Texas Hold’em Poker Glossary (A–Z)

Bilingual (Chinese/English) definitions of 205 standard Texas Hold'em poker terms, indexed A–Z: from action and all-in to wheel and wrap. Probability terms link to the matching calculators, where figures are computed deterministically.

Simplified / Traditional / English glossary map →

3

3-bet: The first re-raise before the flop (or the third bet overall in a betting sequence).

4

4-bet: A re-raise against a 3-bet, i.e. the fourth bet in the sequence.

A

Action: A player's turn to act (bet, call, raise, check or fold), or the amount of betting in a hand.
Add-on: An optional one-time chip purchase offered at the end of the rebuy period.
Air: A hand with no pair, no draw and essentially no showdown value.
All-in: Betting all of one's remaining chips on a hand.
Angle shooting: Technically legal but unethical moves designed to gain unfair advantage.
Ante: A small forced bet contributed by every player before a hand is dealt.

B

Backdoor: A draw that needs both the turn and the river to complete (a runner-runner draw).
Bad beat: Losing a hand that was a strong favorite to win, usually to an unlikely card.
Bankroll: The total amount of money a player has set aside for playing poker.
Barrel: Firing bets on consecutive streets, e.g. double or triple barreling.
Bet sizing: Choosing how large to bet relative to the pot to serve a strategic goal.
Big blind: The larger of the two forced blind bets, posted by the player two seats left of the button.
Big blind ante: A tournament format where the big blind posts one ante for the whole table.
Big slick: A nickname for Ace-King as hole cards.
Blank: A community card that does not help any likely hand or draw.
Blind: A forced bet posted before cards are seen; the small and big blinds rotate each hand.
Blind vs blind: A pot contested only between the small blind and big blind.
Block bet: A small bet made out of position to set a cheap price and discourage a bigger bet.
Blocker: A card in your hand that reduces the combinations of strong hands an opponent can hold.
Bluff: Betting or raising with a weak hand to make opponents fold better hands.
Bluff catcher: A hand that can only win by calling down an opponent who is bluffing.
Board: The community cards dealt face up and shared by all players.
Board texture: The overall character of the community cards: wet or dry, high or low, paired or not.
Bomb pot: A hand where everyone posts a preset amount and the flop is dealt with no preflop betting.
Bottom pair: A pair made with the lowest card on the board.
Bounty: A cash prize awarded for eliminating a specific player in bounty tournaments.
Brick: A card, usually low and offsuit, that changes almost nothing.
Bubble: The point in a tournament just before the paid places begin; the bubble player finishes just out of the money.
Burn card: The face-down card discarded before dealing each street to prevent cheating.
Button: The dealer position marker; the button acts last post-flop and has the best position.
Buy-in: The amount of money required to enter a cash game or tournament.

C

Call: Matching the current bet to stay in the hand.
Calling station: A passive player who calls too often and rarely raises or folds.
Cap: The maximum number of raises allowed in a betting round, or a maximum buy-in format.
Capped range: A range that cannot contain the strongest hands due to earlier passive actions.
Cash game: A poker game played with real-value chips where players can join or leave at any time.
Check: Declining to bet while keeping the option to act later, when no bet is owed.
Check back: Checking in position to close the action for that street.
Check-raise: Checking first and then raising after an opponent bets in the same round.
Chip: A token representing a value of money used for betting.
Chip leader: The player currently holding the largest stack in a tournament.
Chop: Splitting a pot between tied hands, or agreeing to divide remaining prizes.
Coin flip: An all-in between two hands of roughly equal winning chances.
Cold call: Calling a raise without having already invested in the pot this round.
Collusion: Two or more players secretly cooperating to gain an unfair advantage; it is cheating.
Combo draw: A draw to both a flush and a straight at the same time.
Community cards: Shared face-up cards (flop, turn, river) that all players combine with their hole cards.
Connector: Two hole cards of consecutive rank, e.g. 8-9; suited connectors share a suit.
Continuation bet (c-bet): A bet on the flop by the player who took the betting lead before the flop.
Cooler: A situation where a very strong hand loses to an even stronger one, with both hard to fold.
Counterfeit: When a board card duplicates part of your hand and destroys its relative value.
Cutoff: The position immediately to the right of the button; a strong late position.

D

Dead money: Chips in the pot contributed by players no longer contesting it.
Dealer: The person dealing the cards, or the player on the button in home games.
Deep stack: Playing with stacks far larger than the standard buy-in relative to the blinds.
Dominated: Sharing a card with an opponent while holding a worse kicker or lower pair.
Donk bet: Leading out with a bet into the previous round's aggressor, out of position.
Double gutshot: Two inside straight draws at once, giving as many outs as an open-ender.
Double up: Winning an all-in to roughly double one's chip stack.
Downswing: An extended losing stretch caused by variance even with good play.
Draw: An incomplete hand that needs further cards to become strong, e.g. a flush or straight draw.
Drawing dead: Holding a hand that cannot win no matter which cards come.
Dry board: An uncoordinated board offering few draws.

