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Please feel Free to add a word you think belongs in this poker dictionary.
Action - (1) Opportunity to act. If a player appears not to realize it's his turn, the dealer will say "Your action, sir."
(2) Bets and raises. "If a third heart hits the board and there's a lot of action, you have to assume that somebody has made the flush."
All-In - To run out of chips while betting or calling. In table stakes games, a player may not go into his pocket for more money during a hand. If he runs out, a side pot is created in which he has no interest. However, he can still win the pot for which he had the chips.
Ante - A small portion of a bet contributed by each player to seed the pot at the beginning of a poker hand. Most hold'em games do not have an ante; they use "blinds" to get initial money into the pot.
Backdoor - Catching both the turn and river card to make a drawing hand.
Bad Beat - To have a hand that is a large underdog beat a heavily favored hand.
Big Blind - The larger of the two blinds typically used in a hold'em game, two positions to the left of the dealer. The big blind is a full first round bet. See also "blind" and "small blind."
Big Slick - A nickname for AK (suited or not).
Blank - A board card that doesn't seem to affect the standings in the hand.
Blind - A forced bet (or partial bet) put in by one or more players before any cards are dealt. Typically, blinds are put in by players immediately to the left of the button. See also "live blind."
Board - All the community cards in a hold'em game -- the flop, turn, and river cards together.
Bottom Pair - A pair with the lowest card on the flop.
Brick & Mortar - A "real" casino or cardroom with a building, tables, dealers, etc. This is in contrast to an online poker site.
Bubble - (1) The point at which only one player must bust out before all others win some money. (2) The person who was unfortunate enough to finish in that position.
Burn - To discard the top card from the deck, face down. This is done between each betting round before putting out the next community card(s). It is security against any player recognizing or glimpsing the next card to be used on the board.
Button - A white acrylic disk that indicates the (nominal) dealer. Also used to refer to the player on the button.
Buy - (1) As in "buy the pot." To bluff, hoping to "buy" the pot without being called. (2) As in "buy the button." To bet or raise, hoping to make players between you and the button fold, thus allowing you to act last on subsequent betting rounds.
Buy-In - An amount of money you pay to enter a tournament. Often expressed as two numbers, such as $100+9, meaning that it costs $109 to enter the tournament; $100 goes into the prize fund and $9 goes to the house.
Call - To put into the pot an amount of money equal to the most recent bet or raise. The term "see" (as in "I'll see that bet") is considered colloquial.
Calling Station - A weak-passive player who calls a lot, but doesn't raise or fold much. This is the kind of player you like to have in your game.
Cap - To put in the last raise permitted on a betting round. This is typically the third or fourth raise.
Case - The last card of a certain rank in the deck. Example: "The flop came J-8-3; I've got pocket jacks, he's got pocket 8's, and then the case eight falls on the river, and he beats my full house."
Center Pot - The first pot created during a poker hand, as opposed to one or more "side" pots created if one or more players goes all-in. Also "main pot."
Chat - Typed conversation that you can have with other players at an online poker site (or any online gathering, for that matter).
Check - (1) To not bet, with the option to call or raise later in the betting round. Equivalent to betting zero dollars. (2) Another word for chip, as in poker chip.
Check-Raise - To check and then raise when a player behind you bets. Occasionally you will hear people say this is not fair or ethical poker. Piffle. Almost all casinos permit check-raising, and it is an important poker tactic. It is particularly useful in low-limit hold'em where you need extra strength to narrow the field if you have the best hand.
Check-Raise - To check and then raise when a player behind you bets. Occasionally you will hear people say this is not fair or ethical poker. Piffle. Almost all casinos permit check-raising, and it is an important poker tactic. It is particularly useful in low-limit hold'em where you need extra strength to narrow the field if you have the best hand.
Chop - An agreement between the two players with blinds to simply take their blinds back rather than playing out the hand if nobody calls or raises in front of them.
Clean Out - A card that would almost certainly make your hand best. If you are drawing at a straight, but there is a flush draw possible, then the cards that make your straight but also the flush are not clean outs.
Cold Call - To call more than one bet in a single action. For instance, suppose the first player to act after the big blind raises. Now any player acting after that must call two bets "cold." This is different from calling a single bet and then calling a subsequent raise.
Come Hand - A drawing hand (from the craps term).
Complete Hand - A hand that is defined by all five cards -- a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, or straight flush.
Connector - A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are one apart in rank. Examples: KQs, 76.
Counterfeit - To make your hand less valuable because of board cards that duplicate it. Example: you have 87 and the flop comes 9-T-J, so you have a straight. Now an 8 comes on the turn. This has counterfeited your hand and made it almost worthless.
Crack - To beat a hand -- typically a big hand. You hear this most often applied to pocket aces: "Third time tonight I've had pocket aces cracked."
Cripple - As in "to cripple the deck." Meaning that you have most or all of the cards that somebody would want to have with the current board. If you have pocket kings, and the other two kings flop, you have crippled the deck. Also used to say that your chip stack in a tournament is crippled as in "I lost a big hand and I was playing crippled the rest of the tournament."
Crying Call - A call that you make expecting to lose, but feel that you must make anyway because of the pot odds.
Cut-Off - The position (or player) who acts one before the button.
Dead Money - (1) Money contributed to a pot by a player no longer in the pot. (2) A player in a tournament who has no realistic chance of winning.
FuckTard - short for a fucking retard. This is usually someone that makes horrible play after horrible play yet draws out against all odds.
Hold Cards - The two cards you are dealt face down in Texas Hold 'Em!
Hole Cards - The two cards you are dealt face down in Texas Hold 'Em!
Outflopability - the ability to out flop your opponent on a consistant basis.
Set - Trips, where your whole cards are a pair and the third is on the board. Much better than trips where there are two on the board, because they are hidden.
Toke - A small amount of money (typically $.50 or $1.00) given to the dealer by the winner of a pot. Quite often, tokes represent the great majority of a dealer's income.
Top and Bottom - Two pair, with your two hole cards pairing the highest and lowest cards on the board.
Top Two - Two pair, with your two hole cards pairing the two highest cards on the board.
Trips - Three of a kind.
Turn - The fourth community card. Put out face up, by itself. Also known as "fourth street."
Under the Gun - The position of the player who acts first on a betting round. For instance, if you are one to the left of the big blind, you are under the gun before the flop.
Underdog - A person or hand not mathematically favored to win a pot. For instance, if you flop four cards to your flush, you are not quite a 2:1 underdog to make your flush by the river (that is, you will make your flush about one in three times). See also "dog."
Value - As in "bet for value." This means that you would actually like your opponents to call your bet (as opposed to a bluff). Generally it's because you have the best hand. However, it can also be a draw that, given enough callers, has a positive expectation.
Variance - A measure of the up and down swings your bankroll goes through. Variance is not necessarily a measure of how well you play. However, the higher your variance, the wider swings you'll see in your bankroll.
Wheel - A straight from ace through five.
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