64 terms you will hear at a poker table — each in two lines: what it means, and why it matters to you.
Nothing here is worked through. Look up whatever you just came across, and read on.
If you have only just sat down, these are the words you miss first:
Much of this is set out at length in the chapters: What beats what? · How a hand plays out · Positions at the table · Preflop & Ranges · Pot Odds & Outs
The raise against a raise.
The big blind counts as the first bet, the open as the second — the answer to it is the third.
Betting every chip you have left.
After that you cannot act again. You can never lose more than your stack.
A small forced bet from everyone, on top of the blinds.
Mostly in tournaments. It makes the pot bigger and waiting more expensive.
You were ahead and still lost.
It happens constantly and is not a mistake. A player with 80 % loses one time in five.
The money you have set aside for poker.
Not an amount but a cushion: it should absorb the variance without hurting.
Being the first in a betting round to put money in the middle.
Now the others have to call, raise or fold.
The full forced bet, to the left of the small blind — and also the unit everything is measured in.
It pays the most up front and gets the last word before the flop in return.
The two forced bets made before the cards are dealt.
Without them there would be nothing to win, and everyone could wait for aces forever.
Betting with a hand that would lose at showdown.
It works not because you lie well, but because your opponent is able to fold.
The community cards in the middle.
They belong to everyone. Each player builds their best five-card hand from the board and their own cards.
The place just before the money.
The moment in a tournament when everyone turns cautious — and caution itself becomes a mistake.
The disc that moves on after every hand, and the seat beside it.
The best seat at the table: after the flop it speaks last in every round.
You raised before the flop and bet again on the flop.
It often works because the flop misses most hands — your opponent's included.
Paying exactly as much as was bet.
The most common decision, and the one pot odds help with.
Chips are money. You can get up whenever you like.
A chip is worth exactly what it says — which is why the pot odds calculation holds here unchanged.
Passing it on without betting.
Only possible if nobody before you has bet. Costs nothing.
The seat to the right of the button — at many tables the second best.
At our eight-handed tables this seat is called the hijack; you will find it there as HJ.
A hand that is nothing yet but could become something.
Flush draw: four of a suit. Gutshot: one gap in the straight. OESD: open at both ends.
Three cards of the same rank.
Beats two pair. It is called a set when you held a pair in your hand — and nobody sees that.
Early means you act before the others. Late means after them.
From late position you play more hands — not because the cards are better, but because you know more.
Your share of the pot if the hand were played out a thousand times.
It does not say whether you win this hand — but how often you would win it.
What a decision brings in on average, over very many repetitions.
Positive means you earn from it over time. About a single hand it says nothing.
The first three community cards, all at once.
The moment two cards turn into a hand — or do not.
Five cards of the same suit, in any order.
Beats every straight. If both players have one, the highest card in it wins.
Putting your cards down and getting out of the hand.
Costs nothing further — and is the right decision more often than it feels.
Three of a kind and a pair together.
Beats every flush. Between two full houses the three of a kind decides, not the pair.
No combination — only your highest card counts.
The weakest hand. In chapter 2 you lose with it to a pair of queens.
The seat two places before the button.
From here on it is late position, and that is comfortable — you already see most of the answers.
The calculation that turns tournament chips into real money.
It explains why the same call is wrong in a tournament and right in a cash game.
What you win on top when you hit and they still pay.
They make a call right that the plain sum narrowly forbids — and they are easily talked up.
Whether you act after your opponent in this hand or before them.
Position is relative: against one player you have it, against another you do not.
The side card that decides it when two players hold the same thing.
AK and AQ both hit an ace — and AK wins. The kicker is the difference.
Paying only the big blind before the flop instead of raising.
Rarely good: you pay for the hand without taking the lead.
The best hand possible on this board.
There is always one, and anyone can have it. That is why the board is worth a look.
Being the first to raise in a hand.
Your open range is the list of hands you do that with from this seat.
The cards that turn your hand into the winning one.
They are counted, not estimated: four diamonds visible means nine outs, always.
The pair in your hand is higher than any card on the board.
Strong — but only as long as no higher card falls.
Two cards of the same rank.
The most common winning hand in Texas Hold'em — most hands end small.
A pair already in your hand, before the flop.
Six of the 169 starting hands are pairs — and one time in eight one becomes three of a kind.
Where you sit in the order of play.
The one thing at the table you cannot choose, and which still decides almost everything.
Everything after the flop.
This is where position helps you most — three times you get to see what the others do.
The money in the middle.
Everything being played for — and the reference figure for every calculation about price.
The price of a call, measured against the pot.
They are the reason the same flush draw is sometimes a call and sometimes a fold.
Everything that happens before the first three community cards arrive.
You know only your two cards. Most hands end right here.
Betting more than the player before you.
Everyone after you has to decide again — including those who had already called.
The share the operator keeps from the pot.
The reason poker would be a zero-sum game, but is not one.
Every hand someone plays that way in a given spot.
You never see your opponent's cards — their range is what you can know instead.
The fifth and final community card.
Nothing improves after this. What you have now is what you have.
Ten, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit.
The best hand in poker. There is nothing above it, and you will almost never see it.
One round in which everyone gets to act once.
There are four in every hand: before the flop, after the flop, after the turn, after the river.
The showing of cards at the end. The best hand wins the pot.
Most hands never get that far; somebody folds before then.
The forced bet to the left of the button, usually half a big blind.
Pays up front and acts first after the flop — the worst trade at the table.
The chips you have right now.
Measured in big blinds, not in money: 40 bb is 40 bb, however high the blinds are.
Five cards in a row, all of the same suit.
Beats everything except a higher straight flush.
Five cards in a row, suits irrelevant.
Beats every three of a kind. The ace counts high and low — A2345 is a straight.
Suited means both cards of the same suit. Offsuit: two different ones.
A small difference that still decides whether a hand is playable — only suited can make a flush.
Playing on after something has rattled you.
The most expensive mistake in poker, because it does not ruin one decision but the next fifty.
The fourth community card.
From here it gets expensive: the bets go up, and only one card is left to come.
Everyone pays the same, and play continues until one player has it all.
Chips here are not money: you cannot cash them out, only survive with them.
The seat to the left of the big blind.
Acts first before the flop and knows the least. What you play from here has to be strong.
A bet you want to be called.
The opposite of a bluff — and the way most money is made over time.
The gap between what happens in the long run and what happens today.
It is the reason good play and winning have little to do with each other in the short run.
Four cards of the same rank.
Beats every full house. Rare enough that you remember it.
Two different pairs.
Beats one pair. When both players have two, the higher pair decides first.
Missing a word? Then it is missing here — the list covers what appears in the six chapters and in our trainers, not the whole game.