Texas Hold'em Poker Terms and Glossary
Our poker glossary listed below includes not only common poker terms, but also poker terms specifically related to online poker. The game of poker is evolving, and like any language, new words are being added to the poker lexicon all the time. Knowing what poker players are saying when they use poker lingo, poker jargon, and even poker slang will ensure that you have an equal chance at the table.
All-in If you bet all your chips at any point, you are considered as having gone 'All-in.' This can happen either when you don't have enough chips to make a required or elective bet, or when you bet all your chips as a strategic move in No Limit games. Having gone All-in gives you the potential to win a share of the pot up to and including your last contribution to that pot. You cannot share in any bets added above and beyond that point. These bets form a side-pot. The all-in is also used for situations where a player in a hand loses connection to the server. | 'Going all-in with your chips occasionally ends with your going all out of the game.' | ||
Ante An ante is a mandatory bet paid equally by all players prior to a poker hand being dealt. Antes are always found in stud and razz poker games (where there are no blinds), and also quite frequently in the later stages of No Limit Hold'em tournaments to encourage more action. Antes are also available at select No Limit Hold'em cash tables. | ||||
Avatar A term from computer gaming for an image or figure used to represent a person. Away-from-table In tournaments, you may not 'sit out'. Rather, you may be 'away-from-table' which means you are dealt into every hand, posting blinds when it's your turn, and then folded when there is a raise before the flop, or a bet after the flop. When you are in a tournament and need to leave, time-out, or lose your connection, you are automatically marked as 'away-from-table'. | ||||
Back Bet A 'Back Bet' is a bet on something to happen (a prop bet) – a horse to win a race, a football team to win, or in poker’s case, winning a hand with the hole cards 27 offsuit. It’s just like a poker prop bet that you would regularly place in live games at casinos or with friends. | ||||
Bad Beat This term refers to a heavy favorite in a hand who loses to an opponent who was a severe underdog statistically speaking. Bet the Pot This term is used in pot limit games. It means your bet matches the current amount in the pot. If, when your turn to bet, the pot was at $217, and you bet the pot, your bet is $217. | ||||
Big Blind The big blind is the bigger of two forced bets, ensuring that there is money in the pot. The small blind is placed by the player to the left of the dealer and the big blind is then posted to the small blind's left. Generally, the big blind is equal to the minimum bet. In a $5/$10 limit game, for example, the big blind is $5. | ||||
Blind This term refers to the required bets, called the small blind and the big blind used to put money into play. The blinds are mandatory bets and rotate around the table. Board The community cards in Hold'em are collectively known as the board. | ||||
| 'Poker has a language all its own. You need to know the jargon if you want to play the game.' | ||||
Texas holdem poker is the world's greatest and most popular poker game. The game is played with each player getting 2 cards down and then there are 5 community cards, face up on the table, for all to play. After looking at the hold cards there is a round of betting, the flop, which consists of 3 cards face up on the table, another round of betting, the turn, one card face up on the table,. Jan 13, 2018 texas holdem slang. Next you need to decide if low stakes or high stakes are for you. Check out the 21 Frequently Asked Questions About texas holdem slang Blackjack section first and review some of the articles in our blog. They are absolutely wrong.
