Air

Nothing of value; worthless cards.

Aggressive

A style of play involving more frequent betting and raising, rather than calling and checking.

Alternate

If more players want to take part in a live tournament than there are seats available, players can register as substitutes and take their place if someone drops out.

Ante

A forced pre-flop bet from all players.

Bad Beat
A hand lost after getting chips in as a strong favourite and then getting unlucky.
Bankroll

The money available to a player to play poker. Click here to learn more about bankroll management.

Big Blind

 A forced bet two to the left of the button in community card games such as hold’em.

Big Slick

Ace-King as hole cards.

Brick

An unconnected card that fails to complete any draws or improve a hand.

Bubble

The finishing position in a poker tournament one place outside the prize positions.

Bullets

Slang for pocket aces. A “bullet” can also refer to an entry in a re-entry tournament.

Button

A symbol showing the dealer position on the poker table.

Buy-in

The amount it costs to enter a tournament, or amount of chips needed to sit down in a cash game.

Call: To match the current highest bet (or go all in) to stay in a hand.

Case card: The last available card of any rank. 

Check: Pass the draw to the next player without betting if no bet has been placed in the round.

Chop: Split the pot or prize money.

Cold deck: One player has a strong hand, but another player has an even stronger hand, so there is little chance of avoiding a showdown (also known as a "full house"),

Collusion: Two or more players working together in a poker game. 

Community cards: Five cards face up (also called a "board"), which are used by all players in games such as Texas Hold'em and Omaha to form the best five-card poker hand in combination with their own personalised "hole" cards.

Cooler: See “Cold deck”. 

Fake: If a hand is less likely to win when a new card is placed on the table, it is said to be a fake,

Crack: To improve in order to beat a strong hand. 

Crippled: When you have lost the majority of your chips in one hand or a series of hands.

Cut-Off (CO): The position on a poker table to the right of the button.

Dark (also Blind): A player acts in the dark (or blind) if he performs an action without seeing his hole cards or before the community cards are dealt.

Dead Money: The chips in a pot that have not been paid by the "live" (still active) players. Sometimes also used for inexperienced players who are not given the opportunity to win.

Dealer:  The player who shuffles and deals the cards is indicated by the button in dealer games and online games,

Dirty Stack: If a player shuffles his chips in such a way that it is difficult to count them in a live game, this is known as a dirty stack.

Dominated: A dominant hand is a hand that has three or fewer outs, making it statistically very unlikely to win.

Donk lead: An out bet by an early position player after a full house on bets/upgrades by a late position player on a previous street.

Donkey (donk): Poker slang for a bad player.

Double Belly Buster: An inside straight, where there are two sets of cards that can complete the draw (a straight that has no luck is a belly buster).

Double Board: A variant of the community card game in which two flops, turns and rivers are dealt after rounds of betting and the pot is split equally between the winners of the two boards.

Drawing Dead: Having no outs to win a hand, with cards still to come.

Dry Pot: If a player goes all-in and more than one player calls (and still has chips to bet), a side pot, known as a dry pot, is created,

Early Bird: Incentive for players to start up games (or show up at the beginning of live tournaments).

EV (Expected Value): The combined value of all the possible outcomes for a situation/hand over time. 

Fantasy Land: In Open Face Chinese, a player receives his entire hand (usually 14 cards) in one go, after receiving a set of (usually) QQ+ in the first round, which is not a foul. This is referred to as "fantasy land".

Felt: The material refers to poker tables. As a verb, "to felch a player" means to eliminate a player from a tournament or to win all his chips.

Field: Collective term for the players in a tournament.

Fill Up: To complete a full house draw.
 

Fish: Unflattering term for a new or unskilful player.

Fixed Limit: In fixed limit games, players can bet and raise only on the raises listed on the table,

Float: Calling a bet without holding a hand, with the intention of winning the pot - one way or another - on a subsequent turn.
 

Flop: The first three community cards dealt in e.g. hold’em, dealt after the first betting round.

Flush: Five non-consecutive cards of the same suit.
 

Fold: To throw your hand away and take no further part in a particular pot.

Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank. Also known as “quads”.

Freezeout: A tournament that allows each player just one entry.

