outsglossary85 terms

Glossary

All-in: Betting every chip you have in front of you.
Ante: A small forced bet every player puts in before the deal.

Backdoor draw: A draw that needs both the turn and the river to come in.
Bad beat: Losing a hand you were a big favourite to win.
Big blind: The larger of the two forced bets, posted two seats left of the button.
Blinds: The two forced bets that start the pot before any cards are dealt.
Blocker: A card in your hand that makes certain hands impossible for your opponent.
Bluff: A bet with a hand that can only win if the other player folds.
Board: The shared face-up cards in the middle of the table.
Button: The dealer position. It acts last after the flop and moves one seat left each hand.
Buy-in: The amount it costs to sit down at a game or enter a tournament.

C-bet: Continuation bet: a bet on the flop by the player who raised before it.
Call: Matching the current bet to stay in the hand.
Check: Passing without betting when nobody has bet yet.
Check-raise: Checking, then raising after someone else bets.
Combo: One specific two-card holding, such as A♠ K♥. AK has 16 combos.
Cooler: A hand where both players hold something strong and one loses a lot through no mistake.
Counterfeit: When the board improves so that your hole cards stop playing, like two higher pairs landing above your pocket pair.
Cutoff: The seat directly to the right of the button.

Donk bet: A bet into the player who had the betting lead on the previous street.
Draw: A hand that is not made yet but can improve, such as four cards to a flush.

Effective stack: The smaller of two stacks. It is the most either player can win or lose.
Equity: Your share of the pot if the hand were played out from here many times.
Expected value: The average result of a decision over every way it could turn out.
Exploit: Changing your strategy to take advantage of an opponent’s mistakes.

Flop: The first three shared cards, dealt face up together.
Flush: Five cards of the same suit.
Fold: Giving up the hand and any chips already in the pot.
Fold equity: The part of a bet’s value that comes from the other player folding.
Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank.
4-bet: A re-raise of a 3-bet.
Full house: Three cards of one rank and two of another.

GTO: Game theory optimal: playing your side of a Nash equilibrium.
Gutshot: A straight draw that needs one specific rank in the middle, four outs.

Heads-up: A hand or game with only two players.
Hijack: The seat two to the right of the button.
Hole cards: Your two private cards.

ICM: Independent chip model: a way to convert tournament chips into prize money.
Implied odds: Pot odds that also count what you expect to win on later streets.
In position: Acting after your opponent on the flop, turn and river.

Kicker: The highest unpaired card, used to break ties between equal hands.

Limp: Calling the big blind before the flop instead of raising.

MDF: Minimum defence frequency: how often you must continue so a bluff can’t profit automatically.

Nash equilibrium: A pair of strategies where neither player gains by changing alone.
Nuts: The best possible hand on a given board.

Offsuit: Two hole cards of different suits.
Open: The first raise before the flop.
Open-ended straight draw: Four cards in a row, completed by a card at either end. Eight outs.
Outs: Unseen cards that would give you the winning hand.
Overbet: A bet bigger than the pot.
Overpair: A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.

Pocket pair: Two hole cards of the same rank.
Polarized: A range of very strong hands and bluffs, with little in between.
Position: Where you sit relative to the button. Acting later means acting with more information.
Pot: All the chips bet so far in the hand.
Pot odds: The price of a call compared with what you can win, written as the share you must win.
Preflop: Everything that happens before the flop.

Raise: Increasing the current bet.
Rake: The fee the house takes from each pot.
Range: Every hand a player could hold in a given spot.
Resulting: Judging a decision by how it turned out rather than by whether it was right.
River: The fifth and last shared card.
Runout: The cards still to come, or the cards that came.

Semi-bluff: A bluff with a draw, which can still win if it gets called.
Set: Three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one card on the board.
Shove: Going all-in.
Showdown: Turning the cards face up after the last bet to see who wins.
Side pot: A separate pot for chips that an all-in player can’t match.
Slowplay: Checking or calling with a strong hand to hide its strength.
Small blind: The smaller forced bet, posted directly left of the button.
Split pot: A pot divided equally because the best hands tie.
Stack: The chips a player has in front of them.
Straight: Five cards in a row of any suits.
Straight flush: Five cards in a row, all of one suit.
Street: One round of cards and betting: preflop, flop, turn or river.
Suited: Two hole cards of the same suit.

3-bet: The second raise in a betting round, a re-raise.
Tilt: Playing worse because of frustration.
Top pair: Pairing the highest card on the board.
Trips: Three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board.
Turn: The fourth shared card.

Under the gun: The first seat to act before the flop, left of the big blind.

Value bet: A bet that wants to be called by worse hands.
Variance: How far results spread around their expected value.

Wheel: The lowest straight: A-2-3-4-5. The ace plays low.

in context

Lessons and explainers link a term to this page the first time it appears. The link is a dotted underline, not a colour. Hover or tap it for the definition.

specimen

Nine of those cards are hearts. They are your outs.

linking

/glossary#pot-odds

Every term has an anchor made from its name.