E

Early position: The first seats to act preflop, requiring the tightest opening ranges.
Effective stack: The smaller of the stacks involved, which caps how much can actually be wagered.
Equity: A hand's share of the pot based on its probability of winning at showdown.
Expected value (EV): The average long-run result of a decision, weighing each outcome by its probability.
Exploitative: Deviating from balanced play to attack specific weaknesses of opponents.

F

Family pot: A pot in which most or all players at the table see the flop.
Final table: The last remaining table of a tournament where the top prizes are decided.
Fish: A weak or inexperienced player who tends to lose money.
Flat call: Just calling a raise instead of re-raising, often to disguise hand strength.
Float: Calling a bet with a weak hand intending to take the pot away on a later street.
Flop: The first three community cards dealt face up at once.
Flush: Five cards of the same suit; ranked above a straight and below a full house.
Flush draw: Having four cards of one suit and needing one more for a flush.
Fold: Discarding one's hand and forfeiting any claim to the pot.
Fold equity: The extra value of a bet that comes from the chance an opponent folds.
Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank, also called quads.
Free card: Seeing the next community card without anyone betting on the current round.
Freeroll: A tournament with no entry fee, or a spot where one cannot lose but can win more.
Freezeout: A tournament with no rebuys or re-entries: one bullet each.
Full house: Three of a kind plus a pair; ranked above a flush and below four of a kind.

G

Grinder: A player who puts in long, steady volume to earn consistent profit.
GTO: Game-theory optimal play: a balanced, unexploitable strategy derived from game theory.
Gutshot: An inside straight draw that can be completed by only one rank.

H

Hand: A player's cards, or a single deal from start to showdown.
Heads-up: Play between only two players.
Hero call: Calling a big bet with a marginal hand purely on a read that the opponent is bluffing.
Hero fold: Folding a very strong hand based on a read that it is somehow beaten.
High card: The weakest hand category, ranked only by its highest cards when no pair is made.
Hijack: The position two seats to the right of the button.
Hole cards: The private cards dealt face down to each player.

I

ICM (Independent Chip Model): A model that converts tournament chip stacks into their cash equity based on payouts.
Implied odds: Pot odds that also account for additional chips you expect to win on later streets.
In the money: Finishing high enough in a tournament to win a payout.
Insurance: A side agreement paying the all-in favorite if an unlucky card arrives.
Isolation (iso) raise: Raising to play a pot heads-up against a single weak opponent.

K

Kicker: A side card used to break ties between hands of the same rank.

L

LAG: A loose-aggressive player who plays many hands and applies constant pressure.
Late position: The cutoff and button, acting last with the widest profitable ranges.
Limp: Entering the pot preflop by just calling the big blind rather than raising.
Lojack: The seat three to the right of the button, first to act in a 6-max game.
Loose: A style that plays many hands.

M

Made hand: A hand that already has real value without needing further cards.
Maniac: An extremely aggressive player who raises and bluffs very frequently.
MDF: Minimum defense frequency: how often a player must continue versus a bet to avoid being exploited by bluffs.
Merged: A range weighted toward medium-strong value hands rather than only nuts and bluffs.
Middle pair: Pairing the middle-ranked card on the board.
Middle position: Seats between early and late position, playing moderately tight ranges.
Min-cash: The smallest payout tier of a tournament, just inside the money.
Min-raise: Raising by exactly the minimum legal increment.
Mixed strategy: Taking different actions with the same hand at fixed frequencies, as solvers recommend.
Monotone: A flop or board where all cards share one suit.
MTT: A multi-table tournament that combines tables as players are eliminated.
Muck: To discard a hand face down, or the pile of folded cards.

N

Nit: An extremely tight player who only plays premium hands.
Nut advantage: Holding more of the very strongest possible hands in your range than the opponent.

O

Offsuit: Two hole cards of different suits.
Omaha: A community-card variant where players get four hole cards and must use exactly two.
One pair: Two cards of the same rank plus three unrelated cards.
Open: To make the first voluntary raise of a betting round preflop.
Open-ended straight draw: A straight draw that can be completed at either end of the sequence.
Outs: The remaining cards that will improve a hand to a likely winner.
Overbet: Betting more than the size of the current pot.
Overcall: Calling a bet after at least one other player has already called.
Overcard: A hole card higher than any card on the board.
Overpair: A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.

