|
| |
Poker Glossary
(compliments of Dan Kimberg of Dan's
Poker Pages but with a bit of our own lexicography as well.)
#... A... B... C...
D... E... F...
G... H... I...
J... K... L...
M... N... O...
P... Q... R... S...
T... U... V... WXYZ 
- Ante
- A small forced bet that everyone at the table is
required to pay before each hand. In games with an ante,
these bets constitute the initial pot. When used as a
verb, it means to post this bet.
Sir, you forgot to ante.
- No, that's my ante right there.
- Bangers
- Grilled sausages, usually italian. Favorites include Esposito's in
Brooklyn and Balduchi's. The term bangers is derivative of the British
word for breakfast sausages and is generally pronounced in an exclamatory
tone "BANGERS!"
-
- Bet
- To bet is to put money into the pot, usually by opening
as later action in a round is a raise
or a re-raise. As a noun, a bet can be the money
added to the pot by a player on one turn, or the amount required in order to
call. It can also be used to mean "turn to act,"
and lastly, especially when used in the plural, it can be used to mean the
number of bets and raises.
Who bet? (meaning who opened)
- That's his bet. (meaning that there is the money he wagered)
- What's the bet? (meaning how much to call)
- Your bet. (meaning your turn)
- Let's make it two bets. (meaning I raise)
-
-
- Bluff
- A bet with a weak hand (typically a busted hand),
usually intended to get other players to fold. A
bluffing player usually has little or no chance of winning a showdown,
but may suspect that other players will fold if they have not made
strong hands either. In limit play, bluffing is more
often a good idea against weak, tight
players, who may fold even if they think they have a chance of winning.
Bluffing is a bad idea against players who call too often, because it's
unlikely to scare them out of the pot. Bluffing is also a much more
significant factor in pot-limit and no-limit
play, where the bluffer can make calling an expensive proposition. See also semi-bluff,
represent, speeding, table
cop, and advertising.
Don't see Edict.
- Board
- The community cards in a flop
game (like hold'em) or the up cards in a stud
game (like seven card stud). Someone who
"plays the board" isn't using any of their hole
cards.
- Boat
- Another name for a full house. I've also heard
"full boat," but I think it sounds idiotic so I'm not giving it a
separate entry.
- *Buck-a-back-a-buck
- 1. The last thing Lymie
says before losing another hand. Typically
pronounced with a slurred twang. 2. The mating call of the Mississippi
Booze Hound (AKC.)
*Bucket
- One dollar. $1.00
- *Bucket of Water
- One dollar and 25 cents. $1.25. Just like a Bucket only more
serious.
- Bullets
- A pair of aces in the hole.
- Bump
- To raise.
-
-
- Call
- To call is to match the current bet. If there has been
a bet of $10 and a raise of $10 then it costs $20 to call. Calling is the
cheapest (and the most passive) way to remain in a
hand. See also cold call, flat
call, and it.
- Cards Speak
- Cards speak is simply the rule that the value of your hand is determined
solely by your cards. You don't have to declare your hand properly in order
to claim the part of the pot you deserve. The alternative to this is mainly declare
games, usually played in home games for low stakes.
- 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. If all the players at a table check in turn in the same
round, it is said to be checked around, resulting in a free
card.
Poker chips are also sometimes called checks. This is
mostly European (esp. British) usage.
I checked with the intention of folding on the turn
and the river, but no one ever bet.
- Check-Raise/Chicken Raise
- A check-raise is just what it sounds like -- a raise
after you have already checked within a betting round.
Check-raises can be used to trap a player who (for
example) would have folded to a single bet, but who will
open if it is checked to them.
While check-raising is legal virtually everywhere serious
poker is played, there are apparently a few public cardrooms
which prohibit it at the lowest limits. Home poker games, which may be more
or less serious, vary more widely.
I noticed he liked to position bet a lot, so
whenever I had a good hand I check-raised him.
- Chip
- Poker chips are small round discs used instead of money at the poker
table. The ones used at casinos are typically made of clay, while home poker
games often substitute cheaper plastic chips. Using chips instead of cash
has a number of advantages, mostly just that they're easier to count and
manipulate. Color designations for chips are arbitrary, but many casinos use
white for $1 chips, red for $5 chips, green for $25 chips, and black for
$100 chips. If someone asks for a rack of white, they'd
like $100 in $1 chips.
