Poker has its own vocabulary, and it can be daunting at first sight. This glossary focuses on Texas Hold’em, the most widely played version, and explains the terms you will hear in the first hour at a table or online. It covers vocabulary and basic rules, not strategy, and it makes no promise about results: poker involves skill and luck, and you can lose money.
The basic flow of a Hold’em hand
- Hole cards
- The two private cards dealt face down to each player.
- Community cards (the board)
- Shared cards dealt face up that everyone can use.
- Flop
- The first three community cards, dealt together.
- Turn
- The fourth community card.
- River
- The fifth and final community card.
- Showdown
- When remaining players reveal their hands and the best five-card hand wins.
- Pot
- The total money bet in a hand so far.
Positions and forced bets
- Dealer button
- A marker showing the nominal dealer. It moves one seat clockwise after each hand.
- Small blind and big blind
- Forced bets posted by the two players to the left of the button, which create a pot to play for. The big blind is normally double the small blind.
- Ante
- A small forced bet from every player, used in some games and later tournament stages.
- Position
- Where you sit relative to the button. Acting later is generally an advantage because you see what others do first.
- Under the gun
- The first player to act before the flop.
Actions
- Fold
- Throw away your hand and leave the pot.
- Check
- Pass the action without betting, allowed only when nobody has bet in that round.
- Bet
- Put chips in first during a betting round.
- Call
- Match the current bet.
- Raise
- Increase the current bet.
- All-in
- Bet all of your remaining chips.
- Re-raise
- Raise after someone else has raised.
Hand rankings, best to worst
- Royal flush: A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit
- Straight flush: five consecutive cards of one suit
- Four of a kind
- Full house: three of a kind plus a pair
- Flush: five cards of one suit
- Straight: five consecutive cards of mixed suits
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- One pair
- High card
Common poker phrases
- Nuts
- The best possible hand given the cards on the board.
- Draw
- A hand that needs one more card to become strong, such as four cards to a flush.
- Outs
- The cards left in the deck that would improve your hand.
- Pot odds
- The ratio between the size of the pot and the cost of a call, used to judge whether a call makes sense.
- Bluff
- A bet or raise made with a weak hand to make others fold.
- Tilt
- Playing badly because of frustration or emotion, one of the most common ways players lose money.
- Rake
- The commission a cardroom takes from pots. It is how poker sites and casinos earn their money.
- Buy-in
- The amount you pay to sit at a table or enter a tournament.
- Cash game and tournament
- In a cash game, chips equal real money and you can leave any time. In a tournament, you pay an entry fee, receive tournament chips and play until you are eliminated or win prizes.
Tips for absolute beginners
- Learn the hand rankings first so you never have to guess what beats what.
- Start with very low stakes or free-play tables, and treat the money as the price of entertainment.
- Watch a few hands before joining a table.
- Take breaks if you feel tilted, and stop when your session budget is gone.
One last reminder
Knowing the words does not make anyone a winning player. Skill helps in poker over the long run, but luck dominates short sessions, and the rake means most players lose over time. Keep your stakes small and your expectations realistic.
Cash games versus tournaments in practice
In a cash game you can sit down, play a few hands and leave, and the chips in front of you are the real money you brought. In a tournament, you buy in once, receive a stack of tournament chips and play until you are out or the prizes are decided. Tournaments cap your loss at the buy-in, which some beginners find easier to budget, but they can last for hours, so plan your time as well as your money.
Online versus live tables
Online play is faster, so you will see many more hands per hour than in a casino, and the same terms are used in both settings. Because more hands means more money staked in a session, beginners often find it useful to choose stakes lower than they would in a live game and to switch on the time and loss limits that licensed sites provide.
Where to practise the vocabulary
Many sites offer free-play tables where you can watch how betting rounds run and hear the terms used in the action log without risking money. Reading a few hand histories with this glossary beside you is a good way to make the words stick.
Etiquette and honesty
Do not reveal your cards while a hand is in progress, avoid criticising others’ play, and never collude with other players. Collusion is cheating and can lead to bans and legal trouble. Keep your bankroll separate from money needed for essentials.
Once you have the words down, our casino terms glossary and betting terms guide cover the wider vocabulary of gambling.
18+ (21+ where local law requires) only. Play responsibly. Gambling involves risk and no strategy or guide can guarantee a win. Only play with money you can afford to lose. If gambling stops being fun, see our responsible gambling page for tools and helplines.