Poker Lingo

Common words and phrases used in Texas Hold'em Poker

Muck - To fold ones cards.  'The muck' is the pile of discarded cards

Burn or Burn card - A card taken from the top of the deck and mucked before the next card is used.  The phrase 'burn a card turn a card' describes dealing the community cards

Flop - The first three community cards that are dealt face up on the table

Turn or 4th Street - The fourth community card to be dealt face up

River or 5th Street - The fifth and final community card dealt face up

Hole cards - The two cards dealt to each player face down

Pockets - Two hole cards that are a pair, eg a pair of nines would be 'pocket nines'

Trips - Three of a kind, eg three sevens would be 'trip sevens'

Set - When a community card matches a pocket pair, eg pocket fours plus a four on the board is called 'a set of fours'

The Board - The community cards

The Nuts - The best possible hand, or the best possible hand of a type. eg 'the nut flush' is a flush with an ace high. 'Flopped the nuts' means that the hole cards combined with the three flop cards make the best possible hand at that point

The Lock, Lock Hand, Absolute Nuts - A hand that can not be beaten regardless of any further cards dealt

Slow play - To have a very good hand or the nuts and not bet to make other players think your hand is weak

Slow roll - To delay or slowly reveal your hole cards when you have been called. It is considered rude by most players

Blind, Small Blind, Big Blind - A forced bet the players to the left of the dealer place before any cards are dealt. The big blind is usually twice the small blind.

Action - The act of betting or raising. eg 'I flopped the nut straight and slow played it, but I still didn't get any action'

Limp. Limp in - To just call the big blind and not raise before the flop.  eg 'Four players limped in to see the flop' means there were no raises and four players matched the big blind (and the big blind checked)

Tight - To only play the best hands

Lose - To play a wide range of hands

Aggressive - To make large bets, raises and re-raises

Passive - To seldom raise or re-raise and mostly call even with good hands

Maniac - A style of very lose and aggressive play sometimes employed to unsettle opponents

Short stacked - To have not many chips left relative to the blind size and/or the rest of the table

Big stack, Chip leader - The player with the most chips at the table

Crap shoot - A hand where the players have a roughly equal chance to win. eg two jacks vs ace king is about 53/47% is a 'crap shoot' for either player to win

Pot - The chips that have been bet on the hand so far.  The pot is awarded to the winner of the hand

Pot odds - The amount of chips in the pot versus the amount needed to call.  eg if the pot is 1,000 and your opponent makes a raise of 100, there is 1,100 in the pot, it will cost you 100 to call, so your pot odds are 11 to 1

Splash the pot - to throw ones chip into the pot so that they hit chips already there.  It is a faux pas if done accidentaly, or rude if done deliberately.

Cluck, Poker Cluck - The sound a player makes when they have been dealt a very good hand and want the table to think they have an average or bad hand

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