Glossary

As with any hobby, sport, or activity, gambling has its own jargon and slang that gamblers may use casually in conversation. With so many terms and phrases that exist to describe the behaviour of gamblers, everyone could benefit from making use of a glossary when unsure.

There are lots of casino-related terms and phrases that you may not be familiar with if you are not an experienced casino player. It’s fairly obvious what some of them mean, but some can cause some confusion. Although we wouldn’t say it’s essential that you understand all of them in order to enjoy playing casino games, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

If you’re something of a beginner and planning to visit a casino or looking to start playing online, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look through this page. We’ve listed several of the most commonly used words and phrases in the casino and explained precisely what they mean.

Having knowledge of gambling terminology enables you to communicate with other gamblers at their level and understand what they’re talking about. Or, if you know someone who may have an addiction to gambling, it’ll help you understand why they might act and speak a certain way.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

A-Game: In Elements of Poker, author Tommy Angelo defines “A-Game” as “when you play your best and feel your best at the same time.” Often used to refer to players making decisions and performing at the highest level, either with reference to their own capabilities (i.e., the best one can possibly play) or in a broader sense (i.e., the best anyone can possibly play). E.g., “I was playing my A-Game, but the cards just didn’t cooperate.”
ABC Poker: A “by the book”-style of poker that is straightforward and avoids fancy play. In some games such a style can be effective, although an “ABC player” can sometimes run a risk becoming predictable and be taken advantage of by experienced players who pick up on that player’s straightforward play.
Able: An archaic term once used to refer to the player immediately to the left of the dealer who acts first in games with fixed-limit betting.
According to Hoyle: A phrase used to emphasize the proper rules of a game, as in “We played without wild cards or other non-standard variations — it was all strictly according to Hoyle.” Named for Edmond Hoyle who authored numerous books about card games in the 18th century, with his name oft-used afterwards in titles of later books of card game rules. Even though poker was not invented until well after Hoyle’s death in 1769 (in the early 19th century), he was nonetheless inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame as a recognition of his status as a card game authority.
Ace: Both the highest and lowest ranking card in most poker variants, the A ranks higher than a K and lower than a 2.
Ace in the Hole: An ace dealt face-down to a player and thus concealed from others; e.g., having an A as one’s down card in five-card stud. Also used figuratively to refer to any hidden advantage.
Ace Out: A verb referring to winning a hand with just “ace-high,” usually after bluffing.
Ace Up the Sleeve: A literal reference to the act of cheating by concealing an A inside one’s sleeve with the intention of reintroducing it later at an opportune moment. The phrase can refer more broadly to any form of cheating as well as to a legitimate, hidden advantage.
Ace-High: A hand in which the highest ranking card is an ace with no pair or higher valued combination of cards possible. For example, in hold’em if a player’s hole cards are A-Spades, 10-Diamonds and the board comes 9-Spades, 8-Clubs, K-Hearts, 4-Diamonds, 2-Clubs that player’s hand is “ace-high” (A-Spades, K-Hearts, 9-Spades, 8-Clubs, 4-Diamonds).
Ace-to-Five: A lowball variant in which straights and flushes have no value and the best possible hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 (a hand often referred to as a “wheel”).
Acepots: A form of high draw poker in which a player cannot open the pot without holding at least a pair of aces.
Aces and Spaces: A five-card hand consisting of two aces and three other worthless cards.
Aces Full: A full house with three aces and any pair.
Aces Over: A phrase referring either to (1) a two-pair hand with one pair being aces or (2) a full house containing three aces and any other pair (i.e., “aces full”).
Aces Up: A hand containing two pair, with one pair being aces.
Acey-Deucey: A phrase with a few possible meanings, one being a reference to a two-pair hand in which one pair is aces and the other deuces. “Acey-deucey” is also sometimes used as a slang term referring to the hold’em hand of A, 2. There is also a non-poker card game called “Acey-Deucey” which involves players betting on whether or not the rank of a third dealt card will fall between two others already dealt, a game also known as “Red Dog.”
Acey-Uppy: A synonym of “aces up” (i.e., a hand containing two pair, with one pair being aces).
Act: An action such as a check, fold, call, or raise. An “act” can also refer to performance of an intentional tell intended to give false information about a hand.
Action: A check, fold, call, or raise. Also, a game in which there is a lot of betting and raising might be described as an “action” game.
Action Button: A bet that must be posted by the winner of a scoop pot above a certain size in a seven-card stud high-low game. The bet signifies a full bet (i.e., a blind raise), rather than just a call of the original forced bet (i.e., the bring-in). Any player who acts before the action button can only call the bring-in. The holder of the action button essentially raises blind, and then, when it gets back to those who have only so far called the opening bet, they can either call or raise. “Action buttons” can also refer to clickable buttons or boxes in online poker able to be selected in advance of a player’s turn.
Action Only: In many card rooms, with respect to an all-in bet, only a full bet is considered a legitimate wager constituting a raise that can be reraised. In other words, anything less than a full bet is considered “action only,” meaning other players can call such a bet but not raise it. For example, Chloe bets $10 and Henry calls, then John goes all in for $14. When the bet gets back to Chloe, she is permitted only to call the extra $4, and the same goes for John.
Active Player: Any player who is still in the hand.
Add-on: A purchase of more chips (optional) at the end of the rebuy period in a tournament.
Advantage: A synonym for “edge” that can refer to a player being better-skilled, holding a stronger hand, or having an favorable position. See also “advantage player.”
Advantage Player: A term that can be used generically to refer to any player seeking an advantage in a game. More specifically, the term is often used with reference to players of casino games who seek flaws or errors in the games in order to gain an edge.
Advantage Tool: Any device or method employed to cheat such as a marked card or a mechanical device for hiding one or more cards (e.g., a holdout machine).
Advertise: To make a bluff with the deliberate intention of being exposed as a loose player. Advertising usually means showing down a mediocre hand in order to give the impression that you play overly loose or that you play a generally weak game. The idea is that other players will then give you more action when you make a legitimate hand. Since people are bad at revising first impressions, this potentially beneficial effect can be long-lasting. Advertising can also mean anything you do at the poker table to manipulate how other players assess you.
After-Hours Game: A private game played in a casino or card room after it has closed for the night.
Age: An archaic term referring to the player immediately to the left of the dealer. Also known as “able,” “edge,” or “eldest hand.”
Agent: A generic term referring to someone colluding with one or more cheaters. An “agent” might partner with other players in a cheating scheme, or with casino dealers and employees in an effort to cheat. An “agent” might also be the person luring another player into a crooked game where that player will be cheated.
Aggressive: A playing style marked by a tendency to bet or raise more often than to check or call (as someone playing a “passive” style might do). Not to be confused with a “loose” style which involves playing a higher frequency of hands, relatively speaking. That is to say, a player can be “loose-agressive” (playing lots of hands and betting/raising frequently) or “tight-aggressive” (playing fewer hands but also betting/raising frequently).
Ahead: Winning, or enjoying a profit during a session (e.g., “I should have quit while I was ahead.”) Can also refer to a player’s relative position at the table. If the deal is one position to your right, you are ahead of the deal. If a player is sitting to your right, he acts ahead of you.
Ainsworth: A slang term for the starting hand of 6, 2 in hold’em. Said to be named after a British poker player named Ron Ainsworth who won a tournament holding six-deuce.
Air: Generally refers to a “nothing” hand or a hand with zero value, as in “I bluffed him with total air and won.” The term also is used sometimes in lowball drawing games (e.g., deuce-to-seven triple draw) when letting an opponent know on a given betting round one’s intentions on the next draw, wherein “giving air” means indicating an intention to draw cards in order to get an opponent to stay in a hand. “He was going to fold, but I was giving air that I would be drawing two and so he called.”
Ajax: A slang term for the starting hand of A, J in hold’em.
Alabama Night Riders: A slang term for a poker hand containing three kings.
Alcohol: An announcement by a player that he will pay the minimum necessary to continue in the hand. (The origin may be the similar sound of the word to “I’ll call.”)
Alexander: A slang term for the king of clubs (K-Clubs), likely a reference to Alexander the Great. In early decks of cards the king of each suit was associated with kings from different civilizations, as follows: King of Spades (K-Spades) — David, King of Hearts (K-Hearts) — Charlemagne, King of Diamonds (K-Diamonds) — Julius Caesar, King of Clubs (K-Clubs) — Alexander the Great
All Black: Having a flush consisting of spades or clubs. (Also, “all blue” or “all purple.”)
All Blue: Having a flush consisting of spades or clubs. (Also, “all black” or “all purple.”)
All Green: Having a flush, usually one consisting of all spades or clubs.
All In: A bet in which a player commits his entire stack. As in “I’m going all in,” or “he made an all-in bet.”
All In Over the Top: A raise in which a player commits his entire stack following an opponent’s bet. As in, “I finally picked up pocket kings in the small blind, and after the button raised I shoved all in over the top.”
All Pink: Having a flush consisting of hearts or diamonds. (Also, “all red.”)
All Purple: Having a flush consisting of spades or clubs. (Also, “all black” or “all blue.”)
All Red: Having a flush consisting of hearts or diamonds. (Also, “all pink.”)
All the Way: A bet in which a player commits his entire stack, as in “I’m going all the way.”
All the Way in One Play: An extended version of “all the way” announcing a bet in which a player commits his entire stack, as in “I’m going all the way in one play.”
Alone Player: A card cheat who works with no accomplices.
AMC: An abbreviation of the exclamation “All my chips,” made to accompany an all-in bet.
American Airlines: A slang term for the starting hand of A, A in hold’em.
Ammo: A synonym for chips.
Ammunition: A synonym for chips.
An Ace Working: A reference to having an ace in one’s hand.
Anaconda: A stud variant sometimes called “Pass the Trash” or “Screwy Louie” involving players being able to pass cards dealt to them to their opponents.
Angle: An action that isn’t against the rules, but still incorporates unfair tactics. Such a maneuver is usually on the border between legality and illegality, though is clearly unethical and performed to take unfair advantage of another player. Angle is short for Angle Shooting. The Tournament Director Association (TDA) has formed many new rules in recent year to combat specific angles. Especially the verbal declaration rule that was misused by many angle shooters (players performing an angle) has been made more specific. An angle isn’t illegal, but many tournament directors take a stance when they suspect a player is trying to pull an angle on another player at the table. Often, the first time a player is given a warning. More severe penalties are introduced when the same or other angles occur by the same player. For some examples of “angles” or “angle shooting,” see “Seven Dirty Poker Tricks (and How to Fight Back).”
Angle Shooting: The act of using various underhanded, unfair methods to take advantage of inexperienced opponents. The difference between an “angle shooter” and a “cheater” is only a matter of degree. What a cheat or thief does is patently against the rules; what an angle shooter does may be marginally legal, but it’s neither ethical nor gentlemanly. Nor is it in the spirit of the game. A common tactic of someone angle shooting is, to bank on the misinterpretation of actions by other players at the table. Some well-known angle shoots have now been banned. While there weren’t rules against them at first, the tournament organizers have now come up with rules specifically banning them.
Anna Kournikova: A slang term for the starting hand of A, K in hold’em, named for the former professional tennis player and model (a cynical reference to the hand looking better than it plays).
Announce: In split-pot games, declaring one’s hand as “high” or “low” or “both ways” (usually done with chips in hand).
Announced Bet: A verbal declaration by a player, made in turn in a no-limit or spread game, of the amount of his bet, or, in other games, that he is betting. In games in which announced bets are permitted, they are usually binding (when made in turn).
Ante: 1) Money placed in the pot before the hand is begun. 2) The player to the left of the dealer, usually in an ante and straddle game. Usage: An ante is not part of a player’s next bet, as opposed to a blind, which usually is. All of the antes in a particular pot, taken as a whole; usually preceded by the. “Nobody else had openers when I had aces full, and all I won was the ante.” Put an ante into a pot. “Someone’s light in this pot; did you ante, Andy?”
Ante and Straddle: A game in which the player to the left of the dealer (the ante) puts in (usually) one chip before getting any cards, and the player to his left (the straddle) puts in two chips. (Sometimes the dealer also puts in one chip.) The first player to have a choice on making a bet after having seen his cards is the player two positions to the left of the dealer. This is an old name for what is now called a two-blind traveling blind game. This is similar to a blind and straddle game. Also see little blind, middle blind, big blind.
Ante Bean: An ante, or a chip used to ante.
Ante Up: Put one’s ante in the pot.
Apologizer: Same as apology card. Usage: Like in sentence “There it is, the Apologizer.”
Apology Card: In lowball, the appearance in the current hand of the card that would have made one’s hand the previous hand. For example, a player draws to A-2-3-4 and catches a four. Next hand, he looks at the first card he receives from the dealer. It’s a five, which he turns face up for the whole table to admire (presumably because some of them may never have seen a five before), while saying, “There it is, the apology card.”
Apple: Big game, often the biggest game in a particular club. Usage: Like in sencence “I lost $1000 in the apple today.” Also, term “big apple” can be used to emphasize the event.
Argine: The queen of clubs. May be an anagram of Regina (queen in Latin), or a corruption of Argea.
Arkansas Flush: Four-card flush. Usage: This is a name of flush which was succesfully used by some player and historically called Arkansas Flush by the name of one of the USA states Arkansas.
Around-the-Corner Straigh: In high draw poker, a special straight, a nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards in a series in which the sequence of cards is considered to continue from king through ace, as, for example, J-Q-K-A-2. Sometimes the hand ranks between three of a kind and a “normal” straight; sometimes it ranks between a “normal” straight and a flush.
Artist: A cheat who manipulates the deck. One who unfairly manipulates the cards, such as a cheat who deals cards from the bottom instead of from the top of the deck (where they should come from), or from the middle, or deals the second card from the top, or who falsely shuffles the cards so as to arrange them in a manner he has predetermined, or who palms cards, or uses any other of scores of cheating methods involving card manipulation or sleight of hand. Synonym – Mechanic.
As Nas: An ancient Persian game that some say is an ancestor of poker. Usage: It seems to have originated from a 16th century Persian card game known as As Nas. This game was played with 25 cards with 5 different suits. The game played in a similar fashion to modern 5 card stud and possessed similar poker hands rankings, such as three-of-a-kind. When Europeans began to play the game, they called it “poque” or “pochen.” While poker’s origins may lie in Europe and Persia, it truly developed in the United States
Asian Five-Card Stud: A California game, a form of five-card stud played with a stripped deck. Usage: Asian Five Card Stud Poker is a five card poker game played with a single deck of standard playing cards which has the 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s and 6’s removed, leaving 32 cards. Each Player attempts to achieve the best five-card poker hand using the cards dealt to him or her. Each Player competes against all other Players in the game.
Asian Games: The former name for California games. The term is still sometimes used in casinos and card-rooms. Se “California games”.
Asian Stud: A California game, a form of five-card stud played with a stripped deck.
Assault Rifle: In Omaha, hole cards that are A-K-4-7 of any suit(s) Usage: This is a name of card combinations which was succesfully used by some player and historically called Assault Rifle. Abbreviated signing of this term is KA-K-4-7.
Assigned Bettor: The player who is first to bet in a particular round. Usage: Used as in sentence “Any player other than the assigned bettor should pass such a hand immediately”.
Athos: Ace and 10 in one’s hand in Texas Hold’em. (10-T) A-T.
Auto Ante: This option determines if you have to manually ante on each new hand. Generally it is easier to let the computer ante for you, but it is more realistic to ante up yourself.
Automatic: Being in a must-bet situation.
Automatic Bet: A bet, often a bluff, made, regardless of one’s cards, in a situation in which the bet usually wins. For example, in a lowball game, if one player drew four cards and passes after the draw, and the next player drew one, the latter almost always makes an automatic bet, because most of the time that player has the best hand and the few times that he doesn’t, the drawer of four cards doesn’t call anyway.
Automatic Bluff: A bet, often a bluff, made, regardless of one’s cards, in a situation in which the bet usually wins. For example, in a lowball game, if one player drew four cards and passes after the draw, and the next player drew one, the latter almost always makes an automatic bet, because most of the time that player has the best hand and the few times that he doesn’t, the drawer of four cards doesn’t call anyway.
Ax: The percentage of a pot kept by the management to pay expenses; usually called drop. Term used to describe a hand containing an Ace and any other card. Usage: When a game operator extracts a cut (charge) from a Poker pot, a player may say, “There goes the ax.” Also like in sentence “Mike put John on an Ax hand after his pre-flop raise”