- *Chipectomy
- A gruesome 'procedure' wherein a player is relieved of all or a large
quantity of chips. The scarring may be evidenced
on the wallet and psyche. Fortunately, chipectomies are usually
performed on heavily anaesthetized individuals.
-
-
- Crying Call
- A call by someone who is virtually certain they will
not win the pot. See Lymie.
- Dealer's Choice
- A format in which the dealer is allowed to select the particular poker
game that will be dealt. Sometimes this means before each hand,
although a more sensible system (since in many games the dealer has a positional
advantage) is one in which players take turns choosing the game for an
entire round.
- Declare
- Declare games are games in which you must declare the value of your hand
in order to claim the pot. A typical example is a high-low
split game in which you must declare before showdown
whether you are claiming the high, low, or both pots (typically if you
declare both you must win both in order to claim either). Declare games are
played almost exclusively in home games. In most if not all cardrooms, cards
speak.
See also Dano's niece.
-
- Deuce
- Twos are sometimes called deuces. So 22277 can be called deuces full of
sevens.
- Felt
- The surface of most poker tables is made of some sort of felt, or is in
any case referred to as such. A player who is running out of chips
rapidly can be referred to as "down to the felt." Usually
supplied by Feltman.
-
-
- Fish
- A bad player. A terrible player. A player who will tend to give away lots
of money. Fish-ness can also be relative. Common poker wisdom holds that if
you can't find the fish at your table, you're it. See also provider.
See Doc G.
I love playing at that fish pond.
- Fishhook
- A nickname for a jack, more often heard in the plural.
- Damn these fishhooks, they keep getting me into trouble.
- Flop
- A number of games, such as hold'em and omaha,
are played with five community cards. The first
three of these cards are dealt all at once, and are called the flop. Games
with a flop can be called flop games.
To flop a hand is to make that hand on the flop. To "see" the
flop is to still be in the hand when the flop comes.
I missed my pre-flop raise, and lost the hand
when the big blind made a gutshot
on the river.
- I flopped a fourflush and made
my hand on the turn.
- Flush
- A hand in which all five cards share the same suit.
When comparing two flushes, the hand with the highest card not in common is
better. So AK873 of hearts is a better flush than AK872 of diamonds. Not
much better.
- Fold
- To abandon your hand, usually because someone else has made a larger bet
than you are willing to call. Usually, one folds by mucking
one's cards.
- Four of a Kind
- Four cards of the same rank. Also called quads. For
example, if you hold 88882, you have quad 8's.
- Full House
- A hand consisting of three cards of one rank and two
cards of another rank. AAA33 is aces full of threes, often abbreviated to
"aces full." To fill up is to draw to and make
a full house. Also called a boat.
I figured even if my trip sevens were no good, there was a decent
chance I'd fill up.
-
- High
- The high hand is simply the best hand. When playing a high-low
split game, one is said to "win the high" when one has the
best hand, while another player wins the low. In seven
card stud, the player with the strongest up cards is
said to be high, and is usually first to act on fourth and subsequent
streets.
- High-Low Split
- In high-low split games, half the pot goes to the best
hand (the high), half to the worst (the low). The criteria for deciding the
low vary - see low. Split games are also often played
with a qualifier that the low hand must be "8
or better." This means that the low hand must have five unpaired cards
8 or lower. Omaha and Seven Card
Stud are the most popular high-low split games.
Note that if there is a sole winner of one pot and a tie for the other,
the sole winner wins half the pot while the other half is split evenly among
the tied hands.
- Hold'em
- See Texas Hold'em.
- Hole
- Your first two down cards in seven card stud. If
they're both jacks, you have a pair of jacks "in the hole." See
also pocket.
- Isolate
- To raise with the intention of thinning the field to
yourself and a single other player is to isolate that player.
I raised to isolate him, but ended up getting three callers.
- *Jay-Pot/Jay-Sized-Pot
- A small pot. Derived from the droning lament of Jay Swift who, at
least to him, always seems to win the smallest pots. Generally
preceded or followed by an "Eeesh!"
