Poker Terms – Poker Slang And Phrases You Need To Know
Poker terms are a key component of playing the most popular card game in the world. Understanding poker lingo is half the battle; once you have that down, you can get into the finer points of the game and improve from there. On that note, let’s dive into a few poker terms for beginners.
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What Are Poker Terms?
Poker is an incredibly popular card game around the world and has been for some time and online poker is set to be worth around $237.5 billion by 2030. The game involves many different aspects, so it’s important that you understand all the important poker terms before you start playing at the best poker instant withdrawal casino sites – whether it’s a ‘semi-bluff’ or ‘fourth street’. Once you have a handle on them, you can proceed more confidently and take on the tables yourself.
A Glossary of Poker Terms
Here are a couple of the more important poker terms for winning the pot when playing at online casinos. These poker terms should give you the foundational knowledge you need to proceed with actually entering poker tournaments, but you’ll only ever learn by continuing to play and learn as you go along.
All-In: Betting all of your chips in one go.
Ante: This is a fee all players must pay before the hand starts. It happens in different variations of poker, not the same as a blind.
Big Blind: A bigger fee that each player will take turns having to pay before a hand starts.
Blinds: Forced bets you need to place before the start of a round.
Button: A marker indicating the dealer position, rotating clockwise after each hand.
Call: This is where you put in the same amount of chips as the player who has bet or raises in the hand. This forms part of poker terms that you are going to be seeing a lot when you play.
Check: This is where you choose not to bet or fold.
Community Cards: The cards dealt by the dealer, with which you will try to make your hand.
Flop: These are the three cards that are dealt in the middle of the table that you can match to the cards in your own hand to create the best high hand possible.
Flush: This is when you have five cards of the same suit.
Fold: Deciding to move on with the round by laying down your hand and not calling a bet or raise.
Full House: This is a mixture of a pair and trips; e.g., your five cards are made up of something like A, A, A, 10, 10.
Hole Cards: These are the cards given to you by the dealer.
Limit: A betting structure with preset betting limits.
No-Limit: This is a poker table where you can bet as much as you like.
Nuts: The best hand you can have in a round.
Pair: When you have two cards that are the same.
Pot: The total amount of money or chips in the middle of the table that can be won.
Quads/Four of a Kind: When you have four cards that are the same.
Raise: This is where you bet more than the bet that has been placed in a round. The other players will have to match it or fold.
River: The fifth and final community card dealt in games with a flop, placed next to the turn card.
Royal Flush: This is essentially the best straight flush you can make, but it’s called a Royal Flush. It consists of A, K, Q, J, and 10 of the same suit.
Showdown: This is the last part of a round where you need to show your cards to see who won the hand.
Small Blind: A smaller fee that each player will take turns having to pay before a hand starts.
Straight: A hand where you have five consecutive cards in a row, e.g., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Straight Flush: Five consecutive cards that are also all the same suit.
Trips/Three of a Kind: When you have three cards that are the same.
Turn: The fourth community card dealt in games with a flop, placed next to the flop cards.
Poker Terminology Explained
Whether you’re playing Caribbean Stud or Mississippi Stud, the same poker terms will usually crop up, so let’s get into what these terms mean in more detail and how some of the hands work. This is where you really want to take onboard some poker tips that work, and learn about these poker terms.
All-In: If you have ever watched a Hollywood movie, you may have seen a poker scene where the drama happens, and the actor goes all in when playing the game. This is when the player pushes all of their remaining chips into the pot, putting it all on the line for that hand. They will then either be called by the other players, or the other players will fold. It’s the Hail Mary of poker.
Ante: An ante is a fee that all players will need to pay before a hand gets started. It’s not quite the same as blinds, as every player has to contribute to the pot by paying an ante before the hand starts. With blinds, only two players per hand have to pay.
Big Blind: We mentioned the blinds earlier, where two players will have to pay a blind whether they want to play their hand or not. The big blind is the pricier blind of the 2. It moves around the table one player at a time, one round at a time.
Blinds: Depending on the version of poker you are playing, you may have to pay the blind before the hand starts. These blinds ensure that there is always something in the pot. On top of that, these blinds continue to rise the longer a table goes. The best fast withdrawal casinos offer a wide range of poker cash games with varying blinds so that you can choose one that fits your wagering style.
Bluff: A bluff is where a player will bet big or raise big to throw the other players off. The important part about bluffing is that you don’t actually have a strong hand, or you might not have anything at all. You are acting like you have the nuts or a strong hand but betting strong to try and get the other players to fold.
Button: This is a market that shows you where the dealer is on the table. This happens as it moves along with the blinds. The small blind is to the left of the dealer button, and the big blind is to the left of the small blind.
Call: To call is to simply match the bet of a player that has either bet first or raised within a hand. For example, if in the 2nd round of betting, player A makes a bet of $10, you will then either have to fold, call that $10 by matching it, or raise it with a higher bet.
Check: This is essentially an option where you don’t have to bet if you don’t want to. You can opt to check without placing a bet and passing it on to the next player. However, if the player next to you decides to bet, the betting phase will come back around to you, and you will have to either fold, call, or raise.
Community Cards: As mentioned earlier, these are the cards in the center of a table when playing at a crypto poker casino. You use the cards you are dealt in conjunction with the community cards to create the best possible hand of five cards. Now, that is referring specifically to Texas Holdem; the community cards can serve slightly different functions in other poker variations.
Flop: These are the first three cards that are dealt in the middle of the table by the dealer. They contribute to your own hand whether you are playing Omaha or Texas Holdem. The flop contributes to the overall community cards, where players can make the best hand possible with their own cards included.
