Poker Glossary
| AA |  American Airline | |
| Absolute Position | The own position compared to the dealer. This position stays the same during a hand. Relative Position | |
| Ace Magnets | Cowboys | |
| AK | Anna Kournikowa | |
| American Airline (AA) | 2 Aces in the Pocket Cards. | |
| Anna Kournikowa (AK) | Looks great, but looses too often. Ace, King in the Pocket Cards. | |
| Assassin | A player that has a rush during a tournament and within this rush eliminates a lot of opponents. Rush | |
| Backdoor | A hand that is not completed by the flop, but with the last two board cards. Mostly a Backdoor-Flush or a Backdoor-Straight. | |
| Bad Beat | A player bets money at a point in time where he has clearly the best hand, but looses during the hand because the community cards are very disadvantageous for him. Cooler | |
| Berry Patch | A game with weak opponents, therefore considered as easy. | |
| Bluff Catcher | A hand that is just good enough to catch a bluff. It is escpecially useful to have a bluff catcher if you needle somebody to a bluff. | |
| Bubble | On a tournament you are in the Bubble when the number of players left is 1 more than the number of payed ranks. | |
| Bubble Boy | The player that is eliminated first in the bubble - and therefore is the last who does not win anything. | |
| Bullets | American Airline | |
| Bully | (Poker-Bully) A player that is very dominant. He often bets and raises and forces his opponents to come to tough decisions. | |
| Calling Station | A loose-passive player. He raises rarely and calls most of the time (at a table with 10 opponents in more than 33% of the hands). It's better not to bluff a Calling Station because most of the time it ends in a showdown. But this player is a dream for every opponent: As far as you get good cards, place a good bet. | |
| Cash Game | In contrast to a tournament, players are using chips with a real value. The blinds are constant and players can join or leave the game at any time. | |
| Catch-Perfect | A player gets two cards that he needs for a draw. Mostly a Flush- or Straight-Draw. This draw is called backdoor-draw. Backdoor | |
| Change Gears | Especially in crucial phases of the game it is important to be unpredictable. Don't play according to a fix system, but switch your gear constantly. | |
| Chip Dumping | Chip Dumping means that one player deliberately looses his chips against another player. E.g. while betting on a weak hand. In tournaments, this is a common strategy. | |
| Chip Stack Tell | How a player piles up his stack can be a tell: Conservative players order their stack while aggressive players tend to have a mess. | |
| Chip-Race | In a tournament with increasing blinds, chips with lower value are exchanged by higher values. The players get a card for every supernumerous chip and the player with the highest card gets all supernumerous chips | |
| Coin-Flip | The term is used when two combinations win with almost the same probability. E.g. if a small pair went All-In pre-flop against overcards. | |
| Collusion | Co-operation of some players, of course a disadvantage for all others. The players pass chips or beckon to each other. | |
| Continuation Bet | A player bets on the flop, even if the flop did not hit him. He does this, because he already placed a bet before the flop and he wants to show, that the flop hit him. This is an important bluff in Texas Hold'em. | |
| Cooler | A very unpleasing event, that allows an opponent to unexpectedly turn the hand in his favor. Bad Beat | |
| Cowboys (KK) | 2 Kings in the Pocket Cards. | |
| Crippled | A player that lost a hand and has only a few chips left. | |
| Crossfire | A player is under crossfire, if he is inbetween two players that both raise. This situation should be avoided - unless you are under crossfire with the nuts... Nuts | |
| Crying Call | A call where the caller knows, that he will loos the hand. But there is a slight hope that the opponent is bluffing - and the caller could win the hand. | |
| Divas (QQ) | 2 Queens in the Pocket Cards. | |
| Double Date | Divas | |
| Fancy Play | Somebody thinks much too complicated. He overrates his opponents and always thinks around too many corners - and in the end makes the wrong decisions. | |
| Freeze-Out Tournament | For these tournaments, people have to pay the buy-in and as soon as they lost all their chips, they retire. This is different in re-buy tournaments. Re-Buy Tournament | |
| gg | Good Game | |
| Going South | Ratholing | |
| Good Game (gg) | Nice Hand | |
| Gorillas | Cowboys | |
| Grinding | Careful and very conservative way of playing. E.g. fold with relatively good cards to avoid every possible risk. This is a strategy to reach a tournament's bubble. | |
| Hammer | Massive Raise after an opponent's a Bet or Raise. It is a very useful strategy against a loose-aggressive player. loose-aggressive | |
| Hilton Sisters | Divas | |
| Idiot End | You have the Idiot End of a straight if you have 45 and the board contains 6789. Every opponent with a 10 has the better end and beats you. | |
| Killer | Assassin | |
| King Kong | Cowboys | |
| KK | Cowboys | |
| Ladyluck | Divas | |
| loose-aggressive | Maniac | |
| loose-passive | Calling Station | |
| M | With M we indicate the size of the (own) stack compared to the size of Small Blind, Big Blind, and Antes considering the number of opponents. This value is very important for the choice of the play-style. Depending on M there is the possibility to take risks or it's not good anymore to play conservatively or it's a must to play very aggressively. | |
| Maniac | A Maniac is a player that plays almost every hand, no matter whether it's a good or a bad hand. He bets high and raises a lot (loose-aggressive). A Maniac is difficult to appraise. But long term, he must be a very good player to compete with others. | |
| nh | Nice Hand | |
| Nice Hand (nh) | Is ment to be a compliment. But in most of the cases, people that lost money because of a stupid error try to hide this. | |