- *Joe Lieberman
- A form of Omaha fully sanctioned and overseen by the
American Rabbinical Congress.
-
- The only game allowed to be played on Yom Kippur.
- Joker
- A joker is an additional card in the deck that is used in some games. The
jokers isn't often used in serious poker, but
when it is it's usually considered a wild card. See
also bug.
- *Kibitz/Kibitzing
- Any discussion at the table of the hand currently
underway, especially by players not involved in the pot,
and especially any talk that might affect play. Depending on the nature of
the discussion, table talk is often considered somewhere between rude and an
act of war. The most common example of table talk to be avoided is
announcing what cards you've folded. If the flop is 888
and you shout "Damn!" or slam your fist into the table, you've
done a disservice to anyone at the table who thought they might like to represent
quads.
-
-
- Lock
- A lock is a hand guaranteed to win at least part of the pot.
In a high-low split game, for example, the lock
low is the best possible low hand. See also nuts.
- Loose
- Playing loose simply means playing more hands and holding on to them
longer. In essence, loose with your cash. A loose table is a table dominated
(so to speak) by loose players. Loose isn't always bad - excessively tight
play can be equally costly, especially at high levels of play. Looseness
should not be confused with aggressiveness.
A loose call is a borderline inadvisable or even
incorrect call.
He was playing so loose, it seemed like he was in every pot.
- Low
- In most poker games, the best hand wins. Most but not all. In a number of
games, the worst hand wins all or some of the pot. Draw lowball
and razz are just two examples of games played for low. Omaha
and seven card stud have popular high-low
split variants, in which the low hand gets half the pot. There are two
common ways to evaluate low hands. In deuce to seven
games, the best low hand is just the worst high hand. The best possible low
is 75432, provided there is no flush. In ace
to five games, straights and flushes don't
count, and aces are lower than 2's. So the best possible low is A2345, a wheel.
- *Low-In-Hole
- A confounding concept for Doc G. The lowest card in the hole
used is wild. Usually played in Iron Cross.
-
- *Nurse/Calling
the Nurse
- To go out or fold. Usually when the bet is too
high, in Dano's case a quaker.
- Nuts (or Nut -)
- The nuts is the best possible hand. This makes most sense in flop
games like hold'em, where the community
cards make the nuts pretty much the same for everyone. An exception is when
your hole cards make a better hand impossible. If the board
is AAK52, the nuts would be AA to an observer, but a player with AK would
effectively hold the nuts (assuming the 2 and 5 didn't share a suit with one
of the A's). In hold'em, the nuts is never less than trips.
"Nut xxx" is used to refer to the best hand of a particular type,
especially a straight or flush.
If the table described above had the AK2 of spades, the nut flush would be
the queen and any other spade. Also something a squirrel
covets.
- Omaha
- Omaha is a flop game similar to hold'em,
but with two key differences. First, each player is dealt four cards instead
of just two. Second, a hand must be made using exactly
two pocket cards (out of those four) and three from
the table. That is, if four suited
cards hit the table, you still need two more to make a flush.
And if you start with four aces, then you have a pair of aces, with little
chance to improve. The high-low variant of
omaha, with an 8 or better qualifier for low, is
especially popular.
- Open
- To open, or open betting, is simply to make the first bet
in a round.
When everyone checked to me, I figured it was
okay to open with middle pair.
- Pair
- Two cards of the same rank. If you hold AAKJ3, you
have a pair. See also top pair, middle
pair, bottom pair, and two
pair.
- Perfect
- The highest or lowest possible hand in a given game. Optimally a Royal
straight flush (or 5 aces in a wild card game) high or a 6432A low.
- Pocket
- The two cards dealt to you face down in hold'em, or
the first two face down in seven card stud are your
pocket cards, or hole cards. Hold'em players tend to call them pocket cards,
stud players tend to call them hole cards. See also pocket
pair.
- Poker
- Poker isn't just a card game - it's many card games. While no definition
is going to satisfy everyone, the majority of poker games do share some
common features, especially betting in rounds and the
ranking of hands. Poker is commonly played in cardrooms
(often within casinos) and in private home games (illegally in many states).
