Poker terminology: common poker terms & meanings

A five-card hand containing an ace, but no straight, flush or pair.

A full house with three aces (and any pair).

When your hand contains two pairs, one of which is a pair of aces.

The betting aspect of the game, including checking and raising.

Any player who hasn’t folded.

A chance to buy more chips. Comes at the end of the re-buy period during a multi-table tournament (MTT), normally after 60 minutes.

Betting your entire chip stack, either as a tactic, or to call (match) another player’s bet.

A fee you pay before you see your hand, on top of the blinds – usually applies in later rounds of tournaments. The bigger the blind, the bigger the ante.

When you need the last two cards (the turn and the river) to make your hand. For instance, say you have J and Q of clubs with a flop of A of clubs, 5 of hearts and 6 of spades. If the turn and river are K and 3 of clubs, you’re looking at a backdoor flush.

When a strong hand – one that statistically ought to win – does not. Trust us, this does happen.

The money you have to bet, either in your partypoker account or set aside to add later.

Choosing the right game for your bankroll size, and knowing when to switch up to bigger games, and back down again.

A big blind is twice the small blind (blinds being the two fixed bets that start a hand going).

A card that doesn’t go with anything else in your hand.

When you haven’t got a great hand, but bet or raise as if you do.

In multi-table tournaments (MTTs), we put a bounty on certain players, which means a reward for whoever knocks them out of the game.

Multi-table tournaments (MTTs) can get quite long, so they often have built-in breaks, normally 5 minutes at 55 minutes past the hour.

The last player out before the prize money starts. For example, if you have 200 entrants in a tournament and the prizes start at position 15, to finish 16th is the bubble (sorry, bubble).

A pair of aces.

A small disk marking the dealer position (moves one place clockwise at each hand).

The money you start with in a cash game, or the entry fee in a tournament.

Where you match the bet someone else just made.

In tournaments, chips have a point value. In cash games they have a cash value.

It’s your turn, there’s no action in front of you and you choose not to bet.

A classic move. You check, hoping to draw others in to bet. When they do, you raise.

The five cards in the centre of the table – the flop, turn and river (also known as ‘the board’).

A type of bluff. Before the flop, your hand looked like the nuts – after, not so much. Your opponent doesn’t know that, so you bet again anyway. Cunning.

AKA ‘on the button’. The last to act in a betting round and the strongest position at the table.

First in the betting order, usually two positions to the left of the blinds.

The house’s portion of the tournament entry stake, usually 10%.

Unlike the buy-in (purely the cost of entering a tournament), entry stakes are the amounts players bring that make up the total prize pool.

Also known as the 'river'. The fifth community card on the table and the final round of betting.

A new player, easy pickings for the more experienced ‘sharks’ at the table.

Calling a bet without raising.

After the first round of betting, three cards are dealt face-up on the table. This is the ‘flop’, which starts the second round of betting.

Any five cards of the same suit.

When you have four cards in the same suit, hoping you’ll get a fifth to make a flush.

When you pull out of a hand by passing or ‘folding’ your cards.

Four cards of the same number or face value, also known as ‘quads’.

The fourth community card dealt (also known as the 'turn'). Starts the third round of betting.

A tournament that’s free to enter.

A hand of three same-value cards, plus a pair. For example three aces and two queens.

Gappers

Gappers are hands that are loosely connected in value but have a gap between them. Nine-seven is a one-gapper, while jack-eight is a two-gapper, and so on.

When there are only two players in a hand. Also known as ‘1 on 1’ at partypoker.

The two cards every player gets before betting starts.

Horse

A horse is a poker player that is financially backed by somebody else. If the backer has several horses, they are part of a stable.

HORSE can also be the acronym for the mixed game where you play Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better in rotation.

In the final part of a tournament when everyone left will win a prize, we say the players are ‘in the money’.

Jam

Jam is the word used to describe a player moving all-in; they have jammed their stack into the middle of the table.

Usually two places left of the button – the last players to bet, except the dealer. A strong position on the table.

A game where betting is capped at 4 raises per round, with no bet bigger than the big blind.

When you enter the pot by calling rather than making a raise. Most often seen when the first person to act only calls the big blind.

Live one

A player approaching the game with a loose playing style, who appears not skilled, is known as a live one.

Lodden thinks

Lodden Thinks is a guessing game created by poker pros Johnny Lodden and Antonio Esfandiari. Some players play Lodden Thinks between or during hands. A player asks a question, one person writes their answer down, and everyone else places bets on what answer they think has been written down.

