Action: 1. A player's turn to act 2. A fast game with many players gambling
Add-on: A possibility to buy chips at the end of a re-buy period in a re-buy tournament.
Aggression: A description of a player who bets and raises a lot but rarely checks and calls. Read more about aggression in poker.
All in: When you wager all of your remaining chips
Ante: A forced bet that all players must pay before any cards are dealt. Antes are mostly used in stud games and in later stages of tournaments.
Backdoor: A draw that requires two cards - in hold'em both the turn and the river. If you have Ah Jc and the flop is Qh 5c 2 s, you have a backdoor flush draw.
Bad Beat: When you lose a hand although you were a huge favorite to win. Usually the previous explanation (backdoor) was the reason.
Bankroll: The money you have set aside for gambling.
Behind: Being behind is the same as not having the best hand at the moment.
Bet: The first wager in a round of betting.
Big bet: The doubled bet in a fixed limit game (on turn and river).
Blank: A community card with no significance for any player.
Bluff: A bet or raise with a hand that is behind.
Board: The community cards in Hold'em, Omaha and other community-card games.
Boat: Another name for a full house (example: K K K 2 2)
Bounty: Prize money on a certain player in a tournament. The one who knocks the bounty player out receives the prize.
Bring in: A forced bet in stud games. This opens the first betting round.
Bubble: The places in a tournament just before prizes are awarded.
Bully: A poker player who bluffs a lot and pushes other players around.
Button: The disk that indicates the dealer's position in brick-and-mortar casinos and online poker games.
Buy-in: The money you take to the table in a cash game or the price for a seat in a tournament.
Buying pots: When you bet to take down the pot right away. Often people "buy the blinds" with a raise from late position.
Call: To match another player's bet or raise
Calling station: A passive and tight player, someone who calls a lot but rarely bets and raises. Read more about player types.
Cap: The number of allowed bets and raises in a fixed-limit game. Normally, four bets are allowed, although some poker sites remove the cap in heads-up hands.
Check-raise: When you check and then raises when someone else opens the betting round. This is considered a powerful move.
Chip-leader: The player holding the most chips in a tournament.
Chop: 1. To split a pot because of a tie or that someone has the high hand and someone else has the low hand in a high-low game. 2. An agreement to split the prize pool among the reaming players in a tournament.
Cold call: To call a raise.
Collusion: When two or more players cooperate at the table. Read more about collusion.
Community cards: The cards in the middle of the table that all players use.
Connectors: Consecutive cards.
Continuation bet: When the pre-flop raiser bets out on the flop.
Crying call: A call by someone who deep down inside knows he doesn't hold a winner.
Cut-off: The seat to the right of the button
Dead money: A bad poker player's money that he is bound to lose.
Dealer: 1. The person distributing the cards. 2. The player sitting in the dealers's position (on the button.)
Dealer's choice: A form of poker where the player on the button decides what the next game is going to be.
Deuce to seven: A type of low hand where no straights are allowed and aces are considered high. The best low becomes 7-5-4-3-2.
Dominated hand: A hand that, because of another players holding, is very unlikely to win. For instance if you hold A-Q against A-K.
Double suited : An Omaha hand with two flush possibilities - two pairs of suited cards.
Drawing dead: When no card can help you.
Drawing thin: When you have very few outs to win the hand
Eight or better: Another word for a high-low split game.
Equity: The expected value you have in a hand. Say that you have 60% chance of winning the hand and the pot is $200, then the equity is $120.
Family pot: A pot (almost) every player at the table participates in.
Fifth street: The river in Hold'em and Omaha or the fifth card dealt in stud poker.
Final table: The last table in a poker tournament, usually with ten or nine players.
Fish: A bad player.
Fixed limit: A variation of poker where all bets and raises follows a fixed betting structure.
Float: To call a bet with the intention of bluffing on a later street.
Flop: The three first community cards in Hold'em and Omaha etc.
Fold equity: The money you statistically win by folding in a specific situation
Four of a kind: Four cards of equal rank.
