Before you go play live poker, you should have a sense of what the popular poker terms and poker slang means. This way, you’re not confused when you decide to play live after you learn how to play poker. Fortunately for you, we here at PokerScout have come up with a complete glossary with all the key poker terms and phrases you need to know.
Though we won’t be able to cover all the terms in poker, we will, at the very least, provide all the necessary poker terms for beginners. No matter what, if you study the poker slang on this poker terms list, you’ll be sounding like a true professional poker player in no time.
0-9
3-Bet – An action that generally refers to a pre-flop re-raise, which occurs after the initial raise. Can also refer to post-flop action where it is the third bet of a different denomination in the same betting round.
4-Bet – Generally refers to pre-flop action when a player raises against a 3-bettor.
6-Max – Refers to a poker game that can be played with a maximum of six players per table.
8-Game – A poker tournament variant where players play these games in this specific order: 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Razz, 7-Card Stud, Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better, No-Limit Hold’em, and Pot-Limit Omaha.
9-Game – A poker tournament variant where players play the 8-Game mix along with No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw.
10-Game – A poker tournament variant where players play the 9-Game mix along with Badugi.
A
A-Game – When you’re playing your absolute best poker.
ABC Poker – When you play simple, tight, aggressive poker without bluffing or hero calling. Extremely profitable strategy at low-stakes cash games.
ABI – Abbreviation for average buy in. Most often used when describing a person’s skill level or bankroll.
Ace in the Hole – In Stud games, when you have an ace as your face down card.
Ace-to-Five – A prefix used in lowball poker variants when 5432A is the best possible hand.
Ace-High – The best unpaired hand in poker, when you have an ace that doesn’t connect with the board.
Add-on – At the end of the rebuy period in some tournaments, an add-on period will occur where you can purchase more chips at a flat price. This is always optional.
Aggression Factor – A ratio that compares aggressive actions (betting/raising) vs. passive actions (calling/checking).
Aggro – Term used to describe an aggressive player. (ex. aggro fish or aggro reg).
Airball – An airball bluff or “bluffing with air” refers to bluffing with no blockers and no equity. A nonsensical bluff that’s usually deployed when a player believes their opponent is weak.
Alias – A player’s online username or real-life pseudonym.
All-in – When 100% of a player’s chips have been bet.
American Airlines – A nickname for pocket aces.
Angle Shooting – Breaking an unwritten poker rule to gain an unethical advantage.
Ante – A mandatory bet made by all players before any cards have been dealt.
ATC – An abbreviation for any two cards. Generally used to describe a situation where the two cards don’t matter, such as calling an all-in for an extremely small amount of additional chips.
B
Backdoor – When you need both the turn and the river cards to make your straight or flush.
Backing – Also known as staking, backing is when you purchase a piece of another player’s action in order to receive an equal percentage of their profits.
Backraise – Re-raising after having only called earlier in the hand on the same street.
Bad Beat – When a player loses a hand after they were statistically a huge favorite.
Bankroll – The money that a player uses only for poker. Generally, professionals and up-and-coming players separate their “life roll” from their bankroll.
Barrel – Most commonly used to describe a “double barrel” or a “triple barrel”, referring to being the aggressor on consecutive streets.
BB – Abbreviation for big blind.
BBJ – Abbreviation for Bad Beat Jackpot. This is a huge prize which is typically awarded for losing with an extremely strong hand in a cash game. Most often, this hand will need to be at least quads or aces full.
Belly Buster – An old school term used to describe a gutshot straight draw.
Bet – When you are the first to put chips into the pot.
Betting Round – When players have a new opportunity to check, bet, or raise.
Big Bet – The larger of the two designated bets in fixed-limit games. Most often, this is twice the amount of the small bet and occurs on the final streets.
Big Blind – The preset amount for the mandatory bet for the player seated two seats left of the dealer button.
Big Blind Special – Typically used to describe a hand won from the big blind with cards that would be folded from any other position.
Big Slick – Once a nickname for ace-king suited, now a nickname for any ace-king.
Blank – A card that appears on the board (turn or river) that almost certainly shouldn’t affect the action in any way.
Blinds – The mandatory bets that are required to be posted by the two players to the left of the dealer button before each hand.
Blind Bet – Someone who bets without looking at their cards.