Burn In physical poker rooms, the top card of the deck is discarded prior to each round of dealing. The intent is to minimize the risk of cheating by knowing the next card. There is no possibility of this happening in our poker room, therefore we do not burn cards. Button A marker, usually disk-shaped, to indicate which player is the virtual dealer. The button is used in games where position relative to the dealer is important. |
Buy-in The amount of money required to sit down at a poker game. Tournament entry fees are considered the 'buy-in.' At a ring game, there is a minimum and a maximum buy-in, defining how much money you can bring to the table. | ||||
Call When a player matches the prior bet on the table, that action is termed the call. | ||||
Cap The last permitted raise in a betting round is called the cap. We allow three raises beyond the initial bet in limit games. The third raise is the cap. | ||||
Check If there is no bet on the table and you do not wish to place a bet, that action is termed a check. You may only check when there are no prior bets. | 'If you check, you're still in the hand. A check is not a bet, but also not a fold.' | |||
Client The term for the software that you download to your computer, allowing you to interact with the poker room's servers. | ||||
Collusion A form of cheating where two or more players attempt to gain an unfair advantage by sharing information. We do not tolerate cheating. | 'Cheaters and colluders will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law' | |||
Community Cards Face up cards on the table that are shared by all players are termed community cards. Texas Hold'em and Omaha always have community cards. | ||||
Dead Blind In a situation where you have missed your blinds and wish to re-enter the game before your turn to post the big blind. You must post both blinds and the small blind is termed a dead blind, meaning it does not count towards calling a bet. Dead Hand A hand no longer in the game. | ||||
Down Cards The face-down cards dealt to a player, also termed hole cards. | ||||
Drawing Dead This describes the situation when a player is trying to draw a card to complete a hand when there is already a hand that will beat it, even if made. | ||||
Drop To drop your hand when you decide not to go further with your hand; to return your cards to the muck. Same as fold. Face Down Dealt cards that are not visible to other players. Face Up Dealt cards that are visible to all players. | ||||
Fixed Limit Poker In a fixed limit poker game, the amount you can bet or raise is fixed for each round of betting. For example, if you’re playing a $2-$4 fixed limit Texas Hold'em game, every player can only bet or raise $2 during the first two rounds of betting, and can only bet or raise $4 during the last two rounds rounds of betting. To understand this better, plese refer to our article: In Praise of Fixed Limit Poker. Flop In Texas Hold'em, the set of 3 face-up community cards or the first three cards on the board, all dealt at the same time. | ||||
Flush Any 5 cards in one hand that are all the same suit. | ||||
Fold Withdraw from further participation in the current hand. Also see drop. | ||||
Forced Bet A mandatory bet. In certain games, a player is required to bet, having sat-in the game. Four of a Kind A great hand ... all 4 of one rank. For example, 4 Tens. | ||||
Freeroll This term applies to poker tournaments where the entry fee, the stakes, or both the entry fee and stakes are waived. In some non-freeroll tournaments, the house may guarantee a minimum prize pool. | 'A freeroll is a tournament that every player can afford to play.' | |||
Full House A hand in which you have a combination of 3 of a kind, and a pair. | ||||
Hand A set of cards used by a player during a single round. Another word for a single round of shuffling, dealing, and betting. Hand for Hand (h4h) The end stage of a multi-table tournament where play is coordinated across all tables to prevent players from slow-playing in order to gain an advantage and move up in the prize structure. The Hand for Hand mechanism is usually employed at the stage when the amount of the prize money is due to increase. Typically, players will need to wait at their table until the action on a hand is completed at another table before a new hand is dealt. When a player is eliminated from the tournament and the higher prize level is reached, Hand for Hand action stops, only to resume when the next prize level increase is reached. When playing Titan Poker tournaments, players see a notification indicating that they are in Hand for Hand mode. | ||||
Heads Up A game where only two players remain in contention for the pot. Head to Head A game where only two players may participate. | ||||
High Card The card with the highest rank. High/Low A variation of a game where the pot is split between the best hand and the worst hand. The worst hand is comprised of the 5 lowest cards. Most poker rooms, including this one, consider 5, 4, 3, 2, A (the wheel) as the lowest possible hand, despite it also being a straight. | ||||
