Poker can be overwhelming when you first start learning how to play poker. Along with the chips, cards and trash-talk, poker players have developed their own language, which can leave you feeling like a tourist in a dodgy airport back room.
While the lingo can be daunting, many of the most common poker definitions are just synonyms for straightforward ideas.
Here's a helpful glossary to help you feel a little more comfortable the next time you hit the felt.
Who knows? You might even sound like you know what you’re doing!
Ante Up to Button
Ante Up
This term is a request to put your blinds and antes in preparation for the next hand.
You don’t hear this as much these days, since tournaments have shifted toward a single ante format where the big blind (BB) posts antes for the entire table. As if posting the blinds wasn’t painful enough.
Back-Door
A draw that needs to hit on both the turn and river. If you have two spades with one spade on the flop, for example, you’d need back-door spades to hit a flush. Surprisingly, this happens about 4% of the time.
Balance
This term describes mixing up your play so opponents can’t predict your next moves.
The Board
The board consists of shared cards in the middle of the table, which all players can use to make their hand.
Busting /Stacking
You can stack an opponent by winning all their chips.
Button (BTN)
A disc marks the dealer position in poker. The button deals the first cards and is the most powerful seat at the table, since it always acts last. It's so strong, in fact, that you'll make more money playing from the button than from any other position.
Check Raise to Cutoff
Check-Raise
When you pretend to be weak by checking, and then raise your opponents’ bet.
Cold Deck
A “cold deck” describes prolonged streaks of bad variance where a player can't seem to get a playable poker hand. It can also occur when two or more players have monster hands, and the deck sets up at least one for a massive cooler.
Collusion
Collusion is a form of cheating in which two or more players work together to defeat another. This offence is serious enough for a casino or online poker room to ban the offender permanently.
Continuation Bet (C-Bet)
This term describes betting on the flop when you were the preflop raiser, even if you whiffed. C-betting is one of the best ways to learn how to bluff in poker.
Cooler
A cooler is a hand in which all players were doomed from the start. It's when two or more monster hands run into one another, and they were always going to end up all-in. AA vs KK is the classic preflop cooler.
Cutoff
This seat is one before the button and in a prime position to steal blinds.
EV to Jam
EV
This acronym stands for 'effective value' and represents the amount you stand to win, on average, based on a particular play/situation. +EV plays are profitable in the long term, and -EV plays lose.
It's worth noting that EV refers to the theoretical, long-term winnings, not the actual results of a hand. Therefore, you can lose a hand even if you make decisions with a positive expected value (EV).
GTO (Game Theory Optimal)
GTO poker strategy is a perfectly balanced poker strategy and can’t be exploited in the long run. GTO is too complicated for humans to play perfectly, but some computers can.
Thankfully, GTO solvers often make outrageous nonhuman-like plays, which makes it easier to spot and stop people using them.
Hole Cards
These cards are your private, face-down cards.
Implied Odds
Do you hate folding? Not quite getting the odds for your draw? Then implied odds are for you! Implied odds are the estimated chips you stand to win in a poker hand if you hit your draw.
Though it's a crucial concept, you'll often hear it used as an excuse by people looking for one.
In the Dark
When you check or bet before the next card is revealed, you’re acting “in the dark”.
In/Out of Position
This term describes how early/late you get to act in a hand.
- Early is out of position (UTG)
- Last is in position (Button)
Like riding a rollercoaster or running a marathon, position is key at the poker table - the later the better, since it lets you see what everyone else does before making your decision.
Jam/Shove/Rip (and many others)
These terms are all poker slang terms for moving ‘all-in’.
Muck to Reg
Muck
This term can refer to folding your hand or the pile of dead cards in the middle of the table. Once a card hits the muck, it’s dead.
Nit/Rock
This player is someone who plays very few hands and dislikes taking significant risks.
Out of Turn
Acting out of turn means doing something too early. If you don’t see that an opponent has cards, for example, and toss out a bet, you will be acting out of turn.
How a casino or table mates respond to this misstep depends on your reputation and where you’re playing.
