COMPARE BEST POKER BASIC TERMINOLOGY

Ace-High: A hand that contains an Ace, with no straight or flush or pair in it.

Active Player: You are an active player if you are still in the hand.

Add-On: An option for you to buy a set amount of chips at the end of a rebuy period in a tournament.

Aggressive: You have an aggressive style of play if you regularly bet and raise, therefore making it difficult for other players to stay in the hand.

All In: When you bet all of your chips.

Bad Beat: When you lose a poker hand in a really unlucky way. Most online poker rooms have Bad Beat Jackpots, where large amounts of money can be won if you lose a hand with a great hand of your own; for instance if you have four of a kind and lose to a straight flush.

Bankroll: The total amount of money you have with which to play poker.

Blinds: This is short for "blind bets," and are the forced bets made before the cards are dealt. In Hold'em, there is a Big Blind and a Small Blind and they take the place of the "ante."

Bluffing: A Bluff is an attempt to win the hand with weaker cards. It normally means you bet or raise with a weak hand in the hope that all the other players will fold.

Bubble: The last position in a poker tournament outside the money. If, for example, 32 players get paid in a tournament and there are 33 players remaining, all of the players will know that 1 of them will miss out on a cash prize and will go out on the Bubble. Players tend to play in a more reserved fashion until the bubble has passed and they have reached the money.

Burn Card: A card is dealt face down and hence left out of the game before a community card is dealt.

Button: This is the nickname for the player acting as the dealer in the current hand.

Buy In: The amount of money you have to pay to enter a game or tournament.

Call: You call a bet by matching the previous players action, for example, if a previous player has bet $10, you call and also bet $10, instead of folding or raising the bet.

Check: Similar to a call, but if no players have made a bet before your turn, you have the option to check and make no action. This is a fairly conservative action but may be useful if you have a very strong hand and wish to hide this fact or if you would like to see more community cards as cheaply as possible.

Chip leader: The player holding the most chips in a tournament.

Flop: The first three community cards dealt.

Flush: A hand comprising five cards of the same suit.

Fold: When you feel you are beaten and you want to exit the hand you can fold, pay nothing to the pot and throw away your hand.

Four of a kind: A hand containing four cards of equal rank, four Queens for example.

Heads-up: If your game is reduced to two players, you are said to be competing 'heads-up' for the pot.

High card: The lowest ranked hand is a no pair hand, ranked according to its highest-ranking cards.

High Roller: Is a player who gambles for large sums of money.

Hole cards: Are the face down cards you receive at the start of the game, also known as pocket cards, they are the cards you have to use in combination with the community cards to make the best hand.

Nuts: The best possible hand that you can have with the cards that are currently available.

One Pair: A hand containing just two cards of equal rank, a pair of aces and no other cards of relevance for example.

On-Tilt: To be avoided. Usually caused by losing too much money, taking a bad beat on a big pot or by being irritated by another players strategy/behavior. While on-tilt you normally bet very loosely and play below your normal standards game, and the general advice is to either take a break and gather your senses or revert back to a basic strategy. The big challenge however is to recognise that you are on-tilt before it's too late.

Pair: Two cards of the same rank, a pair of kings for example.

Poker Face: An important poker skill is having the ability to hide the strength or weakness of your hand. You have no poker face, and little chance, if your hand can be read by the other players.

Pot: The total amount of money in the middle of the table, collected by the winner of the game.

Preflop: Anything that happens before the flop is dealt is called preflop.

Raise: If you match the bets that have previously been made and then add yet another bet for all other players to have to match.

Rake: The split of the pot that is taken by the house / online poker room.

Re-Buy: If you are knocked out of re-buy tournaments before a certain stage, it is possible to re-enter the tournament by paying an additional re-buy entry fee.

Re-raise: When you add another raise to an already raised bet.

River: The fifth and final community card dealt; also known as fifth street.

Royal Flush: The best possible hand, A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit.

Showdown: When the final players reveal their hands to discover the winner.

Slow Play: Is the dangerous art of under-betting a good hand, so you don't scare other players into folding early. Hopefully these players will then add money and increase the size of the pot for you to win. The danger is that when you slow play, you allow other players to see community cards for free and these cards may provide them with a winning hand. Slow playing is the opposite of Bluffing, which is over-betting a bad hand.

Straight: A hand comprising five consecutive cards.

Three of a kind: A hand containing three cards of equal rank, three Jacks for example.

Turn: The fourth community card dealt; also known as fourth street.

POKER HAND RANKING

Do you know the all important hand ranking in Poker? click here to look at the Compare Best Poker hand ranking section.

COMPARE BEST POKER BASIC TERMINOLOGY

POKER HAND RANKING

Poker News

Poker Bonus