Poker Glossary

The third bet in a betting round — a re-raise of the first raise.

The blind counts as the first bet preflop, so a raise is the 2-bet and the re-raise is the 3-bet. Postflop the count restarts, where a bet is the first and a raise the second.

A re-raise of a 3-bet.

At most stakes a 4-bet preflop is a very strong range, which is what makes the occasional 4-bet bluff profitable.

A table with six seats.

Fewer players means the blinds come round faster and opening ranges widen accordingly.

A one-off chance to buy extra chips at the end of a tournament's rebuy period.

Betting every chip you have in front of you.

You can never be forced out of a pot for more than your stack; anything beyond it goes into a side pot.

The maximum share of your range you can fold without a bluff becoming automatically profitable.

The complement of MDF: bet ÷ (pot + bet). A pot-sized bet gives an alpha of 50%.

Exploiting the letter of the rules to mislead opponents while staying just inside what is technically legal.

Miscalling your hand at showdown or a motion that looks like a fold are classic examples. It is not cheating in the sense that gets you barred, and it is still the fastest way to be disliked at a table.

A forced bet posted by every player before the cards are dealt, separate from the blinds.

Antes grow the starting pot and so reward playing more hands. Most tournaments now use a big blind ante, where one player posts the whole table's ante.

A draw that needs both the turn and the river to complete — also called runner-runner.

A backdoor flush draw on the flop is worth roughly 4% and is rarely a reason to continue on its own, but it adds meaningfully to a hand that already has something.

Losing a hand you were a big favourite to win, usually to a draw that got there on the last card.

Bad beats are the visible half of variance and are worth exactly nothing to dwell on: the money went in good, which is the only part you controlled.

Playing value hands and bluffs in the same way so opponents cannot tell them apart.

Perfect balance makes you unexploitable but also gives up the profit that comes from attacking opponents' specific mistakes. Against weak players, deliberately unbalanced play earns more.

The money set aside solely for playing poker.

The point of a bankroll is to survive normal downswings without moving down or going broke. A common live cash guideline is 30 to 50 buy-ins for the stake you play.

To keep betting on a later street after betting the previous one.

Firing the flop and turn is a double barrel; adding the river makes it a triple. Barrelling is how a bluff gets its opponent to fold hands that beat it.

Big blinds won per 100 hands — the standard way to state a win rate.

It is stake-independent, so 5bb/100 means the same skill edge at any level. Online players quote bb/100; live players usually quote money per hour because hands come so much slower.

To put chips in the pot when nobody has yet done so in the current betting round.

Matching someone else's bet is a call and increasing it is a raise; only the first one is a bet.

The larger of the two forced bets, posted by the player two seats left of the button, and the unit stakes are measured in.

The big blind acts last before the flop and first on every street after it, which is why it is the seat that loses the most money over time.

A tournament format where the player in the big blind posts the entire table's ante in one payment.

It speeds the game up by replacing nine small payments with one, and leaves the total money in the pot unchanged.

A card that changes nothing — it completes no draw and helps no one.

The two forced bets posted before the cards are dealt, which give players something to fight over.

Without them everyone could fold indefinitely at no cost. The blinds move one seat clockwise every hand so the burden is shared.

A card in your hand that reduces the number of strong hands your opponent can hold.

Holding the ace of spades on a three-spade board means your opponent cannot have the nut flush, which makes your hand a better bluff — you are less likely to be called.

A bet or raise made with a hand that is unlikely to win at showdown, intended to make better hands fold.

A hand that beats an opponent's bluffs and loses to all of their value bets.

Calling with one is purely a read on how often the opponent is bluffing; the hand's own strength is not the question.

The community cards dealt face up and shared by every player in the hand.

The character of the community cards — how connected, suited, and paired they are.

Texture decides how ranges interact. A dry board like K-7-2 rainbow favours whoever holds the strong high cards; a wet board like 9-8-7 with two hearts hits calling ranges hard and makes big bets less effective.

