A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Added Cash
Added Cash means that there is money added to the regular prize pool. The added value is predetermined and therefore independent of the size of the regular prize pool.

All In
When all your chips are in the pot.

B

Bankroll
Amount of money you have that you can play poker with.

Bet
To put money in the pot.

Big stack
Indicates that you will start the tournament with a much larger stack than in standard tournaments.

Blind
Money posted directly to the left of the button, before the cards are dealt.

Blind period
The time each blind lasts. Typical blind periods last for 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 minutes.

Board
The face up cards on the table.

Button (dealer button)
Physical and symbolic designation of the person who is dealing.

C

Call
To match other players' bet.

Caller
Player who makes a call.

Cannonball
A tournament with short time limits to start out with and later on in the tournament you will have more normally paced blinds periods.

Cash game (ring game)
A cash game lets you enter/exit a poker game at any time. You enter a game with a minimum amount of chips (and sometimes a maximum amount).

Check
Not to bet. A player can check when no other player has bet yet. This moves the action on to the next player.

Check-raise
To check and then raise within one betting round. You may check initially and then, when it is your turn to act, raise someone else's bet.

Community card (board card)
Card that may be used by each player at the table.

D

Deal
Giving out the cards to the players and board, through an entire hand.

Dealer
The person who is dealing the cards, and therefore decides the position of each player.

Down cards
A player's pocket cards, which are dealt face down.

Draw
Situation in which a player needs one card to complete a poker hand.

Drawing odds
Calculation of odds: the possibility to improve a hand with the following cards.

F

Fixed Limit Texas Hold'em
The amounts of the bets are preset.

Flight
This prevents players from having to play too many hours straight. All players who still remain in all the different starting flights then merge into a final flight played on a separate time.

Fold
Concede the pot by throwing your hand away.

Freeroll
Most often, a freeroll refers to a tournament with no entry free. For example, a $5,000 freeroll means that the poker room is putting up $5,000 in prize money for a tournament, and there is no entry fee into the tournament.

Freezeout
A term, or buy-in rule, used to state that a tournament does not feature re-buys or add-ons. This rule means that if a player loses all his chips in a tournament, he cannot in any way re-enter the tournament.

G

Guaranteed
Tournaments where a predetermined prize pool is guaranteed; this is regardless of the number of entrants. If the actual prize pool generated by player buy-ins is smaller than the guaranteed amount, the hosting poker site covers the rest.

H

Hand
Refers to your cards, or to the process of dealing the cards until the winning of the pot.

Hit a card
Catch a good card or a card that wins the pot for you.

Hybrid
Tournament type that combines the qualifier structure with the prize structure of a cash guarantee tournament by awarding both tickets and cash.

K

Kicker
Also called a side card, a card in a poker hand that does not itself take part in determining the rank of the hand, but that may be used to break ties between hands of the same rank.

L

Loose
Style of play in which you play a lot of hands.

N

No Limit Texas Hold'em
Players may bet any amount at any time.

Nuts
The best possible hand given the face up cards.

O

Outs
Number of cards required to make a hand.

P

Player points
Points distributed by online poker sites to players when playing real money games; cash games or tournaments. The points can be used on the poker sites to collect various bonuses, sign up for special tournaments and to release some freeroll tournament cash prizes.

Pocket cards (hole cards)
Player´s two facedown cards (Down cards).

Position play
Player strategy where the position always is a factor to consider when deciding what hands to play.

Pot
Money gathered in the middle of the table during a hand.

Pot limit
Variation of poker games in which the maximum bet a player may make is the size of the pot at the time the bet is made.

Pot odds
Calculation of odds: the size of the pot divided by the cost of calling a bet.

Q

Qualifiers
Instead of cash prizes, these tournaments distribute tickets to other tournaments with a higher buy-in.

R

Raise
Add a bet to an opponent's bet.

Rake
The commission taken by a poker site when hosting a poker game. It is generally 1-5% of the pot in each poker hand, up to a predetermined maximum amount.

Rebuy
The rebuy feature allows players who lose all their chips in a tournament to buy back into it again within a set time frame.

Restricted
Status of a tournament that indicates that it is only open to players who fit a certain requirement. An example of a requirement could be that a player must reside from a specific country or that a player is new to the site.

S

Satellites
Tournaments in which the last player standing wins a seat to another tournament.

Scheduled Tournaments
These tournaments start at a scheduled start time.

Showdown
In a contested hand a player must show all cards in the hand face-up on the table to win any part of the pot.

Side prize pool
Tournaments featuring side prize pools.

Sit and go tournaments
Sit-and-go tournaments (SNG or S&G) is a kind of poker tournaments where instead of having a scheduled start time, it begins as soon as there are enough players interested in playing. As soon as 10 people (or what maximum number of players the table holds) sit down at the table, the tournament starts.

Slow Play
Under-betting a strong hand in order to lure other players into calling.

Stakes
Amount of money being played for.

T

Texas Hold'em no limit
Players may bet any amount at any time.

Tilt
Term used when someone is playing far too many hands because he is emotionally unbalanced.

Top pair
If there are three cards of different ranks on the flop and your pair is the highest one.

Tournament
To enter an tournament, you pay a fixed price and you will receive a preset amount of chips. Everyone that enters the tournament will receive the same amount of chips.

Turbo
Indicates a tournament with a high paced blind structure, i.e. the blind periods are very short. The blind periods can even be just a couple of minutes.

U

Under the gun (UTG)
Position of the player directly to the left of the big blind.

V

Value Bet (Bet for Value)
The maximum bet you think your opponent will call.