Blocker – A card that has a ‘card removal’ effect on your opponents. If you hold king-queen on a K-T-9 flop, your queen is a blocker to the straight. This makes it far less likely that your opponent is holding queen-jack.
Blocker Bet – Betting small in an attempt to prevent your opponent from betting large.
Bluff – Betting when you want to make a stronger hand fold.
Bluff Catching – Calling with a hand that only wins when our opponent is bluffing.
Board – The community cards in all poker variants, generally Texas Hold’em and Omaha Poker.
Boat – Also a ‘full boat’, it’s a colloquial term for a full house in poker.
Bomb Pot – A hand where everyone puts in a predetermined amount as a large ante and sees the flop before betting commences.
Bot – An illegal non-human player playing in an online poker game.
Bot Farm / Bot Ring – An assembly of people operating bots in tandem to cheat poker players and profit.
Bottom Pair – The worst possible pair that could be made with the community cards.
Bounty – A prize for knocking a player out of a knockout-style tournament.
Breakeven Session – When a player plays online for several hours and virtually doesn’t win or lose that much money.
Bring-in – A mandatory bet made by the player holding the worst upcard in Stud variants. In Razz, this would be the highest card while it would be the lowest card in 7-Card Stud.
Brick – When you’re on a draw and don’t hit.
Broadway – An ace-high straight.
BRM – Abbreviation for bankroll management, a long-term strategy for poker players to never lose their bankroll.
Bubble – The stage in the tournament right before the money or right before the final table.
Bullets – Slang for both pocket aces and for multiple entries into a poker tournament.
Bum Hunting – A term used to describe poker players who repeatedly seek out online cash games specifically with weaker players.
Burn Card – In order to minimize the potential for cheating, the dealer will put a ‘burn card’ face down before dealing the flop, another before the turn, and another before the river.
Busted – Slang for being eliminated from a tournament. Also can be used to describe a missed draw.
Button – Also known as the ‘dealer button’ or ‘dealer’, the button is to the direct right of the blinds. The button is the most important position at the table as you’re always in position on your opponents, therefore, always last to act.
Buy-in – The entry fee to a tournament or what you pay to enter a cash game.
C
C-Bet – Short for continuation bet, the act of betting after being the aggressor on the previous street.
Call – When you match the existing bet or raise.
Calling Behind – When you call after someone else has already called.
Calling Station – Slang for a passive player who calls way too much.
Cap – The maximum amount of rake a casino will take per hand.
Card Dead – When you don’t get good cards for a long time.
Card Distribution – A term referring to the quality of hole cards you receive over the length of a tournament.
Card Removal – Also known as the ‘blocker effect’, where our cards reduce the chance that our opponents hold specific card combinations.
Cardroom – Anywhere that multiple poker tables exist where poker is played.
Case – Used to describe the last remaining card of a certain rank in the deck (ex. the case ace).
Cash Game – A poker format where players buy in for a certain amount of money and use chips directly representing their cash amount. Players are free to sit down and leave whenever they want.
Cashing Out – When a player leaves a cash game to exchange their chips for cash.
Catch – When you hit the card you’re looking for to improve your hand.
Chance – Used to describe the odds or probability of a player winning.
Chase – When you call in hopes of catching the card you’re looking for on later streets.
Check – When you opt to make no wager (a $0 wager or a zero-chip bet). Essentially passing the action onto the next player or seeing the next card for free.
Check-Call – Checking and then calling your opponent’s bet.
Check-Fold – Checking and then folding to your opponent’s bet.
Check-Raise – Checking and then raising after your opponent bets.
Check in the Dark – To check in the current betting round before that betting round’s card(s) is exposed.
Chinese Poker – A 13-card poker variant where players arrange their cards into rows of five, five, and three in an attempt to beat their opponent. The bottom row must be stronger than the middle row, which must be stronger than the top row, otherwise, the hand busts.
Chip and a Chair – An old expression that’s still used today towards a player who has a very small amount of chips. This refers to the idea that you can still win a tournament as long as you’re still alive.
Chip-Dumping – An illegal tactic where players work together to strategically “dump” chips to the stronger player in order to give them a greater chance of winning the tournament.
Chip Leader – The player who has the most chips in a tournament.
Chop – A split pot, when two or more players share the winning hand. Also used to describe when multiple players decide to end a tournament early and share the remainder of the prize pool.
