Poker glossary
The words players use at the table, in plain English.
6 min read · Updated 9 October 2026
A to F
- All-in — betting every chip you have in front of you.
- Ante — a small forced bet from every player, on top of the blinds, used in some games.
- Bad beat — losing a hand you were a big favourite to win.
- Big blind — the larger of the two forced bets, posted two seats left of the button.
- Board — the five community cards.
- Bluff — betting with a weak hand to make a better one fold.
- Button — the dealer marker; also the seat holding it, which acts last after the flop.
- Buy-in — the chips you bring to a table.
- Call — matching the current bet.
- Check — passing the action without betting.
- Check-raise — checking, then raising after an opponent bets.
- Continuation bet (c-bet) — a bet on the flop by the player who raised before it.
- Cutoff — the seat to the right of the button.
- Draw — a hand that needs more cards to become strong, such as four to a flush.
- Equity — your share of the pot, on average, if all the cards were dealt out.
- Flop — the first three community cards.
- Fold — giving up your hand.
G to R
- Gutshot — a straight draw needing one card in the middle, such as 9-8-6-5 needing a 7.
- Heads-up — a hand or game between two players.
- Hole cards — your two private cards.
- Implied odds — what you expect to win later in the hand if you hit your draw.
- Kicker — the side card that breaks a tie between equal pairs or trips.
- Limp — just calling the big blind before the flop instead of raising.
- Muck — to discard your hand without showing it.
- Nuts — the best possible hand on the current board.
- Open-ended straight draw — four cards in a row that can be completed at either end.
- Outs — the cards that would improve your hand to the one you need.
- Overpair — a pocket pair higher than every card on the board.
- Pot odds — the price of a call compared with the size of the pot.
- Preflop — the betting round before any community cards are dealt.
- Rake — the small share of the pot the card room keeps.
- Raise — increasing the current bet.
- River — the fifth and last community card.
S to Z
- Set — three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one matching board card.
- Showdown — revealing hands after the last betting round.
- Side pot — a separate pot for bets an all-in player could not match.
- Small blind — the smaller forced bet, posted to the left of the button.
- Stack — the chips a player has in front of them.
- Suited — two hole cards of the same suit.
- Tilt — playing badly out of frustration.
- Trips — three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board.
- Turn — the fourth community card.
- Under the gun (UTG) — the first player to act before the flop.
- Value bet — a bet made hoping to be called by a worse hand.
- VPIP — the share of hands a player voluntarily puts money into before the flop.
Questions
- What does 'the nuts' mean in poker?
- The best possible hand given the community cards on the table at that moment.
- What is a set versus trips?
- Both are three of a kind. A set uses a pocket pair plus one board card; trips use one hole card plus a pair on the board.
- What is rake in poker?
- The small percentage of each pot the card room keeps as its fee, usually only from pots that see a flop and capped at a maximum.
18+ only. Play responsibly — see responsible gaming.