Table slang for a full house — three of one rank plus a pair of another.

A pair made with the lowest card on the board.

The highest straight, ace through ten; also the collective name for the cards ten and above.

The point in a tournament just before the money, when the next player out wins nothing.

Short stacks tighten up dramatically here, which is exactly why big stacks can attack relentlessly. The effect is a direct consequence of ICM.

A card the dealer discards face down before dealing the flop, turn, and river.

It guards against a marked or glimpsed top card affecting the deal, and it has no bearing on the odds.

The dealer position, marked by a disc, which acts last on every postflop street.

The most profitable seat at the table by a wide margin, because acting last means you see what everyone else does before you decide.

The amount you bring to the table, or the cost of entering a tournament.

To match the current bet and stay in the hand.

A call ends the betting round if everyone else has already acted. Calling closes the action but wins nothing on its own — only a fold or a showdown does.

A player who calls far too often and folds far too rarely.

The correct adjustment is simple and hard to follow: stop bluffing them and bet your good hands relentlessly.

A game where chips represent real money and you can join or leave at any time.

The blinds never rise, so unlike a tournament there is no clock forcing action.

To decline to bet while keeping your hand, passing the action on.

Only possible when nobody has bet before you in the current round.

Checking with the intention of raising after an opponent bets behind you.

One of the strongest moves available out of position, because it wins the extra bet your opponent has just put in. It works with monsters and with draws for the same reason: it applies pressure they did not expect.

To split the pot between two or more players with equal hands.

Common in Hold'em precisely because five shared cards give everyone the same raw material.

Calling a raise without having any money already invested in the pot.

Distinct from calling out of the blinds, where you are getting a discount on money you were forced to post.

A hand with two draws at once, most often a flush draw plus a straight draw.

With twelve to fifteen outs a combo draw is frequently a favourite against one pair, which makes it a semi-bluff you can happily get all in with.

The number of distinct card combinations that make up a particular hand.

Any unpaired hand has 16 combinations, 4 of them suited; any pocket pair has 6. Counting combos is how you work out whether an opponent is more likely to hold a draw or a made hand.

A bet on the flop by the player who raised before it, continuing the story of a strong hand.

Effective because the preflop raiser's range genuinely does hit high boards more often, and because most flops miss most hands.

A hand where two very strong holdings collide and the loser could not realistically have folded.

Aces against kings all in preflop is the archetype. Unlike a bad beat, nobody got outdrawn — the money was always going in.

When a board card makes your hand worse in relative terms by giving everyone the same or better.

Holding 6-5 on a board of 9-8-7 you have a straight; an ace or a ten on the river hands a bigger straight to anyone with broadway cards. Two pair is counterfeited when the board pairs higher than both of yours.

The seat immediately to the right of the button.

The second-best position at the table, and the seat that opens the widest range after the button.

Chips in the pot put there by players who have already folded.

Dead money improves the price on every subsequent bet, which is why pots with limpers in them are worth attacking.

Leading into the previous street's aggressor instead of checking to them.

The name is a leftover insult from an era when it was assumed to be bad. Used deliberately on boards that favour the caller's range, it is a legitimate and sometimes strong play.

An extended run of losing results, whether or not you played well.

Downswings of 20 to 30 buy-ins happen to winning players over a large enough sample; the maths is unremarkable and living through it is not.

Holding a hand that cannot win no matter which cards come.

The flush draw you are chasing against an opponent who already has a full house is the usual example.

A flop with few draws available — disconnected ranks and mixed suits.

K-7-2 rainbow is the standard example. Small bets work well here because there is very little an opponent can profitably continue with.

The smaller of the two stacks in a pot — the most that can actually be won or lost.

If you have 500 and your opponent has 120, you are playing a 120 pot regardless of what sits behind.

Your share of the pot — the fraction of the time your hand wins if all remaining cards were dealt with no more betting.

