Poker Phrases In Common Use

What is very interesting to me as a lifelong poker player is the number of poker related words and sayings that have worked their way into mainstream conversation in the business world and elsewhere. A few obvious examples which shouldn’t require explanation would include: hold your cards close to your chest, I’ll call that bluff, I’d rather be lucky than good, and he’s got a real poker face.

While you may already be aware of many poker related words and sayings, there are sure to be many that, as a beginner to poker, you probably won’t know. Over the years poker has accumulated a number of unique words and phrases that regular players use as their own language and can be incomprehensible to the uninitiated. Here is an example of a seasoned poker player describing a hand to a friend:

Overlay - In poker terms it is when a room ads money into the prize pot that has exceeded the total amount of buy-ins. It can also be used in sports betting when the odds are higher than they should be and favour the player. Paroli - This is a betting system that increases your bet every time you win. When the term is used in French. Common Poker Lingo Terms. All-in: When you do not have enough money to cover the required bet, you will be forced to contribute the remainder of your money to the pot. You will then play for an amount proportional to your contribution. This action is known as an all-in. The key to success when playing poker is a keen eye, confidence and having a good understanding of poker terminology so you can gauge the way a game is going. For those who are new to the game, poker phrases can sound like a completely different language, and therefore can be the difference between winning or losing.

“I had pocket rockets and the flop comes Ace, two rags, rainbow giving me top set. Can you believe that donkey, Harry, goes runner, runner and cracks my set with his 23-to-1 shot flush draw? It’s just like him; he’s such a calling station”.

If you completely understand this description then you might not need this lesson. However, if it seems like a different language then, fear not, by the end of this lesson you will understand what it all means. In this lesson we’ll explain just what some of those colourful expressions mean along with a list of terms which any poker player, who aspires to become conversant in the game needs to know.

Glossary of Poker Terms

Let’s start off with a list of poker terms that you’ll need to be familiar with. After this all important glossary, we’ll return to the above “poker speak” example as it is the kind of conversation you will hear from other more experienced players.

All-in- When a player puts all of his chips into the pot he is said to be all-in. That player does not participate in anymore bets above his all-in amount. A side pot is created for the other players. The all-in player is eligible for the main pot only.

Ante – A small forced bet that all players are required to post before the deal. An ante is used in stud poker versus posting blinds as in hold‘em. Antes are also common in tournaments in addition to the blinds at the later levels.

Back Door – A hand which is made back door requires both the turn card and river card to make the hand. An example would be holding a three flush after the flop and needing two more of the same suit to complete your flush. This is also called runner/runner.

Bad Beat – A good hand that is “cracked” or beaten by a better hand that usually was way behind but hit a lucky draw. Every poker player has more than one bad beat story to tell!

Big Slick – This is the nickname for the two card holding of Ace-King.

Blinds – The mandatory bets made by the first two players to the left of the dealer button. They are called the small and big blinds.

Bluff – Making a bet without the best hand in the hope that your opponent(s) will fold and you will win the pot.

Calling Station – A player who calls too often is a calling station. The term is used in a derogatory manner mainly since these players call without the correct pot odds they many times hit long shot winning hands which frustrates other players.

Cards Speak – The best hand is determined by each of the players turning their cards face up with no declaration. The values of the cards speak for themselves.

Check Raise – To check when it is your turn to bet and then, after someone else bets, to raise that player’s bet.

Donkey – An opponent who plays poorly and seems to be throwing his money away. This is the current term for a pigeon, a sucker or a fish.

Double Belly Buster – This is a hand with two inside straight draws. As an example, 79TJK can become a straight with either an 8 or a queen. This draw has the same number of outs (8 winning cards) as an open ended straight draw except the double belly buster is much more deceptive.

Drawing Dead – A draw such that no matter what card you get you will lose. As an example: You have four spades with the King while your opponent holds a pair of Aces along with four spades including the Ace of spades. You’re hoping to draw a spade on the river to make a King high flush. If the spade comes you will lose to an Ace high flush and since your opponent already has a pair of Aces you cannot win. You are said to be drawing dead.

Fish – See donkey – a player who plays the game poorly.

Flop – After the first round of betting, three community board cards are dealt called the flop.

Gutshot – An inside straight draw with only four outs. Drawing to a QJ98 would require one of the four tens to make a straight.

Heads-up – Playing against a single opponent.