Clean Outs – In Omaha, clean outs are described as the cards that will give you the unbeatable nuts, as opposed to outs that can give you a better but beatable hand.
Click – Refers to a very small or even a minimum raise.
Clicking Buttons – Online poker terminology used to describe recreational players who have very little skill.
Coinflip – Usually referred to as a “flip”. A term used to describe a scenario where two players have around 50% equity to win the hand.
Cold 4-Bet – When a player who has yet to complete an action raises the 3-bettor.
Cold Call – Calling after both a bet and a raise has occurred preflop.
Collusion – When multiple players conspire to cheat a poker game.
Color Up – When smaller chips get taken out of the game. Reduces the number of chips and eliminates unnecessary denominations of chips from play.
Combos – Short for “combinations,” referring to the exact count of specific hands possible in a game. There are 12 possible offsuit combos, 4 suited combos, and 6 paired combos for each hand type.
Combo Draw – A hand that includes both a straight draw and a flush draw.
Community Cards – Also known as the “Board.”
Complete – In Stud games, this is the act of making the first full bet following the bring-in. The term is also used when the small blind starts the action by calling.
Computer Hand – A nickname for the Q-7 offsuit hand, recognized as the weakest profitable hand against all other hands, representing an average starting hand.
Connector – Refers to two cards of consecutive rank, often suited connectors (e.g., 7-6 suited).
Continue – Another word for calling.
Continuation Bet – Also known as “C-Bet.”
Cooler – A scenario where a player has a strong hand and plays it perfectly, but still loses to an even stronger hand.
Counterfeit – When community cards devalue a strong hand. For instance, holding 7-6 on a K-7-6 board and a K appears on the turn, reducing your two pair to a weaker hand.
Cowboys – A nickname for pocket kings.
Crabs – A nickname for pocket threes.
Cracked – Refers to a strong hand losing to a weaker one, often said about pocket aces. “My aces got cracked.”
Crossbook – A side bet between two players in the same event, where the player who finishes worse owes a percentage of the difference in winnings to the other. For example, if they have a 10% crossbook and Player A wins $1,000 while Player B wins $4,000, Player A owes Player B $300 (10% of $3,000).
Cutoff – The seat to the right of the dealer button.
D
Dark Bet – Also known as “betting in the dark,” placing a bet before seeing the next card.
Dead Man’s Hand – Aces and eights, famously the hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot.
Dead Money – Money in the pot from players who are no longer in the hand.
Dead Outs – Outs that a player needs but are no longer live.
Dealer – The person who manages the game by dealing the cards and overseeing player actions, betting, and time, if necessary.
Dealer Button – A rotating button that keeps track of the dealer’s position as it moves around the table.
Dealer’s Choice – A game where the player with the dealer button picks the game variant.
Deuce – A nickname for a two.
Dirty Stack – A chip stack containing chips of mixed denominations rather than a consistent single denomination.
Dog – Short for underdog, when a hand has less equity than an opponent’s hand.
Dominate – When your hand shares a card with an opponent’s, but your other card is higher, putting you in an unbelievably strong position. For example, AK dominates KQ, and KK dominates 88.
Donk Bet – Betting out of position before the original aggressor from the prior betting round can act.
Door Card – In Stud games, the first face-up card dealt to a player.
Double Belly Buster – Having two gutshot straight draws in a single hand.
Double-Up – Winning a hand and doubling your starting chip count, almost always referring to winning a heads-up all-in.
Down Card – Refers to cards dealt face down, such as hole cards in Stud games.
Downswing – An extended period of losing in cash games or tournaments.
The Doyle / The Brunson – Common nicknames for the 10-2 offsuit, named after Doyle Brunson, who won two WSOP Main Event titles with this hand.
Draw – Seeking a card to complete a stronger hand, such as needing one more spade to make a flush.
Drawing Dead – When a hand has zero chance of winning when more cards are yet to come.
Dry Flop – A flop with cards that are highly disconnected and do not include much in terms of flush or straight draws (e.g., A-7-2 rainbow).
Ducks – A nickname for pocket twos, though Brent Hanks calls them Mallards.
E
Early Position – The first few seats to act in a hand, typically the first three in a 9- or 10-player game, or the lojack in a 6-max game.
Edge – A skill advantage a player holds over an opponent.
Effective Stack – The smaller stack between two players in a hand, which is the maximum amount that can be wagered.
