Poker glossary
This is the glossary of the key terms you'll run into at the poker tables. Beyond the words listed below, there are thousands of common (and not-so-common) slang expressions that float around among players. Use this list as a quick reference whenever you bump into a term you don't recognize yet.
A
Air: a hand that's worth nothing, with no real strength behind it.
Aggressive action: a playing style that favors betting and raising over calling or checking.
Alternate: when the number of players who want to enter a live tournament exceeds the available seats, they can sign up as alternates and take a seat as soon as another player is eliminated.
Ante: a forced bet that every player puts in before the flop.
B
Bad beat: when you have an overwhelming chance to win and get your chips in, only to lose the hand because your opponent hits a bigger hand against the odds.
Bankroll: the money a player sets aside exclusively for playing poker. It's worth digging into bankroll management to protect that capital.
Big blind: in community-card games like Texas Hold'em, the forced bet posted by the player to the left of the small blind, two seats to the left of the button.
Big slick: slang for the starting hand A-K.
Brick: a card that connects with nothing, unable to complete a draw or improve the current hand.
Bubble: in a poker tournament, the finishing position right below the paid spots. Whoever busts on the bubble leaves with nothing.
Bullets: slang for a pair of aces (A-A) as a starting hand. Bullets can also refer to entries into a rebuy tournament.
Button: the marker that shows the dealer position at the poker table.
Buy-in: the amount paid to enter a tournament, or the number of chips you need to sit down in a cash game.
C
Call: to stay in the hand by matching the largest bet of the round (or going all-in).
Case card: the last card of a given rank still left in the deck.
Check: if no one has bet yet in the round, you can decline to bet and pass the action to the next player.
Chop: to split the pot or the prize money among the players involved.
Cooler: a situation where a player holds a very strong hand but the opponent holds an even stronger one, making it nearly impossible to avoid showdown and losing your chips.
Collusion: when two or more players cheat together during a game.
Community cards (board): in games like Texas Hold'em and Omaha, the five face-up cards every player can use (also called the board). You combine these with your hole cards to build the best five-card hand.
Counterfeit: when a new community card comes down and lowers the value of your hand, we say your hand has been counterfeited.
Crack: to improve a modest hand to the point of beating an opponent's very strong one.
Cripple: when you lose most of your chips in a single hand, or over a few hands in a row.
Cutoff (CO): the position immediately to the right of the button at the poker table.
D
Dark: when a player makes a decision without looking at their hole cards, or before the community cards are revealed.
Dead money: chips sitting in the pot from players who are no longer active in the hand. The term is also used to describe inexperienced players considered unlikely to win.
Dealer: the person who shuffles and deals the cards. In online play, the position is set by the button.
Dirty stack: in live games, when a player mixes chips of different values in a disorganized way, making the total hard to count. They're said to have a dirty stack.
Dominated: a dominated hand has three or fewer cards to improve (outs) available, which statistically leaves your chances of winning very low.
Donk bet: when the player who called a bet or raise on the previous round, and is in position to act later, comes out betting first on the next round.
Donk: slang for a weak, unskilled player.
Double belly buster: a straight draw with two different card ranks that can complete the straight (the simpler one-gap version is the belly buster or gutshot).
Double board: a community-card format in which the flop, turn, and river are dealt twice, and the pot is split between the winners of each board.
Drawing dead: when, even with more community cards still to come, there is no out left that can turn your hand into a winner.
Dry pot: when a player goes all-in and more than one opponent calls (with chips left to bet), a side pot called a dry pot is created.
E
Early bird: an incentive for players to enter a game nice and early (or show up at the start of a live tournament).
EV (expected value): the long-term overall value of all the possible outcomes of a given spot or hand.
F
Fantasyland: in Open Face Chinese (OFC), when a player makes a pair of queens or better (QQ+) on the top row without fouling, they receive their whole hand at once (usually 14 cards) on the next round. That perk is called Fantasyland.
Felt: the cloth that covers the poker table. Used as a verb (to felt), it means to knock a player out of a tournament or take all of their chips.
Field: all the entrants in a tournament.
Fill up: to complete a full house draw.
Fish: a derogatory term for new or weak players.
Fixed limit: in fixed-limit games, a player can only bet and raise in amounts predetermined by the table.
Float: to call a bet on an earlier round without a made hand, intending to take the pot for another reason (usually a planned bluff).
Flop: in games like Texas Hold'em, the first three community cards placed on the table after the first round of betting.
Flush: five cards of the same suit that don't make a straight.
