| Boat: |
Another
name for a full house. |
| Brass Brazilians: |
The
top hand, also known as "the nuts." |
| Broadway: |
An
Ace high straight. |
| Bullets: |
A pair
of aces in the hole. |
| Bump: |
To
raise. |
| Burn: |
In order to
reduce the chances of players getting advance information
about cards to come, in many games the top card on
the deck is discarded at certain predetermined points
in the dealing process. These cards are the burn
cards. In general, any time a card is discarded from
the top of the deck it's called a burn card. |
| 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. |
| Buy-in |
The amount of money with
which you enter a game is your buy-in. |
| Call: |
To
call is match the current bet. |
| Cards Speak: |
Cards speak is simply
the rule that the value of your hand is determined
solely by your cards. You don't have to declare your
hand properly in order to claim the part of the pot
you deserve. |
| Carpet joint: |
An
upscale card room characterized by carpet on the
floor. The opposite of a sawdust joint. |
| 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. The ones used at casinos
are typically made of clay. Using chips instead of
cash has a number of advantages, mostly just that
they're easier to count and manipulate. Color designations
for chips are arbitrary, but many casinos use white
for $1 chips, red for $5 chips, green for $25 chips,
and black for $100 chips. If someone asks for a rack of
white, they'd like $100 in $1 chips. |
| 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. |
| Deuce: |
Twos are sometimes called
deuces. So 22277 can be called deuces full of sevens. |
| 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. |
| Down to the
felt: |
Totally
out of money, broke. |
| Draw Dead: |
To draw when it
turns out you would lose even if you hit your draw. |
| Eight ball: |
$800.00 |
| Family
Pot: |
When everyone
at the table decides to enter a pot, it's
said to be a family pot. |
| Fast: |
To
play fast is to play aggressively. |
| Fast company: |
Seasoned
veterans who know what's going on in the gambling
world. The opposite of Georges. |
| Finger up your
spine: |
A signal
that you've been recognized as a cheater and had
better leave. |
| Fifth Street: |
The
fifth card dealt in a hand of stud poker. |
| Fish: |
A poor
player. A sucker. |
| Fishhook: |
A nickname
for a Jacks, more often heard in the plural. |
| Flop: |
The
first three community cards dealt in Hold 'Em. |
| 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. |
| Fourth Street: |
The
fourth card dealt in a hand of stud poker. |
| Full House: |
A hand
consisting of three cards of one rank and two cards
of another rank. |
| George: |
A poor
player. A rube |
| Give the office: |
To
give a warning regarding cheating. |
| Glimmer: |
Money. |
| Goulash joint: |
A restaurant
or bar that runs a regular card game hidden in a
back room. |
| Greek dealer: |
A player
who cheats when dealing. A mechanic. |
| Grinder: |
An
un-ambitious player who only hopes to win a little
money each day. Also known as a 'leather ass.' |
| 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. |
| High Society: |
The
highest denomination of chips in a card room. |
| Hit and Run |
A player who leaves the
table shortly after scooping a big pot is sometimes
described as playing hit and run poker, especially
if they'd only been at the table a short time. It's
loosely implied that they would not have left if
they hadn't won the pot. |
| Hold 'Em : |
A popular
form of poker in which each player is dealt two cards
face down, called hole cards. The player may then
use none, one, or both of his hole cards, in combination
with five community cards dealt face up, to make
the best possible five card hand. |
| House |
The cardroom (management,
owners, etc.) is the house. The house rakes money from
the pot, has house rules, and when someone walks in,
you might say they're "in the house." |
| 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. |
| Live game: |
A game
with lots of betting action. A 'loose' game. |
| Lock: |
A hand
that is guaranteed to win at least part of the pot. |
| Loose: |
Playing loose simply means
playing more hands and holding on to them longer.
In essence, loose with your cash. |
| 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. |
| Mechanic: |
A cheater
who manipulates the cards to his benefit when dealing. |
| Mechanic's grip: |
The
way a cheater holds the deck to facilitate his manipulations. |
| Mitt joint: |
A club
where the house cheats the players, or one that turns
a blind eye to cheating in general. |
| Monster: |
An extremely strong hand,
one that is almost certain to win the pot. |
| No-limit: |
A betting
structure in poker that allows for the player to
wager any amount he has in front of him. |
| Nuts, the: |
The
top hand. |
| Nut straight: |
The
highest possible straight in a given hand. |
| Omaha: |
Omaha
is a flop game similar to hold ' em. |
| On the finger: |
Money
given on credit. |
| 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). |
| Pasadena: |
Fold. |
| 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. |
| Play on your
belly: |
To
play straight up without cheating. |
| 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. |
| Quads: |
Four
of a kind. |
| Rabbits: |
Weak
players. Similar to Georges. |
| Rag: |
A card,
usually a low card, that, when it appears, has no
apparent impact on the hand. |
| Railbirds: |
Spectators. |
| Railroad bible: |
Deck
of cards. |
| 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. |
| Rake: |
The
percentage of a pot that the house keeps. |
| River: |
The
final (seventh) card dealt in a poker hand. |
| Road gang: |
A confederacy
of cheaters. |
| Rock: |
A player who plays an extremely
tight, patient game is a rock. |
| Rock Garden: |
A game
of extremely tight players. |
| Rockets: |
Or "pocket rockets" - a pair
of aces in the hole. |
| 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. |
| Rounder: |
A player
who knows all the angles and earns his living at
the poker table. The absolute opposite of a 'sucker.' |
| Royal Straight
Flush: |
An
ace high straight flush is a royal straight flush,
or a royal flush, or just a royal. |
| Rush: |
A player who wins a large
number of pots in a short period of time is said to
be on a rush. |
| Sand Bag: |
Sandbagging means concealing
your strength for the purpose of increasing your profit.
In poker, this usually means slowplaying in the early
betting rounds in order to extract more profit on the
later rounds. |
| Seconds: |
A style
of cheating in which the dealer gives out the second
card from the top of the deck, holding the top card
for himself. |
| Semi-bluff: |
A semi-bluff
is similar to a bluff, except that the semi-bluff
has some chance of making a winning hand. |
| Set: |
Three of a kind with two in
the hole. |
| 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. |
| Sign on your
back: |
Identified
as a cheater. |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| Soft: |
Easy |
| South: |
Fold. |
| Speed: |
Speed
refers to the level of aggressiveness with which
you play. |
| Speeding: |
Someone who is caught bluffing
is sometimes said to be caught speeding. |
| Spikes: |
A pair
of aces. |
| Splash the pot: |
To
throw, instead of place, ones chips while betting.
This is frowned upon because it may obscure the amount
of money actually wagered. |
| Straighten Out: |
To
introduce an acquaintance to an underground poker
club. |
| Straight Flush: |
A hand
consisting of five cards of consecutive ranks of
the same suit. |
| Street: |
The cards that come out one
at a time in a card game are sometimes referred to
as different numbered streets. |
| Suit: |
You
know, clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. |
| Tap: |
To
bet the amount of an opponent's entire stack, forcing
him to go 'all in' if he calls the bet. |
| Tapioca: |
Out
of money. |
| Tell: |
An
unconscious gesture that reveals information about
your hand. |
| 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. |
| Tight: |
Conservative. |
| Turn: |
The
second to last, (sixth), card dealt in Hold 'Em |
| Under the Gun: |
The first player to act after
the blind bets is said to be under the gun. |
| Underdog: |
When
two hands face off, the underdog is the one that's
less likely to win than the other. |
| White
meat: |
Profit. |
| Wired: |
A pair in the
hole in seven card stud is a wired pair. |
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