Outs
These are cards that can improve your hand. If you have a flush draw, for example, you will have nine “outs” to make a flush. Typically, each ‘out’ has a 2% poker probability to fall per street.
Overpair
An overpair is a pocket pair that is higher than all the community cards; for example, KK on a board of 7-5-8. Overpairs are strong, but not invincible, and can get you into a lot of trouble if you get attached to them.
Pot Committed
You are said to be pot committed when you’ve put so many chips in the pot that folding is no longer profitable – even if you’d rather not look at your cards anymore.
Pot Odds
Ready for some GCSE maths? Great! Pot odds refer to the ratio of the pot size to the amount required to call and win.
If there is $50 in the middle and your opponent bets $50, your pot odds will be 2:1. Combining this statistic with your outs or probability to win helps decide whether to call.
Rec, Fun Player, Fish
A weak or inexperienced player. Without them, poker pros would need real jobs. With that said, these terms are typically used by overconfident players who overestimate their skills.
Reg(ular)
Reg is short for regular and refers to someone who frequently plays poker. Good regs are often pros and bad regs are… well, let’s say they aren’t pros…
Set to Suckout
Set
A set is a form of three-of-a-kind, consisting of a pocket pair plus one the same on the board. They are much stronger than trips (three-of-a-kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board).
Sets are disguised by using only one community card, making it harder to detect.
Shark
This player is strong and predatory, feasting on fish.
Shorty
Not to be confused with a girl or boyfriend, a shorty is a player low on chips. If used correctly in specific types of poker games, a shorty stack can be particularly dangerous, especially in tournaments.
Showdown
This situation occurs when players reveal their cards after the hand has ended to determine who wins the pot.
Shuffle Up and Deal
These famous poker words are typically said at the start of a tournament. These weighty words get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
Sim
This term is short for “simulation” and typically refers to poker software that crunches scenarios (using solvers) and generates GTO-approved plays.
Slow Play
You are slow playing when you disguise the strength of your hands by checking or calling instead of betting or raising to try to trap opponents.
This strategy works well when your opponent is aggressive and unlikely to have much.
Slow-Roll
This act involves slowly revealing a very strong hand at showdown to annoy other players. It’s rude and disrespectful, which makes it even more hilarious to do with friends.
Splashing the Pot
When a player haphazardly throws chips in the middle, making them hard to track, they are splashing the pot.
Stacked
When you lose all your chips (in a hand, not down the side of the sofa), you are stacked!
Steal
This act primarily refers to raising to win the blinds with a weak hand, usually from late position.
Stealing is infinitely more profitable than using a poker cheat sheet and is highly effective in tournaments when the antes are in play.
Straddle
A straddle is an optional live bet posted before the cards are dealt. It’s usually double the big blind and posted by the seat directly to their left. It’s even possible to re-straddle around the table where allowed.
Street
This term refers to a betting round. There are four in a regular poker hand:
- Preflop
- Flop
- Turn
- River
Suckout
Getting lucky and winning with a hand when you were way behind is a classic suckout scenario.
3bet to Variance
Three-Bet (3bet)
This bet refers to the second raise in a poker hand. It usually signals strength, so many players use 3bets to bluff. It may seem contradictory, but it’ll make more sense when you start playing.
Tilt
You’ll hear this a lot, and it simply means playing poorly because you’re angry, frustrated, or otherwise upset. Tilt ruins more poker players than anything else.
Under the Gun (UTG)
It’s a term that sounds like it comes straight from a Hollywood Western, but unfortunately, it’s far less exciting. Under the gun refers to the person who acts first preflop in a hand.
Value Bet
Value betting happens when you bet with what you believe to be the best hand, hoping to get called by worse ones.
Variance
Variance describes the natural swings in results. Variance is the reason you can do everything right and still get stiffed when you play poker.
Some players use it as a synonym for ‘luck’ but it has a pure mathematical background.
With that, it seems like a good time to end the list and get to the tables.
Now, get to practising your poker linguistic skills!
