Poker Glossary — Common Terms Explained
Last reviewed: August 25, 2026Editorial standard: beginner-first, rules-aware explanationsHow we verify poker information
Quick definition: Poker terminology describes betting actions, positions, hand states, mathematical concepts and game procedures. This glossary uses beginner-friendly definitions and links important entities to their deeper guides.
A
- Action
- A player’s turn to check, bet, call, raise or fold; it can also mean the betting activity in a game.
- All-in
- A wager of all chips a player currently has in front of them. A player who is all-in can win only the pots for which they have contributed the required amount.
- Ante
- A forced contribution posted by players before a hand in formats that use antes.
B
- Big blind (BB)
- The larger of the two standard forced blind bets in Hold’em and Omaha. See blinds explained.
- Bluff
- A bet or raise made primarily to make stronger hands fold. See bluffing strategy.
- Board
- The community cards available to all players in games such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha.
- Button (BTN)
- The dealer-button position. In most Hold’em hands it acts last after the flop and is therefore a strategically valuable position.
C
- Call
- Match the current bet or raise to remain in the hand.
- Check
- Decline to bet while keeping your hand live when no bet is currently facing you.
- Community cards
- Shared face-up cards used by all players to form hands in Hold’em and Omaha.
- Continuation bet (c-bet)
- A postflop bet made by the player who was the preflop aggressor. See continuation betting.
D
- Draw
- A hand that is not yet made but can improve to a strong hand if certain future cards arrive.
E
- Effective stack
- The smaller relevant stack between players in a hand; it limits the maximum amount that can be won or lost between them.
- Equity
- A hand or range’s share of the pot based on its probability of winning or tying under the assumptions being used.
F
- Flop
- The first three community cards dealt together in Hold’em and Omaha.
- Fold
- Give up the hand and any claim to the current pot.
H
- Heads-up
- A hand or game involving two players.
- Hole cards
- Private cards dealt to an individual player. Texas Hold’em gives each player two hole cards.
I
- ICM
- Independent Chip Model: a tournament model used to estimate how chip stacks translate into prize-value equity. See ICM in practice.
- Implied odds
- A framework that considers money you may win on later streets in addition to the pot you can win immediately. See implied odds.
K
- Kicker
- A side card used to break ties between otherwise equal-ranking hands when poker rules call for it.
M
- Made hand
- A hand with current showdown value, as opposed to a draw that still needs to improve.
- Muck
- To discard a hand without exposing it, when the rules permit.
N
- Nuts
- The best possible hand given the current board and game rules.
O
- Open raise
- The first voluntary raise preflop after the blinds/antes have been posted.
- Out
- An unseen card that is assumed to improve a hand to the result being evaluated.
- Overcard
- A card higher in rank than a referenced card or board card; for example, an ace is an overcard to a king-high flop.
P
- Position
- Where a player sits relative to the dealer button and betting order. See poker position.
- Pot
- The chips or money being contested in the current hand.
- Pot odds
- The price the pot is offering on a call, normally compared with the chance a call will succeed. See pot odds.
- Preflop
- The betting round before community cards are dealt in Texas Hold’em and Omaha.
R
- Raise
- Increase the size of the current wager, subject to the game’s betting rules.
- Range
- The set of hands a player can plausibly hold in a situation rather than one exact hand.
- River
- The fifth and final community card in Hold’em and Omaha.
S
- Showdown
- The stage where remaining players expose eligible hands to determine the winner after betting is complete. See showdown rules.
- Side pot
- A separate pot created when one or more players are all-in for less than other players continue to wager.
- Small blind (SB)
- The smaller standard forced blind bet, normally posted immediately left of the dealer button in multi-handed Hold’em. See blinds explained.
- SPR
- Stack-to-pot ratio: effective stack size divided by the pot size, usually evaluated at the start of a postflop street. See SPR.
- Street
- A stage of the hand associated with a betting round, such as preflop, flop, turn or river.
T
- Tilt
- Emotional or cognitive disruption that leads to worse poker decisions. See tilt control.
- Turn
- The fourth community card in Hold’em and Omaha.
U
- Under the gun (UTG)
- The first position to act preflop in a standard multi-handed Hold’em hand after the blinds.
V
- Value bet
- A bet made because worse hands are expected to call often enough to make betting preferable. See value betting.
- Variance
- Natural short-term fluctuation in results caused by uncertain outcomes even when decisions are sound.