POKER TERMS - Don't know why the TAG raised UTG to 1200 in the bb?

This poker glossary will give you definitions of a list of terms, abbreviations and acronyms that are commonly used in poker (and some are specific to online poker).


backdoor
a draw that requires two cards in a row to complete, e.g. having three of one suit on the flop in hold 'em means you have a backdoor flush draw: you will have a flush if two more of that suit come on the turn and the river.

bad beat
losing a hand that you were a (big) favorite to win, "I suffered a really bad beat when I moved all-in with my pocket aces and John hit his runner-runner flush."

BB
Big Blind, the person two steps left of the dealer has to put an amount of money before the cards are dealt. This amount is usually (but not always) twice the size of the small blind (SB).
Big Bet, most limit poker games double the bet sizes on the last betting round(s). The larger bet sizes are called "big bets." See also SB.

blank
a card that didn't help you (often: and didn't help anyone else)

button
in live games, a little marker shows who's currently the dealer. This person has the advantage to always act last (not in Stud). A person can be said to be "on the button", as in "I was on the button and looked down to see pocket nines in the hole."

buying the button
when your bet or raise makes all players that are in later position than you to fold, giving you last position (a huge advantage). "My raise on the flop bought me the button, so I could take the free card on the turn."

chase
to call with the worst hand, hoping to improve. Synonymous to drawing, but is often used in a derogatory sense, to mark someone as desperate. "You just keep chasing those inside straights, kid - it will bust you eventually."

check-raise
when you check, someone else bets behind you, and then you raise when the action gets back to you. "I checkraised him on the flop with my top pair."

CO
see cut-off in this online poker glossary.

cold-call
when one person bets, another raises and you call both the bet and the raise, you are said to be cold-calling. This is usually done only with monster hands or very powerful draws, as most other holdings should usually be either raised or folded at these times. "John raised pre-flop from under the gun, and I cold-called with my KQ-suited."

counterfeit
if I hold A-A in the hole in hold'em, and you have 3-6, with a board of 3-6-9-9-K, you will have had two pair on the flop, but I will have a better two pair on the turn. The 9 on the turn is said to have "counterfeited" your hand. A similar situation can happen with low or medium pocket pairs, say 6-6 on a board of 7-7-8-8-Q, where the sixes don't improve the board

CR
see check-raise

cut-off
the seat just to the right of the button is called the cut-off. This is the second-to-last position in hold'em.

dog
the person with the lowest chance of winning hand, "when he called my all-in and showed a higher set, I was a 43-1 dog to win; only the remaining five could help me".

donk
a bad player; commonly also used to describe a good player who suddenly did something stupid - "I played that hand like a complete donk."
to unexpectedly bet "I donked the ace on the turn, hoping that the player who raised the flop would fold."

draw/drawing
to call bets with a hand that is unlikely to be the best at the moment, but has chances of improving. "I flopped a straightdraw, but on the turn, I realized my opponent was drawing as well, so I raised him on the river and he folded."

drawing dead
when no remaining cards can give you the best hand, you are said to be drawing dead. "I hit my straight on the river, but the big blind had flopped the nut flush, so I had been drawing dead the whole time."

fish
A common (derogatory) term for bad players. By the same token, good players are sometimes called sharks, because they prey on the fish.
flat call
To just call a bet instead of raising.

freeze-out
The most common form of tournament. Once you've lost all your chips, you're out. As opposed to re-buy tournaments.

gutshot
Drawing to a straight with one of the middle cards missing, e.g. if you have 9-7 in the hole in Hold 'em, and the flop shows 6-10-A, an 8 would give you a straight. This is called a gutshot straight draw (also inside straight draw). "Because there were so many people in the hand, I easily got the odds to continue with my gutshot.

HE
Common acronym for Hold 'em.

high-card hand
A hand without a pair, straight or flush, is called a high-card hand. For instance, having AQ on a K-8-7-5-2 board is having ace-high.

hi-jack
The seat just to the right of the cut-off, two off the button.

hole, hole cards
the cards that are dealt face-down to you in hold'em and stud.

