Poker Dictionary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Ace-High: A five-card hand containing an ace but no pair; beats a king-high, but loses to any pair or above.

Aces Full: A full house with aces over any pair.

Aces Up: Two pairs, one of which is aces.

Action: The betting.

Active Player: A player still in the pot.

Add-On: The opportunity to buy additional chips in some tournaments.

Advertise: To make a bluff with the deliberate intention of being exposed as a loose player.

All-In: When a player bets all his or her remaining chips.

An Ace Working: An ace in hand.

Angle: Any technically legal but ethically dubious way to increase your expectation at a game; a trick.

Ante: A token bet required before the start of a hand.

B

Baby: A small card.

Back Door Flush (or Straight): When the last two cards make a player's hand, even though he or she played on the flop for some other reason.

Back Into A Hand: To draw into a hand different from the one you were originally trying to make.

Bad Beat: When a strong hand is beaten by a lucky hand; a longshot win.

Bankroll: The amount of money you have available to wager.

Behind: You're behind if you don't have the best hand before the last cards have been dealt.

Belly Buster: A draw to fill an inside straight; a gut shot.

Bet: To voluntarily put money or chips into the pot.

Bet For Value: Betting in order to raise the amount in the pot, not to make your opponents fold.

Bet Into: To bet before a stronger hand, or a player who bet strongly on the previous round.

Bet The Pot: To bet the total value of the pot.

Betting Black: Betting $100 amounts (black is a common color for $100 chips).

Betting Green: Betting $25 amounts (green is a common color for $25 chips).

Betting Red: Betting $5 amounts (red is a common color for $5 chips).

Betting White: Betting $1 amounts (white is a common color for $1 chips).

Betting Interval: The period during which each active player has the right to check, bet or raise; the round of betting. It ends when the last bet or raise has been called by all players still in the hand.

Bicycle: The lowest possible hand in lowball: Ace-2-3-4-5. Also called a wheel.

Big Bet Poker: Another term for pot-limit and no-limit poker.

Big Blind: The forced bet in second position before any cards are dealt. Usually this is a Live Blind, which means that the player in this position can raise if no one else has before the cards are dealt.

Big Slick: The Ace-King card combination.

Black Leg: Archaic term for crooked card-sharp.

Blank: A card that is of no value to a player's hand.

Blind: A forced bet that one or more players to the dealer's left must make before any cards are dealt to start the action on the first round of betting.

Blind Raise: When a player raises without first looking at his or her cards.

Blow Back: To lose back one's profits.

Bluff: To bet or raise with a hand that is unlikely to be the best hand.

Board: In flop games, the five cards that are turned face up in the center of the table; in Seven-Card Stud, the four cards that are dealt face up to each player.

Boat: Another name for full house.

Bottom Pair: When you use the lowest card on the flop to make a pair.

Bounty: A small amount of cash awarded to a player when he knocks out another player in some tournaments.

Brick: A blank.

Bring-In: The forced bet made on the first betting round by the player dealt the lowest card showing in Seven-Card Stud and the highest card showing in razz.

Bring It In: To start the betting on the first round.

Broadway: An ace high straight.

Brush: A cardroom employee responsible for managing the seating list.

Buck: In all flop games, a small disk used to indicate the dealer, or used to signify the player in the last position if a house dealer is used; a button.

Bug: A Joker that can be used to make straights and flushes and can be paired with Aces, but not with any other cards.

Bullet: An Ace.

Bullets: A pair of Aces.

Bump: To raise.

Buried Pair: In stud games, a pair in the hole.

Burn: To deal off the top card, face down, before dealing out the cards (to prevent cheating); or to set aside a card which has been inadvertently revealed.

Bust: A worthless hand that has failed to improve as the player hoped; a busted hand.

Bust a Player: To deprive a player of all his chips; in tournament play, to eliminate a player.

Bust Out: To be eliminated from a tournament by losing all your chips.

Busted: Broke, tapped.

Busted Flush: A hand with only four of five cards in a flush.

Button: In all flop games, a small disk used to signify the player in the last position if a house dealer is used; a buck.

Buy-In: The minimum amount of money required to sit down in a particular game.

C

Cage: The cashier, where you exchange cash for chips and vice versa.

Call: To match, rather than raise, the previous bet.

Calling Station: A player who invariably calls, and is therefore hard to bluff out.

Cap: In limit games, the limit on the number of raises in a round of betting.

Card Room: The room or area in a casino where poker is played.

Case Card: The last card of a denomination or suit, when the rest have already been seen.

Case Chips: A player's last chips.

Cash In: To leave the game and convert one's chips to cash, either with the dealer or at the cage.

Cash Out: To leave a game and cash in one's chips at the cage.

Caught Speeding: Slang for caught bluffing.

Chase: To stay in against an apparently stronger hand, usually in the hope of filling a straight or flush.

Check: To abstain from betting, reserving the right to call or raise if another player bets. Also another name for a chip.

Check-Raise: To check and raise in a betting round.

Check In The Dark: To check before looking at the card or cards just dealt.

Cheese: A very substandard starting hand.

Chip Race: As the limits increase in tournaments, lower denomination chips are taken out of circulation. Rather than rounding odd chips up or down for each player, the players are dealt a card for each odd chip. The player with the highest card is given all the odd chips, which are then colored up.

Chop: To return the blinds to the players who posted them and move on to the next hand, if nobody calls the blind.

Cinch Hand: An unbeatable hand; nuts.

Closed Hand: A hand in which all cards are concealed from the opponents.

Closed Poker: Games in which all of the cards are dealt face down.

Coffee Housing: An attempt to mislead opponents about one's hand by means of devious speech or behavior.

Cold: If a player says his cards have "gone cold," he's having a bad streak.

Cold Call: To call a raise without having already put the initial bet into the pot.

Cold Deck: A fixed deck.

Color Up: To exchange one's chips for chips of higher value, usually to reduce the number of chips one has on the table.

Come: Playing a worthless hand in the hope of improving it is called "playing on the come."

Come Hand: A hand that has not yet been made, requiring one or more cards from the draw to complete it.

Come Over The Top: To raise or reraise an opponent's bet.

Commit Fully: To put in as many chips as necessary to play your hand to the river, even if they're your case chips.

Community Cards: In flop games and similar games, the cards dealt face up in the center of the table that are shared by all active players.

Connectors: Consecutive cards which might make a straight.

Counterfeit: In Omaha Hi/Lo, when the board pairs your key low card, demoting the value of your hand.

Cowboy: Slang for a King.

Crack: To beat a powerful hand.

Crying Call: A call with a hand you think has a small chance of winning.

Cut It Up: To split the pot after a tie.

Cut The Pot: To take a percentage of each pot for the casino running the game.