GLOSSARY
ACTION: A fold, check, call, bet, or raise.
For certain situations, doing something formally connected
with the game that conveys information about your hand may
also be considered as having taken action. Examples would
be showing your cards at the end of the hand, or indicating
the number of cards you are taking at draw.
AGGRESSIVE ACTION: A wager that could enable
a player to win a pot without a showdown; a bet or raise.
ALL-IN: When you have put all of your playable
money and chips into the pot during the course of a hand,
you are said to be all-in.
ANTE: A prescribed amount posted before
the start of a hand by all players.
BET: The act of placing a wager in turn
into the pot on any betting round, or the chips put into the
pot.
BIG BLIND: The largest regular blind in
a game.
BLIND: A required bet made before any cards
are dealt.
BLIND GAME: A game which utilizes a blind.
BOARD: (1) The board on which a waiting
list is kept for players wanting seats in specific games.
(2)
Cards faceup on the table common to each of the hands.
BOARDCARD: A community card in the center
of the table, as in hold’em or Omaha.
BOXED CARD: A card that appears faceup in
the deck where all other cards are facedown.
BROKEN GAME: A game no longer in action.
BURNCARD: After the initial round of cards
is dealt, the first card off the deck in each round that is
placed under a chip in the pot, for security purposes. To
do so is to burn the card; the card itself is called the burncard.
BUTTON: A player who is in the designated
dealer position. See dealer button.
BUTTON GAMES: Games in which a dealer button
is used.
BUY-IN: The minimum amount of money required
to enter any game.
CALIFORNIA LOWBALL: Ace-to-five lowball with
a joker.
CARDS SPEAK: The face value of a hand in
a showdown is the true value of the hand, regardless of a
verbal announcement.
CAPPED: Describes the situation in limit
poker in which the maximum number of raises on the betting
round have been reached.
CHECK: To waive the right to initiate the
betting in a round, but to retain the right to act if another
player initiates the betting.
CHECK-RAISE: To waive the right to bet until
a bet has been made by an opponent, and then to increase the
bet by at least an equal amount when it is your turn to act.
COLLECTION: The fee charged in a game (taken
either out of the pot or from each player).
COLLECTION DROP: A fee charged for each
hand dealt.
COLOR CHANGE: A request to change the chips
from one denomination to another.
COMMON CARD: A card dealt faceup to be used
by all players at the showdown in the games of stud poker
whenever there are insufficient cards left in the deck to
deal each player a card individually.
COMMUNITY CARDS: The cards dealt faceup
in the center of the table that can be used by all players
to form their best hand in the games of holdem and Omaha.
COMPLETE THE BET: To increase an all-in
bet or forced bet to a full bet in limit poker.
CUT: To divide the deck into two sections
in such a manner as to change the order of the cards.
CUT-CARD: Another term for the bottom card.
DEAD CARD: A card that is not legally playable.
DEAD COLLECTION BLIND: A fee posted by the
player having the dealer button, used in some games as an
alternative method of seat rental.
DEAD HAND: A hand that is not legally playable.
DEAD MONEY: Chips that are taken into the
center of the pot because they are not considered part of
a particular player’s bet.
DEAL: To give each player cards, or put
cards on the board. As used in these rules, each deal refers
to the entire process from the shuffling and dealing of cards
until the pot is awarded to the winner.
DEALER BUTTON: A flat disk that indicates
the player who would be in the dealing position for that hand
(if there were not a house dealer). Normally just called “the
button.”
DEAL OFF: To take all the blinds and the
button before changing seats or leaving the table. That is,
participate through all the blind positions and the dealer
position.
DEAL TWICE: When there is no more betting,
agreeing to have the rest of the cards to come determine only
half the pot, removing those cards, and dealing again for
the other half of the pot.
DECK: A set of playing-cards. In these games,
the deck consists of either:
(1) 52 cards in seven-card stud, hold’em, and Omaha.
(2) 53 cards (including the joker), often used in ace-to-five
lowball and draw high.
DISCARD(S): In a draw game, to throw cards
out of your hand to make room for replacements, or the card(s)
thrown away; the muck.
DOWNCARDS: Cards that are dealt facedown
in a stud game.
DRAW: (1) The poker form where players are
given the opportunity to replace cards in the hand. In some
places like California, the word “draw” is used
referring to draw high, and draw low is called “lowball.”
