Rounders - Poker Glossary
Glossary
All In: When a player puts the last of their chips
into a pot, that player is said to be all-in.
Alligator blood: A compliment given to an outstanding
player who proves himself unflappable under great pressure.
Ante: A small, forced bet that everyone at the table
is required to pay before each hand (in games with an ante).
Back Door: A hand-made back door is one made using
both of the last two cards, as in seven card stud or Texas
hold 'em.
Bankroll: The money a player uses to play poker with
as opposed to the money he lives on.
Base deal: Cheating by dealing from the bottom of
the deck.
Belly buster: An inside straight draw.
Blind Bet: A blind bet, or blind, is a forced bet
that must be posted before you see any cards.
Bluff: A bet with a weak hand (typically a busted
hand), usually intended to get other players to fold.
Boat: Another name for a full house.
Broadway: An Ace high straight.
Bullets: A pair of aces in the hole.
Bump: To raise.
Bust: To run out of money, especially in a tournament.
Buy: To buy a pot is to make a bet large enough that
other players would be unlikely to call.
Call: To call is match the current bet.
Case money: Emergency money.
Catch: When the cards are treating you well, you are
said to be catching cards.
Check: If there has been no betting before you in
a betting round, you may check, which is like calling a bet
of $0, or passing your turn.
Checks: Poker chips.
Chip: Poker chips are small round discs used instead
of money at the poker table.
Coffeehouse: To talk about a hand one is involved
in, usually with the intent of misleading or manipulating
other players, is coffeehousing.
Cowboys: Kings.
Cut: After the cards are shuffled but before they
are dealt, usually the deck is split in the middle and the
halves are reversed.
Door card: The first card dealt face up to each player
in seven card stud is the door card.
Drop: To fold. Also, to lose a particular amount of
money.
Fast: To play fast is to play aggressively.
Fish: A poor player. A sucker.
Fishhook: A nickname for a Jacks, more often heard
in the plural.
Flop: A number of games, such as Hold 'Em and Omaha,
are played with 5 community cards.
Fold: To abandon your hand, usually because someone
else has made a larger bet than you are willing to call.
Four Flush: A hand with four cards of the same suit.
Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank.
Full House: A hand consisting of three cards of one
rank and two cards of another rank.
Grinder: An unambitious player who only hopes to win
a little money each day.
Gutshot: An inside straight draw.
Hanger: A card that juts out conspicuously when a
cheater is dealing.
Heads Up: A play between only two players.
High: The high hand is simply the best hand.
It: Refers to the largest amount anyone has yet played
in a round.
Kansas City: Kansas City lowball is a low game played
for a deuce to seven low.
Ladies: Queens.
Live card: A card that has not been seen.
Lock: A hand that is guaranteed to win at least part
of the pot.
Make: To (non-specifically) make a hand means to get
a decent hand that has a shot at winning the pot.
Maniac: A player who plays extremely loose and aggressive,
often raising with just about anything.
Nuts: The top hand.
Omaha: Omaha is a flop game similar to hold ' em.
On tilt: An unbalanced emotional state that results
in erratic play and the loss of money.
Outs: Live cards remaining in the deck that will improve
one's hand.
Paint: A Jack, King or Queen (i.e. a card with a picture
on it).
Passive: A style of play that is characterized by
reluctance to bet and raise.
Pineapple: Any of a number of variants of hold 'em
in which each player gets three cards and must discard one
at some point.
Pushka: An arrangement between two or more of the
players to share part of the pots win, or more precisely,
the container into which the shared chips are played.
Rabbits: Weak players.
Rock garden: A game of extremely tight players.
Rounder: A player who knows all the angles and earns
his living at the poker table.
Quads: Four of a kind.
Rag: A card, usually a low card, that, when it appears,
has no apparent impact on the hand.
Rainbow: Three or four cards of different suits, for
example on a flop.
Raise: After someone has opened betting in a round,
to increase the amount of the bet os to raise.
Rolled Up: In Seven Card Stud, three of a kind on
the first three cards are called rolled up X's, where X is
the rank of the cards.
Round: A round can refer either to a round of betting
or a round of hands.
Royal Straight Flush: An ace high straight flush is
a royal straight flush, or a royal flush, or just a royal.
Semi-bluff: A semi-bluff is similar to a bluff, except
that the semi-bluff has some chance of making a winning hand.
Seven Card Stud: Of the poker games most commonly
played in public cardrooms, seven card stud is probably the
most well known. In this game, each player is dealt seven
cards of their own: two down, then four up, and a final card
down.
Sir: One of those confusing terms that can have a
completely different meaning at the poker table than elsewhere.
If someone says "nice hand, sir," after you win
a big pot, what they're really saying is "congratulations
on winning money through your own stupidity, you clueless
moron."
Slow rolling: An antagonistic way of revealing that
you have the winning hand a little at a time.
Snap Off: To beat someone, often a bluffer, and usually
with a not especially powerful hand, is to snap them off.
Speed: Speed refers to the level of aggressiveness
with which you play.
Straight Flush: A hand consisting of five cards of consecutive
ranks of the same suit.
Suit: You know, clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades.
Texas Hold'em: Texas Hold'em (or just Hold'em) is
a poker game in which each player gets two pocket cards, while
five community cards are dealt face up on the table.
Tell: An unconscious gesture that reveals information
about your hand.
Underdog: When two hands face off, the underdog is
the one that's less likely to win than the other.
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