B

B&M: Abreviated from “Brick and mortar”. A cardroom having a real physical location, with live players, as opposed to an online. Usage: Used to describe play, cardroom, casino, for example B&M casino means land based casino, but not casino online.
Baby: Any of the four non-aces needed for the lowest possible hand (2,3,4,5). Usage: Like in sentence “I’ll limp preflop with Ace-baby suited multiway if I’m sure there won’t be a raise behind me.” Or “I need a baby card.”
Back Into a Hand: To draw cards that make a hand that is different from the hand you were originally trying to make. Usage: You back into a hand when you are intentionally in the pot to make a different hand than the one you ended up with. For example, if you flop a straight and up with a flush, you would say “I backed into a flush.”
Back-raise: A reraise from a player who originally called.
Back-shove: An all-in reraise after a player originally called (an example of a “back-raise”).
Back-to-back: A holding of a pair in five-card stud (when the pair was formed with the first two cards dealt, one in the hole, and the other as the first upcard). Can be referred to as “wired”. Usage: Also used without dashes like Back to back. Like in sentence “Johnny Chan won back to back in 1987 and 1988”.
Backdoor: In hold’em or Omaha, completing a hand using both the turn and river cards, as in a “backdoor flush” or “backdoor straight.” Also sometimes used more broadly to refer to making any hand not originally intended (e.g., a player drawing to a straight backdoors two pair on the river).
Backdoor Flush: In hold’em or Omaha, a flush that is completed using both the turn and river cards. For example, if a player has A-Hearts, 8-Hearts and the flop only brings one heart, that player needs both the turn and river to bring hearts in order to complete a “backdoor flush.” See also “Runner-Runner.”
Backdoor Straight: In hold’em or Omaha, a straight that is completed using both the turn and river cards. For example, if a player has 10-Clubs, 8-Hearts and the flop comes A-Clubs, K-Clubs, 9-Spades, then the river is the 6-Spades and river the 7-Hearts to complete a backdoor straight. See also “Runner-Runner.”
Backer: A nonplayer who finances an active player. Usage: Like in sentece “How you gonna get into the tournament? I thought you were broke.” “I have a backer.”
Backraise: A re-raise from a player who originally called. Usage: Usually permitted only in home games, in which the rule that a raise must equal in size the previous bet or raise does not hold. Like in sentence “An oft-used ploy by many players is to backraise with small pairs.”
Bad Beat: When a hand is beaten by a lucky draw. Usage: Like in sentence “I suffered one bad beat after another on my first Vegas trip.”
Bad Beat Jackpot: A bad beat jackpot is offered by a poker room when a very good hand loses to an even better one.
Balanced Style: A style of play that avoids potentially exploitable patterns by performing different actions in similar situations. For example, a player who always makes a pot-sized bet with a strong hand becomes very predictable to attentive opponents, but by “balancing” his style with a variety of actions in the same situation (e.g., checking, betting small, betting half the pot, betting the whole pot), the player becomes more difficult to read.
Bankroll: The amount of money a player has specifically set aside for playing poker. Can also be used as a verb, as in “He offered to bankroll me to play in the tournament.”
Barbara Hutton: Nickname for the hand 10, 5. Names after the dime-store heiress (i.e. the “five and dime”).
Barn: Short for a Full Barn which is slang for a Full House. Usage: Like in sentence “Between two barns, the one with the higher ranking set of trips wins”. Used very rarely.
Barrel: A reference to a bet, usually used in the context of a hold’em or Omaha player making successive bets on postflop streets. E.g., “He fired three barrels on the flop, turn, and river, and his opponent kept calling.” Also used as a verb, as in “He barreled three times with air.”
Baskin Robbins: Nickname for 3, A. Symbolizing the chain’s “31 Flavors” of ice cream.
Battle of the Blinds: When everyone folds to the players who have forced bets. Usage: Like in sentence “I don’t think you can get in a habit of folding AQ in a battle of the blinds against a loose aggressive opponent.”
Bay and a Gray: A $6 bet made with a red $5 chip and a white $1 chip, named after the color of horses. Usage: Such a bet would be made in a $3-$6 limit game. Bay comes from horseracing, where it is a reddish brown horse with black markings; red casino chips often have black markings on their edges.
Beat the Board: Or Beat the Table. To have a hand better than all others showing. Usage: Like in sentence “Your friend would actually win though because his 6d beats the board and you can’t beat the board.”
Behind: 1) Losing. 2) With regard to a reference position at the table, acting after (usually immediately after). If the deal is one position to your left, you are behind the deal. If a player is sitting to your left, he acts behind you.
Behind a Log: 1) Describing a situation in which a player is far ahead of a game and thus playing only premium hands. 2) (of a poker player) playing conservatively because he is winning and wants to protect his gains. Usage: Like in sentence “He was playing behind a log.”
Belly Buster: A draw to an inside straight.
Bet: To place chips into the pot. Usage: Saying “It’s three bets up to you” means, if you come into the pot, you have to put in three betting units.” If you were in a $2-limit game, you would have to put $6 in the pot to play (or $8-four bets-if you raised); If you were in a $200-limit game, you would have to put $600 in the pot to play.
Bet Blind: Make a bet without looking at one’s cards. Usage: This occurs most frequently in lowball, in which a player draws one or more cards and, on the second round of betting, bets before receiving the card or cards. This is done usually for the purpose of stimulating action, but sometimes to discourage an opponent from raising. Sometimes players claim to bet blind but have actually seen their draw card or cards; doing this is considered bad form, and gives the claimant a bad reputation. The term is also heard in seven-card stud, with a player betting before receiving the river card, or in hold’em before the river card is dealt.
Bet for Value: Bet a hand with the intention of getting called by one or more lesser hands, as opposed to getting the others to fold. Usually implies betting a hand that has only a slight edge, and one that a conservative player would likely check with. Also value bet.
Bet in the Dark: To announce a bet on the next betting round before the card(s) for that round get dealt. The player announcing such a bet “in the dark” must be first to act on the coming round, and the announced bet is binding regardless of the card(s) dealt. For example, in hold’em a player raises and another calls in position, then before the flop appears the preflop raiser says “I bet $100 in the dark,” meaning whatever cards come out, flop action begins with that $100 bet.
Bet Into: To wrest the initiative from a player who bet strongly the previous round, by betting instead of checking. Usage: As in: “I bet into him and he folded.”
Bet Odds: The odds you get as a result of evaluating the number of callers to a raise. Usage: Like in sentence “With a 1 in 5 chance of hitting it, and knowing all six of these guys are gonna call my bet, my bet odds are good too.”
Bet the Limit: To bet the maximum amount allowed. Usage: Like in sentence “Next time you see those light posts on slot machines, just think of craps – and how to bet the limit!”
Bet the Pot: To bet an amount of chips approximately equal to the amount of chips in the pot. Usage: In Pot Limit games, this is the maximum bet; however, the pot size in Pot-Limit games is calculated in an unintuitive way: all the money in the pot, plus (if you have been raised) the amount you would bet if you reraised. Also known as Pot-Sized Bet.
Betting Stakes: The dollar limits of all bets and raises permitted. Usage: Like in sentences: “Monthly betting stakes up 53%, averaged £2.5 million per month, in comparison to comparative period for the acquired businesses in 2000.” Or “Most games can withstand a tenfold to hundred fold increase in the betting stakes.
Bicycle or Bike: 1) The lowest possible holding (5,4,3,2,1) in lowball and high-low poker. 2) Ubiquitous design on the back of cards in the USA, produced at the rate of 30,000 a day by the US Playing Card Company; hence “The Bicycle Club” in Bell Gardens, near Los Angeles, California. Usage: Like in sentence “The turn gave me a bicycle, and I still had the nut flush draw.”
Big Blind: A designated amount that is placed by the player sitting in the second position, clockwise from the dealer, before any cards are dealt. (Players joining a game in progress must post a Big Blind, but may do so from any position.) In World Poker Tour (tournament play) this amount increases after each timed round.
Big Blind Ante: In the later levels of poker tournaments, an ante is introduced to further drive the action besides the incentive to enter the pot formed by the small blind and big blind. Typically, the ante is paid by every player at the table. A lot of poker players and poker tournament organizers believe this slows down the game, especially when players argue over who has, and who hasn’t paid their ante. In tournaments operating a big blind ante, as the WSOP just announced for their high roller events, the player in the big blind pays the ante for everyone at the table. As the big blind moves every hand so does the responsibility to pay the ante. Usage: Daniel Negreanu was the big blind in the hand, so he paid the big blind ante.
Big Bobtail: An open-ended 4-card straight flush. Usage: A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, four cards to a straight flush. The hand ranks just below four of a kind. If the fifth card makes a pair, the hand beats any unpaired bobtail.
Big Dog: An underdog. The person who has a very low chance of winning. Usage: A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 9 to ace with no pair, which ranks below a little tiger and above a little dog.
Big Pair: A Pair with a value of 10 or greater. Usage: Like in sentence “On top of the potential to make a flush, you may make that big pair.” Or “With high cards like A-Q or a big pair like Q-Q, you can create a shorthanded raised pot by raising yourself.”
Big Slick: A nickname for A, K, which was originally called “Santa Barbara” from the destructive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara. It eventually transformed into “Big Slick.”
Big Tiger: A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 8 to king with no pair, which ranks above a tiger and just below a flush. Usage: Also called big cat.
Blank: Often used to refer to a community card in hold’em or Omaha that does not appear to affect the relative strength of players’ hands. For example, if the flop comes A-Spades, K-Diamonds, 8-Diamonds and the turn the 9-Spades, the 2-Hearts on the river will be described as a “blank” as it completes no draws and players remaining in the hand aren’t likely to be helped by the deuce.
Blaze: 1) A hand consisting of five face cards. It has no ranking in cardroom poker, though sometimes does in private games. The term is often used by lowball players to embellish their hard-luck stories. 2) A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, consisting of five face cards, ranking between two pair and three of a kind. Usage: Like in sentence “That guy just got his second bicycle, and what’d I get? Another blaze.”
Bleed: Win a lot of money a little at a time, from either a game or a particular player. Usage: Like in sentence “I won that large pot with my kings, but then I bled it all off over the next hour.”
Blind: The bet(s) that must be made by the two players sitting directly to the dealer’s left which will start the action on the first round of betting. The blinds are posted before any cards are dealt. (A “Blind” bet is one that is made in the dark without looking at your cards.)
Blind Bet: To bet before looking at one’s hand. Usage: The same meaning as Bet Blind
Blind Defense: Calling or reraising an opponent’s preflop raise when playing from either the small or big blind. Instead of folding and giving up either the small or big blind, a player “defends” that forced bet with the call or raise.
Blind Raise: A game or situation in which the player to the left of the dealer (the blind) puts in (usually) one chip before getting any cards and the next player puts in two chips. This is a forced raise.
Blind Robber: Someone who steals the blind (usually from the middle blind position to win the big blind, or the dealer position to win both blinds), that is, opens a pot without having good cards, hoping the blind will just throw his cards away and the opener can win the chips represented by the blind or blinds without having to actually play the hand. See steal the blinds.
Blind Steal: An opening raise before the flop, usually from late position and often with a weak hand, the purpose of which is primarily to win the blinds (and antes, if there are any) without having to proceed further in the hand.
Blistering: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device. Usage: Also see Peg
Blocker: Usually used to refer to a player holding a card that represents one of an opponent’s “outs.” For example, in hold’em if Player A has 10-Clubs, 10-Diamonds and the flop comes Q-Spades, J-Clubs, 9-Hearts, the likelihood that Player B has a straight is reduced because Player A has two “blockers” (i.e., two of the four tens in the deck). The concept often applies in Omaha because of the many draws that can arise in that game. Blockers are also frequently considered in lowball games like deuce-to-seven triple draw; e.g., a player dealt two deuces (very valuable cards in 2-7) has a couple of “blockers” to his opponents getting deuces.
Blocking Bet: A postflop bet — usually a small one — made from out of position usually designed to prevent or “block” an opponent from making a bigger bet.
Blow Back: To lose all the (or most) of the money you have won. Usage: Like in sentence “If he keeps playing, he may blow back a good piece of the winner.”
Bluff: To make other players believe that one has a better hand than one might otherwise have by betting or raising when one does not have the best hand.
Bluff Catcher: A hand that can only win by calling a player who has bluffed. Usually refers to a weak hand (e.g., a small pair or ace-high) that cannot be bet for value but which is enough to win versus an opponent betting with air.
Boardcards: The cards that are dealt face-up in a poker game for all players to see. In flop games, five cards are dealt face-up in the center of the table. In Seven Card Stud, four cards are dealt face-up in front of each player.
Boat: Any three cards of the same number or face value, plus any other two cards of the same number or face value. A full house.
Bobtail Straight: 1) Same as an Open End Straight. Four cards to a straight in denomination sequence. 2)A nonstandard hand, four cards to a straight, that ranks higher than one pair and lower than a four-card flush. Usage: Like in sentence “If you have a bobtail straight, such as 8-7-6-5, the odds are 39-to-8 or almost 5-to-1 against filling it, for there are only eight cards that will help you (in this case, the four nines and the four fours).”
Boss: Strongest hand at a stage in the betting.
Bottom Pair: When a player uses the lowest card on the flop to make a pair with one of his own cards. Usage: If you have As-6s, and the flop comes Kd-Th-6c, you have flopped bottom pair.
Boxed Card: A card turned the wrong way in a deck. A card encountered face-up in the assembled deck during the deal, as opposed to one overturned in the act of dealing. Most house rules treat a boxed card as if it didn’t exist; that is, it is placed aside and not used. Different rules cover cards exposed during the deal.
Brick: A card that fails to improve a hand, usually used with negative connotations expressing disappointment. For example, “I had both flush and straight draws and a ton of outs, but the turn and river were both bricks and I was knocked out.”
Brick-and-Mortar: In the context of poker, a reference to a poker room in a casino or other physical structure. The phrase is usually used to refer to “live” poker as opposed to online poker.
Bring It In: To start the betting on the first round. Usage: To bring it in is to make the first bet on the first round of a hand. In seven-card stud, the bring-in is a mandatory bet made by the player with the lowest upcard in the first round of betting.
Bring-In: The forced bet made on the first round of betting by the player who is dealt the lowest card showing in Seven Card Stud and Stud 8 or Better. In Razz (Lowball) it is the highest card showing
Broadway: 1. An ace-high straight, e.g., 10-Hearts, J-Diamonds, Q-Spades, K-Clubs, A-Hearts. It’s the best straight possible, but it’s not always the best hand possible since flushes, full houses, quads, straight flushes, and royal flushes still beat a Broadway straight. 2. An adjective referring to cards ranked 10 through A Thus, a “Broadway hand” would be one containing any two Broadway cards, such as K-Spades, J-Diamonds.The Broadway term to indicate high cards and the highest possible straight comes from the famous Broadway in Manhattan, New York. The reference alludes to the length and popularity of the New York street with its high-end buildings and many famous theaters.
Broderick Crawford: Nickname for 10, 4 because of actor Broderick Crawford to say “ten-four” during the 1950s television show Highway Patrol.
Broomcorn’s Uncle: A player who antes himself broke. Usage: Like in sentence “I’ll take him out like broomcorn’s uncle if i have to.” Or “the sixth seat busts like broomcorn’s uncle, and Tony takes his place.”
Brush: An employee of a poker room charged with helping players with seating, buying chips, managing player lists, and/or other tasks
Bubble: A term with several applications, all having to do with the period just before the money is reached in a tournament. The period itself — when just one or a few players need to be eliminated before reaching the cash — is referred to as the “bubble” period. The last player eliminated before the money is said either to “be the bubble” or to have “bubbled” the event.
Bubbled: To be the eliminated in a tournament in the final place before the rpize-money. Usage: As in “They paid nine places and I was bubbled in tenth.”
Buck: The original “Button” (q.v.) was a clasp knife with a buckhorn handle; hence “The buck stops here”.
Bug: In some variants of poker, the bug is a restricted wild card, which can either represent an ace or fill a gap in a straight or flush
Bull The Game: To bluff frequently. Usage: Like in sentence “He’s always trying to bull the game”.
Bullets: A pair of Aces.
Bump: To raise.
Buried Pair: In stud games, a pair in the hole.
Burn: To discard the top card of the deck prior to dealing.
Burn Card: A card dealt face down prior to dealing the round of cards.
Bury Card: A card taken from the top of the deck and placed in the middle.
Bust: A worthless hand that has failed to improve as the player hoped; a busted hand.
Bust a Player: To eliminate a player from the game by taking all of his or her chips.
Bust Out: To lose all your chips and thus be eliminated from a tournament.
Busted Hand: 1) A worthless hand (Bust). 2) A hand that failed to fill a straight or a flush on the draw.
Button: Also known as the dealer button, it is a small round disk that is moved from player to player in a clockwise direction following each hand, to theoretically indicate the dealer of each hand.
Buy: To make a large bet in the hope of discouraging other players. Usage: As in “He tried to buy the pot”.
Buy-In: The minimum amount of money required by a player to sit down in a particular poker game. Usage: The buy in is the entry fee for any particular table or tournament.
Buy-in Limit: This is the minimum amount you must bring into a 1-on-1 game. This is applicable to Seven-Card Stud Poker.
By Me: An expression meaning to pass or check.

