Throughout all of the different articles in our beginner, intermediate and advanced series of poker training articles, there has been a lot of poker terms and lingo used to assist with the explanation of the various strategies.
If you need to brush up on your poker words, use this simply glossary, which contains most of the key terms used in the subject matter.
Action – A player’s willingness to gamble and/or their turn to act.
Ante – A forced bet that requires all players at the table to put an equal amount of chips into a pot before a hand begins.
Bad Beat – A situation in which a player with an apparent winning hand loses unexpectedly, most commonly when an opponent hits a low percentage draw.
Bankroll – The total amount of money you have for use in your poker career.
Bet – Any amount of money that is wagered throughout a hand.
Blinds – The two positions to the immediate left of the dealer button in standard flop-style games that must put out forced bets prior to the start of a hand. The player to the immediate left of the dealer is the small blind, while the player to their left is the big blind.
Big Stack – A player who has a lot of chips compared to the median amount of chips held by other players.
Blank – A card of seemingly no value, typically a community card.
Board – The community cards placed on the table for all players to use.
Button – Also known as the “Dealer Button”, a round disk most commonly used to indicate the position of the dealer.
Buy-in – Minimum amount of chips needed to enter a game or tournament.
Cold deck – Slang used to refer to when a player is not catching any good hands.
Continuation bet – A post-flop bet by a player who raised pre-flop.
Drawing dead – A situation in which a player cannot improve to a winning hand.
Flop – The first three community cards dealt face-up at the table.
Fold – The act of discarding one’s hand and exiting the current round of play.
Heads-up – Playing against a single opponent, such as at the end of a tournament or on the river when all other players have folded.
Hole cards – Cards dealt directly to an individual player that are kept face down.
In the money – To finish high enough in a tournament to receive prize money.
Laydown – Folding a good hand as a result of fearing you are beaten.
Limp – To enter a pot pre-flop by calling the amount in the big blind.
Loose – Refers to a playing style that involves lots of action with weaker hands.
Maniac – An extremely loose player that bets and raises frequently in situations where most others would not.
Nut hand (the nuts) – The best possible hand in any given scenario.
Offsuit – Cards that are not of the same suit, such as the ace of spades and the queen of hearts. Commonly used to reference a player’s hole cards.
Overbet – The action of betting more than the size of the pot in a game.
Pocket pair – A situation in which a player’s hole cards make a pair, such as having the nine of clubs and nine of diamonds.
Pre-flop – The round of action that occurs prior to the flop. This is also when all players at the table are dealt their hole cards.
River – The final community card to be dealt.
Semi-bluff – The act of bluffing one round with a drawing hand that could improve in a later round.
Set – Three of a kind, also known as trips.
Short stack – A stack of chips that is small in comparison to other players’ stacks in the current game.
Tight – Refers to a playing style that involves entering few pots and sticking to mostly premium hands.
Tilt – The act of getting emotionally upset or frustrated during a game, which typically impacts your performance.
Value bet – A bet made by a player who wants his opponent to call, typically in situations in which they know they have beaten the other player and want to win more chips.
Chris
- Chris Laquinta is a magazine editor, content specialist and poker fanatic with 10+ years writing experience and over 1,500 published articles. Chris is a naitive of Southern California, where he spent his entire life learning gaming concepts and theories from relatives that had been former professional gamblers. He currently resides in Torrance, CA where he works as a professional content writer and part-time SNG professional.
