Before you start to play poker get to know the basic poker terms and poker lingo that will be used by poker players in a casino or at a online poker room table. By learning at least the basic poker terms you will blend in at the poker tables so the experienced players won’t be able to spot you as a newbie and take advantage of your short experience in poker. There are a few more things you have to understand and manage before hitting the poker tables, please take the time to read the following poker resources, they will help you understand the basics in poker, poker hands, poker odds. Try reading the other poker resource pages, they will give you a good idea of most variables that have to be taken into account when playing poker.

Basic Poker Glossary and Poker Lingo

    All-in: betting all your chips at the table.
    Ante: small bet that is given by each poker player at the table before the hand starts. It’s mostly used in the Stud and Razz poker variations.
    Backdoor: having the turn and the river hit the outs you need.
    Bad Beat: when you are holding a premium hand and your odds of winning the hand are very big but you loose the hand to a player that got lucky with a weak hand.
    Blank: a community card that does not affect the result of the hand.
    Blinds: a bet that has to be paid by the small blind and big blind at the table, these two players sit to the left of the dealer button.
    Bluff: when the odds don’t favor your hand (weak hand) and you bet enough to discourage other players to bet against your hand.
    Board: refers to the five community cards on the table
    Bottom Pair: having a pair with the lowest community card.
    Bubble: the person that finish right before the cut in a poker tournament, in other words the person that finish just before the positions that made money in the tournament.
    Burn: it’s the action of discarding the top card of the deck before the flop, turn and river.
    Button: also known as the dealer, it moves clock wise on the table after each hand and it’s represented by a white button.
    Buy-In an amount that is paid to enter a poker tournament.
    Call: if someone bets on the table and you match the bet, that means that you “called”.
    Cash Out: taking money out from a poker room.
    Calling Station: usually refers to a new poker player that calls a lot and does not raise or fold, which means that he’s a low skill player or fish.
    Check: it’s like betting nothing, and passes the decision on the person on your left.
    Check Raise: if you chose to check when it was your turn and another player bets after you the betting round starts again and you will have to choice to call or raise.
    Community Cards: known also as the board, the cards that are face up on the table and that are visible after each betting round. Those cards are also known as the flop, turn and river.
    Connector: refers to consecutive cards, for example if you have and eight and a nine then you have a connector.
    Continuation Bet: when a player raises pre flop and continues to raise after the flop.
    Cutt Off: it’s the seat on the right side of the “dealer button”.
    Dealer: the person that has the button on the table, the person to the left is the small blind.
    Donkey: a player that makes bad decisions at the table, usually it’s a losing player.
    Draw: a poker hand that has great odds of winning but it’s not the best hand at that particular moment.
    Drawing Dead: when your hand has cero percent chance of winning.
    Gutshot: a hand in which you have 4 outs or chances of winning if you hold Ace and a deuce and the community cards are a three, four and ten; you have 4 chances of winning any five will give you a straight.
    Hijack: it’s the seat located to the right of the cut off or two seats to the right of the dealer button.
    Hole Cards: the cards that were given to you at the table.
    Implied Odds: refers to how much you will win if you hit your hand.
    Kicker: it’s the second card that you hold that it’s not connected to the winning hand you have with the community cards. It’s used to break a tie among two or more players.
    Maniac: a player that takes action on every hand by raising, betting and bluffing. it’s considered a crazy poker player.
    Muck: cards that were discarded in the hand, by the dealer or by the poker players at the table.
    Nit: refers to a poker player that who plays extremely tight.
    Nuts: a name given to the best possible hand.
    Offsuit: refers to cards that are not from the same suit, example: ten of spades and 9 of clubs, those cards are offsuit.
    Out: refers to a card that will make your hand the winning hand, if there are several cards that will make you hand the winner they are called outs.
    Overcard: refers to a card that is higher than the community cards.
    Overpair: refers to a pocket pair that is higher than any of the community cards.
    Pot Odds: a comparison between the money in the pot and how much money you have to call.
    Pre-flop: first round of betting before the first three community cards are dealt which are known as the flop.
    Quads: having four cards with the same value, example getting four aces (personal cards + community cards).
    Raise: a term that is used when a player increases the bet that was made originality made by another player.
    Ragged: refers to a flop that does not help any of the players taking action in the hand.
    Rainbow: refers to the community cards when there is no possibilities of a flush.
    Rake: a small percentage of the pot that is taken by the poker room or casino.
    Rebuy:some poker tournaments offer the option of paying a fee to get back into a tournament once you are out of it. Some tournaments offer a limited amount of rebuys as well as no rebuys .
    River: the last community card.
    Semi-bluff: refers to a weak hand you play hoping to hit one of the many outs it has in order to win the hand.
    Set: it refers to flopping a hand for example: 3 of a kind or better.
    Short Stack: a poker player that has very few chips compared to the other players at the table.
    Showdown: after all the betting rounds are over and there are two or more players still in the hands, each one with show their hole cards to determine the winner.
    Slow Playing: this technique is used when you have a premium hand and check and call your opponents hopping they stay in the hand and you can take more money from them.
    Split pot: when the showdown takes place and two places have the same winning hand, then the pot will split among them.
    Suited: when your hole cards belong to the same suit
    Tell: a behavior or something that your opponent did that gives you a hint of the cards he is holding.
    Tilt: it’s anger that a player allows to take control of his decisions at the poker table.
    Under the gun: refers to the player that seats on the left of the big blind.
    Underdog: a player hand that it’s not favorite to win.