Poker Glossary

Every poker term you will meet at the table, in tournaments and in poker news, explained in plain language with examples. Pick a letter or browse by topic; each term links to related terms, calculators and guides.

120 terms

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3-bet: The second raise before the flop: the big blind counts as the first bet, the open-raise as the second and the re-raise as the third.
4-bet: A re-raise of a 3-bet before the flop, the fourth wager in the sequence.
6-max: A table format with at most six players instead of the full nine or ten.

A

Add-on: An optional purchase of extra chips, usually available once, at the end of the rebuy period.
All-in: To bet all of your remaining chips.
Ante: A small forced bet that every player posts into the pot before the cards are dealt.

B

Backdoor draw: A draw that needs two more cards in a row, both on the turn and on the river, to complete a flush or a straight.
Bad beat: Losing a hand that was a big favourite to win, usually when the opponent hits a long-shot card.
Bankroll: The money set aside specifically for playing poker, separate from the money you need for living.
BB/100: Your win rate in cash games: how many big blinds you win per 100 hands.
Bet: The first wager of a betting round, which others must call, raise or fold against.
Big blind (BB): The larger forced bet, posted by the second player to the left of the button; it sets the minimum bet of the first round.
Bluff: A bet or raise made with a weak hand to make better hands fold.
Board: The community cards dealt face up in the middle of the table, shared by all players.
Broadway: The five highest ranks, ten through ace; also the straight from ten to ace.
Bubble: The stage just before the prize money starts, when one more elimination puts everyone left in the money.
Button (BTN): The dealer position, marked by a button; it acts last on every street after the flop and is the best seat at the table.
Buy-in: The amount of money required to sit down in a cash game or to enter a tournament.

C

Call: To match the current bet and stay in the hand.
Calling station: A passive player who calls bets with weak hands too often and rarely raises or folds.
Cash game: A poker game played with real money chips that you can buy and leave with at any time, with fixed blinds.
Check: To pass the action to the next player without betting, which is only possible when no one has bet yet in the round.
Check-raise: To check and then raise after an opponent bets, which shows strength or bluffs with a good draw.
Chip leader: The player with the biggest stack at the table or in the whole tournament.
Continuation bet (c-bet): A bet on the flop by the player who raised before the flop, continuing the initiative whether or not the flop helped.
Cooler: A situation in which your very strong hand runs into an even stronger one and you could not reasonably have avoided losing.
Cutoff (CO): The seat directly to the right of the button; the second-best position and a common seat for steals.

D

Donk bet: A bet made out of position into the player who raised before the flop, instead of checking to them.
Downswing: A losing stretch, sometimes long, that is caused by variance rather than by playing badly.
Draw: A hand that is not yet made but can become a strong one with the right card to come.
Dry board: A board with few possible draws, usually unconnected cards of different suits, such as K♠7♦2♣.

E

Equity: Your share of the pot based on how often your hand wins when all remaining cards are dealt.
Expected value (EV): The average amount you win or lose from a decision if you could repeat it many times.
Exploitative play: Deviating from the balanced strategy to take advantage of a specific opponent's mistakes.

F

Final table: The last table of a tournament, with the remaining players, usually between six and nine.
Fish: A weak or inexperienced player who makes many mistakes and tends to lose money in the long run.
Flop: The first three community cards, dealt together after the first betting round.
Flush draw: Four cards to a flush, needing one more card of the same suit; it has nine outs.
Fold: To give up your hand and the chips you already put in the pot rather than call a bet.
Fold equity: The extra value you gain from a bet or raise because your opponent may fold and give up the pot.
Freeroll: A tournament with no buy-in that still pays real prizes.

G

GTO (Game Theory Optimal): A balanced strategy that cannot be exploited by any opponent strategy, derived from game theory.
Gutshot: A straight draw with a gap in the middle that needs one specific rank to complete; it has four outs.

H

Heads-up: A game or a hand played between only two players.
Hero call: A call with a marginal hand against a big bet because you believe the opponent is bluffing.
Hijack (HJ): The seat two to the right of the button, just before the cutoff; the start of the late positions.
Hole cards: The private cards dealt face down to each player; in Texas Hold'em every player gets two.
HUD (heads-up display): Software that shows statistics about your opponents at the table in real time, built from the hands you have played against them.

I

ICM (Independent Chip Model): A model that converts chip stacks in a tournament into real-money equity based on the prize structure.
Implied odds: Pot odds adjusted for the extra money you expect to win on later streets if you hit your hand.
In position (IP): Acting after your opponent on the current betting round, so you see their action before you decide.

K

Kicker: The highest side card in your hand that is not part of the made combination; it breaks ties between equal hands.

L

LAG (loose-aggressive): A player who plays many hands and plays them aggressively, with lots of bets, raises and bluffs.
Late registration: A period after the start of a tournament during which players can still register and receive a starting stack.
Limp: To enter the pot before the flop by calling the big blind instead of raising.

M

M-ratio: Your stack divided by the total cost of one orbit (blinds plus antes), showing how many rounds you can survive without playing a hand.
Made hand: A hand that already has a showdown value, such as a pair or better, as opposed to a draw.
Maniac: An extremely loose and aggressive player who bets and raises with almost any hand.
Minimum defence frequency (MDF): The share of your range you must continue with against a bet so that the bettor's bluffs cannot profit automatically.
MTT (multi-table tournament): A tournament with many players spread over several tables, which merge as players are eliminated until a winner remains.
Muck: To discard your hand face down without showing it, either by folding or by giving up at showdown.
Multi-tabling: Playing at several online tables at once to play more hands per hour.

