PokerzinPoker has a vocabulary of its own, and you'll hear it at every table: players say side pot, c-bet and nuts without stopping to explain. Here are the most common terms, in alphabetical order, with their plain meaning.
- 3-bet
- The first re-raise before the flop (the big blind counts as the first bet, and the raise as the second).
- All-in
- Betting all the chips you have on the table.
- Bad beat
- Losing a hand in which you were a big favorite, because of a lucky card for your opponent.
- BB (big blind)
- The bigger forced bet, paid by the second player to the left of the button. It's also the unit used to measure stacks: "I have 50 BB".
- Bet
- Putting chips in when nobody has bet yet in the round.
- Blinds
- The two forced bets (small and big blind) posted before the cards are dealt.
- Board
- The community cards, face up on the table.
- Button (BTN)
- The dealer marker. Whoever has it acts last from the flop on.
- Call
- Matching the biggest bet of the round.
- Check
- Passing without betting, when nobody has bet in the round.
- Check-raise
- Checking and then, after someone bets, raising. It usually shows strength.
- Continuation bet (c-bet)
- The flop bet by the player who raised before the flop, keeping the initiative.
- Cutoff (CO)
- The seat to the right of the button.
- Draw
- A hand that still needs cards to become good, like four cards of a suit waiting for the fifth.
- Equity
- Your share of the pot in winning chances: with a 40% chance in a 1,000 pot, your equity is worth 400.
- Flop
- The first three community cards, revealed together.
- Fold
- Giving up the hand and throwing your cards away.
- Gutshot
- A straight draw that needs a middle card, like 5-6-8-9 waiting for the 7. It has 4 outs.
- Heads-up
- A hand or game with only two players.
- Implied odds
- What you expect to win on later streets if you complete your hand.
- Kicker
- The card that breaks a tie between two hands of the same type, like two pairs of Aces.
- Limp
- Entering the pot before the flop by just calling the big blind, without raising.
- Nuts
- The best possible hand on that board.
- Outs
- The cards that can still come and turn your hand into the winner.
- Overpair
- A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.
- Pot odds
- The ratio between what you need to call and the size of the pot.
- Preflop
- The first betting round, before any community card.
- Raise
- Increasing the bet of the round.
- River
- The fifth and last community card.
- SB (small blind)
- The smaller forced bet, paid by the player to the left of the button.
- Set
- Three of a kind made with a pocket pair and a matching card on the board. Harder to spot than trips made with a pair on the board.
- Showdown
- The moment when the remaining players show their cards to decide the pot.
- Side pot
- A separate pot, created when someone goes all-in with fewer chips than the others.
- Stack
- The chips a player has on the table.
- Suited
- Two cards of the same suit, like A♠ K♠ (written "AKs"). The opposite is offsuit ("AKo").
- Tilt
- Playing worse because of emotion, usually after a loss.
- Trips
- Three of a kind made with a pair on the board and a matching card in your hand.
- Turn
- The fourth community card.
- UTG
- "Under the gun": the first to act before the flop, right to the left of the big blind.