P

Pair: Two cards of the same rank.
Paired board: A board containing at least one pair, enabling full houses and trips.
Passive: A style that checks and calls more than it bets and raises.
Pay jump: The increase in payout between two finishing positions.
Pocket pair: Two hole cards of the same rank, from pocket deuces up to pocket aces.
Polarized: A range built from very strong hands and bluffs, with few medium hands.
Position: Where a player sits relative to the button, determining acting order; later is stronger.
Pot: The total of all chips wagered in a hand, won by the best hand or last player standing.
Pot odds: The ratio of the current pot to the cost of a call, used to judge whether a call is profitable.
Pot-limit: A betting structure where the maximum bet equals the current pot size.
Preflop: The betting round after hole cards are dealt but before the flop.
Probe bet: A bet made out of position on the turn or river after the preflop aggressor declines to c-bet.

R

Rag: A low, useless card.
Rainbow: A flop of three different suits, making a flush draw impossible on the flop.
Raise: Increasing the current bet, forcing others to match the new amount.
Rake: The fee taken by the house from each pot or tournament entry.
Rakeback: A rebate of part of the rake paid, returned to the player.
Range: The full set of hands a player could hold in a given situation.
Range advantage: Having a range that connects better with the board than the opponent overall.
Re-entry: Registering again as a new entry after being eliminated from a tournament.
Rebuy: Buying more chips after losing your stack during the rebuy period of a tournament.
Redraw: Holding a made hand plus a draw to an even stronger one.
Reverse implied odds: The risk of making your hand and still losing more money to a better hand.
River: The fifth and final community card.
Rock: A very tight player who only plays premium hands.
Royal flush: A-K-Q-J-10 all of the same suit; the strongest possible hand.
Run it twice: Dealing the remaining cards twice after an all-in, each run for half the pot.
Runner-runner: Completing a draw using both the turn and the river.

S

Satellite: A qualifying tournament whose prize is entry into a larger event.
Scare card: A community card likely to have improved someone or to frighten made hands.
Semi-bluff: Betting with a drawing hand that can also improve to the best hand.
Set: Three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one matching board card.
Short stack: A chip stack much smaller than the average at the table.
Showdown: Revealing hands after the final betting round to determine the winner.
Showdown value: A hand strong enough to win at showdown sometimes but too weak to bet for value.
Side pot: A separate pot created when one player is all-in and others keep betting.
Sit and go: A single-table tournament that starts once all seats are filled.
Slow play: Playing a strong hand weakly to disguise its strength and induce bets.
Slow roll: Deliberately delaying showing a winning hand at showdown; considered poor etiquette.
Small blind: The smaller forced blind, posted by the player to the left of the button.
Snap call: Calling instantly without hesitation.
Solver: Software that computes near-optimal strategies for defined poker scenarios.
Split pot: When two or more players tie and share the pot equally.
SPR: Stack-to-pot ratio: effective stack divided by the pot, guiding commitment decisions.
Squeeze: A big re-raise after a raise and at least one call, pressuring both players at once.
Stack: The amount of chips a player has in front of them.
Staking: An arrangement where a backer funds a player in exchange for a share of profits.
Steal: Raising from late position to try to win the blinds uncontested.
Straddle: An optional blind raise posted before the deal, usually twice the big blind.
Straight: Five cards of consecutive rank of mixed suits.
Straight flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suit; ranked just below the royal flush.
String bet: An illegal bet made in multiple motions without a single declaration.
Suited: Two hole cards of the same suit.

T

Table stakes: Only chips on the table at the start of a hand may be wagered in it.
TAG: A tight-aggressive player with disciplined ranges and aggressive lines.
Tell: A physical or behavioral clue that reveals information about a player's hand.
The nuts: The best possible hand given the current board.
Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank.
Tight: A style that plays relatively few, strong hands.
Tilt: Playing emotionally and poorly, usually after a loss or bad beat.
Time bank: Extra reserve time a player can use for difficult decisions, mainly online.
Top pair: A pair made with the highest card on the board.
Trips: Three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board.
Turbo: A tournament with sharply faster blind level increases.
Turn: The fourth community card, dealt after the flop betting round.
Two pair: Two separate pairs plus one unrelated card.
Two-tone: A flop containing exactly two suits, allowing flush draws.

U

Under the gun (UTG): The first seat to act preflop, immediately left of the big blind; the worst position.
Underdog: A hand less likely to win than its opponent.

V

Value bet: Betting a strong hand to be called by weaker hands for profit.
Variance: The natural swings in results due to luck over the short term.

W

Wet board: A coordinated board with many possible draws and strong hands.
Whale: A very wealthy, typically weak player who gambles large amounts.
Wheel: The lowest straight, A-2-3-4-5.
Wrap: A large Omaha straight draw with many outs using multiple connected cards.

An educational glossary of standard terminology; specific probability and odds figures appear on the hand-rankings page and calculators (computed exactly by lib/poker-math.ts).