(2) The act of replacing cards in the hand. (3) The point
in the deal where replacing is done is called “the draw.”
FACECARD: A king, queen, or jack.
FIXED LIMIT: In limit poker, any betting
structure in which the amount of the bet on each particular
round is pre-set.
FLASHED CARD: A card that is partially exposed.
FLOORPERSON: A casino employee who seats
players and makes decisions.
FLOP: In hold’em or Omaha, the three
community cards that are turned simultaneously after the first
round of betting is complete.
FLUSH: A poker hand consisting of five cards
of the same suit.
FOLD: To throw a hand away and relinquish
all interest in a pot.
FOURTH STREET: The second upcard in seven-card
stud or the first boardcard after the flop in hold’em
(also called the turn card).
FOULED HAND: A dead hand.
FORCED BET: A required wager to start the
action on the first betting round (the normal way action begins
in a stud game).
FREEROLL: A chance to win something at no
risk or cost.
FULL BUY: A buy-in of at least the minimum
requirement of chips needed for a particular game.
FULL HOUSE: A hand consisting of three of
a kind and a pair.
HAND: (1) All a player’s personal
cards. (2) The five cards determining the poker ranking. (3)
A single poker deal.
HEADS-UP PLAY: Only two players involved
in play.
HOLECARDS: The cards dealt facedown to a
player.
INSURANCE: A side agreement when someone
is all-in for a player in a pot to put up money that guarantees
a payoff of a set amount in case the opponent wins the pot.
JOKER: The joker is a “partially wild
card” in high draw poker and ace-to-five lowball. In
high, it is used for aces, straights, and flushes. In lowball,
the joker is the lowest unmatched rank in a hand.
KANSAS CITY LOWBALL: A form of draw poker
low also known as deuce-to-seven, in which the best hand is
7-5-4-3-2 and straights and flushes count against you.
KICKER: The highest unpaired card that helps
determine the value of a five-card poker hand.
KILL (OR KILL BLIND): An oversize blind,
usually twice the size of the big blind and doubling the limit.
Sometimes a “half-kill” increasing the blind and
limits by fifty percent is used. A kill can be either voluntary
or mandatory. The most common requirements of a mandatory
kill are for winning two pots in a row at lowball and other
games, or for scooping a pot in high-low split.
KILL BUTTON: A button used in a lowball
game to indicate a player who has won two pots in a row and
is required to kill the pot.
KILL POT: A pot with a forced kill by the
winner of the two previous pots, or the winner of an entire
pot of sufficient size in a high-low split game. (Some pots
can be voluntarily killed.)
LEG UP: Being in a situation equivalent
to having won the previous pot, and thus liable to have to
kill the following pot if you win the current pot.
LIVE BLIND: A blind bet giving a player
the option of raising if no one else has raised.
LIST: The ordered roster of players waiting
for a game.
LOCK-UP: A chip marker that holds a seat
for a player.
LOWBALL: A draw game where the lowest hand
wins.
LOWCARD: The lowest upcard at seven-card
stud, which is required to bet.
MISCALL: An incorrect verbal declaration
of the ranking of a hand.
MISDEAL: A mistake on the dealing of a hand
which causes the cards to be reshuffled and a new hand to
be dealt.
MISSED BLIND: A required bet that is not
posted when it is your turn to do so.
MUCK: (1) The pile of discards gathered
facedown in the center of the table by the dealer. (2) To
discard a hand.
MUST-MOVE: In order to protect the main game,
a situation where the players of a second game must move into
the first game as openings occur.
NO-LIMIT: A betting structure where players
are allowed to wager any or all of their chips in one bet.
OPENER: The player who made the first voluntary
bet.
OPENER BUTTON: A button used to indicate
who opened a particular pot in a draw game.
OPENERS: In jacks-or-better draw, the cards
held by the player who opens the pot that show the hand qualifies
to be opened. Example: You are first to bet and have a pair
of kings; the kings are called your openers.
OPTION: The choice to raise a bet given
to a player with a blind.
OVERBLIND: Also called oversize blind. A
blind used in some pots that is bigger than the regular big
blind, and usually increases the stakes proportionally.