Hold'em Also called Texas Hold'em. One of the most popular poker games. Each player gets 2 down cards and can use 3,4, or 5 of the community cards. | ||||
Hole Cards The down cards in a player's hand. | ||||
In A term for being an active player; one who has not folded. | ||||
Inside Straight The term applied when a player has 4 of 5 cards needed for a straight with the missing card being inside the sequence rather than at either end, and gets the missing card. For example, a player holding 3, 4, 5, 7 needs a 6 to complete the straight. Getting that 6 is termed 'making the inside straight.' Jackpot A bonus opportunity to win under specific circumstances set by the poker room. | ||||
Kicker The term for the card used to break ties between two of a kind or between Two Pair. | ||||
Live Blind A forced bet put in by one or more players before any cards are dealt. The 'live' means those players still have the option of raising when the action gets back around to them. | ||||
Main Pot The initial pot of money. When one or more players go all-in, a side pot is created for each all-in player. Muck As a noun, this refers to the pile of folded cards and discarded cards. As a verb, at showdown time, the act of returning a losing hand to the dealer facedown. Multi-Entry Tournaments Multi-Entry Tournaments (MET) allow players to register to play at multiple tables at a single tournament to increase their winning potential. Each of the entries to an MET has a separate chip stack and is played simultaneously. Players can either register multiple times simultaneously or only enter again if they get eliminated. | ||||
Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) A tournament where players at more than one table compete, starting with equal numbers of chips, until one player has won all the chips. Prize payouts are a function of the number of entrants, and are posted on the tournaments page. Multi-table tournaments have a posted start time, and require registration in advance. | ||||
nh Nice hand. | ||||
No Limit A variation of the betting rules in which each bet is unlimited up to the number of chips a player has on the table (NL). | 'No-limit Hold'em: Hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror' Tom McEvoy | |||
No Limit Hold'em The most popular variety of poker, featuring unlimited betting. Most poker tournaments, both online and live, are played in the No Limit Hold'em format. | ||||
Omaha A game in which each player receives 4 facedown cards and shares 5 community cards. The winning hand must use exactly 2 down cards and 3 community cards. Omaha High/Lo This game allows players to compete for a pot split between the highest and the lowest hands using 2 down cards and 3 community cards. A player may use different sets of cards to make up the best high and the best low hands. | ||||
On the button This term means you are in the dealer position in Texas Hold'em and Omaha games.A 'button' marks the dealer position with a 'D' in the center. | ||||
Pair This is a hand where the player's best hand is made up of 2 cards of the same rank. | ||||
Pass Can be used in place of either check or fold depending on the context. Play Chips The chips used for play money games. Play chips have no monetary value. Playing the Board Using all the community cards in Hold'em as your best hand. | ||||
Pocket Cards The term for the two down cards at the start of the hand. | ||||
Pot The chips available to be won in any given hand. | 'A multi-way pot is one where there are three or more players left in the hand vying for the pot.' | |||
Pot Limit A variation on betting where each player may bet up to the current amount in the pot (PL). | ||||
Profile A term describing the information a player may enter about himself/herself that may be available, at the player's option, to other players in the poker room. | ||||
Raise The act of increasing the amount bet by a prior bettor. Rake The amount of money, in chips, taken by the house as the service fee in a ring game when the pot reaches a minimal amount. | ||||
No flop, no drop = Rake is not charged if a hand has ended before the flop cards have been dealt. | ||||
Raked Hand A Raked Hand is any hand in ring game play in which a player participates by contributing to the pot, either by posting a blind or a bet, and rake is generated. Rank The value of a card. The rank of the 2 of Spades is 2. The rank of the Queen of Hearts is Queen. Rank value increases from 2 through 10, followed in order by Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. In High/Low games, the Ace may be used both for its high rank and as the lowest rank card. | ||||
Re-buy To get more chips during a game but not during a hand that you are in. This applies to real money and tournament play. | ||||
Reducing The act of removing chips from a table and returning immediately with fewer chips. Reducing is considered poor etiquette. Re-Entry Tournaments Re-Entry Tournaments (RET) allow players to re-register after they are eliminated, simply by buying back in. As a result, more players participate at the tournament tables and prize pools grow larger. | ||||