Implied Odds – This is an extension of pot odds and represents the ratio of the total amount you expect to win if you complete your hand to the amount you would need to call to continue. While pot odds are an exact calculation, implied odds takes some guess work and knowledge of your opponents’ tendencies.

Inside Straight Draw – See gut shot.

Isolate – To make a raise with the intention of forcing others to fold in hopes of being able to play heads up against a single opponent is to isolate him.

Limp – To just flat call the amount of the big blind is to limp into a hand.

Monster – A very strong hand that is almost certainly the winner.

Muck – Folding your hand is to muck it. The pile of dead cards is called the muck.

Nuts – Based upon the board it’s the best available hand. An unbeatable hand is often called “the Brazils” and “a lock”.

Out – An out is a card that improves your hand, usually to winning status. If you hold the and there are two hearts on the flop, you have nine outs to the nut flush – the remaining nine hearts in the deck.

Pocket Rockets – A pair of Aces in your hand in hold’em.

Pot Odds – The ratio of the amount of money in the pot to the amount of money it will cost to call the current bet. If the pot holds $100 and it will cost you $20 to call, the pot is laying you 5-to-1 odds.

Quads – The nickname for four of a kind – e.g. “he had quad Kings”.

Rags – Refers to a worthless card. Rags are normally small board cards in hold’em.

Rainbow – Three or four board cards of different suits. If a flop contains three different suits it is said to be rainbow. If the turn is a card of the fourth suit, a flush will not be possible.

River – The fifth and final community board card dealt in hold’em.

Runner-Runner – A hand that is made with both the turn and the river cards. Two running cards are runner-runner. If, on the flop, you have a three flush and both the turn and river are of the same suit making you a flush, you’ve gone runner-runner.

Sandbag – Hiding the strength of your hand by slow playing it early on in order to make more money later in the hand. It’s a deceptive ploy to increase profit.

Set – When holding a pocket pair, having one of that same rank hit the board creates a set.

String Bet – This is an illegal move which occurs when a player does not orally declare his intention to raise but puts out chips to call and then reaches back to his stack to get more chips for a raise.

Tilt – A player who has lost his discipline and is playing too loosely and very aggressively in a desperate attempt to win a pot is said to be on tilt. This is normally caused by a series of bad beats that has frustrated the victim.

Trips – Differentiated from a set, trips occur when two of the same rank is on the board and you hold another of them in your hand. The reason it differs from a set is that only one person can hold the three cards to a set while two people can have the same trips when two of them are on the board.

Turn – The fourth community board card dealt between the flop and the river.

Under the Gun – The first player to the left of the button who must act first is said to be under the gun.

Wheel – The smallest possible straight consisting of Ace-2-3-4-5. It is also called a bicycle wheel or just a bike.

Poker Speak – Revisited

Now that you’ve read through the glossary covering a myriad of poker definitions, do you understand what that poker player at the beginning of this lesson was telling his friend? Just in case you missed something, we’ll translate his statement. We’ll repeat the statement as written, with the unique poker words/phrases in bold, and then we’ll make the translation.

I had pocket rockets and the flop comes Ace, two rags, rainbow giving me top set. Can you believe that donkey, Harry, goes runner, runner and cracks my set with his 23-to-1 shot flush draw? It’s just like him; he’s such a calling station.

Translation:

I had two Aces in the hole and the three cards the dealer dealt come Ace, two small cards with three different suits giving me the best/highest three of a kind. Can you believe that unskilled, bad player, Harry, he hit two of his needed suit in a row, one on the turn and the other on the river and beats my three of a kind with his long shot flush draw? It’s just like him, he’s a weak player who calls way too much and sometimes gets lucky.

See how much more concise poker speak is? If you’re just getting into the game and have not been using poker speak – trust me, you will be. In fact, by the end these lessons I’ll bet you’ll be speaking Poker fluently.

By Tom 'TIME' Leonard

Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.

Poker and Casino Dictionary

If you want to learn more about online and live poker or casino gameplay, you must know most of the basic phrases. Once you have a quick read of this dictionary, you will no longer get confused when you listen to other players talking!

Ante

Ante is a small bet all players are required to make before a poker hand is dealt. Antes give the pot a value right away. They are most common in live and poker tournaments (the first few blind levels may not have them).

Backdoor

Backdoor is etting your needed cards on the turn and the river to make your hand. For example, if there's one spade on the flop and you have two in your hand and two more spades show up on the turn and river, you've hit a 'backdoor' flush.