The games played in cardrooms seem to divide into stud
games, draw games, and flop games.
In home games, however, anything goes, including games that seem to have no
reason to be called poker. The varieties played in home games probably
number in the hundreds, or even the thousands. Some common cardroom games
include Texas Hold'em, Seven Card
Stud, Omaha, Razz, Lowball,
Pineapple, and Anaconda. (Okay, just kidding about
the anaconda.)
- *P.O.N.
- Acronym for Pussies Out Now. A warning to get out -or- a derogatory
term for an early folder.
- Pot
- All the money in the middle of the poker table that goes to the winner of
the hand is the pot. Any player who has not yet folded
is said to be "in the pot." A player who has called an initial bet
is said to have entered the pot.
-
- Provider
- A provider is a poker player who makes the game profitable for the other
players at the table. Similar in meaning to fish,
although provider has a somehow less negative connotation. A provider might
be a decent player who just happens to be playing out of his/her league. A
fish is usually someone who's probably out of any league. See Lymie,
Doc G
-
- Quads
- Four of a kind.
-
- *Quaker
- The minimum bet usually made by PONs but enough to make a squirrel go
out. Twenty five cents. $0.25
- Quarter
- To win one fourth of the pot is to be quartered. This
is usually the result of splitting half the pot in a high-low
split game.
-
- Raise
- After someone has opened betting in a round,
to increase the amount of the bet is to raise. For example, if the betting limit
is $5 and player A bets $5, player B can fold, call
the $5, or raise it to $10. Knowledgeable poker players
sometimes get irritated when someone says raise to indicate an opening bet.
But they usually know what you mean.
-
-
- Re-raise
- Any raise after the first raise in a round.
Player A bets, player B raises, player C (or A) re-raises. See also cap
and check-raise.
- River
- The last of five community cards in flop
games (e.g. hold'em and omaha).
Sometimes called fifth street. Sometimes
"river" is used to refer to the last card in non-flop games, such
as seven card stud.
- Rockets
- Or "pocket rockets" - a pair of aces in the hole.
-
-
- Round
- A round can refer either to a round of betting or a
round of hands. A betting round usually begins after a
card or several cards are dealt. Each player is given a chance to act,
and the round ends when everyone has either folded to or
called the last bet or raise. (See it.)
Each round of betting is followed either by further dealing or by a showdown.
A round of hands consists of one hand dealt by each player at the table
(or, when there's a house dealer, one hand with the dealer
button at each position). In a round of hold'em
you're in each position once, and you expect on average to hold the best
hand once (although you will fold it pre-flop and kick yourself for the rest
of the evening).
One more round and I'm outta here. (round of hands)
- After I missed the check-raise I made sure to
open the next round. (round of betting)
- Royal Straight Flush
- An ace high straight flush is a royal
straight flush, or a royal flush, or just a royal. Some traditionalists
dislike the phrase "royal flush" (preferring "ace high
straight flush"), but no one dislikes the hand. It's the most powerful
hand in casino poker.
- Sandbag
- Sandbagging means concealing your strength for the purpose of increasing
your profit. In poker, this usually means slowplaying
in the early betting rounds in order to extract more
profit on the later rounds. Especially when called "sandbagging,"
this practice sometimes has the negative connotation -- usually among
occasional or less serious players -- of being a hostile or marginally
unethical way to play. Experienced players regard it as just another part of
the game, a vital strategic tool. The same is true for check-raising,
which bears some resemblance to slowplaying.
- See
- To call a bet is sometimes referred to as seeing it. This usage comes up
often in the context of string bets, when players
more familiar with home poker say things like, "I'll see your fifty and
raise you a hundred."
- Seven Card Stud
- Hank's game when there are 7 players or less. In seven card stud
(sometimes "seven stud" or just "stud"), each player is
dealt seven cards of their own: two down, then four up, and a final card
down. There is a round of betting after the first up
card and after each subsequent card dealt.
Stud is usually played with a small ante and a forced
bring-in on third street. In limit
games, the bet size typically increases on fifth street.
- Shuffle
- Before each hand, the dealer shuffles the cards - mixes them up in order
to make their order as unpredictable as possible. Most cardrooms
have fairly specific requirements for how the cards are to be shuffled.
