Poker Glossary

Wet in poker is a term used to indicate that a board texture (i.e. a flop in Hold’em) is very co-ordinated, allowing for the possibility of a number of draws and strong made hands. It is the opposite term to ‘dry’ which describes a board texture with little to no connectivity. The term wet is typically applied to community cards in games such as Hold’em and Omahabut could also be applied to an opponent’s visible upcards in a Stud variant.

A poker variant isa specific set of rules or ‘flavour’ of poker game. The most popular poker variant in modern times is No Limit hold’em with Pot Limit Omaha in second place. There are practically hundreds of different poker variantshowever, some common, some not so much. The variants are often grouped together into categories. For example, a Stud variant of poker is any game that follows the rough format of Seven Card Stud (but with a variation on the basic rules). Hold’em and Omaha are both examples of ‘community-card’variants of poker while Five Card Draw is an example of a Draw variant of poker.

Variance refers to the short term deviation of our winrate from our expected results. For example, we might be a confirmed 6bb/100 winner, but it’s rare our winrate will show exactly 6bb/100 over a given sample.This is referred to as variance. Generally, the larger the sample size of hands, the closer our winrate will be to its expected value. Since variance is very large in poker, big deviations from expected winrate are common, especially if the sample size of hands is small (i.e less than 50,000 hands).

A value bet in poker, is a bet made with a strong hand in the hopes of getting called by worse hands. It’s an extremely important aspect of poker strategy, especially in games where our opponents have a tendency to call our bets with too many holdings. In terms of rough maths, a value bet needs to be good over 50% of the time when called in order to generate profit.

In poker the term upswing refers to winning more than average over a given period of time. It’s the opposite of ‘downswing’ which refers to a period of prolonged losses. Upswings are generally a good thing but they have also been known to cause mindset issues since players start to fear what they imagine to be an inevitable downswing. Due to rather large nature of variance in poker, upswings and downswings are extremely common.

Upcard is a Stud term that refers to any of our cards which are visible to the entire table. This differentiates them from ‘downcards’ which are only visible to us (similar to hole cards in Hold’em and Omaha). In Seven Card Stud, we will be dealt four upcards over the course of a hand which give other players a small window into the type of hand that we may hold.

Find the meaning of the term "underdog" in poker. Is it always a bad thing to be the underdog in a hand of poker?

An underbet in poker refers to any bet smaller than about 40% of the pot. If there is $100 in the pot. Any bet sizing less than $40 would be considered an underbet. The exact percentage threshold could vary depending on who we ask, but the basic idea is that it’s a small bet relative to the size of the current pot. Many players are closed off to the idea of underbetting, but good players recognize it as an important component in their strategy.

Under the Gun means “first to act on the first betting round”. It’s typically used to designate the early positions at a poker table, but it can be used to describe any player who is first to act, regardless of their exact position. In other words, on a three handed Hold’em table, the button could also be described as “under the gun”.

Two-tone refers to group of cards which is made up of two different suits. It is primarily used to describe flop textures in Hold’em and Omaha. For example, the flop comes King of spades, Queen of clubs, Jack of clubs. There are two suits on the flop, spades and clubs, hence we might call it ‘King Queen Jacktwo-tone’. Although this is by far the most common application, any distribution of cards where there are two distinct suits may be referred to as two-tone.

Two-pair in poker is the hand made by holding two sets of pairs. In other words, we have two sets of two cards with identical rank e.g. KKAAQQ. The strength of a two-pair is always determined by the rank of its highest pair. So AA22K beats KKQQJ. Note that since poker hands are formulated with five cards, a two-pair type hand will leave room for one kicker. If two players have an identical two-pair, it is the kicker that determines the winner. Two-pair beats a pair but loses to three of a kind.

Two-bet (or 2bet) refers to the second bet in a sequence. I.e. it’s a bet (1bet) followed by a raise (2bet). It’s worth remembering that in games with blinds (such as Hold’em and Omaha), the blinds count as the first bet on the preflop betting round. As such, any open-raise in Hold’em and Omaha can be referred to as a 2bet.

The Turn is the name for the third betting round in community card games such as Hold’em and Omaha. It is the second of the three postflop betting rounds (flop, turn, and river). Turn is also the name for the lone community card that is dealt on that betting round. It’s the fourth community card since three community cards are dealt on the flop.

Trips is a name given to three of a kind when specifically formed with only one of our hole cards. For example, in Hold’em, the flop comes TT5 and we hold KTo. If the texture is instead KT5 and we hold TT, this is typically referred to as a ‘set’ because we are using two of our hole cards to formulate the three of a kind component of the hand.

Trey in poker is simply another name for a card with rank Three. It’s a similar idea to how a card with rank Two is nicknamed a Deuce. Knowing the word Trey is not overly important, but we may occasionally find ourselves left out of a poker conversation if aren’t familiar with the meaning.