Glossary

The dealer seat. Acts last after the flop, the most profitable seat at the table.

Forced bets (small + big) that start the pot before cards are dealt.

When you act. “In position” = after your opponent, “out of position” = before.

All the hands someone could hold in a spot. You play against ranges, not exact cards.

The first raise before the flop, when nobody has entered yet.

A re-raise over the first raise (the blind counts as the first bet).

A voluntary blind, usually twice the big blind, posted in the dark before the deal. Buys the last preflop action.

The re-raise over a 3-bet. Usually says premium, or a bold bluff.

The larger forced bet, one seat left of the small blind. Also the standard unit for stack sizes (bb).

The smaller forced bet, left of the button. The worst seat postflop: first to act, half a bet already in.

Just calling the big blind preflop instead of raising. Usually weak; it invites the field in cheap.

The betting round before the flop, on your two hole cards alone.

A small forced bet from everyone before the deal, on top of the blinds. Sweetens the pot, widens ranges.

A re-raise after one player raises and others call. The callers are trapped between you and the raiser.

Calling a raise having put no money in yet. Often the start of a leak, flatting hands that should raise or fold.

The smallest legal raise must add at least as much as the previous bet or raise; you can never raise by less than the last one. (The smallest legal bet is one big blind.)

A straddle posted from the button. It acts last before the flop as well as after it, and the small blind opens the action instead.

Continuation bet. The preflop raiser bets again on the flop.

Check first, then raise after your opponent bets. A trap with teeth.

A bet made to get called by worse hands.

A bet made to make better hands fold.

A bluff with a draw behind it: folds win now, outs win later.

The side card that breaks ties between equal pairs.

The best possible hand on a given board. Nothing beats it, only ties it.

The first three community cards, dealt face up together. Where most hands take shape.

The fourth community card. Bets usually grow here; draws get expensive.

The fifth and final community card. No more cards to come; it’s showdown or fold.

Betting every chip you have. You can’t be forced out, but you can’t bet more either.

Three of a kind using a pocket pair plus one board card. Hidden and powerful.

Three of a kind using one hole card and a pair on the board. Like a set, but easier for others to read.

An inside straight draw: one specific rank fills it. Four outs, roughly 8% per card.

A pocket pair higher than every board card. Strong, but vulnerable on coordinated boards.

Two adjacent cards of the same suit (like 8♥7♥). Small now, but they make the straights and flushes that stack people.

A draw needing both turn and river to complete. Faint odds, but free equity that adds up.

A bet larger than the pot. Maximum pressure: used with the nuts and with air, rarely in between.

The end of the hand: remaining players reveal, best hand wins the pot.

How connected and suited the community cards are. Wet boards hit ranges hard; dry boards miss them.

Underplaying a monster to disguise it and trap. Cute, but it often just lets opponents draw cheap.

Four cards to a flush, one short. Nine outs, about 18% to complete on the next card, 35% by the river. The workhorse draw.

A straight draw open at both ends, filled by either of two ranks. Eight outs, about 16% on the next card. Twice the reach of a gutshot.

To keep betting the next street: a second barrel on the turn, a third on the river. Fired for value or as a continued bluff.

Two pair with aces on top, like A-A-9-9. “Aces up” beats any lower two pair at showdown.

A card that changes nothing, completing no draw and pairing no one. Also called a blank.

When two hands tie, they share the pot equally. An odd chip goes to the first seat left of the button.

When the five community cards make your best hand and your hole cards add nothing, you “play the board,” and everyone still in the hand ties.

The A-2-3-4-5 straight, where the ace plays low, the lowest straight there is. Straights never wrap: K-A-2 is not a straight.

A second pot built once a player is all-in for less. They can only win the main pot; everything above their stack plays on without them.

Leading into the previous street's aggressor from out of position. Named as an insult, and a real weapon on the boards that hit your range harder.

Calling a bet with a weak hand intending to take the pot away later. You are paying for position and their give-up frequency, not for equity.

