Equity

Your share of the pot in the long run, expressed as a percentage: how often your hand wins (or ties) against your opponent's hand or range if all the cards were dealt out. A flush draw on the flop has roughly 35% equity against a made hand.

Related terms

Full glossary

Pot odds

The price the pot is offering you on a call, compared with your chance of winning. Facing a 50 bet into a 100 …

Range

All the hands a player could plausibly hold given how they have played so far. Thinking in ranges rather than …

Outs

The cards still in the deck that would turn your hand into a winner. An open-ended straight draw has eight out…

Alpha (bluff break-even)

The percentage of the time a bluff needs to work to break even: bet ÷ (bet + pot). It is the mirror image of m…

Balance

Having a mix of strong hands and bluffs in the same line so that an opponent cannot tell which one you hold an…

Bankroll management

The discipline of only playing stakes your bankroll can survive. Rules of thumb: 20–50 buy-ins for cash games,…

Blind steal

A late-position raise with a weak hand whose main purpose is to win the blinds and antes uncontested. Steals f…

Block bet

A small bet made out of position, often on the river, with a medium-strength hand to set a cheap price and dis…