C

C-Note: A hundred-dollar bill. Usage: The “C” is likely to be associated with a century.
California games: A set of cardroom games, formerly called Asian games, some of which resemble poker, but are not strictly poker, in which players place bets before receiving the hands on which they wager; others resemble blackjack. In these games, to get around the legal restriction against banking games, the only interest the house has is to take a portion of every bet; one player acts as banker, playing one hand against each player in turn. These games include pai gow (played with tiles, and not a card game at all), pai gow poker, super nine (also called super pan nine), California blackjack (also called X blackjack, where X is the name of the club), California Aces (a variant of blackjack in which the object is to get closest to 22, with two aces being the best hand; similarly often called X aces), 13-card (not played with a banker).
California Lowball: Ace-to-five lowball with a joker. Usage: The primary poker game in California during the 1970s.
Call: Matching a bet amount. Usage: Like in sentence “Steve decided to call Mike’s $4000 bet.”
Call Cold: To call both a bet and raise(s).
Caller: One who makes a call bet.
Calling Station: A passive and loose player who does not raise much, but calls more than he or she should.
Cap: 1) Put in the maximum number of raises in a round of betting; usually followed by the bet, the bets, or the betting. Make the maximum raise permitted in the current round. “I’ll cap it” means that someone has put in the, say, third raise. 2) After dealing the first round in a draw game, put a chip on top of the undealt cards for protection; usually followed by the deck. 3) The point at which the rules dictate that the maximum bets have been made. “The cap is lifted heads up.”
Capping a Raise: The final raise in most games, the third raise in most games.
Card Sharp: In the most general sense, a crafty, skilled card player, although when the term was most popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries, a “card sharp” often more specifically referred to a cheating player. Also sometimes used in non-poker contexts to refer to skillful card players or those who perform card tricks.
Cardroom: The room or space in a casino where poker is played. Usage: Can be used to describe an internet poker provider also The Party Poker Cardroom – for example.
Cards Speak: Your hand is the most favorable possible combination of cards, no matter how you call it.
Case Card: The fourth and last card of a particular rank to become available.
Case Chips: A player’s last chips.
Cash In: To exchange poker chips for cash and then to quit (Cash Out). Usage: Like in sentence “After playing for four hours John decided to cash in his chips.”
Cash Out: To leave a game and convert your chips to cash.
Casino: A physical or digital, public room/building where gambling games are played.
Casino Poker: Public poker played in gambling casinos. Usage: The 2005 WSOP for example will be played at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino with the final at Binion’s Horseshoe.
Catch: When a draw makes a hand, players may comment “Nice Catch”.
Catch Bluffing: To win a hand by calling or raising someone who is bluffing.
Center Pot: The main pot, as opposed to any side pots (q.v.) Usage: Like in sentence “The dealer will verify all bets and rake them to the center pot at the conclusion of each round of betting.”
Change Gears: Changing your style of play. For example, after playing a “tight” style for a long period, you start playing a more “loose” style and successfully run some bluffs before your opponents realize you have “changed gears.”
Chase: To play a hand that is most likely worse than at least one other player.
Chat: A feature of most online poker games where players can communicate to each other by typing messages.
Cheater: A player who intentionally violates the rules to gain advantage unavailable to others.
Check: 1) When it’s a player’s turn to act and there has been no action in front of them and he opts not to bet, he “checks.” 2) Alternative name for poker chip.
Check Blind: To check without looking at one’s own cards. Also Check in the Dark.
Check-Raise: When a player first checks and then raises in a betting round. Check-raising can be a means for a player with a strong hand to trap an opponent in order to try to extract more chips from an opponent. It can also be a way for a player to exert pressure from out of position, as it is often an aggressive play.
Cheese: A very substandard starting hand. Usage: Like in sentence: After being dealt Seven, Two again Howard announced “Nothing but cheese again!”
Chip: A round token used in place of cash at a gaming table.
Chop: To return the blinds to the players who posted them and move on to the next hand if no other players call. Can additionally refer to any hand in which players split the pot, or also to a final-table deal made to divide the prize money.
Cinch Hand: The nuts. A hand that can’t be beaten Usage: Like in sentence “If after all cards are dealt you have a cinch hand BET it, do not checkhoping to raise, if your opponent wants money in the pot he will raise you, don’t give anyone a chance to see your hole card free if you have a cinch hand.”
Clicking It Back: A phrase used to describe making a minimum raise, derived from clicking a button to min-raise when playing online. For example, in a cash game there is $300 in the pot when a player bets $120 on the turn. His opponent then “clicks it back,” making it $240 to go. Some limit usage of the phrase to refer to the act of reraising the minimum. For example, a player leads for $50, another raises to $150, then the original bettor “clicks it back” by reraising to $250 total.
Coffeehousing: This is when Players chat about a hand they are involved in, with the intent of misleading or manipulating other Players.
Cold Call: To call a raise after there has been a bet and one or more raises. In no-limit hold’em, if a player raises before the flop and another calls, the second player can be described as having made a “cold call.” The big blind is considered a bet, so the bet and raise followed by a call is a “cold call.” Meanwhile, if a player raises and another who is in the big blind calls, that isn’t typically referred to as a “cold call.” Similarly, if there is a raise and a reraise before the flop, then another player just calls the reraise, that is also a “cold call” — in fact, that is more typically where you hear the term used, i.e., to describe someone just calling a preflop three-bet.
Call or Bet: A “cold call” refers to the calling of bets made by multiple players, such as happens when one player bets, another raises, then a third calls the total amount “cold.” E.g, “Fred opened for $20, Gary raised to $50, then it folded to Hank who cold-called the reraise.” A “cold bet” or “cold raise” similarly refers to a raise made against multiple players. E.g., “Fred opened for $20, Gary raised to $50, then it folded to Hank who cold four-bet to $100.”
Cold Deck: A reference to a deck that has been stacked by a cheater to produce certain hands when dealt resulting in a big loss to cheater’s intended victim (e.g., aces versus kings). Such a prepared deck would be introduced into the game and thus would the cards be cold to the touch when compared to the cards already in play, hence the term “cold deck.” See cooler.
Cold Hands: 1) Showdown hands. 2) A run of poor hands.
Collection: The fee charged in a game (taken either out of the pot or from each player).
Collection Drop: A fee charged for each hand dealt.
Color Change: A request to change the chips from one denomination to another.
Colt 45: A nickname for 4, 5 after either the firearm or even the malt liquor.
Combo Draw: A “combo draw” (or “combination draw”) refers to having both straight and flush draws at once. For example, in a hold’em hand if a player holds 10-Clubs, 9-Clubs and the flop comes J-Clubs, 8-Diamonds, 4-Clubs, that player would have both an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. In some cases, having a “combo draw” on the flop can give a player a better chance of winning than having a made hand, such as in the above example where 10-Clubs, 9-Clubs will win by showdown more than 56% of the time versus K-Diamonds, K-Hearts’s almost 44%.
Come Hand: A drawing hand (probably from the craps term).
Come Over the Top: To raise or re-raise another players bet.
Common Card: A card dealt faceup to be used by all players at the showdown in the games of stud poker whenever there are insufficient cards left in the deck to deal each player a card individually.
Community Cards: Cards that are turned face up in the middle of the table, and which belong to all players still in the hand. Community cards are used in Texas hold’em and Omaha.
Comp Program: Or comps, most sites online offer players cash incentives to signup and points or other benefits for loyalty.
Complete Hand: A hand that is defined by all five cards – a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, or straight flush.
Complete the Bet: To increase an all-in bet or forced bet to a full bet in limit poker.
Computer Hand: A nickname for Q, 7 as it is the exact middle-ranked starting hand between A, A and 2, 7 offsuit.
Concealed Pair: Both of the pair cards are face down.
Connector: A hold’em starting hand in which the two cards are one apart in rank. Examples: KQs, 76.
Connectors: A hold’em starting hand containing two cards that are consecutive in rank; e.g., J-Clubs, 10-Spades or 8-Hearts, 7-Diamonds.
Conservative: (of a poker player or play) tending to bet only with a good hand.
Conservative Play: A poker strategy that involves betting only hands that have a good chance of winning.
Continuation Bet: A bet made by a player after having raised on an earlier round, such as in hold’em when a player raises preflop and then bets after the flop. The bet allows the preflop raise to “continue” with the lead in the hand.
Cooler: Used to describe a “bad luck” hand in which a player with a strong hand unfortunately clashes with an opponent holding something even better. In hold’em, getting all in preflop with pocket kings only to run into pocket aces is a common example of a “cooler.” The term derives from the term “cold deck,” a reference to a deck that has been stacked by a cheater to produce certain hands when dealt resulting in a big loss to cheater’s intended victim (e.g., aces versus kings). Such a prepared deck would be introduced into the game and thus would the cards be cold to the touch when compared to the cards already in play. Today a “cooler” doesn’t usually refer to a player being cheated, but feeling similarly after having experienced a hand in which he or she could not avoid losing.
Coordinated: An adjective used in hold’em or Omaha to describe community cards that make a straight and/or flush possible (see “Wet Board”). Can also describe cards in one’s hand similarly “working together” in order to create extra possibilities when drawing. Regarding the latter, in Omaha it is often advised to play “coordinated” starting hands; e.g, in PLO A-Clubs, K-Diamonds, J-Clubs, 10-Diamonds is a much stronger starting hand than A-Clubs, K-Diamonds, J-Hearts, 6-Spades because the four cards are better coordinated.
Counterfeit: “Counterfeiting” refers to a situation in flop games like hold’em and Omaha in which a community card actually makes a player’s hand less strong even after technically improving that hand. Counterfeiting occurs especially frequently in Omaha thanks to the added possible combinations of hands. For example, say you hold 6-Diamonds, 5-Diamonds and reach the turn with the board showing 6-Clubs, A-Diamonds, J-Diamonds, 5-Spades, giving you two pair (sixes and fives). Then the river brings the J-Clubs, which in truth improves your hand to a better two pair, jacks and sixes. The problem is, now any opponent holding an ace or jack now has you beat. A player with an ace has aces and jacks (a better two pair), and a player with a jack has trips. Here’s another example: you have 7-Diamonds, 7-Clubs, and the board runs out 4-Diamonds, A-Diamonds, 8-Clubs, 8-Spades, A-Clubs. On the flop you had a pair of sevens, on the turn eights and sevens, and on the river aces and eights. But everyone else has at least aces and eights on the river, too — “counterfeiting” your hand — and your seven kicker likely doesn’t compare well to theirs.
Court Card: A jack, queen or king. Usage: Also known as “Paint cards”.
Cowboys: Pair of kings as your hole cards in Texas Hold em. A very strong hand.
Crabs: A nickname for 3, 3 because the number resembles pincers.
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”.
Cranberry: A player who calls against the pot-odds.
Crap Shoot: A term used for less skillful tournaments with lots of loose action throughout.
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.
Crying Call: A call typically made to complete the last round of betting in which the caller is not confident about having the best hand, yet cannot resist calling because of curiosity, stubborness, or other reasons. Called a “crying” call because sometimes made along with a disclaimer about the caller’s dim prospects (e.g., “I know you’ve got me, but I have to call.”).
Crypto: Crypto is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership.
Cut: To divide the deck into two sections in such a manner as to change the order of the cards.
Cut It Up: To split the pot after two hands are revealed to be of equal value.
Cut the Cards: Putting the bottom cards of a deck on top of the deck.
Cut the Deck: To divide the deck, fairly evenly, into 2 stacks.
Cut The Pot: Taking the house rake or vig Usage: Like in sentence “Yes, I cut the pot a quarter on five dollars and another quarter on ten so I get a little edge betting after the flop.”
Cut-Card: Another term for the bottom card.
Cutoff: The “cutoff seat” is the seat immediately to the right of the button, so called because if the action folds to the player sitting in that seat he or she has the option to “cut off” the button’s advantageous position with a raise.

