| Aggressive Action |
A wager that could enable a player to win a pot without a showdown, a bet or raise. |
| Aces Up |
Two pair, one of which is a pair of Aces. (aka Aces Over) |
| Action |
The betting activity. A fold, check, call, bet, or raise. |
| Active Player |
A player who is still involved in a hand. |
| 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. |
| American Airlines |
A pair of Aces. |
| Ante |
A small bet all players are required to make before a hand is dealt. |
| Baby |
Any of the four non-aces needed for the lowest possible hand (2,3,4,5). |
| Back Door |
Player makes a late hand that he wasn't originally drawing to. |
| Back Raise |
To re-raise another players raise. |
| Bad Beat |
A hand being beat by another hand that had a very low percentage of becoming a winning hand. |
| Bankroll |
Current total gambling funds available. Not to be confused with a player's stake in a particular game. |
| Barn |
Short for a Full Barn which is slang for a Full House. |
| Belly Buster |
An inside straight draw. (same as Gutshot) |
| Bet |
The act of placing a wager in turn into the pot on any betting round, or the chips put into the pot. |
| Bet For Value |
Betting a completed or partial hand that, in the long run, is expected to win more than it loses. |
| Bicycle |
The best possible low hand: A-2-3-4-5. (same as a Wheel) |
| Big Blind |
An early forced bet, usually a raise of an earlier blind called the Small Blind. |
| Big Bobtail |
An open-ended 4-card straight flush. |
| Big Slick |
In Texas Hold'em, hole cards of A-K, either suited or not. |
| Blank |
A card that does not add value to a hand. (same as Bad Draw) |
| Blind |
A forced bet to open the pot, usually in lieu of an ante. |
| Blind Game |
A game which utilizes a blind. |
| Bluff |
A bet or raise made with a poor hand to entice the competition to fold. |
| Board |
All the community cards in a Hold'em game - the flop, turn, and river cards together. |
| Boardcard |
A community card in the center of the table, as in Hold'em or Omaha. |
| Boat |
Short for a Full Boat, which is slang for a Full House. |
| Bobtail Straight |
Four cards to a straight in denomination sequence. (same as Open End Straight) |
| Broken Game |
A game no longer in action. |
| Bottom Pair |
Pairing the lowest card on the board. |
| Boxed Card |
A card that appears face up in the deck where all other cards are face down. |
| Broadway |
An Ace high straight. |
| Bug |
A wild card Joker. |
| Bullet |
Ace. (Bull for short) |
| Bump |
Slang for Raise. |
| Burn |
To discard the top card from the deck, face down. This is done between each betting round before putting out the next community card(s). It is security against any player recognizing or glimpsing the next card to be used on the board. |
| Button |
A distinctive token placed in front of the player sitting in the theoretical dealer's position, when a house dealer is used. The button rotates around the table so that every player has an opportunity to be the last to act. |
| 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. |
| Call |
To put in to the pot the minimum amount of money necessary to continue playing. |
| Caller |
One who makes a call bet. |
| Calling Station |
A weak-passive player who calls a lot, but doesn't raise or fold much. |
| Cap |
To cap the betting is to make the last permitted raise in a round. |
| Capped |
Describes the situation in limit poker in which the maximum number of raises on the betting round have been reached. |
| Cards Speak |
The final hand values are determined by the face up cards and not what the hand holder declares. |
| Case Card |
The fourth and last card of a particular rank to become available. |
| Center Pot |
The first pot created during a poker hand. This is as opposed to one or more "side" pots that are created if one or more players goes all-in. (same as Main Pot) |
| Change Gears |
Changing your style of play |
| Chase |
To continue in a hand, often at poor odds against the competition. |
| 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 check initially, and then raise a bet made later on in the same betting round. |
| Chip |
A round token used in place of cash at a gaming table. |
| Come Hand |
A hand that is not yet made, such as four cards to a flush. |
| Cold Call |
When a player with nothing invested in the pot except an ante, calls a raise and a re-raise as his first bet. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
Cards that are available for every player to use in making a hand. Usually dealt face up somewhere in the middle of the table. |
| Complete The Bet |
To increase an all-in bet or forced bet to a full bet in limit poker. |
| Concealed Pair |
Both of the pair cards are face down. |
| Counterfeit |
To make your hand less valuable because of board cards that duplicate it. |
| Court Card |
A jack, queen or king. |
| Cowboy |
A king. |
| Crack |
To beat a hand, typically a big hand. |
| 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. |
| Cut |
To divide the deck into 2 stacks. |
| Cut-Card |
Another term for the bottom card. |
| Crying Call |
To complain when making a call, sometimes a tactic to keep other players in the hand. |
| Dark Bet |
To bet without looking at your hand. |
| 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 has been fouled or has too many or too few cards. |
| Dead Man's Hand |
Two pair, aces and eights. The hand Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot to death. |
| 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. |
| 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 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." |
| Deuce |
A two. |
| Discard |
In a draw game, to throw cards out of your hand to make room for replacements. |
| Dominated |
A hand that yields three or less outs which makes improving it very difficult. |
| Door Card |
A player's first up card in stud games. |
