Poker Glossary - PokerTraining.org

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3-Bet	The first re-raise (putting 3 bets in).
A
All-In	To push all of your remaining chips into the pot.
Ante	The minimum amount that each player is required to put into the pot before a new hand can begin at the later stages of a tournament.
American Airlines	A pair of Aces.
B
Baby	A low-ranked card.
Backdoor	An unfinished hand that requires help from both the turn and the river in order to win. Also known as a runner-runner hand.
Backdoor Flush	This is when you need two cards of the same suit to complete your hand.
Bad Beat	To have a hand that is the clear mathematical favorite lose to a heavy underdog.
Bankroll	The total amount of “Poker-money” a player owns.
BB	An abbreviation for Big Blind.
Bet	A wager or gamble.
Betting Limits	The minimum and maximum that can be wagered on one bet.
Big Blind	The position to the left of the Small Blind, who is forced to pay a full bet prior to the hole cards being dealt.
Big Chick	In Texas Hold’em, having an Ace and a Queen as your hole cards.
Big Slick	In Texas Hold’em, having an Ace and a King as your hole cards.
Bluff	In Poker, players bluff when raising a weak hand in the hope of driving out players with a stronger hand.
Bump	Raise.
Burn Card	Any card placed in the discard rack without being entered into play. After the deck is shuffled and cut, one card is burned.
Blank	A card that appears useless. Also known as a rag.
Board	The community cards.
Boat	Full house.
Bounty	A reward given in a tournament to someone who meets certain criteria, e.g. knocking a certain person out of the tournament or winning with a special hand.
BR	Abbreviation for bankroll.
Broadway	An ace-high straight.
Bubble	Finishing a tournament in the spot nearest to the money.
Bullets	A pair of Aces.
Bust Out	To lose your buy-in.
Button	The disk that represents the dealer in a given hand.
Buy In	The amount of money that is necessary to play a particular game, or the amount of money that you decide to play a game with.
Buy the Button	Betting or raising in order to make any players between you and the button fold. If successful, you are now the last to act on any following round.
Buy the Pot	To bluff, bet or raise in order to win the pot.
C
Chips	Tokens used at gaming tables in to replace real cash.
Chum	Bait that is used to attract hungry sharks. Avoid being chum.
Cold	Player on a losing streak.
Cold Call	To call more than one bet at a time. Note that this is not the same as calling a bet, then calling a subsequent raise since you are calling 2 single bets.
Complete Hand	A poker hand that is defined by all five cards. That is a straight, flush, straight flush, or a full house.
Come Hand	A drawing hand. Example: An open-ended straight is a come hand.
Complete the Bet	When the small blind chooses to call by putting in the chips necessary.
Connectors	Consecutive suited or unsuited cards.
Counterfeit	When your hand loses value because a board card duplicates it or a board card gives others a similar hand. Example: You hold K6 and the board is K 7 6. You now have two-pair, which is ahead of K-Q. The turn is a 7. Your hand has just been counterfeited, as your two-pair is no longer as valuable as it was before the turn.
Cowboys	A pair of Kings.
Cripple (an opponent)	To win a critical hand in a tournament, leaving your opponent very short-stacked.
Cripple the Deck	Your hand contains most or all of the beneficial cards that could be used in conjunction with the board.
Crying Call	To call with no cards to come, while expecting to lose.
Cut-off	The person to the right of the button.
D
Dark	Taking action, such as checking or betting, without seeing your hole cards. This is also used when theperson who is first to act takes action prior to the next board card being revealed.
Dead Money	Money that has been put in the pot by people who are no longer in contention to win the pot.
Dominated Hand	A hand that contains 3 or fewer outs against another hand. Example: AK dominates AQ.
Double Up	In no-limit, winning a heads-up pot when you have gone all in (thus, doubling your chip total).
Ducks	A pair of Twos.
Dump	To fold a hand.
E
EMP	An abbreviation for "Early Middle Position".
EP	An abbreviation for "Early Position".
F
Face Cards	King, queen or jack.
Family Pot	A pot in which many players are involved in the hand.
Fish	A poor poker player, relative to their competition.
Flat Call	To call one or more bets without raising, when you are quite sure that you have the best hand.
Fold	When a player declines a bet and drops out of the hand.
Free Card Play	Betting or raising in late position on the flop in the hopes that the other players will check to you on the turn, giving you the option of seeing the river card for free.
Free Ride	A round in which no one bets.
Free Roll	A tournament you´re allowed participating in without investing your own money.
Freeze Out	Tournament that only ends when one person has won all of the tournament chips.
G
Gut-shot	A gut-shot is a straight draw where only one card makes your hand.
H
Hand History	Records of games played at online Poker rooms.
Hit	When the flop cards are helpful to your hand.
HL	An abbreviation for “High-limit”.
Hold Up	When a hand that is leading manages to win the pot at showdown.
Hole Cards	Your unique cards that are hidden from everyone else. Also known as pocket.
Hooks	A pair of Jacks.
I
Image	The perception that other people have of your playing style.
Inside Straight	A straight that requires an inside card to complete, as opposed to an open-ended straight. Also known as a belly buster or gut-shot.
K
Kicker	A card used as a tie-breaker when 2 hands are nearly identical.
Knuckle	To check (as in knocking on the table).
Kojak	In Texas Hold’em, having a King and a Jack as your hole cards.
L
LAG	An abbreviation for loose aggressive.
Lay Down	To fold a hand.
Limp In	To enter the round by calling a bet, rather than raising.
Long Odds	A low probability of a certain thing happening.