Banker

Banker is a casino croupier who is accepting the bets.

Bankroll

Bankroll is your available money balance, it could be your available balance on the site or your whole balance (including the one outside the site) dedicated for the games.

Blind

Blind is the term for either the big blind or the small blind in poker. Small Blind is sitting to the left of the dealer button while one position to the left is a Big Blind.

Blocker

In poker variants blocker is a card which you have in your card and which blocks some of your opponent's combinations. For example, if there are three hearts on a table and you have Ace of hearts in your hand, then you are certain that your opponent does not have an Ace-high flush (a nut flush).

Board

In poker and other games, board is the community cards on the table.

Boat

Another term for Full House poker combination.

Bluff (Bluffing)

In poker bluffing is a player's bet when he is trying to claim the pot and not go to showdown. In other words, such player is trying to trick opponent and make him fold. If another player would still call with a weak but better hand, that would be considered a Hero Call.

Dealer button

A dealer button is a constantly moving button on a poker table. Next to it you have Small Blind and Big Blind. In some home games, one of the player's who has a dealer button deals the cards to everyone. This position is good to try and steal the blinds from weaker players.

Hand range

The range of hands for the specific poker action (shove, call, raise) or if it is not in that range - fold. Various poker charts show hand ranges for the specific situations.

Croupier

A person working for a casino and assisting players during live games such as BlackJack, Roulette and more.

Cut

It is a casino cut card in a mix of decks after which the cards are shuffled. For example, in BlackJack, you play with 6 card decks and after 4 you reach the cut card and the cards are shuffled.

Poker Phrases In Common Use Words

Cut-off position

Poker table position to the right of the dealer button.

Cryptocurrency

A digital currency in which encryption methods are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of an ordinary bank. The most popular cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash & Litecoin. Some online poker & casino operators prefer to accept this payment method.

Deuces

Deuces or Poker Deuces is nother term for a pair of twos in poker.

Draw

Staying in a poker hand in the hopes of improving it. For example, you don't have anything yet, but need one or two more cards for a straight or a flush.

Ewallet

Ewallet is an online wallet - payment website such as Skrill and Neteller. Ewallets are very popular among money game players.

Face Cards

In poker Face Cards are Jacks, Queens and Kings.

Fish

Fish is not so skilled poker player who makes rookie mistakes. Most of the time it is a newbie.

Gutshot

Gutshot is a straight which is missing one card from the inside out, the opposite of an open-ender straight in poker.

Hand-for-Hand play

Just before live or online tournament reaches the prizes (ITM), most of the the time it goes hand-for-hand till the prizes are reached. This ensures that no players are wasting too much time and every table deals the cards at the same time.

Hard Hand

Hard Hand is a BlackJack hand in which Ace is not involved. For example T9 is a hard hand and A5 is a soft hand.

High Roller

High Roller is a High Stakes player who plays high limit games (such as poker, casino, sports betting & other games).

Hit

A BlackJack term meaning getting an additional card.

Inside Bet

A Roulette bet which a player places on the field of numbers in the center of the betting layout.

Limp - Limping

Calling preflop (not being aggressive).

MTT

MTT is a Multi-table poker tournament.

Nosebleed games

Very high stakes poker games.

Nuts

The highest possible poker combination on the table.

Odds

Odds, probability percentage to win in a casino game, poker hand etc.

One-outer

Only one remaining card in the deck which could save you in a poker hand. Terms like 'two-outer', 'three-outer', mean the same, but the number of remaining 'lifeline' cards in a deck is different.

Open-ended

A straight completed from the outside by one of two possible cards in poker deck. For example, if your hole cards are 7-8 and the flop shows 6-9-king, either a 5 or an 10 on the turn or river would complete the straight.

Outside Bets

Roulette betting when a player is not betting on numbers, but is betting on a colour, odd/even number and more.

Overbet

Betting more than usual in a poker hand. For example, betting way more than a pot size bet.

Overcard

It is a card or cards higher than the board cards or your opponent's hole cards.

Over-pair

In poker, it is a pair that is larger than any community card on the board.

Payline

A term mainly using in casino slots. It is a line of symbols for which you want to get paid.

Return to Player (RTP) percentage

RTP is a payout percentage in the long run for casino games such as slots, live games and more.

Pit boss

Pit boss is a live casino worker who ensures that everything goes smoothly.