Fourth street: The turn in Hold'em and Omaha or the fourth card dealt in stud poker.
Free card: When everybody checks in a betting round and sees the next community card "for free". The last player to act can choose to take a free card.
Freeroll: A free poker tournament with a real-money prize pool, a tournament variation many online poker sites offer. Study a complete list of all upcomming freerolls.
Freeze out: A tournament where no re-buys are allowed.
Full house: A poker hand with three cards of equal rank plus a pair.
Gapper: A starting hand in holdem with one or more cards separating the cards. (9-7, one-gapper; 9-6, two-gapper; 9-5, three-gapper)
Grinder: Someone who earns his living by playing a lot of small-stakes poker
Gut shot: An inside straight draw (needs a card of a specific rank.)
High card: 1. A hand with no pair or better, which is only as good as its highest card. 2. The act of deciding where the button will start prior to a game.
Hole cards: Every player's personal, face-down cards.
H.O.R.S.E: A combination of Hold'em, Omaha eight or better, Razz, Seven-card stud and Seven-card stud eight or better.
Implied odds: When taking estimated future bets into consideration when calculating pot odds.
Inside straight draw: A straight draw that needs a card of a specific rank; also called belly buster or gut shot.
Isolation: A raise that makes most players fold and you "isolate" yourself with a lone opponent.
Juice: Another word for rake - the money the game provider deducts from cash-game pots or takes in tournament fees.
Kicker: An unpaired side card. If you have A-K and the board is A-Q-7-4-2 you have top pair with king kicker.
Laydown: To lay down a good hand when suspecting an opponent holds a monster.
Level: Used in tournaments when describing the size of blinds in that particular situation.
Limp: To call before the flop most often used for the first player who enters the pot.
Limp raise: When you call pre-flop and then re-raises when someone else raises your initial call.
Live cards: The cards that can still help you win a hand although you are behind at the moment.
Loose: An active player who plays a lot of hands.
Made hand: A hand that doesn't need any improvement to take down the pot.
Muck: 1. To fold 2. The pile of cards in the middle of the table.
Multi-way pot: A pot with many players
No-limit: A betting structure when players at any time can bet their whole stacks.
Off suit: A starting hand with cards of different suits.
Open ended straight draw: A straight draw with four cards in sequence. You can fill up the straight either in the low or the high end (eight outs.)
Option: The right to raise the pot when sitting on big blind in an unraised pot.
Outs: The remaining cards in the deck that will win you the pot.
Overbet: To make a bet larger than the size of the pot.
Overcard: A card of higher rank than the community cards.
Overpair: A pair that is higher than the community cards.
Paint card: A collective term for all jacks, queens and kings.
Pair: Two cards of the same rank
Passive: A player who checks and calls a lot and don't like to bet or raise.
Pay off: When you because of the pot odds decide to call although you are almost certain you are behind.
Play the board: When your best hand consists only of the community cards on the table.
Pocket cards: Your starting hand. Also known as hole cards.
Pocket pair: When you are dealt a pair in the hole.
Position: Your position refers to where you sit in a hand. Usually poker players talk about early, middle and late position. More info on position in poker.
Pot committed: When you have invested a large part of your stack and no longer can fold.
Pot limit: A betting structure where your max bets and raises are determined by the amount of money currently in the pot.
Pot odds: The ratio between how much is in the pot and what you have to invest to carry on with the hand. Learn how to calculate pot odds.
Pre-flop : The betting round when the starting hand has been dealt but no community cards are on the table yet.
Probe bet: A bet by someone who didn't raise pre-flop; usually a small-sized bet made by someone who whats to see "where he stands in the hand."
Push: 1. A split pot 2. Go all-in
Quads: Another term for four-of-a-kind.
Rabbit hunt: The act of exposing the remaining community cards even though the hand is over.
Rag: A low card with no apparent value. Hands like A-2 and A-3 are referred to as ace-rag.
Railbird: Someone who watches other players without participating in the game.
Rainbow: When the community cards don't create any flush possibilities.
