Poker Terms
Common No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Terms
Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker terms. This is not meant to be a formal dictionary, just some common terms to familiarize the game of Texas Hold’em.
- Act – To make a play (bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time. It is Ted’s turn to act.
- Action – a) A player’s turn to act. b) A willingness to gamble. c) A bet, along with all the calls of that bet. For example, if one player makes a $5 bet and three other players call, he is said to have $5 “in action”, and to have received $15 worth of action on his bet. Usually this term comes into play when figuring side pots when one or more players is all in.
- All in – Betting all of your chips on the hand in play.
- Bet – a) Any money wagered during the play of a hand. b) More specifically, the opening bet of a betting round.
- Big Slick – An Ace and a King in the pocket or hole.
- Blind – A type of forced bet to induce action.
- Bluff – A bet or raise with an inferior hand.
- Board – The set of community cards (also called “shared cards”), which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. The board is made up of “the flop”, “the turn”, and “the river” cards.
- Broadway – A 10 through ace straight.
- Burn card – A card dealt from the top of a deck, and discarded (“burned”), unused by the players. Burn cards are placed face down next to the discard pile without being revealed to the players.
- Busted – Out of chips. To “bust out” is to lose all of one’s chips.
- Call – To match a bet or a raise.
- Chase – a) To call a bet to see the next card when holding a drawing hand when the pot odds do not merit it. b) To continue to play a drawing hand over multiple betting rounds, especially one unlikely to succeed. c) To continue playing with a hand that is not likely the best because one has already invested money in the pot.
- Check – To bet nothing. If no one has yet opened the betting round, a player may pass or check, which is equivalent to calling the current bet of zero. When checking, a player declines to make a bet; this indicates that he does not wish to open, but does wish to keep his cards and retain the right to call or raise later in the same round if an opponent opens.
- Check out – To fold, in turn, even though there is no bet facing the player. In some games this is considered a breach of etiquette equivalent to folding out of turn. In others it is permitted, but frowned upon.
- Check-raise – a common deceptive play in which a player checks early in a betting round, hoping someone else will open. The player who checked then raises in the same round.
- Chip leader – The player currently holding the most chips in a tournament.
- Chip up – To exchange lower-denomination chips for higher-denomination chips. In tournament play, the term means to remove all the small chips from play by rounding up any odd small chips to the nearest large denomination, rather than using a chip race. Also called “color up”.
- Chop – To split a pot because of a tie.
- Connectors – Two or more cards of consecutive rank.
- Cut card – A distinctive card, usually stiff solid-colored plastic, held against the bottom of the deck during the deal to prevent observation of the bottom card.
- Deal – a) To distribute cards to players in accordance with the rules of the game being played. b) A single instance of a game of poker, begun by shuffling the cards and ending with the award of a pot. Also called a “hand” (though both terms are ambiguous).
- Dealer – a) The person dealing the cards. b) The person who assumes that role for the purposes of betting order in a game, even though someone else might be physically dealing. Also called “button”.
- Declare – To verbally indicate an action or intention.
- Dirty stack – A stack of chips apparently of a single denomination, but with one or more chips of another. Usually the result of inattention while stacking a pot, but may also be an intentional deception.
- Discard – To take a previously dealt card(s) out of play. The set of all discards for a deal is called the “muck”.
- Drawing dead – Playing a drawing hand that will lose even if successful (a state of affairs usually only discovered after the fact or in a tournament when two or more players are “all in” and they show their cards).
- Exposed card – A card whose face has been deliberately or accidentally revealed to players normally not entitled to that information during the play of the game.
- Family pot – A deal in which every (or almost every) seated player called the first opening bet.
- Final table – The last table in a multi-table poker tournament. The final table is set when a sufficient amount of people have been eliminated from the tournament leaving an exact amount of players to occupy one table (typically no more than ten players).
- Flop – Refers to the dealing of the first three face-up cards to the board, or to those three cards themselves.
- Flush – A hand comprising five cards of the same suit.