HU
Acronym for heads-up.

inside straight draw
Drawing to a straight with one of the middle cards missing, e.g. if you have 9-7 in the hole in Hold 'em, and the flop shows 6-10-A, an 8 would give you a straight. This is called an inside straight draw (also see gutshot).

kicker
A hole card which does not formally change the rank of a hand is called a kicker. In Hold 'em, holding KT on a board of K-J-6, you are said to have a pair of kings with a 10 kicker. If someone else also has kings, it's the size of the kicker that decides who wins. "I decided to raise. There was a definitive chance that he was bluffing, and even if he wasn't, I still had 3 outs to pair my kicker and take down the pot."

leak
A systematic mistake that a poker player makes is called a leak. This is because the mistake is costing him (leaking) money in the long run. "One of my biggest leaks was to constantly be folding overcards in a big pot on the flop."

LHE
Acronym for Limit Hold 'em.

limp
To just call the big blind instead of raising it is known as a limp. "There were three limpers to me on the button, and I decided to raise with my pair of jacks."

lock
A hand so strong that it's either impossible or at least wholly unlikely that it can lose no matter what comes on the coming streets. Having a lock on the pot means that it's time to figure out how to extract the most money out of the other players.

loose
A player who calls bets with weak hands or when he doesn't have the odds to justify it. The opposite of tight.

made hand
A hand with more than high-card value, e.g. pair or up. Usually used as the opposite of a draw: "I checkraised the flop with my flushdraw figuring I could get my opponents to lay down if they missed, but when Johnny made it three bets to go, I was sure he had a made hand."

maniac
Popular way to describe someone who seemingly bet or raise with any hand. "I really wanted to isolate the maniac, but unfortunately the big blind decided to come along too. This was a problem for me, because he had been playing very tightly so far, and I was afraid that he had me beat."

move in
To go all-in.

MP
Middle Position, or the players in the 3 to 5 seats off the button at a full table.

MTT
Multi-table tournament.

NLHE
No-limit Hold 'em.

nuts
Someone who has the best possible hand is said to be holding the nuts. The best possible hand is always at least a set.

offsuit
Two cards that are not of the same suit. Popularly denoted "o", as in AKo.

on the come
To bet or call with a draw. "On the flop, I thought he might be betting on the come with a flush draw. When the third heart came on the turn, I was willing to lay my pair down, but he checked, and folded when I bet."

out
Even if you currently do not have the best hand, there may be ways for you to get the best hand at the table. A card that will give you that hand is called an out. If you have no outs, you are said to be drawing dead.

overcall
On the river (or 7th street in Stud), someone bets and another person calls, you have to have a very strong hand to make an overcall, or to be the second person to call the first person's bet. It's possible that the person who bet is bluffing, but he who called first cannot possibly be bluffing - he has to have something. "The first player bet straight into my nut flush on the river, and I had to choose between raising him, or to call him and hope for overcalls by the three players yet to act behind me."

position
The turn in the betting order. Being in first position means that you act first on this betting round, and being in last position means you act last. Having position, or being last to act, is a tremendous advantage.

pot
The money that is up for grabs. The player who shows down the best hand at the end, or who can make all the others fold, wins the pot.

push
To go all-in.

rag
A small card, or insignificant card. "I started making serious money from poker when I learned not to play Ace-rag from early positions."

rainbow
When the cards on the board are all of different suit, it is said to be rainbow. "The flop came A-K-5 rainbow" means that the ace, the king and the five were all of different suits.

raise
To bet more than the previous person to act. "It was folded to me in the cut-off, and so I raised with a mediocre hand, hoping to steal the blinds."

rake
The money that a pokerroom (or poker site) charges per pot. It's usually a small percentage of the pot, 5% or so. It varies between different rooms and sites, though, and you should look into how much it costs you to play at the site you're currently at

read
Having a read on someone means that you've picked up on something significant about the way he likes to play his hands. "From a read I picked up earlier, I knew that he slowplayed trips on the flop, so his bet did not mean that he had the case 8. Instead, he was likely either semi-bluffing a draw or he was betting a small pocket pair. I raised."

