Last Updated on October 23, 2023
Learning the game of poker entails being acquainted with and understanding the particular jargon involved with the game. Some poker terminology and phrases are self-evident in their meaning, while others are not. Meanwhile, some are extremely colorful and contribute to the delight of playing games and chatting about them.
Here is a list where you can get explanations of various poker vocabulary, so you don’t get confused when these terms and phrases are used at the tables.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ace High | A hand made without at least a pair where the high card is an Ace. |
| Action | Can be used to describe any of the possible wagers, including bet, raise, call, check, and fold. |
| Aces Up | Two pair, one of which is Aces. |
| Add-On | A sum that can be added for a certain charge at a predetermined break to our stack of tournament chips. |
| A-Game | Refers to playing poker in the best possible mental or emotional state. |
| Aggression Factor | A comparison of the number of aggressive actions (betting and raising) with passive actions (calling). |
| All-in | Means to place all of one’s chips in the middle. |
| Ante | Before any cards are given, all players must make a forced, compulsory payment. |
| Any Two Cards | A term that means, in a specific Hold’em circumstance, the two hole cards don’t matter. |
| Backdoor | Refers to a draw that must catch two cards in a row to be successful. |
| Backraise | Refers to a re-raise. |
| Bad Beat | Refers to losing a hand of poker after getting unlucky. |
| Bankroll | Refers to the total amount of funds a player has at his disposal for the purpose of playing poker. |
| Bet | To “bet” means to make a wager on the current betting round. |
| Big Blind | The position at the table to the direct left of the small blind. This position pays the mandatory big blind payment preflop. |
| Blank | A card that has no impact on the course of events (usually a low card). |
| Blind | Blind action refers to carrying out a task without looking at your cards. |
| Blue Chips | Blue chips are usually worth $10, but it can vary. |
| Bluff | A wager placed with a poor hand in an effort to force your opponent to fold a strong hand. |
| Bottom Pair | Refers to a pair made with the lowest ranked card on the board. |
| Broadway | Any card out of Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace can be referred to as a “broadway”. The Ace-high straight is also referred to as “broadway”. |
| BRM | Аbbreviation for “bankroll management”—methods that determine whether to increase and decrease limitations. |
| Burn | It is common for the dealer to “burn” cards to help minimize the possibility of cheating. Rather than deal from the top of the deck, the top card is discarded (or “burned”) and the second card is dealt. |
| Busted | A draw (like as a straight-draw or flush-draw) is considered “busted” if it missed its card and did not succeed. |
| Button | The button is the most profitable seat at the poker table. It’s to the right of the small blind (SB) and to the left of the cutoff (CO). |
| Call | To “call” means to match the existing wager on the current betting round. |
| Calling Your Bluff | “Calling your bluff” means that your opponent suspects you are bluffing and correctly makes the call. |
| Cap | In a cap game, the maximum number of chips that can be bet after the flop is restricted. |
| Chance | The ‘odds’ or ‘probability’ that something will occur in poker. Often expressed as a percentage. |
| Check | To “check” means to make no wager. The action instead passes to the player on our left. Note that checking is only a valid option if no wager has been made on the current betting round. |
| Check in the Dark | To check on the current betting round without waiting to see which community cards are dealt. |
| Check-Raise | To make a raise where our previous action was to check. |
| Cooler | A “cooler” is a situation where your hand is clearly too strong to fold but ends up beaten by an even stronger hand. |
| Cutoff (CO) | The position at the poker table to the direct right of the button. Provides a good opportunity for stealing the blinds. |
| Dark Bet | A bet made without waiting to see which additional cards are dealt. |
| Dealer | The person who deals the cards. |
| Dead Man’s Hand | According to most sources this is “two pairs” – Aces and Eights. |
| Deuce | Common nickname for a card with a rank value of two. |
| Double Up | To double the size of our chip stack after winning an all in. |
| Draw | A situation where are waiting on cards to complete your hand. |
| Early Position | The first two or three seats on a full ring poker table. |
| Face Card | Any Jack, Queen, or King: the artwork often contains a picture of a face on these cards of the deck. |
| Fastplay | Make a Bet or a raise when holding a strong made hand. |
| Favourite | Indicates that a certain hand or player is statistically likely to win. |
| Flop | The term “flop” refers to three cards that are dealt face up on the table during the betting round. |
| Flush | A hand made with five cards of the same suit. |
| Fold | To “fold” means to discard your cards. |
| Full House | A five card hand made with a combination of three of a kind and one pair. |
| High Hand | The strength of your hand is defined by its highest card (Aces are high in most variants). |
| Hold’em | The most popular poker variant. |
| Kicker | Cards that are utilized as side cards but don’t directly constitute a hand but nonetheless strengthen the hand as a whole. When two players have the identical hand, the best kickers will prevail in those situations. |
| No-Limit | A betting structure where players are allowed to bet or raise any amount at any given time. |
| Offsuit | Term used to describe a starting hand where there is no co-ordination between the suits. Suited hands are nearly always better than offsuit hands. |
| Omaha | A popular poker variant. Each player is dealt four hole-cards on the preflop betting round. |
| Out | A card that will likely give you a winning hand. |
| Pair | Two cards of identical rank (ex. 2 Aces, 2 Fours, etc.). |
| Poker not on Gamstop | Online poker not covered by Gamstop and can provide poker games based in the US and other countries. |
| Pot | The place in the center of the poker table where wagered chips are placed. The winner of the hand wins all the chips in the pot. |
| Quads | An unofficial name for “four of a kind”. |
| Raise | To increase the size of the wager. |
| Rank | The term refers to a card’s value/number. (ex. Jack, Four, Ace, etc.) |
| River | Refers to the final betting round in Hold’em, Omaha and Stud poker variants. |
| Showdown | Revealing the strength of our hand to determine the winner. This happens after all the betting rounds. |
| Slowplay | To play a strong hand passively. |
| Split | A split pot variant of poker is where half of the pot is awarded to one type of hand while the other half is awarded to another type of hand. |
| Straight | A five card hand consisting of all 5 cards in consecutive rank order (ex. 5,6,7,8,9). |
| Straight Flush | A five card hand consisting of all 5 cards in consecutive rank order and also of the same suit. |
| Suited | Describes a starting hand where two or more of the cards share the same suit. |
| Tell | An unconscious indication from your opponent that he/she has a certain type of cards. |
| Three of a Kind | Three cards of identical rank along with two kickers. |
| Turn | The third betting round in variants such as Hold’em and Omaha. |
| Two Pair | Two sets of pairs along with one kicker. |
Gabe Harper has been working in the online casino business for a bit over a decade. He has worked on the backend of more established casinos, and has also watched scams come and go. While mostly an avid table game and poker player, Gabe is also known for his tips and bets whenever the Premier League rolls around.
