Hero and villain

Also: hero, villain

The conventions used when writing up a hand: 'hero' is the player telling the story, 'villain' any opponent. The words carry no moral judgement — every villain is a hero in his own hand history.

Example. Hero opens A-K from the cutoff, villain three-bets from the big blind.

Related terms

Full glossary

Hero call

Calling a big bet with a weak hand — a bluff-catcher — because you believe the opponent is bluffing. The oppos…

Tell

Any unintentional behaviour that reveals information about a player's hand: a glance at chips, a change in bre…

Angle shooting

Using technically legal but unethical tricks to gain an edge — pretending to fold, hiding big chips, ambiguous…

Bad beat

Losing a hand in which you were a heavy favourite when the money went in. Many rooms run a bad beat jackpot th…

Calling station

A passive player who calls far too often and rarely raises or folds. Never bluff a calling station; value-bet …

Cooler

A hand where two players both hold very strong holdings and the money is going in no matter what — kings again…

Crusher

A player who beats a game by a wide margin over a long period — the best regular in the room. Being called a c…

Downswing

A prolonged losing stretch caused mainly by variance rather than bad play. Its opposite is an upswing or 'heat…