wash To mix the deck by spreading the cards face down on the table and mixing them up. A dealer may wash the deck before shuffling. weak ace An ace with a low kicker (e.g. three). Also "small ace" or "soft ace". wheel A 5-high st...

Valentine's Day In Texas Hold'em, being dealt the King and Queen of Hearts, or the six and nine of hearts. value bet A bet made for the purpose of increasing the size of the pot, and which the player wants his opponents to call. This is i...

under the gun The playing position to the direct left of the blinds in Texas hold 'em or Omaha . The player who is under the gun must act first on the first round of betting. upcard A card that is dealt faceup. up the ante Increa...

table stakes A rule that states that only money on the table at the beginning of a hand is playable, and that a player may not retrieve money from his or her wallet or purse during the play of a hand. This rule prevents abuse of all-in protection....

sailboats Often referred in a Hold'em game as having a pocket pair of fours San Francisco Busboy In Texas Hold'em, being dealt a Queen and a Three ("A Queen and a Trey") sandbag To play your hand slowly to gain an advantage in a ...

rabbit hunt After a hand is over, a rabbit hunt means to reveal the last card that would have come up in a community card game with a fixed number of cards. Such activity is usually prohibited in casinos. rack 1. A collection of 100 chips...

quads Four of a kind. quarter To win a quarter of a pot, usually by tying the low or high hand of a high-low split game. Generally, this is an unwanted outcome, as it seldom wins enough money to cover the amount bet during the hand.

paint The face cards, Jacks, Queens, and Kings, in a deck. In Texas hold'em, a flop can be said to be "all paint" if it consists of only these cards. pair Two of the same cards in a given hand. passive An opponent who rarely rais...

offsuit Cards that are not of the same suit. Example: the Ace of Clubs and the King of Spades is Ace-King Offsuit open To bet first. openers The cards held by a player in a game of "jackpots" entitling him to open the pot. "Split...

natural card A card that isn’t wild or otherwise modified by the game rules. In some houses, a natural hand beats an equivalent hand that uses wild cards, though this is not generally the case. no-limit A betting structure where players m...

maniac A loose and aggressive player. A player who bets constantly and plays many inferior hands. match the pot To put in an amount equal to all the chips in the pot. misdeal A deal which is ruined for some reason and must be red...

lady (ladies) Queen(s) laydown A tough choice to fold a good hand in anticipation of superior opposition. limit The minimum or maximum amount of a bet. limp in To enter a pot by simply calling instead of raising. l...

Kansas City low Deuce-to-seven lowball. keep (a bettor) honest To call a final bet while not expecting to win, for the primary purpose of discouraging future bluffs. kicker 1. A card not directly involved in evaluating a hand, bu...

jack it up To raise. jackpot 1. A game of "jackpot poker" or "jackpots", which is a variant of five-card draw with an ante from each player, no blinds, and an opening requirement of a pair of jacks or better. 2. A large pool of money c...

ice A cold deck. idiot end, ignorant end The bottom end of a straight. immortal Unbeatable; often said of a hand that a player knows cannot be beaten under the circumstances of play. See also "lock", "nuts". implied odds ...

half bet rule In some casinos, the rule that placing chips equal to or greater than half the normal bet amount beyond the amount required to call constitutes a commitment to raise the normal amount. For example, in a game with a $4 fixed limit, a ...

garbage 1. The muck. 2. A worthless hand. going south To illegally sneak a portion of your chips from the table. Same as "ratholing". gretzky In games like Texas hold 'em to have pocket 9's. A reference to hockey player Wayne G...

family pot A deal in which every (or almost every) seated player called the first opening bet. fast Aggressive. I was afraid of too many chasers, so I played my trips fast. feeder In a casino setting, a second or third table play...

early position In a betting round with multiple players involved, those who bet first are said to be in early position. See position. equity One's mathematically expected income from the current deal, calculated by multiplying the amount ...

dark Describing an action taken before receiving information to which the player would normally be entitled. I'm drawing three, and I check in the dark. See "blind". dead blind A blind that is not "live", in that the player posting it doe...

call To match the current bet amount, maintaining one's interest in the pot. See call. calling station A weak player who frequently checks and calls, but rarely raises. cap A limit on the number of raises allowed in a betting rou...

baby A low-ranked card, usually used in lowball games. See also "spoke". backdoor 1. A draw requiring two or more rounds to fill. For example, catching two consecutive cards in two rounds of Seven-card stud or Texas hold 'em to fill a str...

A-B-C, A-B-C-D 1. A sequence of the lowest cards in a lowball game. For example, the hand 8-6-3-2-A might be called an "eight-six-a-b-c". 2. Uncreative or predictable play. He's an a-b-c player. ace-to-five, ace-to-six Methods of evalua...

Starting hands The probability of being dealt various starting hands can be explicitly calculated. In Texas Hold 'em, a player is dealt two down (or hole) cards. The first card can be any one of 52 playing cards in the deck and the second card can ...

The descriptions below assume a familiarity with the general game play of poker, and with poker hands. For a general introduction to these topics, see Poker, Poker hand, Poker probability, and Poker jargon.