D

Dark Bet: To announce a bet on the next betting round before the card(s) for that round get dealt. The player announcing such a bet “in the dark” must be first to act on the coming round, and the announced bet is binding regardless of the card(s) dealt. For example, in hold’em a player raises and another calls in position, then before the flop appears the preflop raiser says “I bet $100 in the dark,” meaning whatever cards come out, flop action begins with that $100 bet.
Darken: To make a bet without looking at one’s cards; required in some forms of poker.
Darth Vader: A nickname for the 4-Clubs, 4-Spades because they are the “darks fours,” which is similar to the “dark force.” Get it?
Dead Card: A card that is not legally playable.
Dead Collection Blind: A fee posted by the player having the dealer button, used in some games as an alternative method of seat rental.
Dead Hand: A foul hand that cannot be played. Usage: Players hand or entire round is often voided and replayed.
Dead Man’s Hand: Two pair – Aces and Eights. It is supposedly the hand “Wild Bill” Hickok was holding when he was murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota on August 2, 1876. The fifth card is not known for certain.
Dead Money: Refers to money in the pot other than that which has been contributed by players still active in the hand such as the money put in by players who have since folded. Also sometimes used to refer to an inexperienced player who has little chance of winning.
Deal: To give each player cards, or put cards on the board. As used in these rules, each deal refers to the entire process from the shuffling and dealing of cards until the pot is awarded to the winner.
Deal Me In: Request to be dealt cards during a temporary absence. Usage: Like in sentence “I asked you to deal me in before I ran to the bathroom”.
Deal Me Out: Notice that a player is absenting himself from a game for at least one hand. Usage: Like in sentence “Deal me out this hand. I have to sit a couple hands out.”
Deal Off: To take all the blinds and the button before changing seats or leaving the table. That is, participate through all the blind positions and the dealer position.
Deal Twice: When there is no more betting, agreeing to have the rest of the cards to come determine only half the pot, removing those cards, and dealing again for the other half of the pot.
Dealer: The man or woman who handles the cards, gives out the pots, and monitors the game.
Dealer’s Choice: In home games, a rule that permits the dealer to name which poker game to be played that hand. Usage: This format is now also played in casino poker, usually towards the start of large events.
Dealer’s Position: Being the last to act in a betting round. On the button.
Dealers Button: A flat disk that indicates the player who would be in the dealing position for that hand (if there were not a house dealer). Normally just called “the button”.
Deck: A set of playing-cards. In these games, the deck consists of either: 1) 52 cards in seven-card stud, hold’em, and Omaha. 2) 53 cards (including the joker), often used in ace-to-five lowball and draw high.
Declaration: Declaring which share of the pot a player is bidding for in a hi-lo (q.v.) game. Usually done with two coins or chips hidden under the table and then declared – none for the low hand, one for the high hand, both for both the high and low hand.
Deuces: A pair of Twos.
Diamonds: One of the four playing card suits. Formerly representing merchants.
Discard(s): In a draw game, to throw cards out of your hand to make room for replacements, or the card(s) thrown away; the muck.
Disconnect Protection: A tool to protect players in the event that their internet connection is lost while involved in a pot. Usage: Also known as “All-in protection”.
Dog: Shortened form of “Underdog”. Usage: Like in sentence “Mike knew he was a real dog in this hand with just the bottom pair.”
Dolly Parton: A straight 5-9 (Nine to five). Named after her starring role in the film 9 to 5.
Dominated Hands: Refers to hands that are extreme underdogs, statistically speaking, such as a lower pocket pair vs. a higher pocket pair. Another example would be a hand that shares one hole card but has a lower kicker, e.g., before the flop, A, Q would be “dominated” by A, K.
Dominating Hands: Primo hands that are not only good, solid hands but have lots of room for improvement.
Donk Bet: A leading bet made postflop and from out of position, usually small, that usually comes from the non-aggressor in the hand. E.g., in no-limit hold’em a player on the button raises and the big blind calls to create a pot of 1,500, then after the flop the big blind leads for 300. Generally an unorthodox move, the term refers to “donkeys” or poor players, although donk bets can have strategic value (e.g., to induce raises or as blocking bets).
Donkey: A derogatory term used to refer to a weak, unskilled player. Abbreviated “donk.”
Door Card: This is the first exposed card, or “up” card, in a player’s hand in Stud games.
Double Belly-Buster: A reference in hold’em or Omaha to a hand in which a player has two inside straight draws at once. For example, if the flop comes K-Spades, 10-Diamonds, 7-Clubs and a player holds J-Hearts, 9-Hearts, either a Q or a 8 will complete inside straight draws. Also called a “double gutshot” draw.
Double Bluff: A bluff that involves in an initial bet, being raised, and reraising.
Double Up: Going all in on a hand during a no-limit game and winning, which essentially doubles your bankroll. Even with a short stack, a player who doubles up 2 or 3 times in a row can get right back into contention in most poker tournaments.
Double-Pop: When the second player re-raises a raise.
Down and Dirty: The final hole card dealt in seven-card stud.
Down Bet: A bet on a later round of smaller size than what has been bet previously in the hand. For example, in no-limit hold’em a player raises before the flop to 2,000, then on the flop continues with a “down bet” of 1,000. Down bets counter typical betting patterns since bet sizes more often increase with each round as pots get larger.
Down Card: Hole cards. Cards that are dealt face down.
Down to the Green: When a player has gone all in. Usage: The “green” referring to the table felt where the players chips used to be.
Downcard: Cards that are dealt face down, as opposed to upcards that are dealt face up. E.g., the hole cards in hold’em or the first two cards and the seventh card in seven-card stud.
Downswing: A series of results totaling an overall loss, such as over the course of multiple sessions or a particular time period.
Doyle Brunson: It’s a Holdem hand consisting of a 10-2 (Brunson won the world championship two years in a row on the final hand with these cards).
Draw: 1) High draw poker. 2) The point during the playing of a hand at which active players discard the cards they don’t want and receive new ones. “You must bet or fold before the draw.” 3) The receiving of draw cards. “What was the draw?” is a request by a player to find out how many cards each player drew. 4) A particular hand you are trying to make, as, a flush draw, which is four cards to a flush. In addition to draw games, this usage is often heard in games other than draw games. 5) Specifically an unmade hand, usually heard in hold ’em and seven-card stud. “I raised him all in because I knew he was on a draw.” That is, I knew that at the moment, his hand did not beat mine, but that he was trying to make a straight or flush (which, presumably, would win if he did make it). 6) Receive cards. 7) Not stand pat, as opposed to doing so. “You’re pat? Then I’ve got to draw.”
Draw Card: The card that one has received on the draw.
Draw Dead: Draw to a hand that cannot win even if made; sometimes followed by to when referring to the other hand. In lowball, if the other guy has a wheel, and you draw one to a 6-4, you’re drawing dead, because you can’t win, even if you jam up the hand (make it perfect). You are drawing dead to his hand.
Draw Down: In lowball, draw more than one card so as to be drawing to the best possible hand, instead of drawing fewer cards (generally one) to a poorer hand; sometimes followed by to and a or the hand. For example, if you have K-8-6-4-2, you could draw one to the 8, or draw down (that is, draw to a 6) by throwing both the king and the 8. A lowball player might say, “When he stood pat, I figured I better draw down,” or, “When he stood pat, I figured I better draw down to the hand.”
Draw For Deal: Participate in a top-card draw.
Draw For Seats: A method of determining which players sit where, usually the participants in a small tournament. Each player draws a card from the deck, which is often fanned face down on the table, and the holder of the highest card sits in seat 1, the next highest card to that player’s left, and so on; often suits are used to break ties (in the bridge order of spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds).
Draw Game: A game in which or a table at which Draw Poker is played.
Draw Live: Draw to a hand that will win if made; sometimes followed by to when referring to the other hand. If the other guy has a flush, and you draw one to two pair, you’re drawing live, because you can win with a full house. You are drawing live to his hand.
Draw Lowball: Form of poker where each player is dealt five cards with the option of discarding one or more and replacing them with new ones and the low hand wins.
Draw Out: To improve your hand so that it beats an opponent who had a better hand than yours prior to your draw. Usage: Like in sentence “Steve drew out on John by making his straight on the river.”
Draw Poker: Form of poker where each player is dealt five cards down with the option of discarding one or more and replacing them with new ones to attempt to make a better hand.
Draw Snow: (In draw poker) to bluff before and after the draw.
Drawing: Playing a hand to improve.
Drawing Dead: A drawing hand that will lose even if it improves.
Drawing Hand: A hand that needs improvement to win, usually to a straight or flush.
Driver’s Seat: A player in the “Driving Seat” is the one taking the initiative in all the betting. Usage: “I’ll check to you; you’re in the driver’s seat” implies that it is after the draw in a draw game, or in a late round in a stud or hold ’em game, and the person being checked to had bet large in a no-limit game, raised earlier, or bet every preceding round.
Drop: Fold.
Drop Out: To retire from a hand by not calling a bet or raise (Fold).
Dry Board: A reference to the “texture” of the community cards in hold’em or Omaha. A “dry board” refers to one in which the community cards do not present many possibilities for drawing hands — e.g., a “rainbow” flop (with three different suits) doesn’t provide a flush draw; disconnected cards do not provide straight draws. Thus a board of Q-Clubs, 7-Diamonds, 2-Spades would be considered “dry.” (See also “Wet Board.”)
Ducks: A pair of Twos.

E

Eagles: The cards of a fifth suit in a sixty-five-card deck.
Early Bet: A small bet after the first card in stud or the first two cards in draw.
Early Position: Position on a round of betting where the player must act before most of the other players at the table. (It’s considered the two positions located to the left of the Blinds. )
Edge: 1) An advantageous position. 2) The dealer or sometimes the Age.
Edge Odds: The advantage or disadvantage of a player relative to all other players.
Edge Shot: A bet made from an advantageous position.
Effective Stack: A term used to refer to the actual amount of chips being played for between two opponents with unequal stacks. For example, if one player has 10,000 chips and another only 5,500 chips, the most either player can win from the other in the hand is 5,500. Thus are the two described as playing “effective stacks” of 5,500 when pitted in a hand against each other.
Eldest Hand: The first player to the dealer’s left.
Elimination: Like Cincinnati, but cards matched with table cards are discarded (Weary Willie).
End Bet: The last bet of an interval.
End Bets: Last-round bets.
End Strippers: Cards tapered along the ends for cheating.
English Poker: Draw played with a blind opening.
English Stud: A stud game with a draw.
Entry Fee: An entry fee is usually payable for all tournaments (unless they are freerolls) these may be as little as a few cents or as large as thousands of dollars. Usage: A Party Poker entry fee may look something like this:
Equity: Your “rightful” share of a pot. If the pot contains $80 and you have a 50% chance of winning it, you have $40 worth of equity in the pot. This term is somewhat fanciful since you will usually either win $80 or $0 (unless the pot is split), but it gives you an idea of how much you would expect to win on average over multiple instances of the same situation. Also sometimes used more broadly as a synonym for “value.”
Ethics or Etiquette: The understandings and courtesies of which violations do not constitute cheating.
Eubie: A nickname for 8, 6. Named as in, “If you play these, you be broke.”
Even Money: A wager made in hopes of earning the amount that was wagered.
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.
Exposed Cards: Cards purposely dealt face-up as in stud.
Exposed Pair: An exposed pair, as opposed to a split pair or a hidden pair.

F

Facecard: A king, queen, or jack.
False Cut: 1)A cheating maneuver in which the deck appears to be cut, but the stacked portion remains unchanged at the top. 2) Give the deck such a cut.
False Openers: A hand that was opened without having opening requirements. Usage: For example, in jacks or better, the opener must have already in his hand at least a pair of jacks. Someone in next-to-last position in an unopened pot might have four cards to a straight flush and dearly like to open the pot. If he does, he is said to have false openers. Usually the opener of a pot has to show openers. If he cannot prove he had openers, the player cannot win the pot.
Family Pot: A pot in which many players have called in order to see a flop. In some low-limit games, you will see many players either limp before the flop or call a raise, thereby creating a “family pot.”
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”.
Fast Play: To play a hand aggressively, betting and raising as much as possible. Sometimes when a player flops a very strong hand but a straight or flush draw might be possible, the player will opt to “fast play” in order to avoid allowing an opponent to outdraw and win. See “slow play.”
Feeler Bet: Similar to a “blocking bet,” a “feeler bet” is usually a small, leading bet made after the flop. However, while a blocking bet is often made late in the hand (e.g., on the river) explicitly to prevent an opponent from betting larger, a feeler bet is generally a less specific attempt to gather information from how others respond. Sometimes called a “probe bet.”
Fifth Street: Also known as the “river” card. In flop games, this represents the fifth community card on the table and the final round of betting. In Stud games, this is the fifth card dealt to each player and represents the third round of betting.
Fill: To draw a card that makes a five-card hand (straight, flush, full house, straight flush).
Fill Up: To fill a Full House.
Fish: A player who loses money. An old saying is “If you can’t spot the fish at the table, *you* are the fish.”
Fishhooks: Slang for Jacks.
Five of a Kind: Five cards of the same value.
Five-card Draw: A poker game in which the player is dealt five cards down. They have one draw to replace them and the best high hand wins the pot.
Five-card Stud: A poker game in which each player is dealt five cards, one down and four up, with betting after 2, 3, 4, & 5 cards.
Fixed Limit: In limit poker, any betting structure in which the amount of the bet on each particular round is pre-set.
Flash: 1) To turn up a common card for everyone’s use when insufficient cards are available to complete a stud game. 2) Five cards, one of each suit plus the joker.
Flashed Card: A card that is partially exposed.
Flat Call: Calling a bet in a spot when a player might have been expected to raise, as in, “He raised on the button and I looked down to see A, Q in the big blind, but I decided just to flat call.” Used similarly to “smooth call.”
Flat Limit: A variant of fixed limit where all bets are the same amount.
Float: To call an opponent’s post-flop bet with a weak hand in order to try and bluff on a later street. Often done following a continuation bet when the person “floating” with a call suspects the player may not have a strong hand, but is waiting until the turn or river to make the bluff bet or raise.
Floorman: An employee of the cardroom who makes rulings and decisions.
Flop: In Hold’em and Omaha, the first three community cards that are dealt face-up in the center of the table all at one time. The “flop” also indicates the second round of betting.
Flop a Set: To catch a third card of the same denomination on the Flop when holding a pocket pair. Usage: As in “I managed to flop a set.”
Flop Games: Poker games (Hold’em and Omaha) that are played using community cards that are dealt face up in the center of the table.
Flush: Any five cards of the same suit.
Flush Draw: When a player has four cards in his hand of the same suit and is hoping to draw a fifth to make a flush.
Fold: To throw your hand away when it’s your turn to act.
Fold Equity: A term referring specifically to the amount of equity a player gains from likelihood of an opponent folding to a bet. If a player pushes all in against a single opponent, that player’s “equity” includes both the money he will win should his opponent call and his hand prove best and the money he will win should his opponent fold to his bet. The latter portion is his “fold equity.” While fold equity can be calculated specifically, the term is most often used in a much less precise way to refer broadly to the probability of getting a player to fold when betting. For example, in a tournament if a player open-raises all in with a 20-big blind stack, that player has a better chance of getting others to fold than if he pushes all in with just 5 big blinds. Thus with the larger stack, the player is said to have more “fold equity” when shoving.
Force-In: A mandatory blind bet, usually with an option to raise.
Forced Bet: A required bet that starts the action on the first round of a poker hand.
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”.
Foul Hand: A hand containing the wrong number of cards.
Four Flush: Four cards to a Flush.
Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same number or face value (“quads”).
Four-Color Deck: A four-color deck is similar to a standard deck although instead of having just two colors — black for clubs and spades; red for hearts and diamonds — each of the four suits has a different color. Typically in a four-color deck hearts remain red and spades remain black, while clubs are made green and diamonds blue. Most online poker sites have an option available for players to use four-color “decks,” which many players agree makes it easier to distinguish suits at a glance when viewing on a computer monitor.
Fourth Street: In flop games, it is the fourth community card dealt (also known as “the turn”) and represents the third round of betting. In Stud games, it is the fourth card dealt to each player and represents the second round of betting.
Free Card: Any card a player gets to receive or see without having to commit additional chips. For example, in hold’em if everyone checks the flop, the turn is a “free card.” Often used with reference to drawing hands, such as when a player flops a flush draw, then isn’t made to call a bet on the flop, making the turn a “free card” to try to complete the flush.
Freeroll: A chance to win something at no risk or cost.
Freeze-Out: A table-stakes cash game or tournament that continues until a small number of players (usually only one) has all the money.
Full Barn: Slang for Full House.
Full Boat: Slang for Full House.
Full Buy: A buy-in of at least the minimum requirement of chips needed for a particular game.
Full House: A Full House is any three cards of the same number or face value, plus any other two cards of the same number or face value. An example of a full house is A-Spades, A-Diamonds, A-Clubs, 6-Hearts, 6-Clubs, but 2-Clubs, 2-Diamonds, 2-Hearts, 3-Spades, 3-Clubs is a full house as well.
Full Tub: Three of a kind with another pair (Full Hand).

