Reference
Poker terms & glossary
By All In Central · Updated
98 poker terms you'll hear at the table, explained in plain English — from the rules and the hand rankings to strategy and tournament slang. New to the game? Start with the beginner's guide.
A
- Action
- Your turn to act, or betting activity in general — 'the action is on you'.
- Add-on
- An optional extra stack every player can buy once, usually at the end of the rebuy period or at the first break. The money goes into the prize pool.
- All-in
- Betting every chip you have left. You can't be forced out, but you can only win as much as you put in from each opponent. All-ins and side pots →
- Angle shooting
- Using technically legal but unethical tricks to gain an edge — for example acting as if you're about to fold to prompt a bet, or hiding big chips behind small ones.
- Ante
- A small forced bet every player posts before the hand, on top of the blinds, to build the pot and push the action.
B
- Backdoor
- A draw that needs both the turn and the river to complete — for example a 'backdoor flush'.
- Bad beat
- Losing a hand you were a strong favorite to win.
- Bankroll
- The total money you've set aside for poker, kept separate from everyday cash.
- Big blind
- The larger of the two forced bets, posted two seats left of the button. The standard unit for measuring stack sizes.
- Big blind ante
- A tournament ante format where the player in the big blind posts one ante for the whole table, instead of every player posting their own. It speeds up the game and is now common in live tournaments.
- Big slick
- Nickname for ace-king (A-K) as a starting hand.
- Blind
- A forced bet posted before the cards are dealt — the small blind and the big blind.
- Blind level
- One stage of a tournament's blind structure: the blinds (and any ante) stay fixed for a set number of minutes, then rise to the next level. Blind structure calculator →
- Bluff
- Betting or raising with a weak hand to make a better one fold.
- Board
- The community cards shared by everyone — the flop, turn and river.
- Bounty
- A cash prize for knocking a particular player out of a tournament. Part of each buy-in funds the bounties, which go to whoever eliminates that player. Home poker tournament formats →
- Bubble
- The last elimination before the paid places. The player who busts 'on the bubble' finishes one spot out of the money.
- Burn card
- The top card the dealer discards face down before dealing the flop, the turn and the river, so nobody can profit from a glimpsed or marked card.
- Buy-in
- The amount you pay to enter a tournament or to sit down in a cash game.
C
- Call
- Matching the current bet to stay in the hand.
- Cash game
- A game where the chips stand for real money: you can buy in or leave at any time, and the blinds never go up. Cash game vs tournament →
- Check
- Passing the action without betting — only possible if no one has bet before you.
- Check-raise
- Checking, then raising after an opponent bets in the same betting round — usually a sign of a strong hand, or a well-timed bluff.
- Chip leader
- The player with the most chips at a given moment.
- Chop
- Splitting a pot between players with tied hands — or, at the end of a tournament, the remaining players agreeing to divide the prize money.
- Color up
- Swapping small-denomination chips for larger ones once the blinds have outgrown them, usually at a break, so stacks stay easy to count. Chip distribution calculator →
- Community cards
- The five shared cards dealt face up that every player can use.
- Connector
- Two cards in sequence, like 8-7. 'Suited connectors' share a suit and can make straights and flushes.
- Continuation bet
- A bet on the flop by the player who made the last raise before the flop, keeping up the aggression whether or not the flop helped them. Often shortened to 'c-bet'.
- Cooler
- A hand where a very strong hand runs into an even stronger one, so the chips go in no matter how well either player plays.
- Cutoff
- The seat directly to the right of the button — the second-best position at the table.
D
- Dealer
- The player on the button, or the person physically dealing. The button marks the dealer's position.
- Donk bet
- Betting into the player who was the aggressor on the previous street, out of position.
- Drawing dead
- Holding a hand that can no longer win no matter which cards come.
E
- Equity
- Your share of the pot based on how often your hand will win from here. A hand that wins 60% of the time has 60% equity. Odds & equity calculator →
F
- Final table
- The last table of a multi-table tournament, once the field is small enough to fit around one table.
- Fish
- Slang for a weak or inexperienced player.
- Flop
- The first three community cards, dealt face up together.
- Flush draw
- Four cards of one suit, needing one more to make a flush. On the flop it has nine outs and gets there by the river about 35% of the time. Outs and odds table →
- Fold
- Giving up your hand and any claim to the pot.
- Freeroll
- A tournament with no buy-in, or a spot where you can't lose but might win more.
- Freezeout
- A tournament with no rebuys or re-entries: once your chips are gone, you're out.
G
- Gutshot
- An inside straight draw — needing one specific rank in the middle, e.g. holding 9-7 and needing an 8. Four outs.
H
- Heads-up
- A pot, or a whole game, played between just two players.
- Hijack
- The seat two to the right of the button, directly before the cutoff.
- Hole cards
- Your two private cards, dealt face down.