Equity – The probability of winning or tying in a hand at any point in the hand.
Equity Calculator – A poker tool to calculate the equity for players in a hand. This helps players understand their chances of winning a previous hand and helps them make optimal betting and folding decisions in the future.
EV – Stands for expected value, indicating the long-term value of a decision. Positive EV decisions are profitable, while negative EV decisions should be avoided.
F
Face Card – Any king, queen, or jack, also known as “paint.”
Family Pot – When all players remain in the hand and sees the flop.
Fast Play – Aggressive betting or raising with a strong hand.
Favorite – The hand that’s statistically more likely to win at showdown.
Fifth Street – Also known as the river in Texas Hold’em; in Stud games, it’s the third betting round after the third upcard is dealt.
Fish – A term for a weak or inexperienced player, often recreational.
Five-Card Draw – A poker game where players receive five cards and can choose to exchange zero to five cards. Typically played as a single-draw variant.
Five-Card Stud – A Stud variant where each player gets one down card and four upcards.
Flat – Another term for calling.
Float – Calling with a weak or speculative hand, often with the intention to bluff on later streets.
Floor / Floorman – A casino staff member responsible for settling rules and/or verbal disputes and overseeing game fairness.
Flop – The first three community cards revealed after the preflop betting round.
Flush – A hand with five cards of the same suit, ranking above a straight but below a full house.
Fold – To give up your hand, allowing another opponent in the hand to win the pot.
Fold Equity – The likelihood of an opponent folding in response to your bet or raise.
Forced Bet – A mandatory bet that initiates the first betting round, mostly in Stud games.
Four of a Kind – Four cards of the same rank, also known as quads.
Four Pair – A rare Omaha scenario where the ranks of the cards on the flop and the turn exactly match the ranks of the cards in your hand.
Fourth Street – Known as the turn in Texas Hold’em, the second upcard round in Stud.
Free Card – When all players check, allowing the next card to appear without any more money going into the pot.
Freeroll – A free-entry tournament. Also a scenario in poker where you can’t lose but might still win (ex. having a flush draw with ace-king suited against someone else’s ace-king).
Freezeout – A tournament with no re-entry; players are eliminated once their chips are gone.
Full Boat – Another name for a full house, often shortened to a “boat.”
Full House – A hand with three cards of one rank and two of another, ranking above a flush but below quads.
Full Wrap – When you have 20 straight outs in Omaha.
G
Gapper – A hand with a two-rank separation, such as 8-6 or J-9.
GG – Short for “good game,” often said to a player who has been eliminated.
Ghosting – When a skilled player takes over for someone else in a key moment of an online poker tournament, which is strongly against the rules.
Going South – Illegally taking chips off the table during a game to lower your stack size in a cash game.
Grind – Playing a lengthy session of poker.
Grinder – A player who consistently plays long poker sessions. These players tend to make steady profits over the long-run but play far more than the average player.
GTO – Stands for “game theory optimal,” the mathematically ideal way to play.
Guarantee – The minimum prize pool amount for a tournament, regardless of how much the players contribute. If the guarantee isn’t reached, that money is considered “overlay” and is covered by the tournament organizers.
Gutshot – A draw where only one specific rank completes a straight, also called an inside straight draw.
H
Hand – The cards you hold, or your best five-card combination.
Hand-for-Hand – A tournament phase on a bubble where each table waits until all hands are completed on every table before starting the next hand.
Hand Rankings – The order of hands by strength from highest to lowest.
Heads-up – When only two players remain in a hand.
Hero Call – A risky call made with a weak hand, almost certainly hoping that the opponent is bluffing.
Hero Fold – Folding a strong hand due to suspicion that the opponent is holding an even stronger hand.
Hi-Lo / High-Low – A split-pot game where half the pot goes to the highest hand and half to the lowest qualifying hand (almost always requires five cards 8 or lower).
Hijack – The position two spots to the right of the dealer button.
High Card – A hand with no pairs, straights, or flushes.
High Roller – A player with a large bankroll who plays in high-stakes games, also the name of premium tournaments that generally comes with a five-to-six-figure buy-in.
Hit – When we hit our card to improve from an underdog to favorites or even the winner.
Hit-and-Run – Winning a large pot and immediately leaving the table. This is often frowned upon by experienced players.