G

Gallery: Nonplaying spectators.
Gambler: A player who wagers money at unfavorable edge odds.
Gambling: Betting money at unfavorable investment and edge odds.
Game: Games available in most casinos are commonly called casino games. In a casino game, the players gamble cash or casino chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes.
Get Full Value: To raise, bet or re-raise with the intention of getting the maximum pot odds if you win the hand.
GG: “GG” has two meanings in the world of poker. Good Game & GGnetwork
Go All In: To bet all of one’s money in table stakes.
Going South: The action of taking chips or money off the table (usually surreptitiously) during a cash game. Illegal in most public card rooms, and typically viewed as a violation of etiquette in home games. Also known as “ratholing.”
Grand: A thousand dollars or other currency.
Graveyard: The shift between midnight and breakfast in a 24-hour cardroom or casino. Usage: Graveyard shift usually starts anywhere between midnight and 2 am and ends eight hours later.). As in: “When do you work?” “I’m on graveyard.”
Gravy: One’s winnings.
Grifter: A cheat.
Grinding: Playing in a style with minimal risk and modest gains over a long period of time. Usage: Like in sentence “Tony has been grinding away at $5/$10 limit all month”.
GTO: GTO stands for Game Theory Optimal, the optimal way to play a hand or street according to Game Theory. Game Theory, according to Wikipedia, is the study of mathematical models of strategic interaction between rational decision-makers.
Guarantee: Refers to a guaranteed prize pool for a tournament as established by the poker room (live or online) hosting the event. Guarantees help attract players to participate in a tournament as they ensure a minimum prize pool for the event. If not enough players enter to build the guaranteed prize pool, the poker room must supply the remainder, thus creating an “overlay” for the tournament.
Gut Shot: To draw to and/or hit an inside straight.
Gutshot: Used with reference to having or completing an inside straight draw. E.g., in hold’em if you hold 8, 7 and the flop comes K, 5, 4, you have a “gutshot draw” to a straight, needing a 6 to complete it.
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.
Gypsy In: In lowball it’s to limp in.

H

Hand: A player’s best five cards.
Hand-for-Hand: “Hand-for-hand” play is instituted in multi-table tournaments, often just before the money bubble bursts and payouts begin, or after the tournament is in the money and just before another pay jump occurs. Hand-for-hand play means each remaining table much complete a single hand before the next one is dealt, thereby ensuring all tables play the same number of hands before the next elimination occurs.
Head to Head: Two people playing poker.
Heads Up: A pot that is being contested by only two players. Usage: Like in sentence “It was heads up by the turn”.
Hearts: One of the four playing card suits.
Heinz: A nickname for 5, 7. Taken from the Heinz slogan of “57 varieties.”
Help Card: One that improves one’s hand.
Hero Call: To call a bet on the final round of betting with a relatively weak holding after suspecting the betting player is bluffing, so described because the call is considered especially “heroic” or brave. For example, in hold’em a board comes 9-Diamonds, 6-Clubs, 2-Diamonds, 10-Spades, A-Diamonds, a player makes a large bet, and his opponent calls holding only 7-Spades, 6-Spades for a pair of sixes after suspecting his opponent is falsely representing having a flush or an ace. The lead bettor then shows Q-Diamonds, J-Clubs for no pair, and the player making the “hero call” wins the pot.
High Hand: The best hand in any round of poker.
High Limit: A game where the amounts wagered are high.
High Roller: A gambler who plays for large stakes. Being a High Roller is often times relative. Extreme High Rollers are also referred to as “Whales”.
High-Card: To decide the first dealer in the flop tournaments each user is dealt a single card and the player with the highest card (based on the card and the suit order – of spades, hearts, diamonds & clubs) becomes the theoretical dealer.
High-Low: Split pot games.
High-Low Split: Games where half the pot goes to the highest ranking poker hand and half goes to the lowest ranking poker hand.
Hijack: The “hijack” or “hijack seat” refers to the position to the immediate right of the “cutoff” and two seats to the right of the “button.” Also considered late position in a full ring game of hold’em or Omaha (i.e., nine- or ten-handed), the position earned the name from players “hijacking” late position advantage away from the cutoff and button with an opening raise.
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.
Hit And Run: The act of joining a poker game, winning big in a short period of time, and leaving the table soon after with one’s winnings.
Hitchhiker: A player who comes into a pot cheaply as the victim of a trap.
Hockey Sticks: A nickname for {7-}{7-} because of their resemblance to upside down hockey sticks.
Hold’em: Also known as Texas Hold ’em, where the players get two down cards and five community cards. See our complete Hold ’em rules in our Game Rules section.
Hole Cards: These are the Down Cards in front of the players.
Hollywood: To “Hollywood” (used as a verb) refers to acting or talking in an exaggerated way so as to encourage a specific reaction from an opponent during a hand. “Hollywooding” often refers to actions intended to be deceptive, such as when a player talks a great deal and acts comfortable, thus appearing very strong when in fact the player’s hand is weak.
Home Run Hitter: A player who makes risky calls and wins.
Hook: A jack, so named because the “J” resembles a hook.
Horsing: Passing a small amount of money to another player after winning a pot, AKA “scooting”.
Hot Deck: A deck from which good hands are being dealt.
Hot Hands: A run of high-value hands.
Hot Seat: A seat in a poker game where the players have had winning hands. Usage: Like in sentence “Players to watch and coaches who are on the hot seat”.
Hot Streak: A run of good “luck” or winning hands (Spinner).
House: The casino or cardroom that is hosting the poker game.
House Rules: Rules, especially betting, agreed upon by the players.

I

Ice: A cold deck.
ICM: Independent Chip Model. ICM allows players to get a good idea of what their tournament chips are worth in terms of equity of the total remaining prize pool. Because of the different payouts in tournaments, calculating what your stack and your opponents stacks are worth, might factor into decisions.
Ideal Edge Odds: The theoretical maximum edge odds, which are impossible to achieve.
Idle Card: A card that adds no value to a hand.
If: See Gambler’s Last Charge.
Ignorant End: The lower end of a straight in a game that has community cards.
Image: How a player is perceived by others, used as an indicator of what sort of playing style that player is likely to employ. For example, someone who folds a lot of hands will often have a “tight” image, while someone who plays many hands might have a “loose” image. A player’s image, of course, may not match how the player actually plays.
Immortal: 1) The best possible hand. 2) A certain winner.
Implied Odds: Like regular pot odds but also taking into consideration estimated future betting. If the pot has $300 and your opponent bets $100, you are getting 4-to-1 pot odds to call (you need to call $100 in order to have a chance to win $400). However, if there are future betting rounds in which you might win even more money, that helps create even better “implied odds.”
Improve: To draw cards that improve one’s hand.
In: To remain in the pot.
In a Row: Or in a Line. A sequence or a straight.
In Action: The time when a player is involved in playing his hand.
In the Hole: Cards dealt face-down in stud poker.
In the Middle: The position of the players calling bets between two raising players (Middle Man).
Index: 1) The number or letter printed on the corners of cards. 2) The marks a cheater puts on the edge of cards.
Indexing: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device.
Indirect Bet: An opponent betting or raising for a player sandbagging a strong hand.
Inside Straight: Four cards which require another between the top and the bottom card to complete a straight. Players who catch this card make an Inside Straight.
Insurance: A side agreement when someone is all-in for a player in a pot to put up money that guarantees a payoff of a set amount in case the opponent wins the pot. The bet may be between the players involved in the all-in, or can also be between a player in the hand and another not in the hand.
Intentional Flashing: Purposely flashing or showing one’s closed cards to an opponent.
Investment Odds: The estimated returns on betting investments.
Iron Duke: An unbeatable hand (Ironclad Hand).

J

J-Boy: A jack.
Jack and Back: Jackpot poker that reverts to low-ball if no one opens (Jack and Reverse, Jacks Back, Jackson).
Jack Benny: A nickname for {3-}{9-} because comedian Jack Benny used to joke that that was his age.
Jack Up: To raise.
Jackpot: A prize fund awarded to a player who meets a set of predetermined requirements. For example, some casinos will give a jackpot to someone who gets four-of-a-kind or higher and loses.
Jackpot Poker: A form of poker in which the cardroom or casino offers a jackpot to a player who has lost with a really big hand (usually Aces full or better).
Jacks to Open: Draw poker in which jacks or better are required to open (Jackpots).
Jacks-or- Better: A form of poker in which a player needs to have at least a pair of jacks to open the betting.
Jackson Five: A nickname for {j-}{5-}. Named after the Motown music group.
Jagging: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device.
Jake: A jack.
Jam: A pot where several players are raising.
Jammed Pot: A pot that has been raised the maximum number of times. Usage: Like in sentence “Mark had the nuts and jammed the pot.”
Jesse James: A nickname for 4, 5 because the legendary outlaw was shot by a .45.
Jinx: A curse of bad luck.
Jog: An unevenly stacked deck used by a cheater to mark where his partner should cut the deck (Step).
John: A jack.
John Juanda: Nickname for J J, which are the initials of well-know poker pro John Juanda.
Joker: The joker is a “partially wild card” in high draw poker and ace-to-five lowball. In high, it is used for aces, straights, and flushes. In lowball, the joker is the lowest unmatched rank in a hand. The 53rd card added to a deck.
Joker Poker: Poker played with the joker as wild.
Jonah: An unlucky player.

K

Kansas City Lowball: Form of lowball poker in which the worst poker hand (2, 3, 4, 5, 7 of different suits) is the best hand. It’s also known as Deuce to Seven. Usage: In ace-to-five lowball, the hand 7-5-4-3-2; so called, because that is the best hand in Kansas City lowball. In ace-to-five lowball, when used attributively with a rank, generally means that card plus 5-4-3-2. For example, a Kansas City 8 is the hand 8-5-4-3-2.
Katie or Katy: A nickname for K, 10. A 10 is often written with a “T,” so K-T.
Keep Them Honest: To call at the end of a hand to prevent someone from bluffing.
Key Card: A card that gives you a big draw or makes your hand.
Key Hand: In a session or tournament, the one hand that ends up being a turning point for the player, either for better or worse.
Kibitzer: A commenting spectator.
Kick It: Raise.
Kicker: The highest unpaired side card in a player’s hand. If you have {A-Diamonds}{J-Clubs}, your opponent has {A-Spades}{Q-Hearts}, and the board comes {4-Clubs}{9-Diamonds}{A-Hearts}{2-Hearts}{8-Clubs}, you both have made a pair of aces, but your opponent has the higher “kicker” with a queen versus your jack.
Kill: Also Kill Blind. An oversize blind, usually twice the size of the big blind and doubling the limit. Sometimes a “half-kill” increasing the blind and limits by fifty percent is used. A kill can be either voluntary or mandatory. The most common requirements of a mandatory kill are for winning two pots in a row at lowball and other games, or for scooping a pot in high-low split.
Kill Button: A button used in a lowball game to indicate a player who has won two pots in a row and is required to kill the pot.
Kill Pot: A method to stimulate action. It is a forced bet by someone who has just won a pot(s).
King Crab: A nickname for K, 3.
Knave: A Jack.
Knock: Check.
KYC: The know your customer or know your client guidelines in financial services require that professionals make an effort to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship. The procedures fit within the broader scope of a bank’s Anti-Money Laundering policy.
Kojack: A nickname for K, J. Namd after the old television show of the same name.
Kojak: A hand that contains a K-J.
Komodo Dragoned: When a players hand is defeated because of an opponent completing a straight or flush on the river.

L

Ladies: Two Queens.
Last Longer: A side bet made between two or more tournament players in which the last player to be eliminated wins the bet.
Late Position: Position on a round of betting where the player must act after most of the other players have acted (usually considered to be the two positions next to the button).
Lay Down Your Hand: When a player folds.
Lay Odds: To give favorable odds to an opponent.
Lead: The first player to bet into a pot.
Leader: The player who is betting first.
Leak: To show one’s hole cards (often unknowingly).
Leg Up: Being in a situation equivalent to having won the previous pot, and thus liable to have to kill the following pot if you win the current pot.
Legitimate Hand: A strong hand. A hand that is not a bluff.
Let Slide: To not call another player one thinks is probably bluffing.
License: In order to legally provide gaming services associated with sports betting, lotto, poker and bingo, an online casino owner must obtain a license.
Lid: The top card of the deck.
Limit: The maximum bet or raise allowed.
Limit Poker: A game that has fixed minimum and maximum betting intervals along with a prescribed number of raises.
Limit Stakes: Poker with maximum bets and raises established by the house rules.
Limp: To enter the pot by calling rather than raising. For example, in hold’em before the flop, a player who calls the big blind (rather than raises) is described as “limping in.”
Limper: A player who enters pot by calling rather than raising. For example, in hold’em before the flop, a player who calls the big blind (rather than raises) is described as “limping in.”
Liner: A face card. (Because you can see a line when the card is face down and the lower right corner is lifted).
List: The ordered roster of players waiting for a game.
Little Blind: The first and smallest blind bet.
Little Cat: A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 3 to 9 with no pair (in some circles, 3 to 8 with no pair), ranks above a big dog, and below a big tiger. Usage: Also called little tiger.
Little Dog: A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 2 to 7 with no pair, ranks below a big dog and above a straight.
Little Oldsmobile: A nickname for 8, 8. Named after the 88 model Oldsmobile automobile.
Live Blind: An instance where the player puts in a dark bet and is allowed to raise, even if no other player raises. It’s also known as an “option”.
Live Card(s): A term often used in stud games referring to cards that will improve one’s hand that have not yet appeared among other players’ up cards, thereby increasing the chance they are still in the deck and thus remain “live.” The term is also used in hold’em to refer to a player having hole cards that no other player has, thus similarly improving the chances of the community cards including cards that make that player a pair. For example, and player is all in with 10-Clubs, 9-Clubs versus an opponent holding a-Clubs, k-Hearts. While the all-in player is an underdog, both the ten and nine are “live cards” in that if he makes a pair and the player with ace-king doesn’t improve, he’ll win.
Live Hand: A hand that could still win the pot.
Live One: A not so knowledgeable player who plays a lot of hands.
Lock: A hand that cannot lose.
Lock-Up: A chip marker that holds a seat for a player.
Lollipop Hand: A nickname for A, Q because it looks sweet but often gets licked.
Long Odds: When there is a very low probability that something will happen.
Look: When a player calls the final bet before the showdown.
Loose: A playing style characterized by playing more hands than the average, with the player likely getting involved with a wide range of hands including weak ones. Can also refer to a game in which many players are active and thus often building large pots.
Loose Game: A game with a lot of players in most hands. Usage: Like in sentence “The games on PartyPoker are very loose.”
Loose-Aggressive: A style of play distinguished by playing a higher frequency of hands than others (“loose”) and by leading with bets or raising more often than checking or calling when playing those hands (“aggressive”).
Loose-Passive: A style of play distinguished by playing a higher frequency of hands than others (“loose”) and by checking and calling more often than leading with bets or raising when playing those hands passive.
Low Limit: A game where the amounts wagered are small.
Lowball: Is a form of draw poker in which the lowest hand wins the pot.
Lowcard: The lowest upcard at seven-card stud, which is required to bet.
Luck: An illusion of winning or losing beyond statistical reality.
Luck Out: To outdraw and beat a good hand. Usage: Like in sentence “I had the nuts until the river when he lucked out on me with a straight”.

