Poker Terms
Aces Up: Two pair, a pair of Aces and any other pair.
ACTION: A fold, check, call, bet, or raise. For certain situations,
doing something formally connected with the game that conveys information
about your hand may also be considered as having taken action. Examples
would be showing your cards at the end of the hand, or indicating the number
of cards you are taking at draw.
Active Player: A player still involved in a hand.
AGGRESSIVE ACTION: A wager that could enable a player to win a pot
without a showdown; a bet or raise.
All Blue: A flush containing either clubs or spades.
ALL-IN: When you have put all of your playable money and chips into
the pot during the course of a hand, you are said to be all-in.
All Pink: A flush containing either diamonds or hearts.
Ante: A prescribed amount posted before the start of a hand by all
players.
Back Door: Making a hand that the player wasn't drawing at.
Back Raise: To reraise another players raise.
Bad Beat: A hand being beat by another hand that had a very low
percentage of becoming a winning hand.
BET: The act of placing a wager in turn into the pot on any betting
round, or the chips put into the pot.
BIG BLIND: The largest regular blind in a game.
Blank: A card that has little value to the hand.
BLIND: A required bet made before any cards are dealt.
BLIND GAME: A game which utilizes a blind.
Bluff: A bet or raise with a hand that is unlikely to beat the other
players.
BOARD: (1) The board on which a waiting list is kept for players
wanting seats in specific games.
(2) Cards faceup on the table common to each of the hands.
BOARDCARD: A community card in the center of the table, as in hold em
or Omaha.
Bottom Pair: Pairing the lowest card on the board.
BOXED CARD: A card that appears faceup in the deck where all other
cards are facedown.
BROKEN GAME: A game no longer in action.
Button: A player who is in the designated dealer position. See dealer
button.
BUTTON GAMES: Games in which a dealer button is used.
BUY-IN: The minimum amount of money required to enter any game.
CALIFORNIA LOWBALL: Ace-to-five lowball with a joker.
CARDS SPEAK: The face value of a hand in a showdown is the true value
of the hand, regardless of a verbal announcement.
CAPPED: Describes the situation in limit poker in which the maximum
number of raises on the betting round have been reached.
CHECK: To waive the right to initiate the betting in a round, but to
retain the right to act if another player initiates the betting.
CHECK-RAISE: To waive the right to bet until a bet has been made by
an opponent, and then to increase the bet by at least an equal amount when
it is your turn to act.
Cold Call: To call a bet or multiple bets for the first time in a
round.
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.
COMMON CARD: A card dealt face up 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: The cards dealt face up in the center of the table
that can be used by all players to form their best hand in the games of
hold'em and Omaha.
COMPLETE THE BET: To increase an all-in bet or forced bet to a full
bet in limit poker.
Chase: To play a hand that is most likely worse than at least one
other player.
Check: To pass without betting.
CUT: To divide the deck into two sections in such a manner as to
change the order of the cards.
CUT-CARD: Another term for the bottom card.
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 hand that is not legally playable.
DEAD MONEY: Chips that are taken into the center of the pot because
they are not considered part of a particular player's bet.
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.
DEALER 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.
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.
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.
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.
DOWNCARDS: Cards that are dealt facedown in a stud game.
DRAW: (1) The poker form where players are given the opportunity to
replace cards in the hand. In some places like California, the word draw is
used referring to draw high, and draw low is called lowball.
(2) The act of replacing cards in the hand.
(3) The point in the deal where replacing is done is called the draw.
Drawing Dead: Drawing to a hand that cannot win because someone
already holds a hand that will beat what you are drawing to.
Dominated: A hand that yields three or less outs which makes
improving it very difficult.
Early Position: A position in which you must act before most of the
players during a round.
FACECARD: A king, queen, or jack.
Flop: The first three community cards dealt up at one time at a poker
table.
FIXED LIMIT: In limit poker, any betting structure in which the
amount of the bet on each particular round is pre-set.
FLASHED CARD: A card that is partially exposed.
FLOORPERSON: A casino employee who seats players and makes decisions.
FLOP: In hold'em or Omaha, the three community cards that are turned
simultaneously after the first round of betting is complete.
FLUSH: A poker hand consisting of five cards of the same suit.
FOLD: To throw a hand away and relinquish all interest in a pot.
FOURTH STREET: The second upcard in seven-card stud or the first
boardcard after the flop in hold'em (also called the turn card).
FOULED HAND: A dead hand.
FORCED BET: A required wager to start the action on the first betting
round (the normal way action begins in a stud game).
FREEROLL: A chance to win something at no risk or cost.
FULL BUY: A buy-in of at least the minimum requirement of chips
needed for a particular game.
FULL HOUSE: A hand consisting of three of a kind and a pair.
HAND: (1) All a player's personal cards.
(2) The five cards determining the poker ranking.
(3) A single poker deal.
HEADS-UP PLAY: Only two players involved in play.
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.
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.
KANSAS CITY LOWBALL: A form of draw poker low also known as
deuce-to-seven, in which the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 and straights and
flushes count against you.
Kicker: The highest unpaired card that helps determine the value of a
five-card poker hand.