| Double Belly Buster |
A two-way inside straight, i.e. 3-5-6-7-9. (aka Double Gutshot) |
| Double Pop |
When the second player re-raises a raise. |
| Down To The Green |
When a player has gone all in. |
| Draw |
To discard some number of cards and have dealt an equal number of replacements. |
| Drawing Dead |
Drawing to a hand that cannot win because someone already holds a hand that will beat what you are drawing to. |
| Draw Out |
To catch a card that improves your situation from a losing hand to a winning hand. |
| Early Position |
Being one of the first players to act in a betting round. |
| Equity |
Your "rightful" share of a pot. If the pot contains $100, and you have a 50% chance of winning it, you have $50 equity in the pot. |
| Exposed Pair |
An exposed pair, as opposed to a split pair or a hidden pair. |
| Face Card |
A jack, queen or king. |
| Family Pot |
A pot in which all (or almost all) of the players call before the flop. |
| Fast |
As in "play fast." To play a hand aggressively, betting and raising as much as possible. |
| Fill |
To draw a card that makes a five-card hand: straight, flush, full house, or 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." |
| Fixed Limit |
In limit poker, any betting structure in which the amount of the bet on each particular round is pre-set. |
| Flat Call |
To call a bet. Emphasizes that the caller did not raise. |
| Flat Limit |
A variant of fixed limit where all bets are the same amount. |
| Floorman |
The casino representative in charge of the card room or a section of a card room. |
| Flop |
In Hold'em, the first three community cards, dealt simultaneously. |
| Flush |
A poker hand consisting of five cards all one suit. |
| Fold |
To decline to call a bet, thus dropping out of a hand. |
| Forced Bet |
In some stud games a player may be required to make a bet to start the action on the first card. |
| 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. |
| Four Flush |
Four cards to a Flush. |
| Free Card |
A card dealt after all players checked in a betting round. |
| Freeroll |
Having a lock on part of a pot. |
| Freeze-Out |
A table-stakes game that continues until a small number of players (possibly 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 hand consisting of 3 of a kind and a pair. |
| Grifter |
A cheat. |
| Gutshot Straight |
A straight filled "inside". If you have 9-8, the flop comes 7-5-2, and the turn is the 6, you've made your Gutshot Straight. |
| Head(s) Up |
Playing a single opponent. |
| Help Card |
A card that improves one's hand. |
| High-Low Split |
Forms of poker in which the pot is split between the best hand and best lowball hand. |
| Hit |
As in "the flop hit me." It means the flop contained cards that help your hand. |
| Hole Cards |
In stud and Hold'em, the face down cards dealt to each player. |
| Hook |
A Jack. So named because the "J" resembles a hook. |
| House |
The establishment running the game. |
| House Cut |
Generic term for how the house profits from hosting the game. |
| Ignorant End |
The lower end of a straight in a game that has community cards. |
| Implied Odds |
A refinement to Pot Odds, which includes money not yet, but expected to be in the pot. |
| Inside Straight |
Four cards to a straight, where only one rank will complete the hand, i.e. 4-5-6-8. |
| 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. |
| Jackpot |
A special bonus paid to the loser of a hand if he gets a very good hand beaten. |
| Jacks Or Better |
Draw poker in which a pair of jacks is the minimum hand permitted to start the action. |
| J Hook |
A Jack. |
| Jam |
A pot where several players are raising. |
| Joker |
A 53rd card in the deck, distinct from the others, used as a wild card or as a Bug. |
| 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 side card that is not part of the basic final hand. In the hand 7-7-7-J-3 the jack would be the Kicker. |
| Kill |
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. (aka Kill Blind) |
| 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. |
| Lady |
A Queen. |
| Late Position |
For a particular betting round, a player who does not have to act until most of the other players have acted. |
| Lay Odds |
To give favorable odds to an opponent. |
| 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. |
| Lid |
The top card of the deck. |
| Limit Poker |
A poker game wherein the amount to be bet is fixed, or at most variable within a prescribed minimum and maximum. |
| Limp In |
To call along as cheaply as possible. |
| Liner |
A face card, because you can see a line when the card is face down and the lower right corner is lifted. |
| Live Card |
In stud, a card that has not been exposed. |
| Live Blind |
The last and largest blind bet may or may not be Live. If Live, the blind bettor has the option of raising his own blind in the event the bet is called around to him. |
| Live One |
The best kind of opponent, a poor player with a lot of money to lose and in a hurry to lose it. |
| Lock |
A hand that cannot be beaten. (same as the Nut) |
| Lock-Up |
A chip marker that holds a seat for a player. |
| Loose |
Playing more hands than the norm. |
| Loose Game |
A game with a lot of players in most hands. |
| Lowball |
Generic term for poker where the lowest hand wins. |
| Main Pot |
The main pot, as related to one or more side pots, when there are one or more all-in player(s). The main pot is the one in which all active players participate. |
| Maniac |
A player who bets, raises and re-raises without much regard to the quality of his hand. |
| Marked Cards |
Cards that have been illegally altered so that their value can be read from the back. |
| Mechanic |
A cheat, who can manipulate the cards to deal himself or another player a good hand. |
| Middle Pair |
Pairing the second highest card on the board. |
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