Hold’em – Short for Texas Hold’em, it’s the most popular poker variant in the world where players receive two hole cards. They use five community cards in order to make the best five-card hand or bluff their opponents off a better hand during the betting rounds.
Hole Cards – The face down cards players receive at the beginning of a hand.
Hollywooding – When a player takes extra time with a strong hand in an attempt to mislead an opponent into thinking that they have a weak hand.
Hooks – A nickname for pocket jacks.
H.O.R.S.E. – HORSE is a mixed game tournament that goes through five poker variants in this specific order: Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight or Better. Each game is played using a fixed limit betting structure.
HUD – An acronym for “Heads-Up Display”, a legal online tool used to display real-time statistics about opponents’ playing styles and tendencies.
Hyper Turbo – A poker tournament with a very fast blind structure.
I
ICM – Short for “Independent Chip Model”, which is a mathematical model that calculates the monetary value of a player’s chip stack based on the remaining payouts and stack sizes. Severely adjusting your play due to ICM is critical during money bubbles, final table bubbles, and on the final table itself.
Implied Odds – A strategy that accounts for potential future winnings if a player is able to hit their drawing hand.
In Position – When you get to act last in a betting round.
Inside Straight Draw – See gutshot.
In the Dark – Refers to making an action for the upcoming card before the upcoming card is dealt.
ITM – Short for “In the Money”, when you are guaranteed to receive a payout.
J
Jackpot – A huge prize in some poker rooms that reward a player for super-rare events, almost exclusively in cash games. A bad beat jackpot is usually paid for a bad beat of at least quads or aces full. Smaller jackpots may be awarded for hitting a royal flush or a poker room’s specific hand of the day.
Jam – A colloquial term for going all in.
Jiggities – Slang for pocket jacks, a term coined by poker vlogger Brad Owen.
Joker – An extra card in the deck that’s used in some poker variants, generally used as a wild card.
K
Kicker – The unpaired card in a player’s hand that is often used to determine the winner of a hand. For example, AK beats AJ on an AT632 board thanks to the king kicker.
Knock – An old-school term for checking.
L
Ladies – A nickname for pocket queens.
LAG – Abbreviation for “Loose-Aggressive Players”, someone who plays a lot of hands and bets/raises often.
Large-Field MTT – A multi-table tournament (MTT) with over 1,000 players. Very attractive to players as it brings in a significant prize pool.
Last Longer – A popular side bet amongst poker players, with the entirety of the pool given to the player who’s the last player remaining among players in the pool.
Late Position – Refers to the button, the cutoff, and sometimes the hijack. An advantageous position thanks to the high likelihood of being in position and having seen many opponents’ actions.
Late Registration – The period in the tournament where players can join the tournament or existing players can re-enter after the event has started.
Laydown – A term used to describe a difficult fold.
Lead / Lead Out – See Donk Betting.
Leak – A repeated flaw in a player’s game that results in long-term losses.
Limit Poker – A betting variant where the limits are fixed, which means players have a predetermined raise size.
Limp – When a player calls instead of raising in the initial betting round. Aside from playing from the small blind, limping is highly discouraged in Texas Hold’em.
Live Cards – Refers to cards that would improve a player’s hand if that card comes on later streets. For example, KQ is live against AJ but only the queen would be live against AK.
Lojack – The player sat three players to the right of the dealer button.
Loose – Describes a player who plays more hands than what’s game-theory optimal.
Lowball – A category of poker games, such as Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw, where the lowest hand wins.
Low Hand – In split-pot games, the lowest hand that qualifies with five unpaired cards of eight or lower also wins half the pot.
Low Stakes – In live cash games, low stakes would be considered any game below $5/$10 blinds. In online tournaments, low stakes is generally referred to buy-ins of $30 and below.
Luckbox – A term for a player that keeps winning, mostly thanks to winning as an underdog and receiving amazing cards.
M
Made Hand – A hand that should be strong enough to win, even if it doesn’t improve on later streets.
Main Pot – The primary pot the all-in player can win. For all others still involved in the hand, any extra wagers go into one or more side pots.
Mallards – A nickname for pocket twos, coined by poker commentator Brent Hanks.
Maniac – A very unpredictable player that plays extremely loose and aggressive poker. Generally a reckless strategy that either results in big wins or big losses.
Mark – A term for a weak or inexperienced player that can be easily taken advantage of. Experienced players will often want to go heads-up with these players in order to exploit the mark’s weak postflop play.