River The fifth and final community card. This card is also known as Fifth Street. | ||||
Round This refers to the dealing of a set of cards and associated betting. For example, the dealing of the river and the bets that follow are a round. | ||||
Royal Flush The best possible high hand. This is a straight flush from 10 through to Ace of the same suit. | ||||
Satellite A preliminary poker tournament awarding seat(s) to a larger, more important tournament. | ||||
Screen Name The identity you select by which you are known in the poker room. We only allow one player per screen name so please understand if the one you have selected is already taken. Server The computer, or set of computers, providing a service to client computers. In this case the service is the poker room. | ||||
Showdown After the final bet, when all players show their hands or muck, is known as the showdown. | ||||
Side Pot This is a pot created when a player goes all-in. The side pot is the pot available to those players not all-in at that point. There can, on occasion, be more than one side pot. | ||||
Sit 'N' Go A poker tournament which starts as soon as the required number of poker players sit down at the table. Sit 'n' go tournaments are usually single table tournaments, however, there are multi-table tournaments that are considered sit 'n' go tournaments and which start play as soon as all available seats are filled. | ||||
Single Table Tournament (STT) A poker tournament taking place at just one table. All players buy-in with an equal amount and the buy-in money goes to the prize pool. The prize pool is returned to the top finishers per the payout table on the tournaments page. A fee is normally required to play at this table. Players are staked to equal numbers of chips and play until one player has won all the chips. | ||||
Sit Out We permit you to hold your seat at a table while not participating in some hands. Under most conditions, we limit the time you may sit out. In blind games, you may be asked to post the equivalent of the blind if you return to your seat prior to the blind reaching you. To sit out you click a check box on the table screen. To return, you unclick the 'sit out' check box. | ||||
Small Blind In Hold'em and Omaha, this is the mandatory bet required of the player to the left of the dealer. Stakes In Limit games, Stakes are the fixed amount for bets and raises. Steel Wheel If a player holds a five high straight flush, (5-4-3-2-A), it is commonly called a 'steel wheel'. | ||||
Straight A hand in which the player has five cards in rank order. Suit does not matter. For example, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen. | ||||
Straight Flush A straight all of the same suit. | ||||
Stud The generic term for poker games where players receive the first card(s) down followed by some up cards where those up cards are exclusively for the use of that player. There may be a further down card as in 7 Card Stud. | ||||
'Hold'em is to Stud, what chess is to checkers' - Johnny Moss | ||||
Suit Any of the four sets (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades) in a deck of cards. | ||||
Texas Hold'em The poker game where each player gets two down cards followed by five community cards face-up. | ||||
Three of a kind A hand consisting three cards of the same rank. Tournament Buy-In The cost to enter a tournament. All buy-in money is returned to the players via the prize pool. Tournament Entry-Fee A small fee the house charges to enter a tournament. Trips A nickname for three of a kind. Turbo A form of poker play with minimal time to make decisions. Turn The nickname for the fourth community card in Hold'em and Omaha. | ||||
Two Pair A hand in which the player has two pairs of cards. Under-raise This occurs when a player raises a prior bet but has to go all-in to do so with an amount less than the full raise. Up Card A card dealt face up, so that all players may see it. Wheel A nickname for the best low hand 5, 4, 3, 2, A. | ||||
Texas Hold'em Poker Hands
The game of poker is played as a series of betting rounds that culminate with the best hand, or the last remaining hand, winning the pot. To understand what constitutes the best poker hand, one must understand the poker hands ranking system. In most versions of poker, the highest ranking hand wins. The exceptions to the rule are versions of poker which are structured specifically to allow the lowest ranking hand to win the pot, or at least part of it.
Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt to each player, and in the number of shared “community” cards. However, when it comes to poker hands ranking, the different versions of the game agree in the determination which is the strongest combination of cards. Players form their best possible poker hand by using some (or all) of their “pocket” cards, and some (or all) of the “community” cards. These rankings are good for Texas Hold'em and for Omaha Poker as well.
The starting hands in poker - the two hole cards seen only by each player - have earned popular poker hand nicknames. Check our colorful infographic below to see a full list of poker hands slang terms.
