Any betting or the opportunity to bet

Active player - A player still involved in the pot

Ajax - Poker slang for a starting hand with one ace and one jack

All-in - Betting all your chips on a single hand

Ante - A forced bet all players have to make before being dealt a hand. Most commonly used during the later stages of a tournament.

APT - The Asian Poker Tour

Bad beat - To be a big favorite in a hand and then lose to an opponent who statistically and underdog

Bankroll - The amount of money a player has to wager for the duration of his career

Board - The community cards in Hold’em are known as the board

Button - This marker indicates which player is the virtual dealer

Buy-in - The fee paid to enter a tournament or the amount of chips you take to your table

Call - When a player matches an already made bet

Chip Leader - The player currently holding the most chips in a tournament

Connectors - Two or more cards of consecutive rank

Crack - To beat a hand, typically a big hand

Community cards - The face-up card in the middle of the table

Datamining - The process of collecting large amounts of data from poker sites in order to analyze opponents.

Dominated - Term used when one hand is a significant underdog to another hand

Drawing dead - When there are still cards to come, but none of them can help you win the hand

Final Table - The last table in a multi-table tournament

Fish - A very poor poker player

Flop - The first three community cards, dealt face up

Fold - To decide not to call a bet or raise

H - P

Hand History - The textual representation of a poker hand

Heads-up - A pot that is contested by only two players

Hole cards - The cards a player is dealt at the start of every hand

Limit - The minimum or maximum amount of a bet

Limp - A term used when you call pre flop

MTT - a simple acronym for 'multi-table tournament'

Muck, to - Discarding your cards to indicate you no longer wish to stay in a hand

Nuts, the - The best possible hand, given the board. The Nuts is always at least a Set.

Play chips - Chips used for play-money games, they have no monetary value

Poker Face - A blank expression that does not reveal anything about the cards being held

PokerStove - A freeware equity evaluator and poker calculator for Texas Hold'em

Position - Position is where you are in relation to the button

Pot-Committed - The situation where you can no longer fold because the size of the pot is so large compared to the size of your chip stack

Pot Odds - These are the odds being offered to you by the pot compared to the amount of money you must invest in it

Q - Z

Quads - Four of a kind

Rainbow - If a group of three to Four cards is all of different suits.

Raise - Betting more than which was wagered by a prior bettor

Re-raise - Raise after one has been raised

Rock - A very tight player

Satellite - A tournament where you can win seats to another, bigger tournament

Shark - A professional player

SharkScope - Website for tracking results of online poker tournaments

Showdown - All remaining players show their hands or muck and the best hand wins the pot

Suited - A starting hand containing two cards of the same suit.

Split Pot - A pot that is shared by two or more players.

Turn, the - The Turn is the name for the fourth card dealt.

Under the Gun - The position of a player, who acts first on a betting round.

Variance - A measure of the up- and downswings your bankroll goes through.

WPT - The World Poker Tour

WSOP - The World Series of Poker

You might also be interested in ...

• poker hand rankings
• poker hand names
• famous poker quotes
• poker chat terms
• poker software and tools

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