Poker is arguably the most famous and popular card gambling game of them all, famously offering high-stakes gameplay and a sophisticated atmosphere. This compelling combination of luck, strategy and mental skill has been a worldwide sensation for hundreds of years, with poker terms like “bluffing” and going “all in” entering popular culture in various ways.
Understanding the proper vocabulary and industry-specific terms is key for everything from data-driven hiring to buying the right property. The same is also true for poker beginners, as this age-old gambling game has its own unique language and terminology that can be confusing at first. Learning the lingo is essential if you want to make informed decisions, understand strategies and behave properly at the table.
Poker terms come in various shapes and sizes, with beginners required to understand everything from specific hand names to betting structures and strategies. You’ll need to be familiar with everything from a “royal flush” to the “river” during a game of poker. Otherwise, you’ll quickly grow confused as the action unfolds.
Fortunately, we’re here to help budding poker beginners learn the ropes. Read on for an in-depth breakdown of the most important poker terms you should learn and their meanings. We’ve broken things down into handy categories to help you improve your understanding and learn where each bit of vocab applies.
A basic poker term glossary
Before we get into the specific poker terms for hands, game structure and strategies, there are several basic poker terms you must learn first as a foundation. Here is a rundown:
- Ante: This quite literally means “before” in Latin and is the term used to describe the mandatory small bets that players must all make before the start of a round. This creates the initial pot, ensuring there’s something to win during each round and making sure everybody participates directly. Complete poker beginners may not encounter antes until they start playing in tournaments as they’re not required all the time.
- Blinds: Similar to antes, the big and small blinds take place at the start of each round. These two mandatory bets are made by the two players to the left of the dealer preceding any cards being dealt. The big blind is typically the minimum bet amount for the table you’re playing at, while the small blind is worth half this. One important thing to remember is that the blinds move clockwise around the table after each hand.
- Call: Learning the call phrase is integral, as this is one of the main ways you’ll communicate your intentions to the dealer and other players during each round. This action lets you match the current highest bet on the table. Aside from checking, which we’ll explain in the next bullet point, it’s one of the most neutral actions available, allowing you to stay in the game without making too much of a splash.
- Check: Players cannot always use the check action. Checking indicates you’re happy to stay in a poker round without letting go of any more chips. Checking is only possible if nobody else has placed a bet in the current round. Usually, this means the players before you have also checked. It’s a valuable tool for situations where you’re unsure of your next move, but if another person has already made a bet, you’ll need to either call, raise or fold.
- Raise: This term is probably the easiest to understand, as it involves raising the bet amount, which will force all other players to call or fold. It’s the most direct action available and typically players with strong hands will raise the stakes for everybody else, but this can also be an invaluable term to know for bluffing as you could fool players into thinking you have a strong hand. This is a great tactic for getting yourself out of sticky situations when you have a weak hand.
- Fold: If a player raises the bet too high for your liking, using the fold action removes you from the round and forfeits any of your chips in the current pot. This usually means your hand is too weak to compete, allowing you to keep more chips for better opportunities in the upcoming rounds.
- Pot: The pot is the ultimate prize in the middle of the table during each round. It starts with an ante bet (if required), followed by the blinds. After this, the pot grows with each round as players call or raise. Winning the pot is the main objective for all players, which either means raising or bluffing enough that all competitors fold or that you have the strongest hand during the showdown.
- Hole cards: The hole cards are the cards dealt face down to each player at the beginning of a hand. In Texas Hold’em, each player receives two hole cards, while in Omaha there are four cards. Understanding the hole card rules in the variant you’re playing is paramount.
- Community cards: Unlike the hole cards, all players around the table can use the community cards to build their hands. Variants like Texas Hold’em have staged reveals for these community cards. Typically, there are five you can choose from.
Understanding the poker game structure
Next on the list of poker terminology to understand are the specific terms labeling each stage of the game. Learning these terms will help you keep track of the general flow during each round or “street”. Remember, poker variants can all have slightly varying rules here. Check below for a rundown using Texas Hold’em as an example:
- Blinds: Before anybody can receive their hole cards, the big and small blinds must be paid. If required, all antes must also be paid before the cards are dealt.
- Pre-flop: An initial betting round after each player receives their hole cards.
- Flop: The dealer will reveal the first three community cards before triggering another round of betting.
- Turn: This is where the fourth community card is revealed.
- River: The last community card is dealt, leading into the final betting round.
- Showdown: The most exciting part of the game where all remaining players reveal their hands. This is the first time you’ll actually see what your competitors are holding.
Key poker betting terms
Once you’ve mastered the poker gameplay basics, the next step is learning about some key betting terms:
- Bluffing: This is an advanced tactic where players try to trick other players into thinking that their hand is better than it actually is. For example, you could raise a bet with a weak hand hoping that other players will consequently fold.
- Slow rolling: Be careful with this one, as it can be considered bad etiquette if done repeatedly. Slow rolling generally means taking unnecessarily long to show your final hand at the showdown. We don’t really recommend doing this unless you want to make enemies around the table. However, another type of slow rolling can involve taking longer than usual to call after another player raises the bet. This can fool them into thinking you have a weaker hand when you could easily win the round. This can goad your competitor into adding more to the pot, increasing your potential win. Read more about slow roll poker on the casinomeister.com/blog/.
- All-in: Going “all-in” Is one of the most satisfying actions during poker, but it’s also extremely dangerous. Put simply, it means adding all your available funds to the pot in one fell swoop. This is almost exclusively reserved for instances where you have an extremely powerful hand.