- Fold – To discard one’s hand and forfeit interest in the current pot. No further bets are required by the folding player, but the player cannot win. Also called “muck”.
- Four of a kind – A hand containing four cards of equal rank. Also called “quads”.
- Full house – A hand with three cards of one rank and two of a second rank. Also called “boat”.
- Gut shot – A hand with four of the five cards needed for a straight, but missing one in the middle.
- Heads up – Playing against a single opponent.
- High card – a) A no pair hand, ranked according to its highest-ranking cards. b) To randomly select a player for some purpose by having each draw one card, the highest of which is selected (for example, to decide who deals first).
- Hole cards – Face-down cards. Also called “pocket cards”.
- Kicker – A card that does not itself take part in determining the rank of the hand, but that may be used to break ties between hands of the same rank.
- Limp in – To enter a pot by simply calling the bet to them instead of raising, called so because a player with a marginal hand may be willing to pay the minimum to see more cards, but would likely fold if the bet increased further.
- Misdeal – A deal which is ruined for some reason and must be redealt.
- Muck – a) To fold. b) To discard one’s hand without revealing the cards. Often done after winning without a showdown or at a showdown when a better hand has already been revealed. c) The discard pile.
- No-limit – Rules designating players are allowed to wager any or all of their chips in a single bet.
- Nuts – The best possible hand in a given situation.
- Off suit – Cards that are not of the same suit.
- One-chip rule – A call of a previous bet using a chip of higher denomination than necessary is considered a call unless it is verbally announced as a raise.
- Open – To bet first.
- Open ended – a hand with four of the five needed cards in sequence (and could be completed on either end) that may improve to a straight.
- Option – The right to raise possessed by the big blind if there have been no raises.
- Out(s) – Any unseen card that, if drawn, will improve a player’s hand to one that is likely to win.
- Play the board – In Texas hold ‘em, where 5 community cards are dealt, if your best hand is on the board and you go to the showdown you are said to “play the board”.
- Pocket pair – When two of a player’s hole cards make a pair.
- Poker face – A blank expression that does not reveal anything about the cards being held. Often used outside the world of poker.
- Position – the order in which players are seated around the table and the related poker strategy implications.
- Position bet – A bet that is made more due to the strength of the bettor’s position than the strength of the bettor’s cards.
- Post – To make the required small or big blind bet.
- Pot – a) The sum of money that players wager during a single hand or game. b) The money won by the winner at the end of a hand.
- Pot-committed – The situation where you can no longer fold because the size of the pot is so large compared to the size of your stack.
- Pot Odds – the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call.
- Pre-flop – The time when players already have their pocket cards but no flop has been dealt yet. It’s also the first round of bets.
- Rabbit hunt – After a hand is complete, to reveal cards that would have been dealt later in the hand had it continued. This is prohibited because it slows the game and may reveal information about concealed hands.
- Raise – to increase the size of the bet required to stay in the pot, forcing all subsequent players to call the new amount.
- Re-raise – Raise after one has been raised. Also called coming “over the top”.
- River – The final card dealt in a poker hand, to be followed by a final round of betting and, if necessary, a showdown.
- Set – Three of a kind situation where two of the cards are the player’s hole cards.
- Showdown – When more than one player remains after the last betting round and the remaining players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners.
- Side pot – A separate pot created to deal with the situation of one player going “all in”.
- Splash the pot – To throw one’s chips in the pot in a disorderly fashion. Not allowed, because the dealer can’t tell how much has been bet.
- String bet – A call with one motion and a later raise with another, or a reach for more chips without stating the intended amount. String bets are prohibited. A player can (and should) defend himself against string bet complaints by declaring his intention before moving any chips. Note that the “I call, and raise…” cliche is a string bet.
- Tilt – Emotional upset, mental confusion, or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in poor play and poor performance.
- Trips – Three of a kind situation where two of the cards are on the board.
- Turn – The fourth of five cards dealt to the board.