Playthrough - Wagering

It is used for various online poker, casino & other bonuses. Playthrough (or wagering) requirement requires you to play the balance a specific number of times until you can cash it out.

Poker reads - tells

Poker Phrases In Common Use Adjectives

Getting information about your poker opponent's behaviour in online and live poker. Such body language and behaviourals signs are very common in live poker, while in online poker you have to stick with game analysis unless you are chatting with players while playing.

Poker Tracker - HUD

Poker tracker is an online poker tracking software tool which helps you to analyse and improve your gameplay. Some of the most popular tools are Holdem Manager 2 and Poker Tracker.

Pot commited

A poker player who is commited to the pot and folding would lose him a lot of chips so he would call any bet.

Pot odds - equity

Poker odds is the ratio of poker chips in the pot compared to what you need to call to keep playing. For example, there is $50 in the pot. Opponent bets $5, so the pot now contains $55. It costs you $5 to call, so your pot odds are 11 to 1. Do you assume the odds of your hand being the best are better than that? If yes, then you should call. Or if you are getting the same odds but you don't have a made hand but the odds of getting to a better combination are greater than 11 to 1, you would also have to call and make the right play.

Tournament bubble

Poker tournament phase just before the money. During it most players play tight in order to have abetter chance to reach the prizes.

Push (Shove)

A poker play going All-In and betting his remaining chips.

Quads

Quads is another term for four of a kind poker combination.

Rake

Rake is ive Casino's or Online Poker Site's fee paid by the players.

Rakeback - Cashback

A loyalty - VIP reward for players which gets bigger depending on how active the player is. Rakeback only applies to poker, while the term cashback is used by various brands in various industries.

Rainbow board

In poker it is a flop in which there are no two cards of the same suit.

Recreational player (Rec)

A person playing for fun, it does not always mean that it is a bad player since there are many recreational businessmen who player poker very well.

It simply means that a person does not want to dedicate all the time to poker and is not a regular / professional player.

Regular player (Reg)

An opposite to recreational player, an experience poker player.

Runner Runner

Runner runner is two running hards needed to complete a winning poker combination.

Satellite tournament

An online or live poker tournament which lets you qualify for the next stage if your survive. It could award an entry to another tournament or award an entry/package to a live event.

Semi-bluff

Same as a usual poker bluff, but a person has a weak/mediocre hand which may have a chance of winning even if it goes to showdown.

Set

Another term for three of a kind in poker.

Shoe

A casino card holder used in games such as BlackJack.

Side Pot

A side pot in poker is when a short stack goes all in, but does not cover a person who calls the shove.

Sit & Go (SNG)

Sit & go is poker tournament with a set number of players and prizes. Has one or very few tables.

Spin & Go

Spin and go is very similar to Hyper Sit & Go's, but here about a third of a prize pool goes to the Jackpot fund meaning that you can get more than just an X2, X3 or X4 multiplayer once you start the game. Depending on a poker site, they reach at least x10,000 and on the biggest poker sites such as PokerStars & PartyPoker, they reach x100,000 and even more during promotions! Read this Spin and Go Guide to learn more.

Split

A two card split option available in BlackJack.

Split pot

A 'draw' in poker when poker combinations are equal and you have to split the spot with your opponent(s).

Stand

A BlackJack option when a player or a dealer does not want another card.

Sticky and non-sticky bonus

Online bonuses which can be cashed out partially are non-sticky, while the ones that have to be played through completely are sticky bonuses.

Stealing

Trying to steal the chips by raising preflop in poker.

Straddle

Straddle is an optional cash game pre-deal bet, typically made by the player to the left of the big blind. The straddle amount is twice the big blind. The straddler may re-raise when the action comes around to him.

Surrender

Blackjack rule allowing you to give up and only lose a half of the bet.

Poker Phrases In Common Use For A

Three bet (3-bet)

A three bet is a second raise in poker (blinds -> raise -> reraise).

Tilt - Tilting

In poker tilting is being very unhappy with your gameplay because of your luck or actions. It may affect player's future poker decisions during that short time period.

Under the gun

It is a poker player in the first-to-act position on a table. It is the position to the left of the big blind (BB).

Upcard

Upcard is a casino dealer's face up card in BlackJack.

Poker Variance

Poker variance is a term or a number which describes how far your results spread in the long run. A lot of variance means many swings while less variance means fewer swings and bigger winnings. It is simply the downswings and upswings which occurred while playing poker.