Poker Glossary

Learn about wrap around straights in poker, their significance in Omaha and other poker variants, and how to use them strategically

Learn how to spot a poker whale with 888poker! Find strategies to maximise your winnings against these high-value players without scaring them away.

In poker, the term ‘up the ante’ may refer to the increase in antes that happens on each level of a tournament. In many cases however, ‘up the ante’ is a more general expression which means to increase the stakes or wager. In other words, it’s a term that originated with poker, but has become an expression used in every day speech.

Get a fast breakdown of the meaning behind the "three pair" hand in poker. Find out everything you need to know in our quick and easy guide.

Street poker is essentially an unwritten agreement that two players are going to play loose aggressive poker with overly wide ranges. One player could easily counter the other by tightening up significantly, but so long as both players continue to play overly wide ranges, the game can be considered fair.

The steel wheel is the poker term for the ace to five straight flush. Discover its origins, how to play it and everything else about steel wheel poker.

To steam in poker means to be exceptionally angry or tilted. So angry that we might imagine literal steam coming off the head of the affected player. Steaming is never a great idea since playing while angry can result in some significant strategy errors.

Stab is simply another term for ‘bet’ in poker. It’s especially used in scenarios where lack of interest has been shown in the pot by other players at the table i.e. no-one seemed interested in the pot so we took a stab. It may also refer to a single attempt to pick up the pot without giving much thought to further action. However, usage varies quite widely and players may use the term stab to describe a bet without meeting any of the above criteria.

Splashing the pot refers to spilling chips over the poker table rather than placing them neatly in the middle. When large amount of chips are wagered, it’s considered good etiquette to try and keep the chips in neat piles. Shoving our stack violently towards the centre of the table while watching chips fly everywhere is referred to as splashing the pot and is considered bad poker etiquette. If villain wins our chips, he’ll have to spend the time piling them up neatly again.

Sick is a slang term that originated from outside of the poker world. It generally applies to extreme situations, whether good or bad. For example, the term ‘sick upswing’ would refer to an upswing that was way bigger than average. A ‘sick beat’ would be a bad beat that it significantly worse than normal. Its usage is not especially different in a poker context compared to general slang use in the world outside poker.

Short Handed in poker refers to a poker game with 6 or less players. Games with more than 6 players are generally referred to as “full ring” tables. Short handed also applies to 2 player tables, although the term ‘heads up’ is more commonly used to describe 2-way action.

Sandbagging is another word for ‘slowplaying’ or ‘trapping’ in poker. It refers to playing a strong made hand passively (by checking and/or calling) in an attempt to deceive our opponent into thinking that we don’t hold a strong hand. The hope is that either our opponent tries to run a big bluff, or doesn’t give us credit when we start betting/raising aggressively on the later betting rounds.

The term run in poker refers to how the cards fall over a period of time i.e. the run of the cards. When the cards are favourable for a player it can be described with the term ‘running good’, while non-favourable cards can be referred to as ‘running bad’. The run of cards over an individual hand of poker is often referred as the runout i.e. the board runout.

A river rat is a player who has a history of catching lucky cards on the river to win the pot. Of course, statistically all players will catch the same amount of good river cards in the long run. A river rat is therefore someone who continues past the flop and turn with overly speculative hands, giving the appearance of someone who gets exceptionally lucky when they hit and go on to win the pot.

Can you re raise in poker? Learn the rules for minimum raise calculations, pot-sized bets & when re-raising is illegal in this complete 888poker guide!