Glossary
Poker glossary
A plain-English poker dictionary: 71 terms you will hear at the table, from blinds and the flop to 3-bets, pot odds and GTO, each explained in a few lines.
The table and the hand
- Blinds
- Forced bets posted by the two players to the left of the button before the cards are dealt: the small blind and the big blind.
- Ante
- A small forced bet that every player posts before the deal. Common in classic poker and in the later stages of tournaments.
- Button
- The dealer marker (BTN). The player on the button acts last after the flop, which makes it the best position at the table.
- Pot
- All the chips bet in the hand so far. The winner takes it.
- Side pot
- A separate pot created when a player goes all in for less than the others. Only players who put chips into it can win it.
- Preflop
- The first betting round, before any community cards are dealt.
- Flop
- The first three community cards, dealt together. It is also the second betting round.
- Turn
- The fourth community card and the third betting round.
- River
- The fifth and final community card, followed by the last betting round.
- Showdown
- The moment after the river when the remaining players show their cards to see who wins.
- Burn card
- The top card of the deck, discarded face down before the flop, turn and river are dealt.
- Heads-up
- A hand or match with only two players.
Actions
- Check
- To stay in the hand without betting. You can only check if nobody has bet yet in that round.
- Bet
- To put chips in the pot when nobody has bet yet in the round.
- Call
- To match the current bet so you stay in the hand.
- Raise
- To match the current bet and add more on top. The minimum raise is the size of the previous bet or raise.
- Fold
- To throw away your cards and leave the hand. You lose what you already put in, nothing more.
- All in
- To bet all of your chips.
- 3-bet
- A re-raise before the flop after someone has already opened with a raise. The big blind counts as the first bet, the open as the second, so your re-raise is the third. If someone raises again, it is a 4-bet.
- C-bet
- A continuation bet: betting the flop after you were the one who raised before the flop, whether or not you hit anything.
- Bluff
- Betting with a weak hand to make a better hand fold.
- Semi-bluff
- A bluff with a draw: even if you get called, you can still improve to the best hand.
- Value bet
- Betting with a strong hand so that a worse hand will call.
- Check-raise
- To check and then raise after your opponent bets.
Hands and cards
- Kicker
- The side card that breaks the tie when two players have the same hand. With A-K and A-Q on an ace-high board, the king kicker wins.
- Pocket pair
- Two hole cards of the same rank, such as 8-8.
- Suited
- Two hole cards of the same suit. Written with an "s": AKs.
- Offsuit
- Two hole cards of different suits. Written with an "o": AKo.
- Top pair
- A pair made with the highest card on the board.
- Overpair
- A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.
- Set
- Three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one card on the board. Very strong and hard for opponents to see coming.
- The nuts
- The best possible hand given the cards on the board.
- Playing the board
- When your best five-card hand is the five community cards themselves. At best you split the pot.
Draws and odds
- Draw
- A hand that needs one more card to become strong, such as four cards of the same suit.
- Outs
- The cards left in the deck that complete your winning hand. A flush draw has 9 outs.
- Open-ended straight draw
- Four consecutive cards that can be completed on either end. It has 8 outs.
- Gutshot
- A straight draw missing one card in the middle, such as 6-7-9-10. It has 4 outs.
- Pot odds
- The price a call asks of you compared to the pot: the amount you call divided by the total pot after you call. It tells you the minimum equity you need for the call to break even. Calling 50 into a pot of 150 needs 50 / 200 = 25%.
- Implied odds
- The extra chips you expect to win on later streets if you hit your draw, on top of what is already in the pot.
- Equity
- Your share of the pot on average, based on how often your hand wins. A hand with 60% equity is expected to win 60% of the pot over many repetitions.
- Coin flip
- A showdown that is close to 50/50, such as a small pocket pair against two overcards.
Positions
- UTG
- Under the gun: the first player to act preflop, sitting to the left of the big blind.
- Middle position
- The seats between UTG and the cutoff (MP, HJ).
- Cutoff
- The seat to the right of the button (CO). The second-best position.
- In position
- Acting after your opponent on every street after the flop (IP). The opposite is out of position (OOP).
- Range
- All the hands a player can have in a given spot. Good players think in ranges, not in a single hand.
- Open raise
- Being the first player to raise before the flop (RFI, raise first in).
Strategy
- GTO
- Game theory optimal: a balanced strategy that cannot be exploited, even by an opponent who knows exactly how you play. It is not necessarily the strategy that wins the most against a weak player.
- Exploitative play
- Deliberately deviating from GTO to punish a specific mistake your opponent makes.
- Solver
- Software that computes the game-theory-optimal strategy by playing millions of hands against itself.
- MDF
- Minimum defense frequency: the share of your range you must call or raise with against a bet so that your opponent cannot profit by bluffing with any two cards.
- Expected value (EV)
- What a play wins or loses on average if you could repeat it many times.
- Effective stack
- The smaller of the two stacks between you and your opponent: the most that can be played for between the two of you.
- Tilt
- Playing badly out of anger or frustration after losing hands. The most expensive mistake of all.
Players and table slang
- Fish
- A loose player who calls too much and makes many mistakes. The one who gives away the most chips at the table.
- Nit
- A player who plays very few hands, and only strong ones. Easy to read: when a nit bets, they almost always have it.
- Calling station
- A player who calls almost everything and almost never raises or folds. Bluffs do not work against them.
- Shark
- A strong, experienced player. The opposite of a fish.
- Limp
- Entering the hand by calling the big blind instead of raising. As the first player in, it is usually worse than raising.
- Option
- The big blind right to raise or check when nobody has raised before the flop.
- Out of position (OOP)
- Acting before your opponent on the streets after the flop, so you decide without knowing what they will do. The blinds are usually out of position.
- Hijack (HJ)
- The seat two to the right of the button, right before the cutoff. At a 6-max table it is the middle position.
- Lojack (LJ)
- The seat three to the right of the button. Used at tables of seven or more players.
- BTN, CO, HJ, LJ, UTG, SB, BB
- The position abbreviations: button, cutoff, hijack, lojack, under the gun, small blind and big blind.
- Bad beat
- Losing a hand you were a big favorite to win. It happens, and it is not your mistake.
- Cooler
- A strong hand that loses to an even stronger one through no fault of yours, like a full house against a bigger full house.
- Rake
- The commission the house takes from each pot in cash games.
- Buy-in
- What you pay to sit at a table or enter a tournament.
- Rebuy
- Buying chips again when you are short or out, at a cash table or in some tournaments.
- Short stack
- A small stack, around 20 big blinds or less. Played with more all-ins and fewer betting rounds.
- Cash game
- A table where the chips are worth money and you can come and go as you like. Different from a tournament.
You learn the words by playing.
Practice real hands and get an explanation after every decision, using these same words. Free, no real money.