Poker Dictionary
Active player: A poker player who is still in contention for a pot.
Aggressive: Pertaining to a style of play distinguished by much betting, raising, and re-raising. This would not be the same as loose play. Some of the best poker players will be very discerning about the cards they would play, but when they would get into a pot, you should play those cards aggressively.
All in: Out of chips, due to having put one’s remaining chips into the current pot, while other active poker players were to still have more chips and have the choice of further betting.
Ante: One or more chips that would be put into each pot by each poker player before the cards would be dealt. An ante would not be part of a poker player’s next bet, as opposed to a blind, which usually would be.
Bad beat: The situation in which a strong poker hand would be beaten by a longshot or doubtful hand.
Bad beat story: A story told by someone who would have lost a pot, often a big one, in a bad beat. Usually no one but the teller would be interested in hearing the story.
Bet for value: Bet a hand with the intention of getting called by one or more lesser hands, as opposed to getting the others to fold. This would usually imply betting a poker hand that would have only a slight edge, and one that a conservative poker player would be likely to check with, also called value bet.
Bet on the come: Making a bet on a drawing hand, that is, when holding four cards to a flush or straight.
Big blind : The poker player two positions to the left of the button were to put chips into the pot equal to the size of the limit of the game. Those chips (and the poker player who would put the chips in) would be called the bigs blind.
Blank: A card, usually turn or river, that wouldn’t help your poker hand. This term would also refer to a card that wouldn’t appear to help anyone. For instance, if the board were a king, a queen, a jack, and a nine of mixed suits, a two on the river would be deemed a blank.
Blind: A bet that would be put in by a poker player before he was to get his cards. A blind would be part of that player’s bet if he were to come into the pot, as opposed to an ante, which would just ‘belongs to the pot.’ See also small blind and big blind.
Blind thief: Someone who would steal the blind, that is, would open a pot without having good cards, hoping the blinds would just throw their cards away and the opener could win the chips symbolized by the blind or blinds without having to actually play the hand.
Button: The disk or other marker that would designate the dealer position in a game dealt by a house dealer. Also know as dealer button.
Calls someone down: Checking, and calling all bets to the river.
Calling station: A poker player who was to call on the least pretext, often with hands that would rarely win against justifiable bets. A calling station would be someone who was to feel he just has to ‘keep you honest.’
Cap: The maximum number of raises in a round of betting.
Chances: The possibility of a precise event, usually expressed in the form of some kind of fraction or in the form of one number out of or in another. Compare with odds, in which the outcome is expressed as one number to another number.
Chase: Trying to catch a better poker hand with a worse holding.
Check: Making no bet, but still holding your cards. You could check, and then could call a later bet, folding when the action were to get back to you, or to raise.
Check-raise: Checking, often with a good poker hand, and then, when someone was to bet and it were to return to you, raising.
Community cards: The upcards dealt to the center of the table that would be part of each poker player’s hand.
Complete hand: Five cards that would comprise of a straight or better. Also called pat hand.
Counterfeited: Having a likely winner turned into a likely loser by the appearance on the board of another card of the same rank or suit as one of your.
Curiosity call: A call from someone who would be positive he was beat but just wants to know what you had, often accompanied by a statement such as, ‘I knew you had me beat, but I just had to see it,’ or, ‘I knew you had me beat, but the pot was too big to fold.’
Dead money: Previous bets forsaken in the pot such that the poker players, who made those bets, having folded, couldn’t win the pot.
Dealer button: See button.
Discards: The poker players’ thrown-away cards, sometimes together with the undealt cards that would remain in the deck. Sometimes called muck.
Dominated: The situation in holdem poker of one hand being notably ahead of the other, often because of having the same card in common plus a higher card. For example, a king and queen offsuit would be dominated by an ace and king offsuit. Also, any pair that would be dominated by any higher pair.
Double gut-shut: A five-card combination with two ‘holes,’ such that any of eight cards could make it into a straight.
Downcard: An unexposed part of a poker player’s hand, delivered face down by the dealer.
Draw: An unmade poker hand.
Drawing dead: Trying to make a poker hand that would lose if made. An example would be drawing to a flush when a poker rival already was to have a made full house.
Drawing hand: Four cards to a straight or flush with cards to come, as opposed to a complete poker hand.
Draw out: Beating someone’s hand by drawing.
Early position: The first few positions to the left of the dealer, or to the left of the blinds.
Extra outs: Cards that would improve a hand in more ways that the self-evident outs.
Family pot: A pot with a lot of poker players, sometimes as many as all at the table.
Flop: The three community cards turned face up after the first round of betting.
Free card: The situation in which there would be no bet on a particular round, so poker players would get extra cards without having had to risk additional money.
Gut-shot: The card that would make an inside straight, or, more commonly, the making of straight by catching a card inside.