N

Nit: An extremely tight and passive player who plays only a few strong hands and folds to pressure.
No-limit Texas Hold'em: The most popular poker game: each player has two hole cards and may bet any amount up to their whole stack.
Nuts: The best possible hand on the current board; no other combination of hole cards can beat it.

O

Open-ended straight draw (OESD): Four consecutive cards that can become a straight with a card on either end; it has eight outs.
Open-raise: The first raise before the flop, made when nobody else has raised yet.
Out of position (OOP): Acting before your opponent on the current betting round, so you must decide without seeing what they will do.
Outs: The unseen cards that will improve your hand to one that is likely to win.
Overbet: A bet that is larger than the size of the pot.
Overlay: The shortfall when a tournament's guaranteed prize pool is larger than the buy-ins collected; the room pays the difference.
Overpair: A pocket pair that is higher than every card on the board.

P

PFR: Preflop Raise: the percentage of hands in which a player raises before the flop.
PKO (progressive knockout): A bounty tournament in which half of each buy-in becomes a bounty on the player's head, and eliminating a player pays you part of their bounty.
Pocket pair: Two hole cards of the same rank, such as 7♥7♠ or A♦A♣.
Position: Your seat relative to the dealer button, which decides when you act: the later you act, the more information you have.
Pot: All the chips or money wagered in the current hand, which the winner collects.
Pot odds: The ratio between the size of the pot and the cost of a call; it gives the equity you need for a call to break even.
Pot-limit Omaha (PLO): A poker game like Hold'em but with four hole cards, of which exactly two must be used, and bets limited to the size of the pot.
Push or fold: A strategy for short stacks in which every hand is either shoved all-in or folded, with no calls or small raises.

R

Raise: To increase the size of the current bet, forcing the other players to put in more to stay in the hand.
Rake: The commission a poker room takes from cash-game pots, or the fee added to a tournament buy-in.
Rakeback: A share of the rake or fees you pay that the room or an affiliate returns to you.
Range: The full set of hands a player could have in a given situation, instead of one specific hand.
Re-entry: Entering a tournament again with a fresh stack, as a new entry, after you have been eliminated.
Rebuy: Buying more chips in a tournament, in the rebuy period, after you lose chips or all of them.
Reg (regular): A regular: an experienced player who plays the same stakes often and usually has a solid, studied game.
Reverse implied odds: The risk of losing extra money on later streets when you hit a hand that is still second best.
Risk of ruin: The probability of losing your entire bankroll given your win rate, variance and bankroll size.
River: The fifth and last community card, dealt after the turn betting round; also called fifth street.
ROI (return on investment): Your profit in tournaments as a percentage of the total buy-ins you paid.
Rule of 2 and 4: A shortcut: multiply your outs by 2 for one card to come or by 4 for two cards to come to estimate your chance to hit, in percent.

S

Satellite: A tournament whose prizes are seats (entries) in a bigger tournament instead of cash.
Semi-bluff: A bet or raise with a hand that is not yet best but can improve to a strong hand if called.
Set: Three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one matching card on the board.
Shark: A very strong, winning player who exploits weaker opponents.
Short deck (six-plus): A Hold'em variant played with a 36-card deck, with the twos through fives removed.
Short stack: A stack that is small compared with the blinds, usually below 15 to 20 big blinds.
Showdown: The final stage of a hand when the remaining players reveal their cards to decide who wins the pot.
Side pot: A separate pot formed when a player is all-in and the other players keep betting among themselves.
Sit & Go (SNG): A small tournament that starts as soon as enough players have registered, instead of at a scheduled time.
Slow play: Playing a strong hand passively with checks and calls to induce bluffs or keep weaker hands in the pot.
Small blind (SB): The smaller forced bet, posted by the player to the left of the dealer button before the cards are dealt.
Spin & Go: A fast three-player jackpot Sit & Go in which the prize pool is decided by a random multiplier spun before the game.
Squeeze: A 3-bet made after one player raised and at least one other player called, squeezing both of them.
Stack-to-pot ratio (SPR): The effective stack divided by the pot on the flop; it shows how committed you are to the pot.
Stakes: The size of the blinds in a cash game, or the level of buy-ins you play; it sets how much money is at risk.
Straddle: An optional extra blind bet posted before the deal, usually double the big blind, which raises the stakes of the hand.
Suited connectors: Two consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 8♠7♠ or J♥10♥.

T

TAG (tight-aggressive): A player who plays a limited number of strong hands but plays them aggressively with bets and raises.
Tilt: An emotional state, such as anger or frustration, that makes a player take worse decisions than usual.
Top pair: A pair made with a hole card and the highest card on the board.
Turn: The fourth community card, dealt after the flop betting round; also called fourth street.

U

Under the gun (UTG): The first player to act before the flop, seated directly left of the big blind; the earliest and toughest position.

V

Value bet: A bet made with a hand that is likely best, intended to be called by worse hands.
Variance: The swings in results caused by luck, the gap between your expected result and what actually happens in the short term.
VPIP: Voluntarily Put money In Pot: the percentage of hands in which a player puts chips in before the flop by choice.

W

Welcome bonus: A reward a poker room gives to new players after their first deposit, usually released in parts as you play.
Wet board: A board with many possible draws, usually connected cards of the same suits, such as J♥10♥8♠.
Whale: A rich recreational player who plays for very high stakes and loses large sums.