Mental Game – A term used to describe a poker player’s ability to maintain focus, control emotions, and make correct decisions over the entirety of a tournament.
Middle Pair – A pair made with the second-highest card on the flop. (ex. holding QT on KT3).
Middle Position – The position to the right of the lojack.
Mid-Stakes – Refers to live cash games from $5/$10 up to $10/$25. Online tournaments ranging from $30 to $200 are considered mid-stakes.
Misclick – An accidental action, such as raising or calling by mistake.
Misdeal – When a dealer error requires cards to be reshuffled and redeal.
Miss – When a player doesn’t catch the card they need to improve their hand.
Mississippi Straddle – A straddle made from the button.
Monotone Board – When all the existing community cards are of the same suit.
Monster – Generally refers to a very strong hand.
MTT – An abbreviation for “multi-table tournament.”
Muck – To fold a hand face down, mostly to prevent giving away information to opponents.
N
NLHE – An abbreviation for No Limit Texas Hold’em. NLH is also used.
Nit – A player who only plays strong hands and rarely ever bluffs.
No-Limit – A poker betting format where players are allowed to bet any amount of chips at anytime.
Nosebleed Stakes – Extremely high-stakes cash games, generally refers to games of $25/$50 or higher.
Nut Low – The worst possible hand on a given board.
Nuts – The best possible hand on a given board.
Nut Flush – The best possible flush, almost always referring to the best possible ace-high flush.
O
OESD – An abbreviation for open-ended straight draw, where a player has four cards of consecutive rank that can make a straight on either end (ex. QJ on T94 board).
Offsuit – Used to describe a starting hand that contains cards of two different suits instead of one.
Omaha – A poker variant similar to Texas Hold’em, Omaha poker players are dealt four holes cards instead of two. Unlike Hold’em, players must use exactly two hole cards and exactly three community cards.
OMC – An abbreviation for “Old Man Coffee” to describe older players with a tight, passive play style.
One Gapper – A starting hand that’s separated by one rank (ex. J9 or 75).
On the Button – Refers to the player in the dealer position, who is the last to act in post-flop betting rounds.
OOP – Abbreviation for “Out of Position”. A player is OOP when they must act before their opponent in a betting round, which puts them at a disadvantage.
Open-Raise – The first raise in the preflop betting round.
Option – During preflop action, when all players either limp or fold before it’s your turn to act, you have the option to check or raise.
Outs – The cards remaining in the deck that can improve a player’s hand to the winning hand.
Overbet – A bet in NLHE that is larger than the size of the pot.
Overlay – The difference when the prize pool is larger than the amount of money collected from buy-ins.
Overpair – A pocket pair that’s higher than any community card. (Ex. JJ on a 974 board)
Overs – Cards in a player’s hand that are higher than any community card. (Ex. AQ on a 852 board)
P
Paint – Refers to face cards (jacks, queens, and kings).
Pair – Two cards of the same rank.
The Pits – How poker players describe games on the casino floor.
Playing the Board – When your best possible five-card hand is the community cards. (Ex. 44 on a AA55K board).
Pocket Pair – Two hole cards of the same rank.
Pocket Rockets – Colloquial term for pocket aces.
Poker Room – A designated place where players play poker.
Polarized Range – When a player has either a super strong hand or a bluff.
Position – Refers to your place in the betting order.
Post – Putting up the blinds and antes before cards are dealt.
Postflop – The betting rounds after the first three community cards have been dealt.
Pot – The area where all the bets are collected. The amount of chips/money that can be won during a hand.
Pot Odds – The ratio of the current pot size vs. the price to make the call.
Preflop – The betting round before the community cards are dealt.
Probe Bet – A small-to-medium sized bet used to gather information from an opponent or to make them fold.
Prop Bets – Side bets poker players use to make a game more fun. See Last Longer for an example.
Prop Players – Players paid by the casino to start and maintain cash games, though these players play with their own money.
Protection – Betting when you believe you have the best hand but it can be beaten by several cards on later streets.
Q
Quads – A nickname for four-of-a-kind.
Qualify – To make a qualifying low in Hi-Lo games, you must have five unpaired cards ranked eight or lower.
R
Rabbit – Rabbit hunting is when you get to see the community cards on future streets after the hand has ended. Generally not allowed in casinos.