I
- Implied odds
- Pot odds adjusted for the extra chips you expect to win on later streets if you hit your draw.
- In the money
- Finishing a tournament in one of the paid places — often shortened to ITM. Payout calculator →
K
- Kicker
- A side card that breaks ties between otherwise equal hands. How ties are broken →
L
- Limp
- Entering a pot by just calling the big blind rather than raising — usually a beginner leak.
M
- Min-raise
- The smallest legal raise. In no-limit, a raise must be at least as big as the previous bet or raise in that round.
- Muck
- To fold without showing, or the pile of discarded cards.
N
- Nit
- A very tight, cautious player who waits for premium hands — much like a rock.
- No-limit
- A betting format where you can bet any amount up to all your chips at any time.
- Nuts
- The best possible hand given the board.
O
- Offsuit
- Two cards of different suits, e.g. A-K offsuit.
- Open-ended straight draw
- Four cards in a row that can complete a straight at either end — for example 8-7-6-5, which needs a 9 or a 4. Eight outs.
- Outs
- The cards left in the deck that would improve your hand to a likely winner. Outs and odds table →
- Overpair
- A pocket pair higher than every card on the board — for example pocket queens on a J-7-2 flop.
P
- Pocket pair
- Two hole cards of the same rank, e.g. pocket eights.
- Pocket rockets
- Nickname for pocket aces (A-A), the best starting hand in Texas Hold'em.
- Position
- Where you sit relative to the button. Acting later (in position) is a major advantage. Table position explained →
- Pot
- The total chips bet in a hand, won at showdown or by the last player standing.
- Pot odds
- The ratio of the current pot to the cost of a call — used to decide whether chasing a draw is worth it. Pot odds, worked through →
- Pot-limit
- A betting format capped by the pot: the most you can bet is the current pot, and the most you can raise is the size of the pot after you call.
- Preflop
- The first betting round, before any community cards are dealt.
- Push
- Going all-in, usually with a short stack — also called a shove. 'Push or fold' is the standard short-stack strategy late in a tournament.
R
- Rainbow
- A flop of three different suits, so no flush draw is possible yet.
- Raise
- Increasing the current bet, putting opponents to a tougher decision.
- Rake
- A small cut the house takes from each pot in a cash game. Home games are normally rake-free.
- Range
- The full set of hands a player could have in a given spot, rather than one specific hand.
- Re-entry
- Entering a tournament again after busting, as a new entry with a fresh starting stack — unlike a rebuy, which tops up the stack you already have.
- Rebuy
- Buying back into a tournament after busting (or dropping below a set chip count), usually allowed only during an early rebuy period. The timer adds each rebuy to the prize pool. Poker timer →
- River
- The fifth and final community card, followed by the last betting round.
- Rock
- A very tight, cautious player who only plays premium hands.
S
- Satellite
- A small tournament whose prize is a seat in a bigger one.
- Semi-bluff
- Betting or raising with a drawing hand: it can win at once if everyone folds, or improve to the best hand if called.
- Set
- Three of a kind made with a pocket pair plus one matching board card. Three of a kind →
- Short stack
- The player with the fewest chips, or any stack that is small compared with the blinds.
- Showdown
- The reveal at the end of a hand, where the remaining players show their cards and the best hand wins.
- Side pot
- A separate pot formed when a player is all-in for less than the others, who keep betting.
- Slow play
- Playing a strong hand passively — checking or just calling — to hide its strength and keep opponents in the pot.
- Small blind
- The smaller forced bet, posted by the player directly left of the button.
- Split pot
- A pot shared equally between two or more players holding identical best hands.
- Straddle
- An optional blind bet, usually twice the big blind, posted before the deal by the player left of the big blind. It buys the last action before the flop.
- String bet
- Putting chips into the pot in more than one motion without first announcing the amount. Most card rooms don't allow it, because it lets a player watch reactions before finishing the bet.
- Suited
- Two cards of the same suit.
T
- Tell
- An unconscious physical or betting habit that gives away the strength of a hand.
- Three-bet
- The first re-raise before the flop: the big blind counts as the first bet and the opening raise as the second, so the re-raise is the third. Written '3-bet'.
- Tilt
- Playing emotionally and badly, usually after a bad beat or frustration.
- Top pair
- Pairing the highest card on the board with one of your hole cards — for example holding A-K on a K-8-3 flop.
- Tournament
- A game where everyone starts with the same chips and plays until one player has them all. The blinds rise on a clock and the prize pool is paid out by finishing position. Free poker timer →
- Trips
- Three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board. Three of a kind →
- Turn
- The fourth community card, followed by a betting round.
U
- Under the gun
- The seat directly left of the big blind, first to act preflop — the toughest position. Who acts first →
V
- Value bet
- A bet made to get called by a worse hand, rather than to bluff.
W
- Wheel
- The lowest straight, 5-4-3-2-A, where the ace plays low. Straights →