KILL (OR 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 pot with a forced kill by the winner of the two previous
pots, or the winner of an entire pot of sufficient size in a high-low split
game. (Some pots can be voluntarily killed.)
Late Position: A position in which you act after most of the other
players during a round.
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.
LIVE BLIND: A blind bet giving a player the option of raising if no
one else has raised.
LIST: The ordered roster of players waiting for a game.
LOCK-UP: A chip marker that holds a seat for a player.
Loose: Playing more hands than normal.
Loose Game: A game with a lot of players in most hands.
LOWBALL: A draw game where the lowest hand wins.
LOWCARD: The lowest upcard at seven-card stud, which is required to
bet.
Middle Pair: Pairing the second highest card on the board.
Middle Position: A position in which you act somewhere between most
of the other players during a round.
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.
MISSED BLIND: A required bet that is not posted when it is your turn
to do so.
MUCK: (1) The pile of discards gathered facedown in the center of the
table by the dealer.
(2) To discard a hand.
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.
NO-LIMIT: A betting structure where players are allowed to wager any
or all of their chips in one bet.
Nuts: The best possible hand.
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: The choice to raise a bet given to a player with a blind.
Outs: The cards that will improve a hand to win.
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.
Overcard: A hole card that is higher than any other card on the
board.
Overpair: Two hole cards paired and higher than any card on the
board.
PASS: (1) Decline to bet. In a pass-and-out game, this differs from a
check, because a player who passes must fold.
(2) Decline to call a wager, at which point you must discard your hand and
have no further interest in the pot.
Passive: Checking and calling hands rather betting and raising hands.
PAT: Not drawing any cards in a draw game.
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 THE BOARD: Using all five community cards for your hand in
hold'em.
PLAY OVER: To play in a seat when the occupant is absent.
PLAYOVER BOX: A clear plastic box used to cover and protect the chips
of an absent player when someone plays over that seat.
POSITION: (1) The relation of a player s seat to the blinds or the
button.
(2) The order of acting on a betting round or deal.
POT-LIMIT: The betting structure of a game in which you are allowed
to bet up to the amount of the pot.
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.
PROPOSITION BETS: Side bets between players that are not related to
the outcome of the hand.
PROTECTED HAND: A hand of cards that the player is physically
holding, or has topped with a chip or some other object to prevent a fouled
hand.
PUSH: When a new dealer replaces an existing dealer at a particular
table.
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.
RACK: (1) A container in which chips are stored while being
transported.
(2) A tray in front of the dealer, used to hold chips and cards.
Rags: Cards generally not worth playing. IE: 2,7 in Texas Hold'em.
RAISE: To increase the amount of a previous wager. This increase must
meet certain specifications, depending on the game, to reopen the betting
and count toward a limit on the number of raises allowed.
RERAISE: To raise someone's raise.
River: The final card dealt.
SAVING BETS: Same as pushing bets.
SCOOP: To win both the high and the low portions of a pot in a
split-pot game.
SCRAMBLE: A facedown mixing of the cards.
SETUP: Two suited decks, each with different colored backs, to
replace the current decks in a game.
SIDE POT: A separate pot formed when one or more players are all in.
SHORT BUY: A buy-in that is less than the required minimum buy-in.
SHOWDOWN: The final act of determining the winner of the pot after
all betting has been completed.
SHUFFLE: The act of mixing the cards before a hand.
SMALL BLIND: In a game with multiple blind bets, the smallest blind.
SPLIT POT: A pot that is divided among players, either because of a
tie for the best hand or by agreement prior to the showdown.
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.
STACK: Chips in front of a player.
Steal: To bet or raise causing an opponent to fold when you may not
hold the best hand.
STRADDLE: An additional blind bet placed after the forced blinds,
usually double the big blind in size or in lowball, a multiple blind game.
STRAIGHT: Five cards in consecutive rank.
STRAIGHT FLUSH: Five cards in consecutive rank of the same suit.
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 RAISE: A bet made in more than one motion, without the
declaration of a raise (not allowed).
STUB: The portion of the deck which has not been dealt.
SUPERVISOR: A cardroom employee qualified to make rulings, such as a
floorperson, shift supervisor, or the cardroom manager.
Suited: Cards are of the same suit.
TABLE STAKES: (1) The amount of money you have on the table. This is
the maximum amount that you can lose or that anyone can win from you on any
one hand.
2) The requirement that players can wager only the money in front of them at
the start of a hand, and can only buy more chips between hands.
Tight: Playing fewer hands than normal. Tight game - A game with less
players than normal in fewer hands.
TIME: An expression used to stop the action on a hand. Equivalent to
Hold it.
TIME COLLECTION: A fee for a seat rental, paid in advance.
Top Pair: Pairing the highest card on the board.
TOURNAMENT: A poker competition, normally with an entry fee and
prizes.
Turn: The fourth card dealt on the board during community card games.
TURNCARD: The fourth street card in hold'em or Omaha.
UPCARDS: Cards that are dealt face up for opponents to see in stud
games.
WAGER: (1) To bet or raise.
(2) The chips used for betting or raising.
Weak: One who folds too many hands.