A
- Ace high
- A hand with no pair, straight or flush whose highest card is an ace.
- All-in
- Betting every chip you have left. You can only win as much from each opponent as you put in.
- Ante
- A small forced bet every player posts before a hand. Common in tournaments once the blinds get bigger.
B
- Big blind
- The larger forced bet, posted two seats to the left of the button. It sets the minimum bet for the hand.
- Blinds
- The two forced bets posted before the cards are dealt, so every pot starts with something in it.
- Bluff
- A bet or raise with a weak hand, made to get better hands to fold.
- Board
- The community cards face up in the middle of the table.
- Button
- The disc that marks the dealer's seat. The button acts last on the flop, turn and river.
C
- Call
- Match the current bet to stay in the hand.
- Check
- Pass the action without betting. Only possible when nobody has bet yet in the current round.
- Community cards
- The five shared cards that every player can use to make a hand.
- Cutoff
- The seat directly to the right of the button, the second-best seat at the table.
D
- Draw
- An unfinished hand that needs more cards to come in, such as four cards to a flush.
F
- Fish
- A weak or new player who loses chips to better ones. Everyone starts as one, including in our practice drills.
- Flop
- The first three community cards, dealt together after the first betting round.
- Flush draw
- Four cards of one suit, one short of a flush. It has nine outs.
- Fold
- Give up your hand and any claim to the pot.
G
- Grinder
- A player who puts in long hours, often at several tables at once, to win small amounts steadily.
- Gutshot
- A straight draw that needs one rank in the middle, like 5-6-8-9 waiting for a 7. It has four outs.
H
- Heads-up
- A hand or a game with only two players.
- Hijack
- The seat two places to the right of the button.
- Hole cards
- The two private cards dealt face down to each player.
I
- Implied odds
- The chips you expect to win later in the hand if your draw comes in, on top of what's in the pot now.
K
- Kicker
- A side card that settles ties between hands of the same type. A-K beats A-Q on an ace-high board because of the king kicker.
L
- Limp
- Call the big blind before the flop instead of raising.
M
- Muck
- Fold your cards without showing them. Also the pile of discarded cards.
N
- Nuts
- The best possible hand on a given board.
O
- Open-ended straight draw
- Four cards in a row that can be finished at either end, like 6-7-8-9. It has eight outs.
- Outs
- The unseen cards that would improve your hand enough to win.
- Overcard
- A hole card higher than every card on the board.
P
- Pocket pair
- Two hole cards of the same rank, such as 8-8.
- Position
- Where you sit relative to the button, which decides when you act. Acting later is an advantage.
- Pot odds
- The size of the pot compared with the cost of a call. A half-pot bet gives you 3 to 1.
R
- Raise
- Increase the size of the current bet.
- River
- The fifth and last community card.
- Rounder
- A seasoned player who makes the rounds of card rooms and home games, looking for good games.
S
- Set
- Three of a kind made from a pocket pair and one matching card on the board.
- Shark
- A strong, experienced player who wins chips from weaker ones. The opposite of a fish.
- Showdown
- When the players still in turn their cards over after the last betting round.
- Small blind
- The smaller forced bet, posted directly to the left of the button.
- Split pot
- A pot shared between players whose best five cards are equal in rank.
- Suited
- Two hole cards of the same suit, written with an "s", as in AKs.
T
- Trips
- Three of a kind made from one hole card and a pair on the board.
- Turn
- The fourth community card.
U
- Under the gun
- The first player to act before the flop, sitting directly left of the big blind.