Rack – A tray that can hold five rows of 20 chips that’s used for transporting chips.
Rag – Colloquial term for a low kicker.
Rail – A group of people gathered to cheer on a specific poker player.
Rainbow – Refers to a board of all different suits.
Raise – When people bet more than the previous bet.
Rake – The percentage or the fee taken by a poker room for every tournament or cash game hand.
Rakeback – A reward system where online poker players get a percentage of their rake returned to them.
Range – The hands a player could have based on their actions.
Range Advantage – When one player naturally has many more made hands in their range than another. (Ex. On a AAKT board, the UTG player will have a huge range advantage over the big blind player).
Rank – The value of a playing card.
Razz – Razz is a Stud variant where the lowest five card hand wins.
Read – Using a combination of gathered information, body language, and opponents tendencies to make a tough decision on a hand.
Rebuy – Buying back into a tournament after being eliminated.
Redraw – When you have a strong hand but can improve to an even stronger one.
Re-Raise – Raising after another player has already raised.
Reverse Implied Odds – A concept where a card that could improve your hand could improve your opponent’s hand to an even stronger hand.
Ring Game – Another term for a cash game.
River – The fifth and final community card in games like Hold’em and Omaha.
RNG – Abbreviation used for Random Number Generator, which is used to ensure a fair game and random card distribution in online poker.
Rolled Up – When you’re dealt a three of a kind with your first three cards in Stud.
Rounders – A poker movie from 1998 starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. Considered the best poker movie of all time.
Royal Flush – The highest possible poker hand, which is AKQJT of the same suit.
Rundown – A term used in Omaha games to describe four hole cards of consecutive rank.
Running Bad / Running Good – Refers to a streak of winning or losing big hands in a session, generally referring to the luck factor.
Run It Twice – An option in cash games to deal the remaining community cards twice in order to reduce variance. Running it more is sometimes allowed.
Runner-Runner – When you hit both a turn and a river to complete an unlikely hand.
S
Sandwiched – When you’re second out of three players to act postflop, which limits control over the hand.
Satellite – A smaller tournament where you can win a seat to a larger tournament as a prize.
Scare Card – A card that may improve a player’s range that can be used to make an opponent fold, regardless of actual holdings.
Scoop – When you win the entire pot in a Hi-Lo game.
Semi-Bluff – A bluff made with a drawing hand that will almost certainly be the winner if it hits.
Set – Making a three of a kind with a pocket pair.
Set-Over-Set – A rare situation where two players both make sets during the same hand, which will often lead to an unavoidable huge pot.
Seven-Card Stud – A poker variant where people receive four upcards and three downcards in an attempt to make the best five-card hand.
Seventh Street – The final downcard in Stud variants.
Shills – See Prop Players.
Shootout – A poker tournament format where players must win a single-table tournament to advance to the next round.
Short Deck – Also known as 6+, Short Deck is a Hold’em game that’s played with the deuces, threes, fours, and fives removed from the deck.
Shorthanded – A table with far fewer than the maximum number of players.
Short Stack – Having a small amount of chips, generally 10 big blinds or less.
Shot-Taking – Entering a higher-stakes game or tournament than bankroll management generally allows for.
Shove – Going all in.
Showdown – When players reveal their cards to determine the winner after the final betting round.
Side Pot – A secondary pot created after a player goes in and multiple players remain in the hand.
SNG – Abbreviation for Sit and Go, which is a tournament that starts once a set number of players register.
Sizing – Refers to the size of a bet.
Slowplay – Playing a strong hand passively in an attempt to get as many chips from your opponent as possible.
Slowroll – Unnecessarily delaying a call with the best possible hand, a huge faux pas in poker.
Soft-Play – Passive play against another player due to either friendship or financial interest, which is highly unethical.
Solvers – Poker software players use to train themselves to learn game-theory optimal strategies.
Small Blind – The position to the left of the button that’s forced to make a mandatory bet before action takes place.
Smooth Call – Calling instead of raising with a strong hand.
Snap – To instantly make an action. (ex. Snap-call, snap-fold, snap-shove).
Snowmen – A nickname for pocket eights.
Solid Player – A player with sound fundamentals, generally excels at mid-stakes.
Splashing the Pot – An illegal act of tossing chips directly into the pot instead of putting the chips in front of you. This causes action to be severely delayed.
Split Pot – When multiple players share the pot.