Abbreviations used in the examples below: Ace (A); King (K); Queen (Q); Jack (J); Spades (s); Hearts (h); Clubs (c); Diamonds (d). The hands are listed in rank from highest to lowest.
| Royal Flush: The highest possible poker hand is a Straight Flush from 10 up to the ace. Example of a Royal Flush: 10s, Js, Qs, Ks, As | ||
| Straight Flush: A Straight Flush is five cards in sequence all being of the same suit. In the case of two players holding a Straight Flush hand, the one with a higher top card would be ranked higher. Example: 7d, 8d, 9d, 10d, Jd. An ace can also be counted as a low card in a 5-4-3-2-A sequence, in which the five is considered the high card. This is the lowest possible Straight Flush. | ||
| Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank, with suit being irrelevant. Example: Jc, Jd, Jh, Js. If two players have Four of a Kind, also known as 'quads', the higher one wins. If two players have the same Four of a Kind, the winner is determined by the 'kicker', or 5th card in the hand. The higher 'kicker' would determine the winner in that situation. | ||
| Full House: Three cards of one rank together with two cards of another rank. When more than one full house is present in a hand, the one with the highest ranking group of three wins. A Full House is also known as a 'boat.' Example: Qh, Qs, Kd, Kc, Kh. This hand in this example is said to be 'kings over queens' or 'kings full of queens'. | ||
| Flush: Five cards of the same suit, but not consecutive. When more than one Flush is involved in a hand, the one with the highest card wins. Example: As, 5s, 7s, 9s, Js. The Flush in this example is 'ace high' and it would beat a flush with the king of spades as its highest card. If both Flushes have the same highest card, then the second highest card is compared. If necessary, the third highest is compared, or the fourth-highest. | ||
| Straight: Five cards in sequence, but not of the same suit.. When more than one Straight is involved in a hand, the one with the highest card wins. Example: 8, 9, 10, J, Q; suit is irrelevant. An ace can be taken as either high or low (but not both high and low in the same hand). The lowest possible Straight is 5, 4, 3, 2, A, which is also known as the 'wheel'. | ||
| Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank, with two other unequal cards. Also known as 'triplets' or 'trips'. Example: Kh, Kd, Kc. In the event of two hands with Three of a Kind, the higher Three of a Kind wins. If both hands have the same Three of a Kind, the hand with the highest side card, or if necessary, the second-highest side card wins. | ||
| Two Pair: Any two cards of a matching rank together with two cards of another matching rank. If two hands have Two Pairs each, the hand with the highest pair wins. When more than one hand has two pairs of the same rank, the hand with the highest card outside the paired cards (the 'kicker') wins. Example: Jc, Jh, Qs, Qd | ||
| One Pair: Two cards of the same rank. In case two hands have One Pair, the highest pair wins. When more than one hand has a pair of the same rank, the hand with the highest card outside the pair wins. Example: 10c, 10s | ||
| High Card: When players have none of the above combinations, the hand with the highest card wins. The highest High Card is an ace. If two hands have the same High Card, the hand with the highest side card wins. If necessary, the third card in each is compared, and so on. Example: 4h, 6c, 8s, 10d, Qh. In this example, the High Card is the queen. |
The above table represents examples of standard poker hands ranking. If you’re playing a home game and throw in a wild card or two, you’ll have to come up with another poker hands ranking table. Does five of a kind beat a royal flush when you play with wild cards? The possibilities are endless. Let’s stick to standard poker play for now.
Poker Hands Nicknames
Many starting hands in poker have earned for themselves nicknames, however, no one sitting at the table is ever going to declare, 'I just got pocket rockets' when the cards are dealt. The various card combinations have forged for themselves popular poker nicknames that have become part of the lingo of the game, even if the nicknames are only said out loud by commentators and spectators after a hand has finished. Take a look at poker infographic and our list of poker hands slang terms and let us know if we missed your favorites.