Full House: Three of a kind plus a pair.

GG: Shorthand for “good game.”
 

Grind: Collecting table hours at low to medium stakes for regular performance or filling a small stack in a tournament.

Gutshot (also Inside Straight Draw): A straight draw where just one rank completes the draw

Hero FoldA player who folds a very strong hand based on the opponent's judgment or the situation makes a hero fold,
 

High Card: If no player has a pair or better at the end of a round, the round with the highest card wins (the ace is the highest card),

Hijack: The position at the table two to the right of the button.

High-Low: A poker variant in which the pot is split between the winner of the high hand and the winner of the low hand (if the low hand is the winner of the high hand).qualifies – click for more). 

Hit: Create a better hand when cards not included in your original starting hand improve it, e.g. the Ace-King can hit an Ace on the flop and make a pair,

Hold’em: Popular community card poker game in which players use any combination of two hole cards and five cards from the board to form the best five-card poker hand,

Hole Cards: Players' personal hands (face down to opponents) (two cards in Hold'em, four+ in Omaha, three in Stud, etc.)

 

ICM (Independent Chip Model): It is used to calculate the value of a stack of chips relative to the prize pool share in tournaments, and is often used to make final table deals.

Implied Odds: An extension of the pot odds that includes the possibility of winning more money than the current pot if you draw.

Insurance: One way to reduce the variance when playing is to hedge against a hit when you go all-in with your strongest hand.

Jam: To move all in.

JokerJokers are two additional cards (usually depicting fools) added to a deck of 52 cards and are sometimes used as "jokers".

Kicker: The "extra" card(s) that complete a five-card poker hand. If the hands are identical (e.g. same pair in Hold'em), the winner is determined by the strength of the kicker(s).

Kill Pot: In some fixed-limit games, if a player wins multiple pots in a row or a pot exceeds a certain size and a bigger blind raises the limit for that hand, it triggers a kill pot on the next hand.

Knockout (KO) Tournament: A tournament in which a portion of every player’s buy-in is placed on their own head as a bounty.

LAG: Loose-aggressive player.

Last Longer: A side bet on who will go further in a tournament.
 

Limp (Limp in): Call the amount of the big blind pre-flop (usually in NL/PL games).

M: A calculation used to measure stack size as a function of the cost to play each round. 

MTT: Multi-table tournament.

Nit: Term used to describe a tight player.
 

No Limit: In no-limit games, the minimum bet is the amount of the big blind and the maximum bet is the total of your chips during a betting round,

Nuts: The best possible hand currently available.

Offsuit: Unmatched in suit.

OFC: Open Face Chinese Poker is a poker variant in which players form three 13-card hands, two five-card hands and one three-card hand. OFC can only be played high or "pineapple",

Omaha: A community card poker game in which players are dealt four (or more) hole cards and must match exactly two of them with three cards from the board to form the best five-card poker hand,

Outs: The cards left in the deck that will improve a hand to a (probable) winner.

Overpair: A pair in the hole that is above the highest hand on the table, e.g. a pair of queens, is an overpair compared to a high ten on the flop.

Passive: A player who often checks and calls instead of being active with bets and raises plays "passively".

Peel: Stay in to see another card (usually hoping to hit something or bluff on a later street).

Polarized: If a player's action on a particular board means that he can only have one very strong hand or a bluff in his selection, he is said to be "polarized".
 

Pot Committed: A player is committed to the pot if he has invested too much of his stack to be able to fold without making a mistake.
 

Pot Limit: In pot-limit games, the minimum bet is equal to the big blind and the maximum raise is equal to the "pot" (the sum of the chips already in the pot plus the amount of the call).

Progressive Knockout (PKO): See Knockout (KO) Tournament

Quads: Four of a kind. 

Rabbit Hunt: After a hand is over, to take a look at the card(s) that would have come next from the deck. 

Rags: Low-rank or low value cards. Two-six would be a "ragged" Hold'em hand, as would any irrelevant, low, inappropriate hand combination.
 

Rail: In live poker, the area around the poker tables is the area where spectators can watch. You are "sent to the rail" when you leave a game.
 

