Poker glossary

These are the words that turn up at every table and in every explanation of poker. Not all of the ones that exist: the ones you need to follow a hand from the deal to the pot.

Hand Contents

The deal

Hand: Hand is one complete deal, from the cards going out to somebody taking the pot.; A hand is not what you are holding; that is a made hand. A session is hundreds of hands, one after another.
Made hand: Made hand is the five-card combination you put together from your two cards and the five in the middle.; It is always five cards, even when the only thing that counts is a pair.
The middle: The middle is the five face-up cards sitting between the players, which anyone at the table may use.; Also called the board. They belong to everyone at once, which is why two players can end up with the same hand.
Blinds: Blinds are two forced bets put in by the two players to the left of the button before anyone sees a card.; They exist so there is always something worth contesting. They rotate every hand, so everyone pays them equally.
Pot: Pot is every chip that has been bet, sitting in the middle of the table, going to whoever wins the hand.; When two players genuinely tie, the pot is split down the middle.
Chip: Chip is the unit you bet with, and its value exists only inside the game.; In Pokeo chips cannot be bought and are not worth money: they are how you measure whether a decision was good.
Stack: Stack is the pile of chips in front of you, and all you can possibly lose in a single hand.; It is counted in big blinds rather than chips: a hundred big blinds is where almost everyone starts.

The streets

Street: Street is each of the four betting rounds in a hand: before the flop, the flop, the turn and the river.; Everyone acts once per street, and then one more card is turned over.
Flop: Flop is the three cards turned over together in the middle after the first round of betting.; It is where almost everyone goes from holding nothing to holding something, so it changes the hand more than any other card.
Turn: Turn is the fourth card in the middle, turned over on its own after the flop betting is done.; It is usually the card that decides whether a draw is still alive.
River: River is the fifth and last card in the middle, after which nobody can improve their hand any further.; One round of betting follows it, and then the cards go on the table.
Cards on the table: Cards on the table is the end of a hand, when two or more players are left and the best made hand has to be shown.; It is what English calls the showdown. If everyone but one folds first, nothing is shown at all.

The four actions

Fold: Fold is giving up the hand, losing what you already put in and not one chip more.; It is the most used of the four actions and the worst regarded. Folding in time saves more than winning gains.
Check: Check is staying in the hand without putting chips in, and it is only allowed when nobody has bet before you on that street.; Checking is not giving up: it is looking without paying to look.
Call: Call is matching exactly what somebody else bet, so you stay in the hand and see the next card.; A call closes the round: nobody has to decide again until a card comes out.
Bet: Bet is putting chips in when nobody has put any in yet on that street, forcing everyone else to call, raise or fold.; Before the flop the first bet is called opening, because the two blinds are already in.
Raise: Raise is betting more than the player who just bet, which hands the decision back to them.; Raising after being raised is a re-raise.
All in: All in is putting in every chip you have in front of you, after which you make no more decisions in that hand.; The remaining cards are dealt with no further betting. If somebody had fewer chips than you, the rest goes into a side pot.

Reading the hand

Position: Position is the order in which you have to act, which decides how much you know when you decide.; Acting last is an advantage that owes nothing to the cards: you see what everyone else does before committing a chip.
Button: Button is the seat that acts last from the flop onwards, which makes it the best seat at the table.; It moves one chair every hand, so the advantage comes round to everyone equally.
Kicker: Kicker is the card riding alongside your made hand that breaks the tie when two players hold the same thing.; With a pair of kings each, the higher side card wins. It is why the two cards you enter with matter as much as they do.
Bluff: Bluff is betting with a hand that cannot win, so the other player folds and leaves you the pot.; It works because they cannot see your cards either. It is not mischief: it is what follows from nobody having all the information.
Draw: Draw is a hand half made, such as four cards of one suit waiting on the fifth.; A draw wins nothing until it completes, and a great many hands are lost by forgetting that.

Keep going

The ranking Poker hands, best to worst All ten hands, how often each one comes up and how ties are broken. The variant Texas Hold'em Why it is the poker played everywhere, and how it differs from Omaha. Quick reference Who wins the hand Fifteen tie breaks settled in two lines: kickers, split pots and suits.

And now?

A glossary is for getting unstuck, not for learning. What actually teaches is seeing these words used inside a hand that gets played all the way through.

See a hand played step by step The most asked questions, answered