Raise: To increase the size of a bet when someone already has opened the betting.
Rake: The money a game provider deducts from cash-game pots. In online poker, the rake is usually around 5% of the pot size with a $3 maximum.
Rakeback: When you get a portion of your rake refunded every moth, week, or day. These deals are usually offered by third-party affiliate sites.
Range of hands: The possible holdings an opponent can have.
Re-buy: When you buy new chips in a poker tournament - allowed in the first levela of re-buy tournaments.
Re-draw: To have a hand but also a draw to an even better one. This is common and very important in Omaha.
Represent: To play a hand as if you have a completely different one. You can represent a pair of aces in the hole although you hold 7-2.
Ring game: A poker game with cash, or chips representing cash, on the table.
River: The last community cards in Hold'em and Omaha etc.
Rock: A tight and solid player.
Rounder: A poker player who travels around to find the juiciest games.
Runner-runner: A hand where you hit both the turn and the river to win.
Rush: A winning streak
Sandbag: To play a strong hand slowly to hide the strength of it. Also know as slow-play.
Satellite: A tournament in which the prize is an entry to another, more expensive event.
Scare card: A card that possibly could have given an opponent a superior holding. Say that you bet with Ac-Tc on a board showing 2h 9h Ts, someone calls, and the turn comes Kh. the king is definetly a scare card.
Scoop: When you win the entire pot in a high-low split game.
Second pair: When you have paired the second highest card on the board in a community-card game.
Semi-bluff: When you bluff but also have outs to improve the hand on later streets.
Set: Three of a kind with a pocket pair and a card of the same rank on the board.
Shootout: A tournament in which the last remaining player at the table goes on to play the final table.
Short stack: A player with very little chips left.
Shorthanded: A game with three to six players.
Showdown: The last thing that happens in hand where everybody reviels their pocket cards.
Side pot: A pot created when three or more players wager unequal amounts of chips. This results in two or more pots at the table.
Sit and go: A tournament that starts as soon as all the seats are filled. The most common sit-and-go tournaments are ten or nine handed but there are other variations as well.
Slowplay: To play a really strong hand slowly to hide the hand's strength.
Slow roll: Toag wait a few seconds before showing the winning hand. An opponent might think that he has won before the winner is shown. This is considered extremely rude and is a safe way to get enemies at the table
Split: When two ore more players divides the pot because of a tie or a high-low situation in a split game.
Spread limit: A type of limit Hold'em where players are allowed to bet whatever they want within a certain range.
Squeeze play: A bluff where you raise one player who opened the betting and another player who called the first raise.
Stack: The chips a player have at the table.
Starting hand: The personal card dealt to players before the betting begins.
Straddle: An extra blind usually posted by the player to the left of the big blind. A player who straddles get to act last before the flop.
Straight: A poker hand with five consecutive cards.
Straight flush: A suited poker hand with five consecutive cards.
Suited: A hand with cards of the same suit.
Suited connectors: A suited starting hand with two consecutive cards.
Tell: A physical behavior that sends signals to the other players. An opponent who can decipher these tells can gain an advantage.
Three bet: The third bet in a betting round. Example: Player A bets $5, player B raises to $10 and player C three-bets to $15.
Three of a kind: A poker hand with three cards of the same rank.
Tight: A player who plays very few starting hands and only carries on when the community cards are favorable.
Tilt: A state of emotional confusion and anger that has affect on the game.
Top kicker: When the kicker is the highest possible.
Top pair: A pair with the highest card on the board.
Top two: Two pair with the highest two cards on the board.
Trips: A three of a kind in community-card games with a pair on the board and a hole card of the same rank.
Turn: The fourth street in community-card games.
Under the gun: The position that is first to act before the flop (left of the blinds.)
Underdog: A player who have smaller chance of winning a pot than another player.
Value bet: A bet with a hand that you think is the best. Consequently, you wish to be called when value betting.
Walk: When everybody folds to the big blind.
Wheel: A straight from ace to five.