Betting into the preflop raiser on the turn after they checked back the flop. Their check capped their range, and the probe attacks the cap.

A card that visibly completes a draw or outranks the board. It changes who can credibly claim the nuts, not who actually holds them.

A small bet made from out of position to buy a cheap showdown and pre-empt a bigger one. It works against callers and leaks against raisers.

Your share of the pot right now: how often your hand wins if it checks down.

Unseen cards that improve you to the likely best hand.

The price of a call: what you pay versus what the pot pays back.

Game-theory-optimal: a balanced strategy no opponent can exploit. The unbluffable baseline.

The money you expect to win later if you hit, on top of what’s already in the pot.

The value of the chance your bet makes a better hand fold. What turns a draw into a semi-bluff.

The smaller of the two stacks in a pot, the most either player can actually win or lose.

Stack-to-pot ratio: stack ÷ pot at the flop. Low SPR means commitment; high SPR rewards implied odds and skill.

Expected value: the average chips a decision wins or loses over the long run. Poker is chasing +EV.

The swings. How far results stray from the average before the long run bails you out.

A card in your hand that removes combos from your opponent's range. Holding an ace blocks their aces and their A-K, so a bluff is likelier to get through.

A player who calls far too often and folds too little. Never bluff them. Just bet your value hands relentlessly.

Voluntarily Put money In Pot: the share of hands a player pays to enter. The first number on a HUD, and the fastest read on how loose someone is.

Preflop Raise: how often a player raises before the flop. Read beside VPIP, it separates genuine aggression from mere looseness.

A player who folds nearly everything and only puts money in with the top of a range. Predictable, and beatable by stealing relentlessly.

Tight-aggressive: few hands, played hard. The default winning style: a narrow range, but always the one applying the pressure.

Loose-aggressive: many hands, played hard. The highest-variance style, the hardest to play against, and the easiest to get wrong.

Independent Chip Model: in tournaments chips aren’t cash, so survival has value and you fold spots you’d call for money.

The last place before the money. Play tightens to a crawl, and the big stacks print, because busting here pays nothing at all.

A tournament whose prize is a seat, not cash. Every seat is worth the same, so chips stop mattering the moment you are safe.

A tournament with no rebuys and no re-entry. One buy-in, one life. Lose your chips and you are out for good.

Progressive knockout: half of every bounty you win is cash in hand, half goes onto your own head. Your price grows as you win.

Cash paid for knocking a player out, funded by splitting each buy-in. It changes calling maths; the money is attached to a person, not a pot.

The big blind posts one ante for the whole table instead of everyone posting their own. Faster to deal, and it makes that seat the expensive one.

Playing worse because you’re upset. The most expensive word in poker.

To fold without showing, or to toss losing cards at showdown.

A hand you’re doomed to lose money with: strong, but running into stronger. Not a mistake, just variance.

Losing as a big favorite when your opponent hits a long shot. Poker’s cruelest coin flip.

The house’s cut of each pot. Small per hand, huge over a session.

A spot where you can’t lose but might win: same hand now, extra outs to scoop. Also, a tournament with no buy-in.

Deliberately stalling before revealing a hand you know is winning. Legal, but the rudest move at the table.

One against one. The blinds swap roles (the button is the small blind and acts first before the flop, last after), and ranges widen enormously.

Everyone antes before the deal and the hand starts on the flop, no preflop betting at all. A house game, usually once an orbit.

Technically legal moves designed to mislead: a hidden big chip, an ambiguous “I call?”, a fake reach for chips. Not cheating by the book, and not tolerated.

The card the dealer discards face down before each flop, turn and river. Three per hand, and none of them are ever in play.

Reaching back for more chips without declaring the amount. The dealer stops you at the first motion. Announce the number or push once.

Part of the rake returned to you, as cash, points or reward tiers. Often the difference between a break-even winrate and a profit.

All-in with cards to come, dealt out twice for half the pot each time. Identical EV, far less variance, by mutual agreement only.