Confused by all the poker lingo!? Look no further!

Poker Jam comes to rescue with this comprehensive poker glossary written by our poker experts. Print this page out, hang it on the wall and never forget again! And you thought that we were just another pretty poker site uh!?

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Ace in the Hole
This is what a player has when one of his cards that are dealt to him face down (the hole cards) is an Ace.

Aces Full
A full house with three aces and any pair.
Usage: As in sentence “The player with the pair of 5s would win since he has Aces full of fives and the other player has only Aces full of 4s”.

Act
An intentional tell intended to give false information about a hand.

All- In
When a player bets all his/her chips. 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 Peter – 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.

Ante and Straddle
A game in which the player to the left of the dealer (the ante) puts in (usually) one chip before getting any cards, and the player to his left (the straddle) puts in two chips. (Sometimes the dealer also puts in one chip.) The first player to have a choice on making a bet after having seen his cards is the player two positions to the left of the dealer. This is an old name for what is now called a two-blind travelling blind game. This is similar to a blind and straddle game. Also see little blind, middle blind, big blind.

Backdoor
Making a hand other than the one intended. For example: I started with four hearts hoping for a flush, but I backdoored two more kings and my trips won.

Bad Beat
It’s a subjective term for a hand in which a player who had what appeared to be strong cards nevertheless loses. 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.

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.”

Blank
A useless card. This term is usually used in stud and hold’em.

Blinds
Are forced bets posted by the two players sitting directly to the dealer’s left, which will start the action on the first round of betting. The blinds are posted before any cards are dealt. (A “Blind” bet is one that is made in the dark without looking at your cards.) The number of blinds is usually two, but can be one or three.

Boardcards
The cards that are dealt face-up in a poker game for all players to see. In flop games, five cards are dealt face-up in the centre of the table. In Seven Card Stud, four cards are dealt face-up in front of each player.

Bluff
To make other players believe that one has a better hand than he/she might otherwise have by betting or raising when they do not have the best hand.

Bottom Pair
A pair with the lowest card on the flop. If you have As-6s, and the flop comes Kd-Th-6c, you have flopped bottom pair.

Brick & Mortar
A Brick & Mortar or B&M casino is a term referring to a “real” casino based in a building, as opposed to an online casino. This term is used to refer to many real world locations vs. their Internet counterparts. It is not just a poker term.

Button
A white acrylic disk that indicates the player who is dealing or, in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game).

Buy
To make a large bet in the hope of discouraging other players.

Buy-In
The minimum amount of money required by a player to sit down in a particular poker game. Often expressed as two numbers, such as $100+5, meaning that it costs $105 to enter the tournament; $100 goes into the prize fund and $5 goes to the house.

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*Parts of this glossary were taken from the book “Winning Low Limit Hold’em” by Lee Jones

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