| Nuts | The best possible hand of a hand or of a category (e.g. Nut-Flush). In the good old times, when Poker was played in the saloons of the wild west, the settlers had to put their wheel nuts on the table. This was a guarantee that they don't escape. | |
| Odds | Probability that the hand is improved. The odds can be given for a specific combination. | |
| Outs | Number of cards that improve the player's hand. The outs can be given for a specific combination (e.g. 9 Outs for a Flush). | |
| Overcall | This is a call after one or more players already called. Especially on the River, an Overcall needs a better hand than a call. | |
| Pocket Rockets | American Airline | |
| Post-Oak Bluff | You bet or raise a small amount, almost too small. The other player shall think that you have a very good hand and you want to place a Value Bet to fatten the pot. This is of course a bluff that you just want to use against advanced Poker players. Value Bet | |
| Pot Odds | Relationship between the amount you have to pay and the pot. | |
| Probe Bet | A moderate bet on the Flop to check the strength of the own hand compared to the other players. | |
| Divas | ||
| Rabbit-Hunting | Look at the cards that would be turned up on the board, even if the current round has been finished already. | |
| Railbird | Somebody (e.g. an eliminated player) who is standing around a poker table and watching the game. | |
| Rainbow-Flop | The cards in the flop all have different suits, the chance for a Flush is low for all players. | |
| Rake | The rake is a percentage of a pot that is taken by the casino. To win money, it is not enough to beat the opponents, you must also beat the rake | |
| Ratholing | Hiding Chips and putting them back into play at the right time. | |
| Re-Buy Tournament | In these tournaments, people can buy new chips, at least until a certain blind level is reached. This is different in freeze-out tournaments. Freeze-Out Tournament | |
| Relative Position | The own position relative to the betting player. The relative position will change during a hand when other players fold. Absolute Position | |
| Reverse-Tell | Intentional misrepresenting of a tell to confuse other players. E.g. simulate trembling hands to suggest strong cards. | |
| River Rat | Somebody who improves his hand essentially with the last board card (the River) and therefore wins the pot, even if on the Turn he was the clear underdog. | |
| Rock | A rock is a player that only bets with a good or very good hand, even then his bet is quite conservative (tight-passive). A rock rarely bluffs. With this strategy a rock will not loose much money, but he also won't win much. | |
| Run | Rush | |
| Runner-Runner | Catch-Perfect | |
| Rush | A lucky streak. A player has a rush, when he wins repeatedly and therefore his brain starts working very efficiently. Like this he can take over the lead at a table. | |
| Sandbagging | Slow-Play | |
| Sigfried & Roy | Divas | |
| Slow-Play | Somebody places a low bet even if he knows that he has got a very good hand. You mostly want to hide the real strength of your hand and hope that another player raises or bluffs. | |
| Slow-Rolling | When a player shows his winning hand in the show-down and he does it slowly and with a big show. This is a misconduct, because the loosing player is teased unnecessarily | |
| Soft Seat | Berry Patch | |
| Splashing the Pot | A very bad habit! Somebody lets the chips fall into the pot very messy, instead of placing them in front of himself first. Extract from Rounders: "Don't splash the pot." - "In my club I splash the f... pot whenever the f... I please." | |
| Stalling | In multi-table tournaments, players are often waiting the maximal allowed time for their moves. This reduces the number of rounds at this table. And this can have the impact that more people are eliminated from other tables. This strategy can be very effective, especially shortly before the bubble. It is also possible to achieve that a specific player has to play a higher blind. Bubble | |
| Steal-Raise | This is a raise from a player in late position to reduce the number of players or to steal the pot directly. | |
| Stone Cold Nuts | A hand that is too god to be beaten in the following betting rounds. This is very rare in Texas Hold'em. A clear case for Slow-Play! Slow-Play | |
| Stone Killer | A Stone Killer is a player that only bets with a good or very good hand. If he has a good hand, his bet is high (tight-aggressive). Stone Killers are dangerous opponents. | |
| Straddle Bet | Normally, straddle bets are not allowed. A straddle bet is an optional bet in cash games, which is placed by the player on the left of the big blind before he gets his cards. He buys the privilege of the last action. | |
| String Bet | A bet that was not anounced and - instead of betting once - deposit in steps. String bets are not allowed, therefore the call or raise is the first amount or the string. | |
| Sucker | River Rat | |
| Tell | A sign by which a player bespeaks the strength of his hand. Note: The more obvious a tell is, the higher is the probability that it is simulated! | |
| tight-aggressive | Stone Killer | |
| tight-passive | Rock | |
| Tilt | A player is on tilt when he does not play rationally anymore, but only emotional. This can happen e.g. after a Bad Beat. | |
| Trap Hands | Trap Hands are dangerous hands where you can loose a lot of chips. At first glance they are looking really good, but in the end it is often just the second best hand. E.g. a top pair with a low kicker. | |
| Trapping | Slow-Play | |
| Value Bet | A small bet to win some additional chips. Especially in a situation where somebody is sure to have the best hand and thinks that nobody would call a bigger bet. | |
| Volountarily Put in Pot Percentage (VPIP) | Specifies, how often a player invests pre-flop volountarily - independent from if he called or was raised. | |
| VPIP | Volountarily Put in Pot Percentage | |
| World Series of Poker (WSOP) | A number of yearly poker tournaments that take place in Las Vegas. The main event is a No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament. Its winner can call himself the World Champion of Poker. | |
| WSOP | World Series of Poker | |