M
Maniac	Nickname for a player that is loose and aggressive. Maniacs are involved in too many hands and will almost always bet and raise when given the opportunity, often with garbage hands.
Marry	To become too attached to a hand, usually seeing a showdown when it was clear that you should have folded earlier.
ML	An abbreviation for “Middle-limit”.
Monster	A superior hand that is unlikely to lose.
N
NL	An abbreviation for “No limit”.
Nuts	The best possible hand, based on the board cards.
O
Off-suit	Cards that are not of the same suit.
Open Raise	Raising as the first one in the pot pre-flop.
Orbit	One complete rotation around the table.
Outkicked	To lose to another hand with a better kicker than yours.
Outrun	To beat a hand that you were losing to on an earlier street.
Outs	Cards remaining in the deck that will help your hand win a pot.
Overcall	Calling a bet after at least one other person has already called.
Over-card	A pocket card that is higher than the highest board card.
Over-pair	A pocket pair that is higher than the highest board card.
P
Pass	To fold.
Pay Off	To call a river bet when the prior action leads you to believe that you are beat, but the pot is big enough to make the call reasonable.
Peel One Off	Deciding to see the turn or river when the odds don’t quite justify a call.
PF	An abbreviation for “pre-flop”.
Pocket	Your unique cards that are hidden from everyone else. Also known as hole.
Pocket Rockets	Another term for two aces as your hole cards.
Pop	To bet or to raise.
Post	To pay the blind(s) when not in the big blind position, often done when first sitting at a table or when you sat out and missed your turn to pay the blinds.
Pot	The amount of money that accumulates in the middle of the table.
Pot Odds	The ratio of total pot size in comparison to the amount of chips you have to use in order to call a bet.
Push (a hand)	To play a hand aggressively.
Put (on a hand)	To suspect that someone has a certain hand.
R
Rag	A card that appears useless. Also known as a blank.
Ragged	A board containing cards that don’t appear helpful.
Railbird	Game observers.
Rainbow	A board that contains all different suits, making a flush impossible on the next card.
Raise	A player raises by matching the previous bet and then betting more, to increase the stake for remaining players. The raise must be at least twice the initial bet.
Rake	The money a casino charges for each hand of Poker.
Rank	The worth of a set of cards.
Ring Game	A game that is played for actual stakes, as opposed to a tournament game. Also known as a live game.
Rivered	Losing a hand on the river, while you were ahead and the clear favorite on the turn.
Rock	A tight player who is normally only involved in hands in which he is the heavy favorite to win. A rock will generally only bet or raise with top-notch hands.
ROI	An abbreviation for "return on investment".
Rounder	A professional poker player.
Runner-runner	A come hand that requires help from both the turn and river to win. Also known as a backdoor hand.
Running Bad	Losing for a longer period of time.
S
SB	An abbreviation for Small Blind.
Scare card	A board card that can easily turn a winning hand into a losing hand. If you hold KK, every A is a scare-card.
Sell a Hand	Playing a very strong hand weakly in order to disguise your strength and keep other players from folding. Also known as slow-playing.
Semi-Bluff	To bet or to raise with more cards to come when you believe your hand is currently beaten, but has a fair chance of improving into the best hand.
Session	The period of time you spent playing Poker.
Set	Three of a kind when you hold a pair in your hand and a third shows on the board.
Short Stack	A relatively small amount of chips (as compared to the other players at the table).
Side Pot	The extra pot that is created when someone goes all-in and the stacks don´t match. The person who went all-in is only eligible for the main pot, not the side pot.
Slow Down	To stop playing a hand as aggressively as you played it on earlier streets.
Slow-Play	Playing a very strong hand weakly in order to disguise your strength and keep other players from folding.
Small Bet	In a limit game, the smaller of the two bets in the betting structure. Therefore, in a 10/20 game, each $10 bet is considered a small bet.
Small Blind	The position one to the left of the button, who is forced to pay a fraction (mostly half as much as the big blind) of a small bet prior to the hole cards being dealt in Hold'em.
Smooth Call	To only call one or more bets, when you are quite sure that you have the best hand. See also flat call.
SNG	An abbreviation for "Sit and Go" tournament, as opposed to a scheduled tournament.
Spike	For the next board card to be a specific rank that you need to help your hand.
Stack	The amount of money you currently have at the table.
Steal	To win the pot by bluffing.
Steal the Blinds	Pre-flop open-betting from the cutoff or button in the hopes that everyone following you will fold.
Steaming	Playing recklessly, usually as a result of a bad beat (real or perceived). Also known as tilt or tilting.
Stuck	Losing.
Suck Out	To win a hand with a hand that was a heavy underdog. This implies that the winner should not have been in the hand, and was very lucky to win the pot.
T
TAG	An abbreviation for tight aggressive.
Tap Out	Losing all of your money.
Tells	A "tell" in poker is when you pick up on the behavior of another player that gives you a strong sense of the strength or weakness of their hand.
Throwing a Party	When several loose players are making significant monetary contributions to the pot.
Tilt	Playing recklessly, usually as a result of a bad beat (real or perceived). AKA steaming.
Trap	When one player is caught between 2 (or more) bettors / raisers, and is unlikely to win the pot.
U
Under the Gun	The first player to act in a given round of betting.
Underdog	A hand that is unlikely to win the pot.
Underpair	A pocket pair that is lower than the lowest board card.
V
Value Bet	A bet in which you wish for your opponent(s) to call. This could be because you have the best or hand or because you have enough outs in order make this bet profitable in the long run.
W
Wheel	A 5-high straight, also known as a bicycle.