Spread Limit – A betting structure that allows bets within a certain range, only used in places with strict gambling regulations.
Squeeze – A preflop re-raise after a raise and one or more calls.
SRP – An abbreviation for a single-raised pot.
Stab – A bet with a hand with little-to-no equity that’s made in an attempt to take down the pot after an opponent shows weakness.
Stack – The chips that an opponent has.
Staking – See backing.
Stand Pat – Declining any further cards in a draw game.
Starting Stack – The amount of chips you receive when you enter a tournament.
Steel Wheel – An ace-to-high straight flush.
Stone-Cold Nuts – A playful, exaggerated term for the nuts.
Straddle – A voluntary blind bet made before the cards are dealt in a cash game, usually by the under the gun player. This becomes a third blind bet and is done to raise the stakes and increase the variance by reducing the amount of big blinds in everyone’s stacks.
Street – A term used to describe a betting round in poker.
STP – An abbreviation for stack-to-pot ratio, the ratio between the effective stack size and the size of the pot.
Straight – Five consecutive cards of any suit.
Straight Flush – Five consecutive cards of the same suit, which cannot be beaten except by a Royal Flush or a larger straight flush.
Street Poker – A play style that deviates from GTO strategy which relies more on feel and experience than mathematics.
String Bet – An illegal action where a player places a bet by making multiple movements or gestures instead of one smooth motion.
Structure – Refers to the specific rules of a poker tournament.
Stuck – A term used to describe when a player has been losing money in a cash game.
Stud – A poker variant where players are dealt a combination of upcards and downcards.
Suck Out – When a player wins despite being a significant underdog.
Suit – Refers to spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts.
Suited – Describes two hole cards of the same suit.
T
TAG – A player that’s generally nitty but plays extremely aggressively when they’re involved in a hand. Rarely bluffs.
Tank – Refers to a player taking a long time to make a decision.
Tell – A physical cue or behavior by a person that may accidentally reveal information about a hand.
Texture – The nature of the community cards in Hold’em or Omaha. Usually referred to as dry (uncoordinated) or wet (coordinated).
Three-of-a-kind – A hand consisting of three cards of the same rank
Tilt – When a player makes poor decisions immediately after losing a large pot, which generally causes a snowball effect.
Time Bank – A feature in poker tournaments where players only have a limited amount of extra time to make decisions after a predetermined allocation of free time.
Tournament – A competitive poker event with a fixed buy-in where players are awarded places based on surviving longer than others. Poker tournaments require far more skill and volume than cash games to be profitable in the long-run.
Trapping – See slowplay.
Trey – A slang term for a three.
Trips – Making a three-of-a-kind with one hole card and two cards from the board.
Turn – The fourth community card in Hold’em and Omaha.
Two Pair – A hand that consists of two separate pairs.
Two-Tone Board – When the board contains just two suits.
U
Underdog – A hand that has a lower probability of winning than their opponent’s.
Upcard – A card dealt face-up in Stud variants.
Upswing – A period of time where a player is consistently winning.
UTG – Abbreviation for Under the Gun, the position to the immediate left of the big blind. The first person to act preflop.
V
Value Bet – A bet made with a hand that’s likely to be the best in an attempt to get called by worse.
Variance – A measure of how much a player’s actual results differ from expected results.
Variant – A specific form of poker, such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or 2-7 Triple Draw.
Villain – A common term used for an opponent in the hand.
Volume – The quantity of poker games or tournaments played over a certain time period.
VPIP – Abbreviation for Voluntarily Put in Pop. A statistic that measures the percentage of hands a player voluntarily enters by calling or raising, which will indicate if a player is tight or loose.
Vulnerable Hand – A winning hand that can easily be beaten on later streets.
W
Whale – A recreational player with a lot of money that will enter high-stakes poker tournaments and/or cash games. Often a mark at these tables.
Wet Board – A board with a lot of potential drawing hands, extremely connected.
Wheel – An ace-to-five straight.
Whiff – To completely miss your hand or draw.
Wild – A card that can represent any value in the deck. See joker.
Wrap – In Omaha, a very large straight draw that could contain up to 20 outs.
WSOP – The World Series of Poker, the largest and most prestigious poker tournament series in the world held annually in Las Vegas.
WPT – World Poker Tour, a high-profile poker tournament series that has been televised for over two decades.