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Here is a list of all the key poker terminology and slang used in the game today. Learning this terminology or bookmaking this page will make playing poker much easier and will also allow you to follow things better if you are watching poker on TV.
All in: To go all in means betting your entire stack all in one go.
Backdoor: A backdoor draw is where a player needs two cards in a row (on the turn and the river) to make a certain hand such as a flush or a straight. This is also known as needing runner runner.
Bad Beat: Losing a hand when you were a favourite to win.
Bankroll: The money you have available to you for playing poker.
Bluff: Probably the best known terminology from poker, to bluff means betting to try and make your opponent(s) fold when you don't believe you have the best hand. Knowing how to bluff well is one of the greatest skills in poker, knowing when to bluff and when not to.
Blinds: The required forced bets made pre-flop before seeing your cards.
Board: The board is another name for the community cards, the flop, turn and river.
Buy-in: The amount of money you pay to enter a tournament or sit down with in a cash game.
Cash game: A game played for real money chips with no predetermined start or end time. Players can enter and leave when they like.
Check: Choosing not to bet when it's your turn to act and there has been no bet made for you to fold to, call or raise.
Community cards: The cards dealt face up in the middle of the table that all players can see. The flop, turn and river.
Cowboys: Cowboys is poker terminology for the starting hand King King (KK).
Draw: When there are cards that can come on the turn or river that will improve your hand such as a flush draw.
Fish: A fish is poor player, someone who makes lots of bad plays. A very commonly used poker term.
Flop: The first three community cards dealt, all dealt in one go.
Fold: To choose not to call or raise a bet and take no further action in the hand giving up the pot.
Hole Cards: The cards that are dealt to individual players face down.
Limp: To enter a hand by just calling the big blind and not raising it.
Loose: Someone who is playing lots of hands and making lots of calls or bets where often they shouldn't.
Make A Play: Also known as making a move or stealing the pot. In poker this means raising pre flop with a weak starting hand with the intention of winning the pot and getting better hands to fold. A type of bluff.
Nuts: The best hand that is possible with the community cards that have been dealt.
Off suit: Cards that are of different suits.
Over pair: Having a pocket pair that is higher than any of the community cards.
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Pocket pair: Two hole cards of the same rank.
Position: Where it's your turn to act in relation to the others players in the hand.
Post: To make your small or big blind bets, to post the blinds.
Pot: All the money that has been bet so far in the hand.
Pot odds: How much a bet is to call in relation to the amount of money that's in the pot.
Push: Pushing is another term for going all in.
Quads: Four of a kind.
Raise: To raise means increasing the size of the current bet rather than just call it.
Rank: The value of the card like ace or five. Or the value of the hand like pair or flush.
Represent: To play the hand in a certain way to make it appear you have a particular hand which you don't.
Re-raise: To raise a player who has already raised once.
River: The last of the five community cards dealt.
Rock: Someone who is playing very tight.
Semi-Buff: Semi Bluffing is bluffing (betting or raising when you don’t believe you have the best hand) but when you have a lot of outs to possibly make the best hand.
Set: Three of a kind.
Shark: Someone who is a very good, winning poker player. You want to try and avoid playing against sharks where possible.
Showdown: If after all the betting has finished there are still two or more players in the hand who haven't folded there is a showdown. Here the player with the best hand wins the pot.
Sit and Go: A tournament which starts once a certain amount of players has entered and not at a pre-determined time.
Slow Play: To check or bet small when you have a strong hand to try and make your opponent think you have a weak hand.
Split Pot: When two or more players have equally the best hand at the showdown this is called a split pot. The pot is divided equally or as close as possible to equally between all these players.
Street: Each stage of the community cards. Flop, turn and river.
Suited: Suited means having cards that are the same suit like the ace of clubs and the king of clubs.
Suited connectors: Cards of the same suit which are also close enough in rank to make a straight with just three of the community cards.
Three Bet: To raise a player who has already raised once.
Tight: Someone who is playing very cautiously. Not playing many hands and not making, calling or raising many bets.
Tilt: When a player is playing bad due to being annoyed about something such as being unlucky in a previous hand.
Trips: Three of a kind.
Turn: The fourth of the five community cards dealt.
Under the gun: The first player to act pre-flop.
Value bet: A bet that a player makes which they want to have called as they believe they have the best hand. Basically the opposite of a bluff.
Wheel: A five high straight, A 2 3 4 5.