Rainbow: Cards with different suits (three or four). For example, a flop is a rainbow if it contains three suits, as is a four-card Omaha hand that does not contain double suits.

Raise: Increase the bet after an initial bet from another player. 

River: The last card dealt before the final round of betting (the fifth community card in games such as Hold'em or the seventh card for each player in Seven Card Stud).
 

Rock: A tight player, playing only premium hands.
 

ROI: Return on Investment.

Royal Flush: T-J-Q-K-A of the same suit – the highest hand possible in poker.

Rundown: In Omaha, a starting hand where the cards are in consecutive order.

Run It Twice: In cash games, players who agree to "play twice" in all-in situations give two run-outs and split the pot between the winners of the two tables (the same player can win both).

Satellite: A tournament with one or more tables in which tickets to a larger tournament (target tournament or satellite tournament of the next level) are offered as a prize.

Set: Three of a kind made using two hole cards and one board card in community card games.

Shark: A skilled player.
 

Ship: To win a tournament or pot is to “ship it”. Alternatively, slang for moving all in.

Shove: To move all-in.

Showdown: The end of a hand when remaining players reveal their hole cards and the winner receives the pot.

Side pot: If a player goes all-in in a multi-directional pot, the pot in which he has placed all bets is considered the main pot and all further bets are placed in a side pot,

Slow Play: To feign weakness/decline to bet with a strong hand.
 

Slow Roll: Deliberately delaying the showing of a hand that is more likely to win (generally considered bad etiquette).

Small Blind: The first forced bet to the left of the dealer button.
 

SNG (Sit and Go): A tournament (with one or more tables) that starts when a certain number of players have registered and not at a specific time.

Soft Play: Deliberate retreat to a player when it would have been possible - and expected - to get more chips out of the situation. This is considered bad etiquette at best and a form of collusion at worst.

Split Pot: A pot that is shared between two or more winners. In high-bet only games, bets are split in the event of a tie; some games are designed as split-bet games, such as high-low or double board.

Squeeze play: After a raise and a call, the squeeze is a second (big) raise that puts pressure on the first player and the player who calls.

Stack: The chips available to a player, either cash chips or tournament chips.As a verb, "stack" means that a player takes all his chips.

Station (Calling Station): An unflattering term for a (usually passive) player who tends to call many bets instead of raising or folding.

Steam: See Tilt.

Straddle: An optional third blind (usually double the size of the big blind) posted preflop. 

Straight: Five consecutive cards in any suit with A-2-3-4-5 the lowest and T-J-K-Q-A the highest.

Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit.
 

Street: A dealt card or betting round.
 

Suck Out: To win with inferior cards.

TAG: Tight-aggressive player.

Tell: A peculiarity in a player's behaviour or actions that gives an indication of the strength of his hand. Also known as "reading".

Three-Bet: A second raise in a betting round is a three-bet. For example, pre-flop action starts with a big blind bet. The first raise is therefore a "raise" and the next raise is a "three-bet" (the next "four-bet" and so on).

Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank.

TightA player who plays fewer hands than average (therefore a tighter, stronger option) is called "tight".

Tilt: If you are emotionally upset by a poker incident (often a bad beat), your decision making will suffer.
 

Timebank: Either the allotted time to act (online) or the extra time (or times) a player can use (usually online, but increasingly live) when faced with particularly difficult decisions,

Triple CrownIf a player has won a WSOP bracelet, a WPT Main Event and an EPT Main Event during their career, they are said to have achieved the Triple Crown.

Trips: Three of a kind. 

Turn: The fourth community card, dealt after the second betting round.
 

Two pair: Two pairs of cards with the same value. These are compared first with the highest, and in the event of a tie, the hand with the highest hit wins as the fifth card.

UTG (Under the Gun): The player to the left of the big blind – first to act pre-flop.

VPIP: A statistic showing how often a player Voluntarily Puts (Money) In (the) Pot out of forced blind bets. The higher the VPIP, the more active (and usually more aggressive) the player is.

Villain: Slang for opponent.

Whale: A high-limit gambler with deep pockets. 

Wheel: The lowest straight, running from ace to five.  

Wrap: In Omaha, it is a draw hand where three or more rows can form a straight (click for an example).