Equity becomes a decision only when compared against the price a bet is offering.

How much of your raw equity you actually collect once betting and position are accounted for.

A hand with 40% equity out of position against an aggressive opponent realizes far less than 40%, because you will be forced to fold some of the times you were ahead.

The average result of a decision if you could repeat it an unlimited number of times.

Poker is the practice of making positive-EV decisions and accepting that any single one of them can lose.

Deviating from balanced play to attack a specific mistake an opponent is making.

Folding too much invites relentless bluffing; calling too much invites relentless value betting. Exploitative play wins more than GTO against anyone who is not playing GTO, at the cost of being exploitable yourself.

The last table remaining in a tournament, usually the last nine or ten players.

A weak player, and the reason the game is profitable.

The single most valuable table-selection skill is noticing where they are sitting and getting to their left.

To call a bet or raise rather than re-raising.

Calling a bet with a weak hand intending to take the pot away on a later street.

It works against players who fire the flop automatically and give up on the turn.

The first three community cards, dealt at once.

Five cards of the same suit, beating a straight and losing to a full house.

Ties are broken by the highest card in the flush, then the next; suits themselves never break a tie.

Holding four cards of one suit and needing a fifth to make a flush.

Nine outs, which is about 35% to complete from the flop with two cards to come and 19.6% from the turn.

To give up your hand and forfeit any claim to the pot.

Money already put in is gone regardless, which is why it should never factor into the decision. The most common leak in poker is folding too little.

The value a bet gains from the chance your opponent folds, separate from the chance you win at showdown.

It is what makes a semi-bluff stronger than either of its parts: you can win immediately, and you can win by hitting.

A tournament with no rebuys — once your chips are gone, you are out.

Three cards of one rank with a pair of another, beating a flush and losing to four of a kind.

Ties are decided by the three-card rank first, so queens full of fours beats jacks full of aces.

A table with nine or ten seats.

More players means more chances someone has a real hand, so opening ranges are tighter than at 6-max.

Game theory optimal — a strategy that cannot be beaten in the long run no matter how an opponent adjusts.

GTO is a defensive benchmark rather than a maximum: it refuses to lose, but it also declines the extra profit available from attacking a specific opponent's errors.

A straight draw missing one card in the middle, giving four outs.

About 17% from the flop and 8.7% from the turn — rarely enough to call on its own, often enough to bluff with.

The order that decides every showdown, from royal flush down to high card.

A pot or a game with exactly two players.

Ranges widen enormously because the blinds come round every hand and there is only one opponent to get through.

Calling a big bet with a weak hand because you have decided the opponent is bluffing.

Folding a strong hand because you have read the opponent for an even stronger one.

The seat two to the right of the button.

Your two private cards, dealt face down.

Independent Chip Model — the maths converting a tournament chip stack into a share of the prize pool.

Because chips gained are worth less than chips lost, ICM makes marginal calls that would be fine in a cash game clearly wrong near a pay jump.

The money you expect to win on later streets if your draw completes, over and above what is in the pot now.

They justify calls the immediate price rejects, and they are a read rather than a fact — the money only arrives if your opponent pays you off.

Acting after your opponent on every postflop street.

Worth more than most starting hands. Seeing what someone does before you decide is a permanent, compounding advantage.

To raise with the aim of playing the pot heads-up against one weak player.

A card that is not part of your pair or trips but still breaks ties.

Every hand is exactly five cards, so kickers fill whatever the made hand does not. A-K against A-Q on an ace-high board is decided entirely by the king.

Loose-aggressive — a player who enters many pots and bets and raises hard.

To call the big blind preflop rather than raising.

Generally weak: it forfeits the chance to win the pot immediately and invites everyone behind in cheaply.

The seat three to the right of the button.

The pot every player in the hand is eligible to win when someone is all in for less.

A player who raises and re-raises constantly with almost anything.

The counter is patience and a willingness to call down lighter than feels comfortable.