Flush: Your knowledge of poker terms and phrases won’t be complete without knowing what a flush is. A flush draw is five cards that are the same suit. For example, you are dealt an 8 of hearts and a 4 of hearts, and the flop is a red sea, all hearts 2, 5, 9. This means you have a flush of hearts, which is a strong hand.
Fold: As far as terms in poker go, fold is one you are going to hear a lot. It happens in just about every hand of poker that you are going to play. This is where you throw or lay down the cards that you have in your hand.
You are then not taking part in the rest of the hand that follows. Players fold if they don’t like their initial cards if the flop didn’t help them, or if they have been bluffed off a hand.
Full House: A full house is basically a pair and a set of trips that make up a hand of five. An example is going to make it easier for you to understand. Let’s say you have been dealt an Ace and a Queen.
The flop throws up two Aces and a Queen. This means that you have three Aces and two Queens, which makes a full house, a pair, and a set of trips (A, A, A, Q, Q.)
Hole Cards: Your hole cards are the cards that are dealt to you, also known as pocket cards. For example, in Texas Holdem, your hole cards are the two cards that are dealt to you at the start of each round. After that, you will then be in the initial betting phase, where you either pay or call the blind. Hole cards are not part of the poker terms you will see all that often, but it’s still worth knowing.
Limit: This is a more structured online crypto poker game where the bets will be allowed to increase in size incrementally, or they will be capped at a certain maximum bet. The best gambling sites will often have limit tables so that players can play within financial ranges that they are comfortable with.
No-Limit: No-limit poker is where players have no restrictions on the size of their bets. For example, No Limit Holdem at the World Series of Poker has no limit, so the bets can hit pretty staggering numbers. The best crypto and bitcoin casinos offer high deposit and withdrawal limits, which can be helpful when you want to play no-limit poker games.
Nuts: There isn’t really much need to get into the weeds with this one as the nuts simply mean that you have the best hand available. You usually know for a fact that the hand you have is the best in that round when you have the nuts.
Pair: A pair is the lowest ranking hand you can have that is outside of just having singular cards. A pair’s strength is better when the pair that you have are two high cards. For example, a pair of Aces is better than a pair of 7s.
You can have a pocket pair where the two cards that are dealt to you are both the same. The other pair you can make is by having one of the cards in your hand and another among the community cards.
Pot: When you refer to the pot, you are talking about the money in the center of the table that has been bet so far. This is the money that is available to be won in that particular hand.
Quads/Four of a Kind: Card terms when using online casino apps include what is known as Four of a Kind. It is pretty easy to guess what this one means, as it is just four of the same card. It is exceedingly difficult to actually get this hand in poker, though.
Raise: As I mentioned there briefly, you will have the chance to raise the bet as well. If it’s the betting phase of the hand, and someone has already placed a bet for the round, if you want to bet more than the initial bet, then you are raising. However, if you are placing the first bet of the betting phase, that is simply a bet and not a raise.
River: The river is the 5th card dealt in the middle of the table. The river is often where a lot of the excitement happens in poker, where players hit the last card they need to complete their hand. It’s also a part of the game where you may see significant bluffing and bigger bets as well.
Royal Flush: And now we come to one of the poker betting terms that is nearly impossible to get when playing. A Royal Flush is the same as a straight flush, but your consecutive cards have to be 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. So, you could have a Royal Flush of 10, J, Q, K, A, all of either spades, hearts, clubs, or diamonds.
Showdown: This is where the excitement comes to a head in poker. Once the final bets have been made, it’s time to reveal your hand to see who has won. After a brief examination of the cards by the dealer (or an automatic reveal with online poker), the winner is then determined by seeing who has the best set of cards, making up the highest-rated hand.
Small Blind: The small blind bet is exactly 50% of the big blind. It always moves along next to the big blind. If the player is small blind, they will still need to pay the other half of the blind if they want to see the flop.
Straight: As poker card terms go, you need to know what a straight is. All a straight is five consecutive numbers in a row of any suit. For example, you could have a straight of 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen. The higher the numbers, the better the straight.
Straight Flush: A straight flush is also very tricky to get in a hand of poker but not impossible. It is when you have five consecutive numbers in a row that are also all the same suit. Think of a straight and a flush combined into one hand. For example, if you have a hand of 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 that are all Spades, that would be a straight flush.
Trips/Three of a Kind: This is three cards of the same rank in a hand. You should have a decent idea of how this works. It’s a pair with an extra card. So, you could have pocket Aces and flop an additional Ace, giving you three Aces in total, or in poker hand terms, Trips.
Turn: In short, the turn is the 4th card that is dealt in the middle of the table. With the flop being dealt as three cards, the turn is a single 4th card that is dealt and signals the 3rd round of betting for the hand. Players can continue to check, bet, or fold during this period.
Two Pair: A two-pair works similarly, but as the name suggests, you have two pairs and not one. Here’s an example: you are dealt a 10 and a 9. The flop (community cards) is then dealt and has 10, Queen, and 9. This means that your 10 and 9 match the cards in the flop, meaning you have two pairs.
You can also have two pairs if you are dealt pocket numbers, and the flop contains two of the same numbers. For instance, you have pocket 10s, and the flop has two 9s.
Poker Terminology Questions & Answers
Why are poker terms important?
What do you say when you call in poker?
What are the terms in Texas Hold ’em?
What is the term ‘All In’ in poker?
What do you call someone really good at poker?