PASS: (1) Decline to bet. In a pass-and-out
game, this differs from a check, because a player who passes
must fold. (2) Decline to call a wager, at which point you
must discard your hand and have no further interest in the
pot.
PAT: Not drawing any cards in a draw game.
PLAY BEHIND: Have chips in play that are
not in front of you (allowed only when waiting for chips that
are already purchased). This differs from table stakes.
PLAY THE BOARD: Using all five community
cards for your hand in hold’em.
PLAY OVER: To play in a seat when the occupant
is absent.
PLAYOVER BOX: A clear plastic box used to
cover and protect the chips of an absent player when someone
plays over that seat.
POSITION: (1) The relation of a player’s seat
to the blinds or the button. (2) The order of acting on a
betting round or deal.
POT-LIMIT: The betting structure of a game
in which you are allowed to bet up to the amount of the pot.
POTTING OUT: Agreeing with another player
to take money out of a pot, often to buy food, cigarettes,
or drinks, or to make side bets.
PROPOSITION BETS: Side bets between players
that are not related to the outcome of the hand.
PROTECTED HAND: A hand of cards that the
player is physically holding, or has topped with a chip or
some other object to prevent a fouled hand.
PUSH: When a new dealer replaces an existing
dealer at a particular table.
PUSHING BETS: The situation in which two
or more players make an agreement to return bets to each other
when one of them wins a pot in which the other or others play.
Also called saving bets.
RACK: (1) A container in which chips are
stored while being transported. (2) A tray in front of the
dealer, used to hold chips and cards.
RAISE: To increase the amount of a previous
wager. This increase must meet certain specifications, depending
on the game, to reopen the betting and count toward a limit
on the number of raises allowed.
RERAISE: To raise someone’s raise.
SAVING BETS: Same as pushing bets.
SCOOP: To win both the high and the low
portions of a pot in a split-pot game.
SCRAMBLE: A facedown mixing of the cards.
SETUP: Two suited decks, each with different
colored backs, to replace the current decks in a game.
SIDE POT: A separate pot formed when one
or more players are all in.
SHORT BUY: A buy-in that is less than the
required minimum buy-in.
SHOWDOWN: The final act of determining the
winner of the pot after all betting has been completed.
SHUFFLE: The act of mixing the cards before
a hand.
SMALL BLIND: In a game with multiple blind
bets, the smallest blind.
SPLIT POT: A pot that is divided among players,
either because of a tie for the best hand or by agreement
prior to the showdown.
SPLITTING BLINDS: When no one else has entered
the pot, an agreement between the big blind and small blind
to each take back their blind bets instead of playing the
deal (chopping).
SPLITTING OPENERS: In high draw jacks-or-better
poker, dividing openers in hopes of making a different type
of hand. Example: You open the pot with a pair of aces. One
of your aces is a spade, as are the three other cards in the
hand. If you throw away the non-spade ace to go for the flush,
you announce to the table, “Splitting openers.”
STACK: Chips in front of a player.
STRADDLE: An additional blind bet placed
after the forced blinds, usually double the big blind in size
or in lowball, a multiple blind game.
STRAIGHT: Five cards in consecutive rank.
STRAIGHT FLUSH: Five cards in consecutive
rank of the same suit.
STREET: Cards dealt on a particular round
in stud games. For instance, the fourth card in a player’s
hand is often known as fourth street, the sixth card as sixth
street, and so on.
STRING RAISE: A bet made in more than one
motion, without the declaration of a raise (not allowed).
STUB: The portion of the deck which has
not been dealt.
SUPERVISOR: A cardroom employee qualified
to make rulings, such as a floorperson, shift supervisor,
or the cardroom manager.
TABLE STAKES: (1) The amount of money you
have on the table. This is the maximum amount that you can
lose or that anyone can win from you on any one hand. (2)
The requirement that players can wager only the money in front
of them at the start of a hand, and can only buy more chips
between hands.
“TIME”: An expression used to
stop the action on a hand. Equivalent to “Hold it.”
TIME COLLECTION: A fee for a seat rental,
paid in advance.
TOURNAMENT: A poker competition, normally
with an entry fee and prizes.
TURNCARD: The fourth street card in hold'em
or Omaha.
UPCARDS: Cards that are dealt faceup for
opponents to see in stud games.
WAGER: (1) To bet or raise. (2) The chips
used for betting or raising.
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