Minimum defense frequency — the share of your range you must continue with so a bet cannot profit purely by making you fold.

It equals pot ÷ (pot + bet). Against a pot-sized bet you must defend 50%; against a half-pot bet, 67%. The bigger the bet, the more you are allowed to fold.

A betting range of strong and medium-strength hands, without the pure bluffs.

It calls for smaller bets, aimed at getting value from worse hands that can still call.

A pair made with the middle card on the board.

A flop with all three cards of the same suit.

Nobody can hold a flush draw without two of that suit, so ranges narrow sharply and the ace of the suit becomes a powerful blocker.

To discard a hand face down, or the pile of discarded cards itself.

A hand that touches the muck is dead, even if it was the winner. Table your cards at showdown before releasing them.

An extremely tight player who enters few pots and folds most of them.

Their bets deserve respect and their blinds deserve constant attacking.

The best possible flush — the one containing the ace of the suit.

The best hand possible on a given board, which no other holding can beat.

Always relative to the board: the nuts on one flop is a mediocre hand two cards later.

Two hole cards of different suits, written with an 'o' as in AKo.

To make the first raise of the preflop betting round.

A straight draw open at both ends, giving eight outs.

Roughly 31.5% from the flop and 17.4% from the turn.

Acting before your opponent on every postflop street.

You have to commit to a decision without knowing what they will do, which is why hands played out of position realize less of their equity.

The cards remaining in the deck that turn a losing hand into a winning one.

Counting them is the basis of every draw decision. Discount outs that could complete a better hand for someone else — the flush card that pairs the board is not fully an out.

A bet larger than the current pot.

It demands more equity to call — a twice-pot bet needs 40% — so it works best with a range polarized between very strong hands and bluffs.

A card higher than any on the board, or a board card higher than your pair.

A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.

Queens on a 9-6-2 flop. Strong, and still only one pair — it loses to every set out there.

When the five community cards make your best hand and neither hole card improves it.

The best you can do is chop with everyone still in, since they all have access to the same five cards.

A betting range made up of very strong hands and bluffs, with nothing in between.

Polarized ranges justify large bets: medium hands are not in there to be priced out.

Where you sit relative to the button, which determines when you act.

The single most important structural factor in Hold'em. Later position means more information on every decision, and the same hand is worth substantially more on the button than under the gun.

The price a bet offers: what the call costs against what the pot will be worth.

Turn it into the equity you need with call ÷ (pot + bet + call). A pot-sized bet needs 33.3%, a half-pot bet 25%.

A bet on the turn or river by the out-of-position player after the preflop raiser declined to continuation bet.

The check betrayed weakness, and probing attacks it.

Four of a kind — all four cards of one rank.

Beaten only by a straight flush. When the quads are entirely on the board, the highest kicker wins the pot.

A flop with three different suits, so no flush draw is possible.

To increase the size of an existing bet.

The house's cut of each pot, or the fee added to a tournament entry.

It is the single largest fixed cost in poker and the reason marginal winners are actually losers.

A portion of the rake you have paid, returned as a reward or promotion.

The full set of hands a player could hold in a given situation, rather than a single guess at what they have.

Thinking in ranges is the shift that separates intermediate play from beginner play: you stop asking what one hand they have and start asking what proportion of their hands beat you.

Buying more chips in a tournament that permits it, usually within an early window.

A draw to an even better hand held by someone who already has a strong made hand.

Making a straight while also holding two cards to the nut flush means you are ahead now and can improve if you are behind.

The money you expect to lose on later streets when you hit your hand and it is still second best.

The reason a low flush draw is dangerous: the card you are hoping for is exactly the card that costs you a big pot.

The probability of losing your entire bankroll given your win rate, variance, and bankroll size.

The fifth and final community card, and the betting round that follows it.

No cards left to come, so equity is settled: on the river a hand either wins or it does not.

The specific sequence of remaining community cards that come after a decision point.

The second-best possible hand on a board — often the most expensive hand in poker.

