Poker glossary: 271 terms explained, from the rules to solver vocabulary

Poker has a vocabulary of its own and almost none of it is explained at the table. This glossary now runs to 271 entries, written to be read in two registers: a sentence or two that answers the question immediately, then as much depth as the term actually warrants. Browse by letter or by category, and follow the links between entries - the terms that matter are the ones that connect to other terms.

What is in here

The glossary covers four kinds of word, and they are worth distinguishing because they are learned at different stages.

The rules and hand names come first: what the nuts is on a given board, how a side pot forms when a short stack is all-in, what a royal flush beats and how often it actually arrives. These are the entries a player needs on day one, and they are the ones most often half-learned.

The table and format jargon comes next - the language of a structure sheet and a cashier. Under the gun, the cutoff, a straddle, rake and its cap, a bounty or a mystery bounty, late registration, a satellite, a sit and go, a spin-and-go. A player who cannot read a structure sheet is paying for information they could have had for nothing.

The strategy vocabulary is the third layer and the largest: ranges and how they are counted in combinations, equity and fold equity, pot odds and implied odds, stack-to-pot ratio, the independent chip model, minimum defence frequency, polarised and merged ranges, blockers, push-fold. Much of this language arrived with solvers, and a good deal of it is used loosely even by strong players. Where a term has a precise meaning, these entries give it.

The fourth group is slang and table culture: the fish, the nit, the whale, the maniac, angle shooting, a slow roll, rabbit hunting, ratholing. Some of it is harmless colour and some of it describes conduct that gets a player barred, and the entries say which is which.

How to read an entry

Each term opens with a definition written to stand alone - enough to settle the question without reading further. Beneath it, where the term deserves it, sits the longer explanation: how the concept behaves in practice, where it is commonly misunderstood, and what it costs to get wrong. Many entries carry an example, the related terms worth reading next, and the alternative names the same idea travels under, so a player who searched for SNG lands on sit and go and a player who searched for UTG lands on under the gun.

Where the vocabulary is changing

Two parts of the language are still moving. Solver vocabulary is one: terms like node locking, indifference, geometric sizing and uncapped range were specialist a few years ago and are now ordinary in study groups. Operator and format vocabulary is the other, because rooms invent names faster than the game invents concepts - several lottery sit-and-go formats, fast-fold variants and reward schemes are brand names for ideas that already had names. Where that is the case, the entry says so rather than treating marketing as terminology. The newest example is the jackpot knockout: GGPoker's Ocean KO, Winamax's Space KO and Betclic's Smash KO are three brand names for one mechanic, and the glossary files the mechanic under its own entry as well as naming each room's version.

Missing a term

The glossary is extended with each update, with a bias toward the terms a player meets in real games rather than the ones that fill out an alphabet. If something you searched for is not here, write to info@poker-in.com and it will go into the next batch.