Fold: to give up your hand and bow out of contesting that pot.
Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank. Also called quads.
Freezeout: a tournament where each player can make only one buy-in, with no rebuys.
Full house: three of a kind plus a pair.
G
GG: short for Good Game.
Grind: to put in long hours at low- or mid-stakes games for a steady return, or to slowly build up a bankroll big enough to play bigger tournaments.
Gutshot: a straight draw where only one card rank can complete the hand (also called an inside straight draw).
H
Hero fold: when a player holding a strong hand decides to fold based on their read of the opponent or the situation. That brave fold is called a hero fold.
High card: if a hand reaches the end without anyone holding at least a pair, the highest card decides the winner (the ace is the highest).
Hijack: the position two seats to the right of the button at the poker table.
Hi-Lo: a poker variant in which the pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand (as long as the low hand meets the qualifying requirements).
Hit: when the community cards complete a better hand from your starting cards. For example, A-K can catch an ace on the flop to make a pair.
Texas Hold'em: the most popular community-card game in poker, where each player uses two hole cards and five community cards to build the best five-card hand.
Hole cards: a player's personal cards, dealt face down and hidden from opponents (two in Texas Hold'em, four or more in Omaha, three in Stud, and so on).
I
ICM (Independent Chip Model): a model used to calculate the real cash value of chips inside a tournament prize pool. It's widely used when negotiating deals at the final table.
Implied odds: an extension of pot odds that includes the extra value, above the current pot, you can win if you complete your draw.
Insurance: the option to pay a fee to reduce variance when a stronger hand is all-in, buying protection against a bad beat.
J
Jam: to go all-in.
Joker: the two jokers (usually pictured as a court jester) are the extra cards that come with the 52-card deck, sometimes used as wild cards.
K
Kicker: the side card that fills out a five-card hand. When two hands share the same base strength (for example, the same pair in Texas Hold'em), the higher kicker decides the winner.
Kill pot: in some fixed-limit games, when a player wins consecutive pots or the pot tops a certain size, the next hand becomes a kill pot, with raised blinds and betting limits.
Knockout (KO): a tournament where part of each player's buy-in goes toward a bounty for eliminating them.
L
Loose-aggressive (LAG): a loose-style player who plays a lot of hands but plays them aggressively.
Last longer: a side bet on who lasts the longest inside a tournament.
Limp: to just call the big blind pre-flop without raising (usually in No-Limit or Pot-Limit games).
M
M: a formula that measures the size of your stack relative to the cost of each round (blinds and antes).
MTT: a multi-table tournament.
N
Nit (tight-passive): a term for an extremely conservative, cautious player.
No-Limit: in No-Limit games, the minimum bet equals the big blind and the maximum bet is a player's entire stack.
Nuts: the best possible hand at a given point in the game.
O
Offsuit: cards of different suits.
OFC (Open Face Chinese): a poker variant where each player uses 13 cards to build three hands: two five-card hands and one three-card hand. OFC can be played in the high-only version or the Pineapple variant.
Omaha: a community-card game where a player is dealt four (or more) hole cards and must use exactly two of them, combined with three community cards, to build the best five-card hand.
Outs: the cards still left in the deck that can improve a potential winner's hand.
Overpair: a pair in your hole cards higher than the highest card on the board. For example, if the highest flop card is a 10, a pair of queens is an overpair.
P
Passive: a player who prefers to check and call rather than bet and raise.
Peel: to stay in the hand to see the next card (usually hoping to complete a hand, or to bluff on a later community card).
Polarized: when a player's decision on a given card signals they either have a very strong hand or are bluffing, we say their range is polarized.
Pot committed: when a player has already put so many chips in the pot that folding no longer makes sense in any scenario. In that spot, we say they are pot committed.
Pot-Limit: in Pot-Limit games, the minimum bet equals the big blind and the maximum raise is the size of the pot (the total chips already bet plus the amount to call).
Progressive Knockout (PKO): see Knockout (KO)
Q
Quads: four of a kind (four cards of the same rank).
R
Rabbit hunt: after a hand is over, looking at which cards would have come next.
Rag: a low or useless card. In Texas Hold'em, cards from 2 to 6 are considered rags, as is any combination of low, disconnected, off-suit cards.
Rail: in live games, the area around the table where spectators can watch. When you get eliminated, you're sent to the rail.
Rainbow: when all the cards are of different suits (three or four). For example, a flop with three distinct suits is rainbow; an Omaha four-card hand where all suits differ is also called rainbow.
