Action - (1) Opportunity to act. If a player appears not to realize it’s his turn, the dealer will say “Your action, sir.” (2) Bets and raises. “If a third heart hits the board and there’s a lot of action, you have to assume that somebody has made the flush.”

Active player – a player that still holds his cards. A player who is competing for a pot.

Add-on – the option to buy more chips. This is only available in some tournaments with re-buy.

Aggressive – a style of play. A player who raise and re raise frequently is an aggressive player.

All-In - To run out of chips while betting or calling. In table stakes games, a player may not go into his pocket for more money during a hand. If he runs out, a side pot is created in which he has no interest. However, he can still win the pot for which he had the chips. Example: “Poor Bob. He made quads against the big full house, but he was all-in on the second bet.”

Ante - A small portion of a bet contributed by each player to seed the pot at the beginning of a poker hand. Most hold’em games do not have an ante; they use “blinds” to get initial money into the pot. In some late stages of a tournament you might see both blinds and ante taken into the pot.

Backdoor - Catching both the turn and river card to make a drawing hand. For instance, suppose you have A -7 . The flop comes A -6 -4 . You bet and are called. The turn is the T , which everybody checks, and then the river is the J . You’ve made a “backdoor” nut flush. See also “runner.”

Bad Beat - To have a hand that is a large underdog beat a heavily favored hand. It is generally used to imply that the winner of the pot had no business being in the pot at all, and it was the wildest of luck that he managed to catch the one card in the deck that would win the pot. We won’t give any examples; you will hear plenty of them during your poker career.

Bankroll – the money a player use to finance his poker game. It is separate from his bank account where the money he lives from is.

Behind – as long as you do not have the best hand you are behind.

Big Blind - The larger of the two blinds typically used in a hold’em game. The big blind is normally a full first round bet. See also “blind” and “small blind.”

Big Slick – Holding AK as your hole/pocket cards

Blank - A board card that doesn’t seem to affect the standings in the hand. In other words it is a card that seems to help no one. If the flop is A -J -T , then a turn card of 2 would be considered a blank.

Blind - A forced bet (or partial bet) put in by one or more players before any cards are dealt. Typically, blinds are put in by players immediately to the left of the button. See also “live blind.”

Bluff – an attempt to win a pot by placing a bet that would make a better hand to fold.

Board - All the community cards in a hold’em game - the flop, turn, and river cards together. Example: “There wasn’t a single heart on the board.”

Boat – Full house

Bottom Pair - A pair with the lowest card on the flop. If you have A -6 , and the flop comes K -T -6 , you have flopped bottom pair.

Bracelet – a gold bracelet is given to the winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament. This bracelet is highly regarded among professional poker players.

Broadway – an Ace high straight.

Bullets – a pair of aces in the hole.

Burn - To discard the top card from the deck, face down. This is done between each betting round before putting out the next community card(s). It is security against any player recognizing or glimpsing the next card to be used on the board.

Button - A white acrylic disk that indicates the (nominal) dealer. Also used to refer to the player on the button. Example: “Oh, the button raised.”

Buy - (1) As in “buy the pot.” To bluff, hoping to “buy” the pot without being called. (2) As in “buy the button.” To bet or raise, hoping to make players between you and the button fold, thus allowing you to act last on subsequent betting rounds.

Buy-in – the cost of entering a tournament or sitting on a cash table.

Call - To put into the pot an amount of money equal to the most recent bet or raise. The term “see” (as in “I’ll see that bet”) is considered colloquial.

Calling Station - A weak-passive player who calls a lot, but doesn’t raise or fold much. This is the kind of player you like to have in your game.

Card odds – the probability to draw a card or to be dealt a hand.

Cap - To put in the last raise permitted on a betting round. This is typically the third or fourth raise. Dealers in California are fond of saying “Capitola” or “Cappuccino.”

Case card - The last card of a certain rank in the deck. Example: “The flop came J-8-3; I’ve got pocket jacks, he’s got pocket 8’s, and then the case eight falls on the river, and he beats my full house.”

Center Pot - The first pot created during a poker hand, as opposed to one or more “side” pots created if one or more players goes all-in. Also “main pot.”

Changing Gears – to switch from loose to tight play or vice versa.

Chase – when staying in a hand trying to catch a draw while being behind.

Check - 1) To not bet, with the option to call or raise later in the betting round. Equivalent to betting zero dollars. (2) Another word for chip, as in poker chip.

Check Raise - To check and then raise when a player behind you bets. Occasionally you will hear people say this is not fair or ethical poker. Piffle. Almost all casinos permit check-raising, and it is an important poker tactic. It is particularly useful in low-limit hold’em where you need extra strength to narrow the field if you have the best hand.

Cold Call - To call more than one bet in a single action. For instance, suppose the first player to act after the big blind raises. Now any player acting after that must call two bets “cold.” This is different from calling a single bet and then calling a subsequent raise.

Come Hand - A drawing hand (probably from the craps term).

Collusion – when players are working together on the same table.

Community Cards - Cards that are presented face-up in the middle of the poker table and shared among players in games like Hold'em and Omaha. These are also referred to as board cards or "the board".

Complete Hand - A hand that is defined by all five cards - a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, or straight flush.

Connector - A hold’em starting hand in which the two cards are one apart in rank. Examples: KQ, 76.
Counterfeit - To make your hand less valuable because of board cards that duplicate it. Example: you have 87 and the flop comes 9-T-J, so you have a straight. Now an 8 comes on the turn. This has counterfeited your hand and made it almost worthless.

Cowboys – holding pocket KK.

Crack - To beat a hand - typically a big hand. You hear this most often applied to pocket aces: “Third time tonight I’ve had pocket aces cracked.”

Cripple - As in “to cripple the deck.” Meaning that you have most or all of the cards that somebody would want to have with the current board. If you have pocket kings, and the other two kings flop, you have crippled the deck.
Dame – a queen.

Dead Man’s Hand – Legend holds that Wild Bill Hickok was shot to death during a poker game in Deadwood, South Dakota, and that the hand he held was two pair, black aces and black eights. On that most people agree. The fifth card is not known for certain.

Dealer - The player in a poker game who actually (or theoretically) is dealing the cards. When a professional dealer (casino or cardroom) or automated dealer (online) is present - it is necessary to identify the player who would be dealing the cards because the blinds and the betting action are to the left of the dealer. This is done by utilizing a marker called a dealer button which travels around the table in a clockwise manner, moving to the next player after each hand is completed.

Deuce – pair of two’s also called a pair of deuces or ducks.

Dog - Shortened form of “underdog.”

Dominated Hand - A hand that is expected to beat another hand is called a dominated hand.

Double up – (1) double your chip stack in one hand, normally in a no limit or pot limit games. (2) to double the previous bet.

Doyle Brunson – holding: (1) Ace Queen. (2) Ten two

Draw - To play a hand that is not yet good, but could become so if the right cards come. Common example would be the flush draw, holding to hearts and the flop come with two hearts. So you are missing one card for the flush. In other words you have a flush draw.

Draw Dead - Trying to make a hand that, even if made, will not win the pot. If you’re drawing to make a flush, and your opponent already has a full house, you are “drawing dead.” Of course, this is a bad condition to be in.