When Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas, millions of television viewers heard dealers and commentators use words like “hole cards”, “check-raise” and “river” for the first time.
That vocabulary has only grown since.
This poker terms glossary works as a guide sorted by theme, built around the poker terms for beginners that come up first, so you can read one section before your first home game and come back for the rest later. Every entry is a full sentence, and the bold word at the start is the term itself.
Betting actions: the first poker terms for beginners
Blinds are the forced bets posted by the two players to the left of the dealer button, and they exist so that every hand has something to win. The small blind is usually half the size of the big blind, which sets the minimum bet for the first round. An ante is a small forced contribution from every player, used mostly in tournaments and stud games. To check is to pass the action without putting chips in, which is only possible when nobody has bet yet. A bet is the first chips put in on a street, and to call is to match it. To raise is to increase the amount, and to fold is to give up the hand and any claim on the pot.
A 3-bet is the second raise of a betting round, and a 4-bet is the raise after that. To limp is to just call the big blind before the flop, and an open or open-raise is the first raise into an unopened pot. A check-raise happens when a player checks, waits for an opponent to bet, and then raises. All-in means a player has put every remaining chip into the pot. A straddle is an optional blind, usually double the big blind, posted before the deal in some cash games. A continuation bet, or c-bet, is a bet on the flop by the player who raised before it. A donk bet is a lead into the previous aggressor from out of position, and an overbet is any bet larger than the pot. A value bet wants a call from a worse hand, while a bluff wants a better hand to fold. A semi-bluff sits between the two: the hand is behind now but has a real chance to improve.
Positions at the table: a glossary of seats
The button is the dealer position, and it acts last on every street after the flop, which makes it the most profitable seat at the table. Under the gun, often shortened to UTG, is the first seat to act before the flop, directly left of the big blind. The cutoff sits one seat to the right of the button, and the hijack sits one seat to the right of the cutoff. Early position, middle position and late position are looser labels for the same idea: the later you act, the more information you have. To be in position is to act after your opponent on the current street. Being out of position is the reverse, and it is the main reason the blinds lose money over time for almost every player. Seat names are among the poker terms for beginners that confuse people most, because the labels shift as players leave and the table gets shorter.
Hand situations and board talk
Hole cards are the private cards dealt to each player, and the board is the set of shared cards in the middle. The flop is the first three community cards, the turn is the fourth and the river is the fifth. A kicker is the side card that breaks a tie when two players share the same pair. The nuts is the best possible hand given the board. A draw is an unfinished hand. It needs another card to become strong. A flush draw needs one more card of a suit, an open-ended straight draw can complete at either end, and a gutshot needs one specific rank in the middle. Outs are the cards left in the deck that would improve a draw. Pot odds compare the price of a call with the size of the pot, and they tell you how often a draw has to hit to make the call worthwhile.
A set is three of a kind made with a pocket pair, while trips is three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board. An overpair is a pocket pair higher than every board card, and top pair uses the highest card on the board. A dry board offers few draws, a wet board offers many, and a rainbow flop shows three different suits. A cooler is a spot where two strong hands collide and the loser could hardly avoid it. A bad beat is a loss with a hand that was a big favorite when the money went in, and a suckout describes the same hand from the winner’s side. At showdown the remaining players reveal their cards, a player who throws a hand away face down is said to muck it, and a chop is a split pot. For the order of the hands themselves, the complete poker hand rankings set out what beats what.
Tournament terms guide: from buy-in to final table
The buy-in is the entry fee, and in most events it is listed in two parts, the prize pool share and the house fee. A freezeout allows one entry per player, a re-entry event lets a busted player buy back in during the registration period, and a rebuy adds chips to a stack that has fallen below a set level. An add-on is a one-time purchase of extra chips, usually offered at the first break. The starting stack is the number of chips each entry receives, and blind levels set how often the forced bets go up. Most major tours, the World Poker Tour and the WSOP among them, now use a big blind ante, where the player in the big blind pays the ante for the whole table. The bubble is the last elimination before the paid places, and finishing in the money (ITM) means a player has cashed. The final table is the last table of the event, and the chip leader holds the biggest stack. A satellite awards seats in a bigger event, a bounty or knockout tournament pays a prize for each player eliminated, and ICM (the Independent Chip Model) is the math used to value chips when players discuss a deal. Heads-up means only two players remain. Any tournament guide printed by a card room will define these words in its rules sheet. High-roller series such as Triton Poker also use a shot clock, which limits how long a player may think before acting.
Player types and table talk
A fish is a weak or inexperienced player, and a whale is a fish who plays for large sums. A shark is a skilled player, and a reg (short for regular) is someone who plays the same games every week. A nit plays very few hands and rarely bluffs. TAG stands for tight-aggressive, a player who enters few pots but bets hard when involved, and LAG stands for loose-aggressive, a player who enters many pots and keeps up the pressure. A calling station calls far too often and almost never raises. A maniac raises nearly everything, and a player on tilt is making emotional decisions after a loss. A grinder plays long sessions for steady, modest profit. A rounder is old slang for a player who travels from game to game, and the 1998 film of the same name made it familiar to a whole generation of players.
Money words: a short guide to stakes and rake
Stakes are written as the blinds, so a “1/2” game has a $1 small blind and a $2 big blind. A bankroll is the money set aside only for poker. Rake is the fee the card room takes from each pot or tournament entry, and rakeback returns part of that fee to the player; the details vary widely, as the comparison of rake structures shows. A freeroll is a tournament with no entry fee and real prizes. Most of these poker terms for beginners carry over to other games, but some variants add words of their own. Pineapple poker has its discard, Omaha players talk about wraps, and stud players still say door card for the first face-up card. Anyone new to the table can pair this poker terms glossary with the Texas Hold’em rules for beginners, because the words land faster once the order of a hand is clear. Keep the poker terms glossary open on a phone during your first few sessions, and you will notice that within an evening “the cutoff opened, the button 3-bet and the big blind folded” reads like a normal sentence.