M

Made Hand: Refers to a hand the value of which is a pair or higher, often used with regard to pocket pairs in no-limit hold’em in which the player has already “made” a pair even before the community cards have arrived. Used in contrast to a drawing hand which still needs to improve.
Main Pot: The center pot. Any other bets are placed in a side pot(s) and are contested among the remaining players. This occurs when a player(s) goes all-in.
Make: To make the deck is to shuffle the deck.
Maniac: A very aggressive player who plays a lot of hands.
Marked Cards: Cards that have been (illegally) altered so that their value can be read from the back.
Maverick: The name of a Queen and Jack in the pocket. Suited or otherwise.
Mechanic: A cheat who manipulates the deck. One who unfairly manipulates the cards, such as a cheat who deals cards from the bottom instead of from the top of the deck (where they should come from), or from the middle, or deals the second card from the top, or who falsely shuffles the cards so as to arrange them in a manner he has predetermined, or who palms cards, or uses any other of scores of cheating methods involving card manipulation or sleight of hand. Synonym – Artist.
Meet: To meet is to call.
Middle Pair: In flop games, when a player makes a pair with one of his/her down cards and the middle card on the flop. Usage: Like in sentence “You have Ad 9h in your hand, the flop is Ks 9s 6h. You have a pair of Nines, the middle pair.”
Middle Position: Somewhere between the early and late positions on a round of betting (the fifth, sixth and seventh seats to the left of the button).
Minimum Buy-In: The least amount you can start a game with.
Miscall: An incorrect verbal declaration of the ranking of a hand.
Misdeal: A mistake on the dealing of a hand which causes the cards to be reshuffled and a new hand to be dealt.
Miss: The act of not being able to make a drawing hand when a player’s final cards are dealt.
Missed Blind: A required bet that is not posted when it is your turn to do so.
Mississippi Straddle: The Mississippi Straddle is a type of straddle. Contrary to a traditional straddle, which is committed by the player under the gun and, in some cases, subsequent players behind the under the gun player, the Mississippi Straddle may be made from any position on the table outside of the blinds. When a Mississippi Straddle is in place, the player left of the straddler starts the action. When the button puts out a Mississippi Straddle, the small blind acts first. As is the case with a traditional straddle, the Mississippi Straddle is live and is not considered a blind raise. Usage: Mississippi Straddle is on people! Hey George, since you’re on my left, you’re to act first now.
Mites And Lice: A hand consisting of two pair, threes over twos.
Mneumonics: Mental devices used to remember things. In Hold ‘Em, often players have names for what pocket cards they have, like Big Slick or Maverick.
Monster: A very big hand. In a tournament, a player who begins to accumulate chips after having a small stack is considered to be a monster.
Muck: To discard or throw away your hand. It’s also a pile of cards that are no longer in play.
Must-Move: In order to protect the main game, a situation where the players of a second game must move into the first game as openings occur.

N

Nailing: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device.
Natural: A hand without wild cards.
Neocheater: A player who wins by Neocheating.
Neocheating: Simple, invisible, highly effective cheating techniques.
New Guinea Stud: Seven-card stud starting with four down cards, followed by turning up or rolling any two cards.
New York Stud: Five-card stud in which a four flush beats a pair.
New-Breed Player: An Advanced-Concept player in public or casino poker.
Newlyweds: A nickname for K, Q.
Nickel: Five dollars, usually represented by a red casino check.
Nickel-Dime: A small-stake game.
Nits and Lice: 1) Two pair or a full house of deuces and threes (Mites and Lice). 2) Deuces and threes as wild cards.
No Limit: A game where players can bet as much as they like (as long as they have it in front of them) on any round of betting.
No Limit Hold’em Table St: At any time, any player can bet any or all of his or her chips.
Northern Flight: Seven-card stud with all hearts wild, unless a spade is in the hand.
Nucleus Players: The dependable, regular players.
Nursing: To play conservatively because one is losing and has only few chips left.
Nut: The winnings needed to survive as a professional.
Nut Flush: As far as ‘nut’ means the best possible hand, ‘nut flush is the best flush available within each hand. Usage: Like in sentence “I had the ace of spades, the nut flush”.
Nut Flush Draw: When one card will give you the best possible flush.
Nuts: The best possible hand at any point of the game. A hand that cannot be beat.

O

Odds: The probability of making a hand vs. the probability of not making a hand.
Odds Against: The number of failures per success.
Odds For: The number of attempts per success.
Odds On: Odds at less than even money.
Offsuit: Cards of a different suit.
Omaha: A game in which each player is dealt four down cards with five community cards. To make your hand, you must play two cards from your hand and three from the board.
On the Button: Being the last player to act in a betting round. Dealer’s Position.
On The Come: A situation in which the player does not yet have a complete hand, such as when holding a drawing hand.
On Tilt: Playing worse (usually, more aggressively) than usual because a player has become emotionally upset.
One Chip Rule: In live games, the “one chip rule” clarifies that any player placing a single chip forward without any accompanying verbal declaration after another player has bet is making a call and not a raise. For example, in a no-limit hold’em game a player makes a bet of $8 after the flop, then another tosses out a $25 chip without saying anything. The second player’s bet is considered a call of the $8, not a raise to $25. The rule is also sometimes called the “oversize chip rule.”
One-End: Or One-Way Straight. A four-card straight open only on one end, such as jack, queen, king, ace.
One-Gap: A hold’em starting hand in which the two cards are two apart in rank. Examples: J9s, 64.
One-Gapper: A hold’em starting hand with a one-card gap in between two cards preventing them from being connectors. For example, 7-Diamonds, 5-Spades is a one-gapper (missing the 6 in between).
One-Outer: A hand that wins after having drawn the only card left in the deck that can improve it to the best hand. For example, in no-limit hold’em the board reads Q-Clubs, 10-Diamonds, 7-Hearts, 3-Spades and a player goes all in with 10-Clubs, 10-Spades for a set of tens, but gets called by an opponent holding Q-Hearts, Q-Diamonds for a better set of queens. The river then brings the 10-Hearts — the case ten — to give the all-in player four of a kind, the only card that could improve his hand enough to win. He has hit his only out — a “one-outer” — to win the hand.
One-Way Straight: Or One-End. A four-card straight open only on one end, such as jack, queen, king, ace.
Open: To make the first bet.
Open at Both Ends: A four-card sequence that can be made a straight by two different value cards. Also Open End.
Open Card: A card that is dealt face-up.
Open End: A four-card sequence that can be made a straight by two different value cards.
Open Game: A game in which anyone can play.
Open Pair: A pair that has been dealt face-up.
Open Poker: Poker games that require some of the cards to be dealt face up.
Open Seat: A chair available for another player.
Open-Ended Straight Draw: Possessing four consecutive cards whereby one additional (consecutive) card is needed at either end to make a straight. E.g., in hold’em you have 9-Spades, 8-Clubs and the flop comes 10-Diamonds, 7-Hearts, 2-Clubs. You have an open-ended straight draw (10-9-8-7) and need a J or 6 to complete your straight.
Open-Handed: A category of games characterized by a part of each player’s hand being exposed.
Opener: The player who made the first voluntary bet.
Opener Button: A button used to indicate who opened a particular pot in a draw game.
Openers: In jacks-or-better draw, the cards held by the player who opens the pot that show the hand qualifies to be opened. Example: You are first to bet and have a pair of kings; the kings are called your openers.
Option: An option is a Live Blind made in the dark before the cards are dealt. If no one raises, the “option” player may raise the pot.
Out Button: A disc placed in front of a player who wishes to sit out a hand(s) but remain in the game.
Out of Line: Or “of a bet”. Made on a weak hand in an attempt to get other players to fold.
Outdraw: When one person beats his or her opponent by drawing a better hand.
Outs: The number of cards left in the deck that will improve a player’s hand to a likely winner. For example, with the board showing A-Clubs, 9-Diamonds, 4-Diamonds, 3-Clubs, a player is all in with K-Clubs, Q-Clubs (a flush draw) versus someone with A-Spades, K-Spades (top pair). The player with the flush draw has nine “outs” — namely, the nine clubs that will make a winning flush.
Over the top: When you re-raise another player’s raise, you are said to be “Going over the top of him”. In no limit games, if you throw all of your bankroll in after another player raises, you are going “All-in over the top”.
Overbet: Typically used in no-limit games to describe a bet that is equal to or greater than the size of the pot. For example, “There was $150 in the middle after the turn, then when the river came he made a big overbet of $200.”
Overblind: Also called oversize blind. A blind used in some pots that is bigger than the regular big blind, and usually increases the stakes proportionally.
Overcall: To call a bet after one or more players have already called. For example, on the river a player bets and a second player calls. A third player then calls as well, with that action referred to as an “overcall.”
Overcards: Often used to refer to a community card that ranks higher than one’s pocket pair. For example, if you hold j-Spades, j-Diamonds and the flop comes q-Diamonds, 9-Clubs, 4-Spades, the flop has one “overcard” (the queen) to your pair. Can also be used to refer hole cards that rank higher than any card appearing on the board. For example, if you have a-Clubs, k-Spades and the flop comes q-Diamonds, 9-Clubs, 4-Spades, you have no pair but still have two “overcards” to the board.
Overlay: When a poker room hosts a tournament for which they have set a guarantee on the prize pool and not enough players participate to meet that prescribed amount, the room will add the needed money to meet the guarantee, with that addition referred to an an “overlay.” For example, say a tournament has a $100+$20 buy-in — meaning $100 of each player’s entry goes to the prize pool and $20 is for tourney fees — and that tournament is advertised as having a $10,000 guarantee. That means at least 100 players need to enter the event for the prize pool to reach $10,000. However, if only 80 players participate, that means players will have only contributed $8,000 to the prize pool, and so the poker room will have to supply the other $2,000 to meet the guarantee. The event will then be said to have had an “overlay of $2,000.”
Overpair: A pocket pair higher than any of the cards on the board.

P

Paint Cards: King, Queen and Jack; face cards; court cards; picture cards.
Paints: Face or picture cards (Jack, Queen and King).
Pair: Two cards of the same face or number value.
Pass: To fold.
Passive: A playing style marked by a tendency to check or call more often than to bet or raise (as someone playing an “aggressive” style might do). Not to be confused with a “tight” style which involves playing a lower frequency of hands, relatively speaking. That is to say, a player can be “loose-passive” (playing lots of hands and checking/calling frequently) or tight-passive (playing fewer hands but also check/calling frequently).
Pat: Not drawing any cards in a draw game.
Pay Off: To call on the final round of betting when you may or may not think you have the best hand.
Pay Station: A player who rarely folds, thus who frequently calls better hands and loses.
Pedigree: A nickname for K, 9.
Peel: To call a bet primarily in order to see another card with the hopes of improving, often when holding a drawing hand or some other speculative hand the value of which is uncertain to the player making the call (“When he bet the turn I decided to peel and see the river”). Also used more broadly to refer to a community card being dealt (“An ace peeled on the turn”).
Peg: Mark the fronts of cards with a pin, thumbtack, ring, etc., in such a way that the thief making such marks can later tell by feel the ranks of the cards. Such marks are applied to the surface of cards and do not tear the cards, merely add indentations that can be felt from the back, as opposed to nailing (see nail), which puts marks in the edges of cards. Also called punch or blister. This is the opposite of prick, in which the thief marks the backs of cards.
Pegging: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device.
Penny Ante: A very low-stake game.
Picked Off: To get called when you are bluffing.
Picture Cards: Face cards (Jack, Queen and King).
Pigeon: A pigeon in poker is a player who’s seen as a bad player by other players. People may refer to a certain player as a “pigeon” when they think someone doesn’t grab the basics of poker strategy or plays a completely different strategy than everyone else. The use of this term is not common at all in poker anymore, mostly replaced by the words “Donkey,” “Donk,”, and “Fish.”
Pineapple Hold’em: A hold’em variation involving three hole cards and discarding one.
Pips: The spots or marks on the face of a card.
Pips, Pipped: The spots or marks on the face of a card. When used as a verb, the term refers to a card beating another by a single “pip” — i.e., outranking another by one. “I turned over A-Spades, 9-Hearts, but he showed A-Diamonds, 10-Clubs having me pipped with his kicker.”
Play Back: To raise or re-raise another player’s bet.
Play Behind: Have chips in play that are not in front of you (allowed only when waiting for chips that are already purchased). This differs from table stakes.
Play Fast: To bet aggressively on a hand.
Play Over: To play in a seat when the occupant is absent.
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.
Played Card: A card dealt to a hand.
Playing the Board: In flop games when your best five card hand is all five of the community cards.
Playover Box: A clear plastic box used to cover and protect the chips of an absent player when someone plays over that seat.
Pocket: The down cards or hole cards.
Pocket Rockets: A pair of Aces in the pocket or hole.
PocketCards: The two cards dealt to you at the beginning of a Hold ‘Em hand that no one else is entitled to see.
Point: The value of a card.
Poker: A money-management game that uses cards for manipulation and deception for winning.
Poker Face: A face not showing any emotion or change in expression.
Poker network: The group of several poker rooms owned by the same company. Usage: Poker network is like other business networks with satellite companies. Speaking about poker, the biggest poker room network is IGlobalMedia which owes some online poker rooms: Intertops Poker, CoralBet, MultiPoker, also PartyPoker and EmpirePoker which are the biggest in the world.
Poker room: 1) the unique poker software where players can win money. Advanced software has a connection to internet what gives the feature to play with other players online. 2) the facility in casino or at home where poker games are played at special table. Usage: Poker room is a unique place in internet where players can play online poker with real or artificial money. So far there are about 200 different online poker rooms. Some of them are owned by poker networks.
Poker Rules: A loose, flexible framework of traditions for playing poker.
Polarized: Used to describe a player’s perceived range of hands as being restricted either to very strong or very weak holdings, as has been suggested by the way the player has played the hand. A player whose range is polarized is sometimes said either to have the nuts or air.
Position: Where a player is seated in relation to the dealer, therefore establishing that player’s place in the betting order.
Post: When you post a bet, you place your chips in the pot. (You must post the Blinds.)
Post-Mortem: Discussion or analysis of the particular card game after its end.
Pot: The money or chips in the center of a table that players try to win.
Pot Committed: A reference to (1) a player having already committed significant chips to a pot, thus making it difficult for that player to fold to a subsequent bet or raise; or (2) a player having bet a large percentage of his or her stack in a hand and thus being similarly less likely to fold to another bet or raise. In either case, the player having committed chips already signifies that player’s likely “commitment” to staying in the hand.
Pot Limit: This is a game where the maximum bet can equal the pot.
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 at least $32 in the pot (including the most recent bet) to make your call correct.
Potting Out: Agreeing with another player to take money out of a pot, often to buy food, cigarettes, or drinks, or to make side bets.
Preflop: Pertaining to the bet or situation before the flop. Usage: Like in sentence “When you are in a crazy game that is constantly having capped family pots preflop, you can call with a minimum of 22/JTs/AQ.”
Premium Hands: The best possible hands.
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”.
Pricking: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device.
Probe Bet: Similar to a “blocking bet,” a “feeler bet” is usually a small, leading bet made after the flop. However, while a blocking bet is often made late in the hand (e.g., on the river) explicitly to prevent an opponent from betting larger, a feeler bet is generally a less specific attempt to gather information from how others respond. Sometimes called a “feeler bet.”
Prop: A person hired by the cardroom to work as a shill.
Proposing Bets: Side bets between players that are not related to the outcome of the hand.
Proposition Player/Prop: An employee of the gaming establishment whose primary purpose is just to play and help keep enough players at a table. The prop player does not participate in wins or losses.
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”.
Public Poker: Poker played in gambling casinos or in public card clubs in which the pots are cut for profit.
Punctuating: A cheater’s technique to mark cards with his fingernail or a device.
Puppy Feet/Pups: Club flush or just the suit of Clubs.
Push: When the dealer pushes the chips to the winning player at the end of a hand. It’s also when dealers rotate to other tables.
Pushing Bets: The situation in which two or more players make an agreement to return bets to each other when one of them wins a pot in which the other or others play. Also called saving bets.
Put Down: To fold a hand.
Putting on the Heat: To pressure the other players by betting aggressively.

Q

Quadruplets: Four of a kind. Abbreviation Quads.
Quads: Four of a kind.
Qualifier: In High-Low games, it is a requirement the Low hand must meet to win the pot.
Quart: A four-card straight flush.
Quartered: To divide half a pot between two tying hands in split pot games. This is Applicable to Omaha Hi-Lo Poker.
Quint: A straight flush.
Quint Major: A royal straight flush.
Quitting Time: An agreed-upon time to end a poker game (Curfew).
Quorum: The minimum number of players needed to start a poker game.

