Poker Slang

Some of the colorful terms you hear in poker are intuitive – where the meaning is clear. For others, the proper response should be, “Huh?” If you want to sound like a pro, then take a look at the following list of common terms and

All in
Having all of your chips in the pot. A player who is all-in can’t be forced out of the pot, but can win only that portion of the pot that she is eligible for.

Ante
A bet required from all players before a hand as a requirement to being able to play in the hand. This money seeds the pot. Pronounced “AN-tee.”

Bad beat
A good hand that is beaten by a better hand, usually through a lucky draw of cards by the winner.

Bet
To put money into a pot, as in “I bet.”

Big Slick
Not Bill Clinton. This refers to an ace and a king as your hole cards in Texas Hold’em.

Blind
A mandatory bet by a player or two sitting to the left of the dealer button before each new hand is dealt. The button rotates and, thus, the blind rotates.

Bluff
A bet or raise without a good hand, in the hope that the other players will fold.

Board
The cards showing and available to be seen by all players.

Boat
Not a cruise ship or paddle boat. Refers to a full house (three of a kind plus a pair).

Bug
Not a cricket or ant. Refers to a wild card joker. Most often used in Lowball.

Bump
To raise the pot. Often phrased as “Bump it up.” Not to be confused with speed bumps on the road of life.

Buy In
The minimum amount of money necessary to buy into a poker game. For example, in a $20440 Texas Hold’em game, the minimum buy-in is usually $200.

Call
Not a phone call to your mom. Refers to placing the amount of money into the pot by another player in order to keep playing the hand. Often stated as, “I call your bet.”

Cards speak
Not a freak of nature. Refers to the best hand being determined by every player turning his cards face up, without any declaration.

Check
Not anything to do with the “check is in the mail.” Refers to declining to bet when it’s your turn to do so.

Checkraise
To check when it’s your turn, and then when someone else bets, to raise that person.

Crying call
Calling a hand reluctantly, on the belief that you will likely lose but will be tremendously pleased if you win.

Cut
To divide the deck in half prior to the dealing of a hand, in an effort to keep the dealer honest and by spoiling an attempted stacked deck. The person to the right of the dealer cuts the deck.

Declare
In high-low games (usually home games), each person declares which way she is going: high, low, or both ways. This is typically done with chips in the hand, such as one chip for low, two chips for high, and three chips for both ways.

Down and dirty
Not mud in Australia. Typically refers to the last down card dealt in Seven-Card Stud.

Drawing dead
A draw where no matter what card you get, you are still going to lose.

Drop
To fold a hand, as in “This pile of horse-puckey is so bad, I’m dropping.”

Family pot
Not marijuana for the whole family. Refers to lots of players playing in a hand.

Fish
A sucker or player who is either clueless or a very bad player.

Floorman
Not a guy who lays tiles on the floor. Refers to a person of floorperson authority in a cardroom who can arbitrate disputes or enforce rules.

Flop
Not falling on your face. Refers to Hold’em’s first three common cards on the board.

Flush
Five cards of the same suit, but not in any particular order.

Fold
Does not refer to laundry. It means to drop out of a pot rather than calling or raising a bet.

Forced bet
A required bet of a prescribed size. The alternative is folding the hand, but not checking it.

Free card
A card received at no cost, because no bets were made by the players on the prior round.

Gut shot
Not a bullet to the belly. Refers to drawing one card to an inside straight, such as to 5-10-8-7.

Heads up
Playing up against a single opponent.

Hole
Refers to your first two cards dealt face down in Seven-Card

Stud.
Also known as pocket cards.

Kitty
Not your Aunt Betty’s pussycat. Refers to the pot of money
or chips in the middle.

Lowball
A poker game in which the best low hand wins.

Misdeal
A hand dealt wrongly that requires a whole new redeal.

Muck
Folding your hand by throwing it into the pile of dead cards.

Nuts
Not what you think! Refers to an unbeatable hand, given the cards that have been played. Also referred to as a lock.

Omaha
A variation of Hold’em where each player receives four down cards and must use two (and only two) of those cards with three of the five common cards on the board. Can be played high only or high-low with &or-better low.

On the come
Needing to improve the hand to have a chance at winning.

Open
To start the betting round by making a bet, as in “I open.”

Pat hand
In draw poker, a hand that doesn’t need any cards drawn to, such as a straight, flush, full house, or four-of-a-kind. Sometimes players bluff by staying “pat,” trying to represent a big hand.

Pocket pair
In Hold’em, two hole cards that are the same rank, such as JJ

Poker face
Having no expression that may give away what a player may f k holding.

Pocket rockets
A pair of aces in your hand in Texas Hold’em.

Pot limit
A game where the maximum bet allowed is equal to the size of the pot at the time of the bet.

Raise
To call a bet and put an additional bet into the pot, forcing other players to put more money into the pot if they wish to stay in the hand.

Raiser
The player who raises.

Read
Refers to the act of determining whether a person has a good hand, a bad hand, or is bluffing.

River
The last common card dealt.

Rock
A very tight or conservative type of player.

Rush
A hot streak in poker hands.

Sandbag
See slow play.

Semi-bluff
To bet a hand that isn’t necessarily the best hand, but has a reasonable shot at improving to become the best hand.

Slow play
Doesn’t refer to dim-witted play. Refers to playing a strong hand weakly at first, usually done in order to keep players in or to set up future raises. This is sometimes referred to as sandbagging.

Street
The sequence of cards dealt in a poker hand. Specifically, when more than one card is dealt simultaneously, the last card in the sequence is the street. In Seven-Card Stud, each player initially receives three cards (two face down, one face up) and there is a round of betting. That betting round (the first round of betting) is said to take place on third street. The fourth card dealt is called fourth street, the fifth card is fifth street, and so on. “Street” isn’t used in Draw poker and Lowball, which have only two betting rounds each.

String bet
An illegal act where one player puts in an amount to call a bet and then goes back to his stack to put more chips in to raise, without having orally declared a raise.

Stuck
Losing money at the table, as in “I am stuck $1,000 in the game.”

Table stakes
Typically means that the amount of money available for a player to play in a hand is limited to the amount in front of her (meaning that she cannot pull out money from her pocket to play in the middle of a hand).

Tapped out Broke
Without money left to play. Also referred to as Tap

Tell
A telltale indication as to what type of hand you have, usually by a different mannerism of some kind. In the movie

Tilt
Not a pinball wizard term. Refers to someone who has started playing badly after a few beats. The player is
referred to as on tilt.

Toke
A tip for the dealer.

Trips
Three of a kind. (Three cards of the same rank.)

Turn card
The fourth common card dealt face up in Texas Hold’em. Also known as the turn.

Underdog
A hand that isn’t likely to be the winner.

Wheel
The best possible hand in Lowball poker, which is A-2-345
in most casinos.

Quads
Four of a kind. (Four cards of the same rank.)