represent
Your actions can be said to represent a hand. For instance, if you raise you are said to represent strength. What you choose to represent can either be honest (representing what you have) or deceiving (hiding your hand, or representing another hand). "Since I had raised preflop, he had no reason to believe I was bluffing when I checkraised him on the turn when the ace hit to represent that I had one. Unfortunately, the donk didn't fold, so it ended up costing me another 2BB on a stupid bluff."

re-raise
If you bet, someone raises you and you raise their raise, you are said to be re-raising.

ring game
As opposed to a tournament or a satellite, a ring game is played directly for money. Compare to cash game.

rock
A very tight player is often called a rock because they don't get out of line. When a rock raises, you better have a strong hand to call or re-raise him.

runner-runner
Catching two cards in a row that you need for a hand is called catching (or needing) runner-runner. An example of this is having three cards to a flush on the flop - you need to hit runner-runner cards of the same suit in order to make your flush.

running bad
When statistical fluctuations cause you to get bad hands and lose money. Also called a cold streak.

sandbag
Synonymous to checkraising someone. Sandbag has a slightly negative feel to it, and is usually used by people who feel that there's something unethical about this play.

sandwich
To trap someone (or be trapped yourself) between two raisers. This can get very expensive for the person who is sandwiched.

SB
Small Blind, the person one step left of the dealer has to put an amount of money before the cards are dealt. This amount is usually (but not always) half of the size of the small bet.
Small Bet, how much you're allowed to bet in the first rounds of limit poker.

scarecard
A card which likely completed someone's draw. If you have been (falsely) representing a draw to this hand, a bet when the scarecard falls can win you the pot.

semi-bluff
Betting or raising on the come. The idea behind this tactic is that the combined chances of you hitting your draw and your opponent folding makes it profitable.

set
A pair in the hole that gives you three-of-a-kind with something on the board.

shorthanded
A less-than full table. A full table is usually 9-10 players, so anything less than that can be considered shorthanded. A common form online is the sixmax table (where there are only six seats).

shove
Yet another way of saying all-in.

slowplay
To check and call with a made hand, instead of betting or raising. Most often used as a way to trick opponents into thinking your hand is weaker than it really is.
smooth call
Calling a bet or a raise, instead of raising yourself with strong hands.

SnG
Sit And Go (or Sit'n'Go). A form of online tournament where it starts as soon as all the seats are filled. The most common form is the one-table SnG.

steal
When it is checked to someone in late position who raises preflop in Hold 'em, he may be on a steal - raising with a worse-than-usual hand, because of the added possibility of him picking up the blinds uncontested.

straddle
When someone posts a big blind plus a raise in the first position after the BB. This is volountarily, and quite frankly, stupid. Some people do this because they like to gamble, but there's no good reason (except maybe to cheaply create a wild and loose image at the table you're sitting at) to ever post a straddle.

stuck
Someone who has lost money is said to be stuck. "I was going to leave sooner, but I was stuck $130, and I wanted to get some of that money back."

suckout
When someone draws against the odds (or draws at all, really) to beat your hand and hits, you are the victim of a suckout. It is also sometimes used about a person, "You're such a suckout!".

tell
A mannerism or a quirk in someone's behavior that signals the strength of their hand. The person giving the tell is not aware of what he's doing. It can be a slight shake of the hand, or the way he holds his good cards (as opposed to his bad ones), etc.

three-bet
In limit poker, this is when someone has bet, someone else raised him, and it's now being raised once again. It's someone synonymous with reraise.

tight
Someone who plays only good hands and tosses his hands when he doesn't have the goods, is said to play tight.

tilt
Going on tilt or tilting is when for one reason or another, you're not thinking straight. The most common reason for this to happen is that you've had a series of bad cards, or been the victim of a bad suckout. Your judgment gets clouded, and you begin playing cards that you should fold, for the wrong reasons.

trap
When you slowplay a big hand in order to get someone else to bet at it big (typically making someone bluff at the pot), you've set a trap.

under the gun
The position at the table just left of the big blind, e.g. the first person to act pre-flop in Hold 'em and Omaha.

UTG
See under the gun.

wheel
The lowest straight - A-2-3-4-5. In O8, this hand is likely to win both the Hi and the Lo, because it's the lowest possible hand, while simultaneously having very strong high-hand potential.