Where you only need a small amount of cash to join the table, and the blinds are very small – perfect for the new player.

Somewhere between the early and late positions on a round of betting (the fifth, sixth and seventh seats to the left of the button on 10 seater tables).

The minimum amount of cash chips you are allowed to join a cash game with. This is normally a multiplier of the big blind (e.g. $1 / $2 blinds with a multiplier of X 35 will require $70 to join the table.

Multi Table Tournament, a tournament with many entrants, the bigger the number the bigger the prize money!.

Muck

You have mucked if you fold your hand without showing it to an opponent. The muck is also a term used to describe the discarded cards in a live poker game.

A game with no limit to the amount you can bet. No Limit Hold’em is the world’s most popular poker game.

Nosebleeds

Nosebleeds are the highest-stakes cash games possible; they are a level above high-stakes games. In the online poker world, nosebleeds are $ 50/ $ 100, $ 100/ $ 200, and $ 200/ $ 400 tables. In the live world, they can be far larger.

Nuts/Nut nut is when you have the best possible hand now but also have a redraw to another nut hand. For example, you may hold a Broadway straight but can improve to a royal flush.

The statistical likelihood of whether you’ll make a hand (or not).

Two hole cards of a different suit.

Dealer's position. The last player to act in a round.

When two or more players are all-in and no-one else has bet. Players turn their cards over and the remainder of the board is dealt.

When you’ve had a few bad beats and emotions take over, you risk making things worse by chasing your losses rather than moving on.

Four consecutive cards where one more at either end will make a straight.

The number of cards left in the deck that will improve your hand. So, if after the turn you have 4-5-6-7, you need either an 8 or a 3 for a straight, there are 4 of each left, you have 8 outs.

To fold your cards.

In Hold’em, this is when your best 5-card hand uses the 5 community cards, not your hole cards.

When you have a pair as your hole cards.

A pair of aces as your hole cards. The odds for getting this hand are 220-1.

Where you sit in relation to the dealer, which gives you your place in the betting order.

The amount of money or chips on the table, and available for players to win.

The probability of winning the hand versus the size of the pot and the size of the bet. Helps you work out whether to call or fold.

Bets made and called (action) before the flop is dealt.

A calculation of total tournament entrants multiplied by the entry stake gives the total amount in the prize fund.

Pwned

Pwned started life as a mistyped "owned" in the video game community. It went viral, and some poker players adopted it. If you have been pwned, you have either found yourself on the wrong side of bad luck or an opponent has outplayed you. You have likely lost most, if not all, of your chips.

Four of a kind.

Where the flop comes down all different suits, so the odds of hitting a flush are much lower.

To increase the previous bet.

The small charge made by the house in cash games, normally 5% of the pot, up to a maximum of a few dollars.

The value of each card and hand.

Enables a player to buy back into a tournament (normally the first hour) if they were to lose all their chips. This is only applicable to tournaments explicitly stated as a re-buy tournament.

When someone has already raised the bet, and you raise it further.

The last community card, also known as ‘5th street’.

An ace high straight (A-K-Q-J-10) of the same suit. The best possible hand in poker.

The amount of players taking part in a tournament.

Runner runner

A runner-runner hand is when you hit cards on both the turn and river to make a hand. If you have a hand such as Kd-Qd and the flop has one diamond on it. Hitting running diamonds on the turn and river gifts you a runner-runner flush.

A mini-tournament you play to qualify for a larger tournament.

A shark is a highly skilled poker player who you should be very weary off because they can bust you anytime. Sharks are complete opposites of fish, donkeys, and whales, which describe weaker, lesser-skilled opponents.

In tournaments, when your chip stack is quite small compared to other remaining players.

When all active players turn their cards face-up after the final betting round to see who’s won the pot.

A separate pot that comes into play when one or more players are all-in.

The amount put in the pot by the person immediately to the left of the dealer (button), before the cards are dealt.

The two cards dealt to each player before betting starts.

All starting hands have a value, based on how likely they are to win the pot. The best would be a pair of aces is the best, followed by K-K, Q-Q, A-K and so on.

The amount of chips each player begins with, in a tournament.

Five consecutive cards of any suit.

Five consecutive cards of the same suit.

Two consecutive cards of the same suit, for example 9 and 10 of hearts.

The action is on you means it is your turn to call, pass, raise or fold.

When the flop, turn and river cards are all on display, this is known as the board.

The fourth community card that starts the third round of betting.

The first person to act in a betting round. Or, to put it another way, the first player left of the button still holding cards.

The range of results you can expect over a given time period.