-
- Shy
- A sum borrowed from the pot to cover bets in a single hand when a player
has run out of chips or cash. Usually manifested as a pile of chips
stacked neatly in front of his hand but away from the pot. Shy (n) or Go
Shy.
-
-
- *Smenty/Sementy
- A $0.75 bet.
- Split Pot
- In a game that isn't high-low split, a hand in
which two players show down the same hand
(especially in games with community cards) results
in a pot split between those two players. In a high-low split game, of
course, many hands result in split pots.
-
- *Squirrel
-
One who constantly folds early ie: stores his nuts. See Dano.
- Straight
- A hand composed of five cards of consecutive ranks
(aces count as high or low). A2345 is a five high straight, or a straight to
the five. 789TJ is a jack high straight, or a straight to the jack. TJQKA is
an exercise for the reader (but see broadway). In
comparing straights, the straight to the higher card wins.
- Straight Flush
- A hand consisting of five cards of consecutive ranks
of the same suit. A straight flush is the strongest
possible hand. Of two straight flushes, the one with the highest high card
is better. An ace high straight flush is often called a royal
flush or a royal straight flush, or just a royal.
- Stud
- Usually short for seven card stud. Also refers to
stud games in general, including five card stud, in which each player is
dealt a number of non-shared cards and must use only those cards. May be
contrasted with flop games and draw
games.
- Suit
- You know, clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades.
- Table Cop
- A player who calls with the intention of keeping other
players honest (e.g., to snap off bluffs)
is said to be playing table cop. Also a player who makes an effort to point
out violations (significant and otherwise) of casino rules (e.g., reminding
other players to act in turn, which is properly the responsibility of the
dealer). See Edict or a drunken Redcard.
-
-
- Tell
- A tell is any habit or behavior that gives other players more information
about your hand than they would have simply from your play. For instance,
you might unconsciously play with your chips every time
you bluff. Or you might notice that another player
blinks a lot whenever he has a strong hand. Mike Caro's "The Body
Language of Poker" describes a large number of tells that can often be
seen in inexperienced (and experienced) players.
I picked up reliable tells on two players at the table, so my evening
was very profitable.
- 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. The strength of a player's hand is the best hand that can be made
with these seven cards. There is a round of betting
after the pocket cards are dealt, after the first three community cards (the
flop), after the fourth, or turn card, and after the
final, or river card.
- Three of a kind
- Three cards of the same rank. Also called trips. For
example, if you hold 888AK, you have trip 8's.
- Trips
- Three of a kind.
- Up
- Aces up is two pair with aces as the higher pair.
Kings up is two pair with kings as the higher pair. Are you getting this?
In stud games, your face-up, exposed cards are also
just called your up cards.
- Walk
- To walk in poker is to be away from the table long enough to miss one or
more hands. Such people, and/or people who do so frequently, are called
walkers. Depending on local conditions, walkers may be off getting food,
smoking, playing craps, or waiting for more fish to sit
down. Or something else, who knows what these mysterious people do? Most cardrooms
have well-defined but poorly enforced rules about walkers - i.e., that a
player's chips may be picked up (by the house, that is)
after they've been gone for some specific amount of time. Too many walkers
at a table can cause it to break, often through an unfortunate chain
reaction. Once one or two players get up from the table, it makes it more
likely for others to walk, or just leave. See Feltman
- Weak
- A style of play characterized by a readiness to fold
and a reluctance to raise. Weak is also used to
generally describe a poor player or a table that's easy to beat.
See Dano.
- *Weiner
- A winner for the night. Sometimes yelled in a staccato fashion
"I...am...a...Weiner!" when a particularly big hand has been
won. See Koneo.
-
-
-
- Wheel
- A2345.
- Wild Card
- A card that can serve as any other card in making your hand. For example,
if tens are wild, and you have four aces and a ten, then your hand is five
aces. Obviously wild cards make for some odd games. See also bug
and serious poker.
- *Yerp/Yurp
- A guttural sound acknowledging something said, done, or witnessed.
Usually refers to an odd or unusual event. Literally translated as "ok
I understand that [the object] is weird but that's ok with me."
|
