Poker Glossary
121 terms — every concept, slang word, and stat in modern poker, with examples and links to the relevant tool.
Your turn to act, or the overall betting activity in a hand.
Betting all your remaining chips.
A forced bet all players must post before each hand.
A draw needing two perfect cards (turn + river) to complete.
Losing a hand where you were a heavy statistical favorite.
The money set aside for poker, separate from living expenses.
A continuation bet on a later street (double = flop+turn, triple = + river).
The forced bet posted by the player two seats left of the dealer.
A forced bet posted before the cards are dealt.
Betting or raising with a weak hand to make opponents fold.
The community cards dealt face-up in the middle of the table.
A pair using one of your hole cards and the lowest board card.
The amount required to enter a game or tournament.
A bet on the flop by the preflop raiser.
Matching the current bet to stay in the hand.
Passing the action when no bet is pending.
Checking, then raising after an opponent bets.
A hand where two players have very strong holdings — unavoidable losses happen.
The position one seat right of the button. Second-best position.
The best position — last to act on every postflop street.
A bet made out of position by the non-aggressor.
Winning an all-in to double your chip stack.
Having no card left in the deck that can win the hand.
Your statistical share of the pot, expressed as a winning probability.
The average profit/loss of a play over infinite repetitions.
A weak, losing player.
The first three community cards dealt face-up.
Five cards of the same suit. Beats a straight.
Four cards of the same suit, needing one more for a flush.
Discarding your hand and forfeiting any chance at the pot.
The value gained from the chance opponents fold to your bet.
A tournament with no entry fee but real prizes.
Three of a kind plus a pair. Beats a flush.
A mathematically unexploitable strategy.
An inside straight draw — needing one specific rank (4 outs).
A hand or game with only two players.
Software showing real-time stats on opponents.
Converts tournament chip stacks to real-dollar equity.
Pot odds adjusted for expected future bets if you hit your draw.
The side card that breaks ties between same-rank hands.
Calling the big blind preflop instead of raising.
A tournament played across many tables, players consolidating until one is left.
Folding without showing your cards. Also: the discard pile.
An extremely tight player who only enters pots with premium hands.
The best possible hand at that moment.
A straight draw with two ranks completing it (8 outs).
Cards remaining in the deck that improve your hand to a winner.
Betting more than the size of the pot.
A card higher than any on the board.
Two cards of the same rank.
Variant where each player gets 4 hole cards and must use exactly 2.
Where you sit relative to the dealer button. Later = better.
The total chips/money currently being contested.
The ratio of the current pot to the cost of calling.
The betting round before any community cards are dealt.
Increasing the current bet.
The percentage of each pot taken by the poker room.
A percentage of paid rake returned to the player.
The set of all hands a player could hold in a given spot.
The fifth and final community card.
Tournament profit as a percentage of total buy-ins.
Dealing remaining community cards twice when players are all-in.
Bluffing with a hand that can improve.
Three of a kind made by holding a pocket pair matching a board card.
A skilled, winning player.
Having significantly fewer chips than the table average.
When remaining players reveal their hands to determine the winner.
A small tournament that starts when enough players register.
Playing a strong hand passively to trap opponents.
The smaller forced bet posted by the player left of the dealer.
Effective stack divided by pot size on the flop.
Five consecutive cards of any suit.
Four cards that need one more to make a straight.
A round of betting (preflop, flop, turn, river).
Two cards of the same suit (e.g. AKs).
Tight-Aggressive — playing few hands but betting/raising aggressively when you do.
A behavior that gives away information about a hand.
Re-raising a preflop raise.
Playing emotionally rather than logically — usually after a bad beat.
A pair using one hole card and the highest board card.
Three of a kind using one hole card and a paired board.
The fourth community card.
The first player to act preflop. Worst seat at a 6+ player table.
Betting with a strong hand to extract money from worse hands.
The natural ups and downs of poker results around your true win rate.
% of hands a player voluntarily enters (excludes blind posts).
A very bad player with a lot of money.
The lowest possible straight: A-2-3-4-5.
A range with only very strong hands and bluffs — no medium-strength hands.
A range that includes the strongest hands by equity, top-down.
A range mixing value and medium-strength hands but no bluffs.
A maximum strength your range cannot exceed.
A card you hold that reduces opponent’s likely strong combos.
A specific 2-card hand combination (e.g. A♠K♦).
How much of your raw equity you actually win on average.
The first preflop raise after the blinds.
Re-raising over an open and one or more callers preflop.
A small bet at an unraised pot, typically by the in-position player after a check.
Calling a flop bet with the intention of bluffing on a later street.
% of times a player folds to a continuation bet.
(Bets + Raises) / Calls — how aggressively a player plays.
% of pots a player sees showdown after the flop.
When the in-position player checks behind on a street.
Whose range has more equity on a given board.
Which player’s range contains more very strong hands.
Future losses you’ll incur when you make a hand that’s second-best.
Finishing in the lowest-paying spot in a tournament.
The point in a tournament where the next elimination cashes nobody / final-tables nobody.
The last table of a multi-table tournament, usually 9 or fewer players.
Limping in (calling the BB) when you’re first to act preflop.
Raising over a limper to play heads-up against them.
Calling a raise without having previously been involved in the betting.
The card discarded face-down before each community-card deal.
A flop with little draw structure (e.g. K-7-2 rainbow).
A flop with many draws (suited and connected, e.g. 9♥8♥7♣).
Having one card to a flush on the flop.
A hand with multiple draws (e.g. flush draw + straight draw).
The smaller of two stacks in a heads-up pot — the most that can be won/lost.
Trying to outthink an opponent by guessing what they think you’ll do.
Software that computes near-GTO ranges and bet sizings.
The blind / buy-in level of a game (NL10, NL25, $1/$2, etc.).