Betting with a hand that is probably behind now but has a real chance to improve.

It wins two ways: opponents fold immediately, or you hit. That is why aggression with draws beats calling with them.

Three of a kind made from a pocket pair plus one matching card on the board.

Better than trips because it is far harder to read: the board shows only one card of your rank.

To move all in, betting every chip you have in one action.

Common shorthand for short-stack tournament play, where raising any smaller would commit you anyway.

The end of a hand where remaining players reveal their cards and the best hand wins.

A separate pot created when a player is all in for less than the others are betting.

The all-in player can only win the main pot; everything above their stack is contested by the rest.

Underplaying a very strong hand to disguise it and induce action.

Usually a mistake: it gives free cards and builds a pot too small to matter when you finally get paid.

Deliberately hesitating before revealing a winning hand at showdown.

Pure bad manners with no strategic upside.

The smaller forced bet, posted by the player immediately left of the button.

The worst seat at the table: partial money in the pot, and first to act on every street after the flop.

Stack-to-pot ratio — the effective stack divided by the size of the pot on the flop.

A low SPR means commitment decisions arrive immediately, which favours strong made hands; a high SPR leaves room to manoeuvre and favours draws and implied odds.

Re-raising after one player has raised and at least one other has called.

It is strong because the original raiser still has callers behind them, so they must fold hands they would otherwise continue with.

A voluntary blind, usually twice the big blind, posted before the cards are dealt.

It doubles the stakes and puts the straddler last to act preflop. Almost always a losing play, and it makes the game bigger, which is why cardrooms allow it.

Five cards in consecutive rank order of mixed suits.

The ace plays high or low — A-K-Q-J-10 and 5-4-3-2-A — but never wraps around.

Two hole cards of the same suit, written with an 's' as in AKs.

Being suited adds only two or three percentage points of equity, but it adds them to exactly the hands that flop well.

The rule that you can only wager the chips in front of you at the start of a hand.

It is why side pots exist, and why nobody can be forced out of a pot by a bet larger than their stack.

Tight-aggressive — a player who enters few pots and plays them aggressively.

The default winning style, and the one most easily countered once opponents notice the folding.

To take a long time over a decision.

An unconscious physical or behavioural pattern that reveals information about a player's hand.

Betting patterns are more reliable than anything physical, and timing is the most reliable tell online.

Playing worse than you know how to because of frustration, usually after losing.

It costs more money than any technical leak, and the only reliable fix is leaving the table.

A pair made with the highest card on the board.

The kicker matters enormously here: top pair with a weak kicker is exactly the hand that pays off top pair with a good one.

A game where everyone starts with the same chips, blinds rise on a clock, and you play until you lose them all.

Chips have no cash value of their own; what matters is the prize-pool share they represent, which is why ICM governs late-stage decisions.

Three of a kind made from one hole card and a pair on the board.

Weaker than a set in practice because the paired board is visible to everyone, so opponents can see the hand coming.

The fourth community card, and the betting round that follows it.

A flop with exactly two cards of the same suit, so a flush draw is possible.

The seat immediately left of the big blind, first to act before the flop.

The tightest opening range at the table, because everyone else still gets to act behind you.

A bet made expecting to be called by worse hands.

The test is simple and often skipped: name a worse hand that calls. If you cannot, it is not a value bet.

The spread of results around your true win rate — how far short-term outcomes stray from expectation.

High variance is why winning players have losing months and losing players have winning nights. It never disappears; a bigger sample only shrinks its share of the result.

A flop with many draws available — connected ranks, shared suits, or both.

9-8-7 with two hearts is the archetype. Large bets are less effective here because opponents have plenty of hands worth continuing with.

The lowest straight, 5-4-3-2-A, with the ace playing low.

How much you win on average over time, stated in bb/100 online or money per hour live.

It only means something alongside the sample it came from. A win rate over a few thousand hands is mostly variance wearing a number.