Raise: to increase the size of the bet after another player has already bet.
River: the last card dealt before the final round of betting (the fifth community card in Texas Hold'em, or each player's seventh card in Seven Card Stud).
Rock: an extremely conservative player who only gets involved when holding a very strong hand.
ROI: return on investment.
Royal flush: the 10-J-Q-K-A straight all of the same suit, the highest possible hand in poker.
Rundown: in Omaha, a starting hand where all the cards are connected in sequence.
Run it twice: in cash games, when an all-in occurs and the players agree to run it twice, the remaining cards are dealt across two boards, and the pot is split between the winners of each board (who may be the same person).
S
Satellite: a single-table or multi-table tournament whose prize is a seat (ticket) into a bigger tournament (the target event or the next stage of the satellite).
Set: a three of a kind made with two hole cards and one community card, in community-card games.
Shark: a high-level, skilled player.
Ship: winning a tournament or the prize pool is described as shipping it. It's also slang for going all-in.
Shove: to go all-in.
Showdown: the end of a hand, when all remaining players reveal their hole cards and whoever has the best hand takes the pot.
Side pot: when a player goes all-in in a pot already contested by several players, the pot covering the bets they can match is the main pot, and any betting above that forms a side pot.
Slow play: to fake weakness by not betting even with a strong hand, to lure the opponent into putting in more chips.
Slow roll: deliberately taking your time to reveal a hand that's almost certain to win (generally considered bad etiquette).
Small blind: the first forced bet, posted by the player immediately to the left of the button.
SNG (Sit & Go): a tournament (single-table or multi-table) that starts as soon as a set number of players have registered, with no fixed start time.
Soft play: deliberately failing to win chips from a player when you could (and should) have. At best it's bad etiquette, at worst a form of collusion.
Split pot: a pot shared between two or more winners. In high-only games, the pot is split when there's a tie; in formats like Hi-Lo or double board, splitting is part of the format itself.
Squeeze: after a raise followed by a call, the squeeze is putting in another (large) raise to pressure both the original bettor and the caller.
Stack: the chips a player has available, whether cash-game or tournament chips. As a verb (to stack), it means to take all of an opponent's chips.
Station (calling station): a derogatory term for a player who loves to call lots of bets rather than raise or fold (they tend to play quite passively).
Steam: the same as tilt, losing emotional control at the table.
Straddle: an optional third blind, posted pre-flop before receiving cards (usually double the big blind).
Straight: five connected cards in sequence, of any suit. A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest and 10-J-Q-K-A is the highest.
Straight flush: five connected cards in sequence, all of the same suit.
Street: a card dealt or a round of betting.
Suckout: winning despite holding the worse hand, thanks to a favorable card that completes your draw.
T
Tight-aggressive (TAG): a tight-style player who plays few hands but plays them aggressively.
Tell: a gesture, habit, or decision pattern characteristic of a player that ends up revealing the true strength of their hand.
3-bet: within a betting round, the second raise. Pre-flop, for example, the big blind acts as the opening bet, the first raise is the bet, and the next raise is the 3-bet (then comes the 4-bet, and so on).
Three of a kind: three cards of the same rank.
Tight: a player who plays fewer hands than average (because they pick a small, stronger range) is described as having a tight style.
Tilt: getting emotionally rattled by something that happened at the table (usually a bad beat), to the point it hurts your ability to make good decisions.
Time bank: the extra time given to a player to decide (online), or used on especially tough decisions (more common online, but increasingly present in live games).
Triple Crown: a player who, over their career, has won a WSOP bracelet, a WPT Main Event title, and an EPT Main Event title is called a Triple Crown champion.
Trips: three of a kind made with one card from your hand and a pair on the board.
Turn: the fourth community card, dealt after the second round of betting.
Two pair: two pairs made from cards of the same rank. The higher pair is compared first. If both pairs are identical, the higher kicker on the fifth card wins.
U
UTG (under the gun): the player to the left of the big blind, the first to act pre-flop.
V
VPIP: a stat that shows how often a player voluntarily puts money in the pot, outside the forced blinds. The higher the VPIP, the more active and, generally, the more aggressive the player.
Villain: slang for your opponent.
W
Whale: a deep-pocketed player who bets at high stakes.
Wheel: the lowest possible straight, ace to five (A-2-3-4-5).
Wrap: in Omaha, a straight draw where three or more card ranks can complete the hand, generating a ton of outs.
Poker terms, the basics, and the online poker glossary
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