| All In: |
When a player puts the last of their chips into a pot, that player is said to be all-in. |
| Ante: |
A small, forced bet that everyone at the table is required to pay before each hand
(in games with an ante). |
| Back Door: |
A hand-made back door is one made using both of the last two cards, as in seven card
stud or Texas hold 'em. |
| Bankroll: |
The total amount of money one is willing (and able) to put at risk |
| Blind Bet: |
A blind bet, or blind, is a forced bet that must be posted before you see any cards. |
| Bluff: |
A bet with a weak hand (typically a busted hand), usually intended to get other players to fold.
|
| Boat: |
Another name for a full house. |
| Broadway: |
An Ace high straight. |
| Bullets: |
A pair of aces in the hole. |
| Bump: |
To raise. |
| Bust: |
To run out of money, especially in a tournament. |
| Buy: |
To buy a pot is to make a bet large enough that other players would be unlikely to call. |
| Call: |
To call is match the current bet. |
| Catch: |
When the cards are treating you well, you are said to be catching cards. |
| Check: |
If there has been no betting before you in a betting round, you may check,
which is like calling a bet of $0, or passing your turn. |
| Chip: |
Poker chips are small round discs used instead of money at the poker table. |
| Coffeehouse: |
To talk about a hand one is involved in, usually with the intent of misleading or
manipulating other players, is coffeehousing. |
| Cowboy: |
A nickname for Kings, more often heard in the plural. |
| Cut: |
After the cards are shuffled but before they are dealt, usually the deck is split in the
middle and the halves are reversed. |
| Door card: |
The first card dealt face up to each player in seven card stud is the door card. |
| Drop: |
To fold. Also, to lose a particular amount of money. |
| Fast: |
To play fast is to play aggressively. |
| Fishhook: |
A nickname for a Jacks, more often heard in the plural. |
| Flop: |
A number of games, such as Hold 'Em and Omaha, are played with 5 community cards. |
| Fold: |
To abandon your hand, usually because someone else has made a larger bet than you are
willing to call. |
| Four Flush: |
A hand with four cards of the same suit. |
| Four of a kind: |
Four cards of the same rank. |
| Full House: |
A hand consisting of three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank. |
| Gutshot: |
An inside straight draw. |
| Heads Up: |
A play between only two players. |
| High: |
The high hand is simply the best hand. |
| It: |
Refers to the largest amount anyone has yet played in a round. |
| Kansas City: |
Kansas City lowball is a low game played for a deuce to seven low. |
| Live card: |
A card that has not been seen. |
| Lock: |
A hand that is guaranteed to win at least part of the pot. |
| Make: |
To (non-specifically) make a hand means to get a decent hand that has a shot at
winning the pot. |
| Maniac: |
A player who plays extremely loose and aggressive, often raising with just about anything. |
| Omaha: |
Omaha is a flop game similar to hold ' em. |
| Outs: |
A card that will improve your hand, usually one that you think
will amke you a winner. |
| Paint: |
A Jack, King or Queen (i.e. a card with a picture on it). |
| Passive: |
A style of play that is characterized by reluctance to bet and raise. |
| Pineapple: |
Any of a number of variants of hold 'em in which each player gets three cards and must
discard one at some point. |
| Pushka: |
An arrangement between two or more of the players to share part of the pots win,
or more precisely, the container into which the shared chips are played. |
| Quads: |
Four of a kind. |
| Rag: |
A card, usually a low card, that, when it appears, has no apparent impact on the hand. |
| Rainbow: |
Three or four cards of different suits, for example on a flop. |
| Raise: |
After someone has opened betting in a round, to increase the amount of the bet os to raise. |
| Rolled Up: |
In Seven Card Stud, three of a kind on the first three cards are called rolled up X's,
where X is the rank of the cards. |
| Round: |
A round can refer either to a round of betting or a round of hands. |
| Royal Straight Flush: |
An ace high straight flush is a royal straight flush, or a royal flush, or just a royal. |
| Semi-bluff: |
A semi-bluff is similar to a bluff, except that the semi-bluff has some chance of making
a winning hand. |
| Seven Card Stud: |
Of the poker games most commonly played in public cardrooms, seven card stud is probably
the most well known. In this game, each player is dealt seven cards of their own: two down, then four up, and a
final card down. |
| Sir: |
One of those confusing terms that can have a completely different meaning at the poker
table than elsewhere. If someone says "nice hand, sir," after you win a big pot, what they're really saying is
"congratulations on winning money through your own stupidity, you clueless moron." |
| Snap Off: |
To beat someone, often a bluffer, and usually with a not especially powerful hand, is to
snap them off. |
| Speed: |
Speed refers to the level of aggressiveness with which you play. |
| Straight Flush: |
A hand consisting of five cards of consecutive ranks of the same suit. |
| Suit: |
You know, clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. |
| Texas Hold'em: |
Texas Hold'em (or just Hold'em) is a poker game in which each player gets two pocket
cards, while five community cards are dealt face up on the table. |
| Underdog: |
When two hands face off, the underdog is the one that's less likely to win than the
other. |
(As with many terms in this glossary, this isn't poker terminology, this is just plain English.)