R

Rabbit Hunting: Looking through the undealt deck of cards.
Rack: A tray that holds 100 poker chips in five stacks of twenty chips each.
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.
Rail: The rim of a poker table or a barrier outside a poker area.
Railbird: Someone who hangs around a poker room who watches the games and/or is looking to get into action.
Rainbow: A term used in hold’em or Omaha to refer to a flop containing three different suits, meaning no flush can be completed on the turn. Can also mean a complete five-card board that has no more than two of any suit, thus meaning no flush is possible.
Raise: To increase the previous bet.
Raise Blind: 1) To raise without looking at one’s cards. 2) A forced raise.
Rake: Chips taken from the pot by the cardroom for compensation for hosting the game.
Range: Often used to refer to a grouping of starting hands, usually in the context of speaking of an opponent’s likely holdings. For example, if a tight player decides to reraise a preflop bet, that action likely narrows his “range” of possible hands. If he keeps betting on later streets, that further narrows his possible hands depending on how the community cards come. When discussing strategy, it is often more feasible to talk about an opponent having a “range” of possible hands than a particular hand. That is to say, it usually makes more sense to conclude from an opponent’s betting that he has, say, “a range that includes big pairs and high cards” than to pin down precisely one particular hand he might have.
Rank: The value of each card and hand.
Rap: When a player knocks on the table indicating that he/she has checked.
Raquel Welch: A nickname for 3, 8. Named so after the curvaceous actress’ measurements.
Ratholing: The action of taking chips or money off the table (usually surreptitiously) during a cash game. Illegal in most public card rooms, and typically viewed as a violation of etiquette in home games. Also known as “going south.”
Razz: Seven Card Stud where the lowest five cards win the pot.
Re-buy: The amount of money a player pays to add a fixed number of chips to his/her stack in a tournament.
Re-draw: An extra out such as having a straight with a flush re-draw.
Re-raise: To raise a raise.
Reading: Analysis of a player based on how they play, mannerisms, and tells.
Rebuy: The amount of money a player pays to add a fixed number of chips to his/her stack in a tournament.
Redeal: A new deal after a misdeal.
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.
Reraise: To raise someone’s raise.
Reverse Implied Odds: The opposite of implied odds which estimate what additional chips you will win should you complete a draw or make a better hand than your opponent, reverse implied odds estimate how much you will lose should you complete your draw yet make a hand that is worse than your opponent’s. For example, if you are drawing to a low flush and hit your hand yet find yourself up against an opponent drawing to a better flush, reverse implied odds refer to how much you’ll lose should the flush be completed.
Reverse Tell: A deliberate action made by a player to convey the opposite of whatever information that action might appear to convey. While most tells are involuntary, a reverse tell is more often done consciously. Acting strong while weak is a common tell; therefore, acting strong when strong can work as a reverse tell. Sometimes called a “false tell.”
Ribbon Clerk: A small time gambler.
Ring Game: A “live” game that is not a tournament.
River: This is the last card given in all games. In Hold’em and Omaha, it is also known as 5th street. In Stud games, it is also known as 7th street.
Rock: A passive, tight player.
ROI: Short for “return on investment,” in poker the term is most often used with reference to tournaments as a way to measure and compare players’ profitability. ROI is calculated as a percentage by dividing one’s profit (the amount one cashes for minus the buy-in) by one’s expense (the buy-in) and multiplying the result by 100. Say a player enters a $100 tournament and cashes for $150. Divide the profit ($50) by the buy-in ($100) to get 0.5, then multiply that by 100 for an ROI of 50%.
Rolled Up: In seven-card stud, being dealt three of a kind in the first three cards.
Rotation: Movement in the direction of the deal… clockwise.
Round of Betting: This is when players have the opportunity to bet, check or raise. Each round of betting ends when the last bet or raise has been called.
Round of Play: The action sequence in which every player deals a poker hand.
Rounders: Guys who hustle for a living. This is also the name of a popular poker movie starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton.
Royal Flush: This is an Ace high straight (A-K-Q-J-10) of the same suit. It is the best possible hand in poker.
Run: 1) A straight. 2) Several good hands after one another; a rush (q.v.) Usage: As in, “I was on a run.”
RTP: RTP stands for Return To Player. The RTP percentage is a measure of the percentage of stakes a game returns to players (generally over a minimum of one million plays), and is a generally accepted guide to how a game will perform.
Run a Pot: To win a hand by successfully bluffing throughout a hand, implying more than one bet.
Runner-Runner: A way of describing a “backdoor” draw that has been completed using both the turn and river (running cards). As in “he made a runner-runner flush to beat my flopped trips.”
Running Bad: A losing streak.
Running Good: A winning streak.
Running It Twice: In some cash games, if a player is all in before the river has been dealt, the players involved can agree to “run it twice” which means dealing the remaining streets two times, with half the pot in each instance going to the player making the best hand. (Players can also “run it” more than twice by having the remaining cards dealt more times, if they wish and the game allows it.) For example, a player with A-Clubs, K-Diamonds goes all in and gets called by another with Q-Diamonds, Q-Clubs, and they agree to run it twice. The first board is dealt and comes 2-Diamonds, 8-Spades, K-Hearts, 9-Clubs, 8-Spades, meaning the first player wins with kings, then the second comes 9-Hearts, 3-Diamonds, 3-Clubs, J-Hearts, 7-Diamonds, meaning the second player wins with queens. The two players split the pot, each winning half.
Running Pair: When the last two cards on the board happen to be pair.
Rush: A winning streak.

S

Sandbagging: Holding back and just calling despite the fact that you have a very good hand, usually to disguise strength, to provoke bluffs, or to check-raise. An example of slow playing.
Santa Barbara: In hold ’em, A-K as one’s first two cards. Derives from a destructive oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast, the name arising from the more well-known name for the hand, big slick.
Satellite: A tournament in which the winner (or winners) earn seats in another, larger tournament rather than cash prizes. Satellites are a popular way for players to win their way into big buy-in tournaments without having to pay the full entry fee.
Scare Card: Often used in hold’em to refer to a meaningful community card that completes possible draws or has the potential to turn a once-winning hand into trash. For example, say you have pocket aces, raise before the flop, and get one caller. The flop comes Q-Clubs, 9-Diamonds, 4-Clubs and your opponent calls your continuation bet, then the turn brings the 8-Clubs. That turn card is a “scare card” for you as it could complete either an open-ended straight draw or a flush draw for your opponent.
Scoop: To win the entire pot.
Scramble: A facedown mixing of the cards.
Seat Position: The position of a player relative to the other players.
Seating List: A waiting list. A player would put his or her name on this list if there were no seats at the table at which they wish to play.
Second Best: The best losing hand.
Second Pair: In flop games, when you pair the second highest card on the board.
See: To call.
Seed: A value used in the process of obtaining provably fair results from a game.
Segwit: SegWit is the process by which the block size limit on a blockchain is increased by removing signature data from bitcoin transactions. … Hence, segregated witness, in short, means to separate transaction signatures.
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 bet or raise made with what is likely an inferior hand at the time, but which has the potential to improve on a later betting round (e.g, with a drawing hand that could improve if the draw is completed).
Sequence: Cards of consecutive value as in a straight (e.g., four, five, six, seven, eight).
Session: The period in which a poker game is held.
Set: Making three of a kind in hold’em or Omaha by having a pocket pair that matches one of the cards on the board.
Set a Trap: To play in a manner that creates a false impression that can be used to win future hands.
Set Mining: Holding a pocket pair before the flop, engaging in a pot solely in the hopes of turning the pair into a set. Usage: Under the gun opened for 500 and I called holding 2-Spades, 2-Hearts. I was really just set mining, hoping to hit a third deuce on the flop. And wouldn’t you know it, the flop came 2-Diamonds, 5-Hearts, J-Clubs!
Setup: Two suited decks, each with different colored backs, to replace the current decks in a game.
Seven-card Stud: A well-known poker game in which players get three down cards and four up cards. You play the best five of those seven cards. Click here for information on Seven-card Stud.
Seventh Street: This is the final round of betting in Seven Card Stud and Stud 8 or Better.
Shaka Zulu: A black King or in the cases of a pair, the king of spades and king of clubs.
Shark: A good/crafty player often posing as a fish early in the game.
Shills: Shills are paid props who help start and maintain poker games.
Shoot-out: A tournament with no rebuys. When you lose all your chips, you’re out. More usually called a “freeze-out” or, in the case of a single table, a “sit-and-go”. Usage: Also “Shootout”. Like in sentence “He won the No Limit Holdem Shoot-out at the California State Poker Championship”.
Shootout: A multi-table tournament in which players separately play down to a single winner on each table, then the winners advance to the next round so on. For example, a “shootout” event at the World Series of Poker might begin with 1,000 players playing at 100 ten-handed tables, with the 100 winners of each advancing to play at ten more ten-handed tables in the second round. The ten winners of those tables would then play a final ten-handed table to determine a winner. “Shootout” tournaments are popular among single table sit-n-go players, since the format is essentially to play a sequence of single table sit-n-gos.
Short Buying: Purchasing chips after your initial purchase. Usually the minimum for a short buy-in is less than the initial buy-in.
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.
Short-Handed: An adjective used to describe a game with few players.
Shot Clock: With a shot clock at the table, players have a certain time to act on their hand. Typically players get 30 seconds per decision. On top of that, in most poker tournaments operating a shot clock, players get a certain amount of time bank cards. These cards are typically worth an additional 30 or 60 seconds. The shot clock is a physical clock on the table that counts down the time players have left to act on their hand. Once the clock reaches zero without the player having decided to call, fold, bet, or raise, a player’s hand is either dead, or a player is forced to play one of their time bank cards to gain some more time to think. Every tournament organizer decided how many time bank cards players get at the beginning of the tournament. If a player has time bank cards left when he or she busts, those are typically forfeited. Some tournaments let you carry over your time bank cards to coming days, and some give out additional cards upon making the next day, and/or making the final table. Usage: The shot clock told us Phil Ivey only had 3 seconds left to act when he moved all in!
Shove: The act of going all in, putting all of your chips on the line. Usage: Daniel Negreanu shoved for 1.5 million. Erik Seidel didn’t call the all-in.
Show: To expose one’s cards.
Show Cards: The exposed cards in stud.
Showdown: The showing of cards following the final betting round when more than one player remains in the hand in order to compare them and determine the winner(s).
Shuffle: The act of mixing the cards before a hand.
Side Bet: Any bet made outside the pot.
Side Pot: Created once a player is all in and other players continue betting “on the side” (literally). The side pot is distinct from the main pot in that only the players still betting play for it, while the all-in player can only win the main pot. If there are multiple all-in players, multiple side pots can potentially be created. For example, in a $1/$2 no-limit hold’em game, Player A raises to $8 from early position, then Player B reraises all in with his last $20 from the cutoff seat. Player C then calls the reraise from the button, the blinds fold, and Player A calls as well. The main pot having been created, Players A and C will then bet into a side pot after the flop if they wish.
Sit-and-Go: Either a single- or multi-table tournament without a scheduled starting time that begins when the number of needed players have registered. Sometimes written as “sit ‘n’ go” or “sit-n-go” and thus abbreviated as “SNG.”
Sitting Out: This is when you choose to leave a table for a few hands. If a Player sits out for more than fifteen minutes, or has missed two rounds of blinds, they are removed from the table.
Sixth Street: In Seven-card Stud, this is the fourth “up” card dealt to the player (their 6th card). It is also the 4th round of betting.
Slow Play: To play a strong hand weakly so more players will stay in the pot. Also sometimes called “sandbagging.”
Slow Roll: To delay revealing a strong (likely winning) hand at showdown in an attempt to force other players to show their hands first. Whether done intentionally or not, slow rolling is considered poor etiquette for giving players false hope of winning a hand.
Small Blind: The amount put in the pot by the person immediately to the left of the dealer “button” prior to the cards being dealt.
Smooth Call: To call an opponent’s bet in a situation when raising would have been the more conventional play. For example, a player in the cutoff opens with a preflop raise, then the player on the button chooses only to call and not raise with pocket aces (disguising the strength of his hand). The button player is said to have “smooth called.” See also the similar term “flat call.”
Snapped Off: To get a good hand beat.
Snow Job: A successful bluff.
Snowmen: A nickname for {8-}{8-}.
Soft Play: A form of collusion in which a player fails to bet or raise in a hand when the situation would warrant doing so, primarily so as to avoid winning money or chips from a friend. By playing the hand differently — i.e., in a “soft” way — the player may avoid taking a friend’s chips, but compromises the integrity of the game for others.
Soft Seat: A seat or game, which is favorable because of the lack of skill at the table.
Speed Limit: A pair of fives.
Splash Around: The act of gambling more aggressive and imprudent then should be.
Split: Tie.
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.
Splitting Blinds: When no one else has entered the pot, an agreement between the big blind and small blind to each take back their blind bets instead of playing the deal (chopping).
Splitting Openers: In high draw jacks-or-better poker, dividing openers in hopes of making a different type of hand. Example: You open the pot with a pair of aces. One of your aces is a spade, as are the three other cards in the hand. If you throw away the non-spade ace to go for the flush, you announce to the table, “Splitting openers.”
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.
Squared Deck: An evenly stacked deck ready for cutting or dealing.
Squeeze: Can refer to (1) looking at one’s cards by slowly bending them back or (2) the act of reraising before the flop after there has been a raise and one or more callers (see “squeeze play”).
Squeeze Play: Generally considered a preflop move — often a bluff — that occurs when a player reraises after there has been a raise and one or more callers. See also “squeeze.”
Stack: A pile of chips.
Stacked Deck: A deck that has been arranged to give one player a huge advantage.
Stake: The amount of a player’s BUY-IN, or the amount of money they are willing to play with in a given session.
Stand Off: To call a raise. “Opener raises, I stand off”.
Stay: When a player remains in the game by calling rather than raising.
Steal: To steal the pot is raising in expectation that all other players will fold, if they fold the player has stolen the pot.
Steal Position: The next to last or last position.
Steal Raise: A raise by someone in late position in an attempt to reduce the number of players and/or steal the pot.
Steal the Antes: To win a small pot consisting only of antes by betting a weak hand and having the other players fold.
Steal the Blinds: To win a small pot consisiting of only blinds by betting a weak hand and having other players fold.
Steam: A synonym for “tilt” describing when a player becomes frustrated (often after losing) and plays poorly thereafter, increasing the chances of losing more.
Steamrolling: Re-raising to make a player(s) call two bets instead of one.
Steel The Blinds: Win just the blinds by bluffing; get the blinds to fold, usually by opening in late position, and thus win the blinds. Usage: See blind robber.
Steel Wheel: A five high straight (A-2-3-4-5) of the same suit.
Straddle: A straddle is a blind raise made before the cards are dealt which is usually double the size of the big blind. When the preflop action reaches the straddler and there has not been a raise, that player is given the option to raise. When describing a hand, a player making a straddle bet is sometimes referred to as “the straddle.”
Straight: Five consecutive cards of any suit.
Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit.
Stranger: A new or unfamiliar card in a hand after the draw.
Strategic Bluff: A bluff made with a longer term goal; for example, to give the impression of a loose player.
Streak: A run of winning or losing hands.
Street: Cards dealt on a particular round in stud games. For instance, the fourth card in a player’s hand is often known as fourth street, the sixth card as sixth street, and so on.
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.
String Raise: A bet made in more than one motion, without the declaration of a raise (not allowed). See also “string bet.”
Strip poker: The game of poker which is based on removing clothes. It can be played online and at home. The game is five card draw. Every time one wins or loses a certain amount, there is an opportunity to remove an article of your opponent’s clothing. Usage: There are lots of online strip poker rooms, flash games and downloadable software.
Structure: The limits put on the blinds/ante, bets, and raises in any particular game.
Stub: The portion of the deck which has not been dealt.
Stuck: A player who is losing in a game.
Stud Games: Games in which players get down cards and up cards.
Suck Out: A slang term referring to a player drawing out an opponent to win a hand after having been an underdog to do so. For example, a player goes all in with K-Spades, K-Diamonds and is called by an opponent holding A-Clubs, A-Hearts. A king then comes among the community cards, thus enabling the player to “suck out” and win the hand despite having been behind when the chips went in.
Suicide King: King of Hearts. So named because in the drawing the king appears to be stabbing himself in the head.
Suit: A characteristic of a playing card. The card being either of Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, or Spades.
Suited Connectors: A hold’em starting hand containing two cards that are consecutive in rank and of the same suit; e.g., Q-Hearts, J-Hearts, 7-Clubs, 6-Clubs.
Suited Gappers: Two non-consecutive cards of the same suit that are close enough to each other that they can make a straight on the flop.
Super-Bluff: To win a hand by bluffing against a player who has a very good hand.

T

T.J. Cloutier: The “T.J. Cloutier” is the j-Clubs, 9-Clubs and named after the Poker Hall of Famer because he flopped three straight flushes with the hand in a single year.
Table: The surface on which poker is played.
Table Cards: Cards turned face-up on the table for use in everyone’s hand, such as used in Cincinnati.
Table Charge: A fee paid for playing.
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 as 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.
Tank: Used as either a verb or a noun, in both cases “tank” refers to a player thinking for a long time about a decision in a hand. E.g., “His opponent’s all-in bet caused him to tank for two minutes before folding” or “When the action reached her she went into the tank for a long time before acting.”
Tap: In no-limit games, to wager all of one’s money in one bet.
Tapped Out: Out of money.
Tell: An action that gives clues about the cards someone is holding.
Texas Hold’em: This is also the name for Hold’em, the most popular form of poker.
Texture: A reference to the relative connectedness of community cards in hold’em and Omaha and their potential for creating or completing draws and other hands. See “Wet Board” and “Dry Board.”
Third Street: In Seven Card Stud this is the first betting round on the first three cards.
Thirty Miles: Three tens.
Three Flush: Three cards of the same suit.
Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same number or face value (“trips”).
Three-Bet: Commonly used to refer to an initial reraise before the flop. The term has its origins in fixed-limit games where an initial raise is worth two bets, then the reraise is equal to three and so on. Similarly in no-limit games the big blind is the first (forced) bet, the first raise is the second, and the first reraise a “three-bet.” After that, the next reraise is called a “four-bet” and so on. Thus when someone is described as “five-bet shoving all in,” it is understood that the all-in raise came following a series of raises back and forth.
Throwing a Party: When several loose or amateur players are making significant monetary contributions to the pot.
Ticket: A card.
Tie: Two hands of equal value. The pot is usually divided between tied hands that win. Usage: When both players are tied for the same place. They were knocked out at the same time for the same amount of chips.
Tied On: When your hand is good enough to play it to the end.
Tiger: Little cat.
Tight: A playing style characterized by playing fewer hands than the average, with the player likely only getting involved with a narrow range of hands most of which are strong. Can also refer to a game with little action in which many players are often folding or being unwilling to call raises or bet or raise themselves.
Tight-Aggressive: A style of play distinguished by playing a lower frequency of hands than others (“tight”) yet when playing those hands often leading with bets or raising rather than checking or calling (“aggressive”).
Tilt: The state of playing less well because of emotion, such as following a losing hand or during a downswing. Often characterized by looser, more aggressive play, although there are many forms of “tilt” which can negatively affect one’s decision-making. E.g, “He wouldn’t normally shove all in with K, 6 in that situation, but he was on tilt.”
Tilt, On: Behavior as a result of losing, usually negative.
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 “rake”).
Time collection: A fee for a seat rental, paid in advance.
Timid Player: A poker player who frequently fails to call or raise in situations that require it, resulting in financial losses.
TOC: Tournament of Champions.
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: In flop games, when the player pairs one of his down cards with the highest card on board.
Top Two Pair: Having both your pocket cards match the highest two cards on the board.
Tough Player: A superior poker player.
Tournament: A poker competition, normally with an entry fee and prizes.
Tournament Fee: The tournament fee (or house fee) is usually payable with all buy-in tournaments. Usage: A Party Poker tournament fee may look something like this:
Trap: Underbetting a strong hand in order to create a larger pot. See also slow play.
Trapper: A player who underbets a strong hand to create a larger pot.
Treys: A pair of threes.
Triplets: Another name for a three of a kind.
Trips: Three of a kind. In hold’em and Omaha, “trips” is more often used to describe making three of a kind with one card in your hand and a pair on the board. Meanwhile having a pocket pair and making three of a kind with one card on the board is usually referred to as making a “set.”
Trombones: A nickname for 7, 6. Named after the song 76 Trombones in Meredith Wilson’s play and movie The Music Man.
Turbo: A tournament with a faster-than-typical structure in which blinds and antes increase at a quicker rate than usual and levels are often of shorter duration. “Turbo” tournaments are especially popular online, and many live tournaments employ rapid, “turbo”-styled structures (especially for low buy-in events). The World Series of Poker schedule currently features a couple of “turbo” events in which the blinds and antes increase similarly to regular events, but the levels each last 30 minutes (then 40 minutes) as opposed to the one-hour levels used in most non-turbo events.
Turkish Pocket Aces: A pocket pair of eights.
Turn: In flop games, this is the fourth card dealt. It is the third round of betting.
Turncard: The fourth street card in hold’em or Omaha.
Two Flush: Two suited cards.
Two Pair: A hand consisting of two different pairs.
Two-Gapper: A hold’em starting hand with a two-card gap in between two cards preventing them from being connectors. For example, J-Diamonds, 8-Spades is a two-gapper (missing the 10 and 9 in between).
Two-Way Hand: A hand having possibilities of winning both high and low halves of a split-pot game.

U

Uncle Doc: Five-card stud with a single spit or table card and all like it as wild.
Under the Gun: Being the first person to act, being in the earliest position.
Undercut: 1) The final down card being the lowest hole card in low-hole stud. 2) A shuffling technique for preparing a stacked deck. Especially useful for preparing two stacked hands simultaneously.
Underdog: A person or hand who is not mathematically favored to win a pot. For instance, if you flop four cards to your flush, you are not quite a 2:1 underdog to make your flush by the river (that is, you will make your flush about one in three times). See also “dog”.
Underpair: A pocket pair of lower value than the lowest card on the board.
Underplay: To make a small bet in the hope of drawing other players into the pot.
Union Oil: A nickname for 7, 6. Named after Union Oil’s company symbol.
Unlimited Poker: Poker in which no limit is placed on bets or raises.
Up: 1) The ace of anteing. 2) The higher of two pair- e.g., queens and tens is queens up.
Up Card: A card that is dealt face-up.
Up the Creek: A game in which split-whiskered kings are wild.
Upcard: Cards that are dealt face up, as opposed to downcards that are dealt face down. In seven-card stud, the first two cards are downcards, the next four are upcards, and the seventh is another downcard.
Uphill: To chase or try to outdraw a better hand.
Utah: See Cincinnati.

V

Vaca: Cow; usually preceded by la. Usage: If a player says “Vaca vaca” to a floor person (or another player), it generally means, “Do you want to go half and half with me in this game?”
Valet: Jack (the card); comes from French.
Valle Card: Any 3, 5, or 7; comes from the game of panguingue, in which those cards have value (which is the meaning of the word valle) and for which other players pay a player who melds them.
Value: As in “bet for value”. This means that you would actually like your opponents to call your bet (as opposed to a bluff). Generally it’s because you have the best hand. However, it can also be a draw which, given enough callers, has a positive expectation.
Value Bet: A bet made “for value.” This means that the person doing the betting wants the opponent to call the bet, unlike in the case of a bluff when the player betting desires a fold.
Variance: A measure of the upswings and downswings your bankroll goes through. Variance is not necessarily a measure of how well you play. However, the higher your variance, the wider swings you’ll see in your bankroll.
Verbal Bet: Oral bet.
Verbal Declaration: Oral declaration.
Vest Holdout: A kind of holdout machine. A vest holdout is worn under a thief’s coat. Also called breastworks.
Victory Rip: 1) In a draw game, at the showdown, spreading your hand triumphantly. (It’s usually done in the same manner that a blackjack or poker dealer spreads an entire deck fanned face up on the table in front of her. Spreading one’s hand in this fashion, by the way, is something of a needle, and is not practiced by a refined player, who, when he has an obvious powerhouse, gently and diffidently turns it face up on the table.) 2) A similar method of showing down in any form of poker.
Victory Roll: Victory rip.
Video Poker: A computerized slot machine (video slot machine) based on draw poker on which players try to make certain poker hand combinations. Unlike many other casino games, video poker is a casino game that can sometimes be beaten by skill.
Video Poker Machine: A computerized slot machine (video slot machine) based on draw poker (but not really a form of poker), with card symbols, on which players try to make certain poker hand combinations, a casino game that can sometimes be beaten by skill, the fastest-growing form of mechanized gambling.
Vigorish: House take; time; rake.
Village People: Four queens.
Visible Cards: These are cards dealt face up to each Player. Players use these cards to complete a five-card combination.

W

Walk: A pot won by the last blind when no one opens.
Walk the Table: The automatic winning of the entire pot with a certain specific card or hand.
Walking Sticks: A pair of sevens.
Wash: To Shuffle.
Waving: Coiling or crimping cards by a cheater so the wavy card can be spotted in an opponent’s hand or in the deck.
Wayne Gretzky: A nickname for 9, 9. After the legendary hockey player’s jersey number (99).
Weary Willie: See Elimination.
Wedges: Certain tapered or shaved cards that can be pulled from a deck when needed by the cheater.
Welcher: A player who fails to pay a debt.
Wet Board: A reference to the “texture” of the community cards in hold’em or Omaha. A “wet board” refers to one in which the community cards are suited or connected in ways that provide many possibilities to make straights or flushes, or to provide draws for either or both. For example, a board of 10-Clubs, 9-Hearts, 8-Clubs would be considered “wet.” (See also “Dry Board.”)
Whangedoodle: A round of jackpots played after a big hand such as four of a kind.
Wheel: A-2-3-4-5. The best possible low hand. Also called a “Bicycle”.
Whipsaw: To bet and raise aggressively on both sides of a calling player. (Squeezed Player).
Whiskey Poker: Draw poker with widow cards that can be exchanged from one’s hand.
Whore: A queen.
Widow: 1) A card or cards common to all hands (Spit Card). 2) The money cut from pots (Kitty).
Wild Annie: See Double-Barreled Shotgun.
Wild Card: A card that can be played as any value.
Wild Game: 1) A game using wild cards. 2) A highly spirited or fast-paced game.
Wild Widow: A card turned up for use as a wild card (with all similar cards being wild) in every player’s hand (Spit Card).
Window: The card exposed or flashed at the end of a player’s closed hand.
Window Dressing: A card purposely flashed from one’s closed hand.
Wing: To have a winning streak.
Winning Hand: A winning hand is one that you get paid for. For most video poker games the lowest winning hand is a Pair of Jacks. In Deuces Wild Video Poker, it’s Three of a Kind.
Wired: Or Back-to-Back. A pair, trips, or four of a kind dealt consecutively or back-to-back in a hand… usually in a stud hand starting with the first card.
Wired Pair: A pair in the hole. In 5-card stud, a door card that pairs the hole card.
Wooden Hand: A hand that cannot improve or that cannot possibly win. Comes from deadwood, a term for the discards.
Woolworth: 1) In lowball, a 10-5 hand. 2) In high, two pair, 10s and 5s. 3) In hold ’em, a 10 and 5 as one’s first two cards. 4) Any game in which 10s and 5s are wild. 5) A nonstandard hand sometimes given value in a private or home game, five cards 5 to 10 with no pair, which ranks above three of a kind and below a straight. For all definitions 1 to 4, also called dime store; for definitions 2 and 3 only, sometimes also called dime stores. Usage: Comes from the F. W. Woolworth retail chain, individual stores of which were often called five-and-ten-cent stores or five-and-dime stores (and often shortened to dime stores).
Woppitzer: Someone with body odor or bad breath who hangs around card games (on the outside), often offering gratuitous advice and unwanted opinions, commenting on the play, and generally being obnoxious and the worst kind of kibitzer.
Work the Broads: Cheat at cards, particularly three-card monte.
Working the Telegraph: Cheating by sending prearranged signals, say by finger positions similar to the “signing” used by the hearing impaired, or by certain code words and phrases embedded within seemingly ordinary conversation, of a victim’s hand to the signaler’s confederate. See telegraph.
World Poker Tour: A series of tournaments on the tournament trail, held throughout the year at various casinos and cardrooms and online, the winners of which advance to a $25,000 invitation-only buy-in final event that crowns a world champion. The individual events are shown later on television. Sometimes rendered as the initialism WPT.
World Series of Poker: A Hold ’em tournament with a $10,000 buy-in held every May at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas.
World’s Fair: The nuts. Usage: Usually preceded by the “Watch out for this guy. If he’s in a pot with you, he’ll show you the World’s Fair and the Holy City.”
Worst Hand: A losing hand.
Worst Likely Hand: The worst holding you might put another player on.
Worst of It: Fighting the odds; usually preceded by take the or have the; a situation in which a wager has an unfavorable return. Opposite of best of it.
WPT: World Poker Tour.
wrap: In pot-limit Omaha, a straight draw for which there are more outs than the eight outs of an open-ended straight draw in hold’em. Can also be used to refer to starting hands in PLO with good potential for flopping wrap draws, e.g., J, 10, 9, 7 (a “wrap hand”).
Wraparound: In Omaha, a situation in which your four downcards consist of three consecutive cards, which combine with two cards of the flop to form five consecutive cards, so that a large number of cards on the turn or river give you a straight. For example, your downcards are 6-5-4-A, and the flop is 7-8-K. You can make a straight with any of 13 cards, any 6, 5, or 4, three each of which remain, or any 9, of which four remain. Compare with full wrap and inside wrap.
WSOP: World Series of Poker.

X

X Marks the Spot: See Crisscross.

Y

Yard: 1) $100. 2) A $100 bill.
Yeast: Raise. Usage: “Let’s give it a little yeast” means “I raise.”
YGHN: The expression is used in e-mail, and is also heard at the table. The implication is that the speaker just beat a good hand held by the person to whom the comment is directed, probably by a longshot. Also see IGHN. Usage: “You go home now,” in RGP speak.
Yo: Abbreviation of Yoleven.
Yoleven: 11, in respect to the size of a bet. Probably comes from craps dealers who pronounce the word clearly, loudly, and distinctly to distinguish amid all the casino noise from the similar sounding seven. Often they drag it out to eeyoleven, and this is sometimes shortened to eeyo. Also, yo.
You Roll Two: See New Guinea Stud.
Younger Hand: An obsolete term for any player to the left of the eldest hand (that is, the one immediately to the left of the dealer).
Youngest Hand: An obsolete term for the player immediately to the right of the dealer.

Z

Z-Game: The lowest-stake game in the house. Usage: Contrary to A-Game.
Zilch or Zip: Nothing. A dealt hand with no cards worth holding (i.e., you should redraw all five cards) or a final hand with no payoff. Also called a garbage hand.
Zip: In lowball, 4-3-2-A; always preceded by the rank of the highest card in the hand. Also, Nothing. Usage: For example, 8-zip is 8-4-3-2-A.
Zombie: A poker player with no tells (see tell), one who has a poker face, shows no emotion, and otherwise exhibits no behavior to give away his holdings.
Zuke: Toke. This term is generally used only by dealers.