Glossary

With all those different terms, expressions and abbreviations, it's easy to get lost in the online poker jungle. Here's a little glossary to help you find your way.

Before sitting down...

Poker Rooms, Cardrooms Those are the terms designating the places where you'll permanently find a great variety of poker tables and stakes. Entry is free, but cardrooms make their profit by charging the players an hourly fee or by taking a small cut of every pot played.

Cash game Open game played for money. You can enter/leave the table at any time with your winnings. If you loose what you have in front of you, you can keep playing by buying more chips.

Tournament (or tourney) It's a poker competition. Differs from cash-game : the entry fee (the same for every player) is fixed in advance and feed the « prize-pool » that will be redistributed to the winning players (usually those coming out on top)

Sit-and-go Tournament with a limited number of players (one table usually, but can extend to several tables) that gets started as soon as the fixed number of players has been reached.

Satellite, supersatellite Tournaments where, for a small entry fee, you can qualify for a bigger tournament, like the WSOP world championship event ($10,000 buy-in)

Buy-in The amount you're risking to sit in a cash-game or enter a tournament.

Rebuy The act of buying more chips after losing your initial stack (the chip you had in front of you)

Add-on In a tournament, the last re-buy you can make before the rebuy period ends.

Freezout Tournament where you can't rebuy. Losing all your chips means you are out of the tournament.

Chips Circular token used for the purpose of betting. Usually made of several colors, each color corresponding to a different value.

Bankroll The total amount of money a poker player has available to play.

Button Object placed in front of the player to indicate he is the dealer. Very useful in cardrooms and casino where the cards aren't dealt by the players themselves, but by the house's dealer.

Blinds Forced bets that the first (small blind) and second (big blind) players to the left of the dealer put down on the table before the cards are dealt. The amount of the blinds dictates the structure of the game and its importance. Big blind is usually twice the small blind amount.

Antes In some cash-games and tournaments, the antes are the bets that every player (not just the two players located on the left of the dealer) put down on the table before the cards get dealt. Another way to make the game more expensive.

Under the gun (UTG) Designates the first player to act during a Texas Hold'Em hand. Obviously a very uncomfortable position.

Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo (High Low), Stud Name of the most commons forms of modern poker, Texas Hold'em being, by far, the most popular.

"Dealer's choice" Game where the player on the button picks his game of choice before the hand starts.

Limit, Potlimit, Nolimit All the different forms of betting. In Limit, you bet and raise according to fixed amounts. In Pot-Limit, you can only bet up to the current size of the pot. In No-Limit, you can bet as much as you want at any time.

Board Designates the 5 community cards that unfold on the green felt. They are commune and known to every player. The dealer first deals three cards (the flop) then the turn (4^th street) and finally the river (5^th street)

Pot The amount of chips currently in the middle. The pot gets bigger as the players make their wagers.

Check-raise Strategy that operates in two times : first, you check, then you proceed to raise after your opponent bets. Can be used as a bluff to make your opponent thinks you're holding a big hand.

Slowplay Betting small (or not betting at all) with a big hand to trap your opponent.

« All in ! » The verbal action of betting all your chips.

Showdown Revealing your hole cards when a hand is over. The best hand that has been turned face up wins the pot. If two players are holding the same hand, the pot is split.

Kicker When two players make the same pair or the same three of a kind, their second card (the kicker)² is used to designate the winner. Let's say one has A-T and the other has A-J on a A-2-5-7-Q flop. In that case Ace-Jack makes the best five card hands and wins. However, if the flop is something like A-2-2-6-K, this is a split pot cause both players have the same five-card hand (which is two pair with a King kicker, A-A-2-2-K) Always take a careful look at the boards to avoir confusion !

Draw You're « drawing » when you need cards to improve your hand. You're usually drawing either to a flush or a straight.

Backdoor An unlikely draw that happened thanks to good cards on the turn and the river (like getting a flush with A-K of diamonds when the flop only had one diamond). Odds of hitting a backdoor flush or straight are very slim.

Rush You're on a rush when you win several hands in a row.

Bluff Do you really need an explaination for that one ?

How to talk like the pros

Bad Beat A very unlucky hand where you started as a clear favorite. You'll usually tell a bad beat story at the bar after your elimination from the tournament. « I had Aces and he called me with 9-2... »

Fish, donkey Terms which describes (in a polite way) a bad player. Like the guy who called you with 9-2 to beat your Aces.

Steaming, on tilt Expressions that applies to players who loose their control after getting unlucky (you know, Aces against 9-2, that kind of stuff), often leading them to loose even more.

Tight A player who doesn't enter many pots and only play good cards. As opposed to a loose player, who apparently wants to see every flop no matter what he's holding.

Lobby (or main screen) The home page of the website, where you select the cash-games and tournaments you want to play.

Account The page where you can check all your personna data. The account is linked to the cashier : the place where you can make a money deposit, or a money withdrawal.

Play money and Real money If you're not ready to play with real money, you can try our play money tables, where you won't risk anything.

Freeroll A free tournament with no entry fee. However, some freerolls have a real money prize-pool offered by the website.

Waiting list When a cash-game table is full, you always have the possibility to put your name on the waiting list, so that you can get a seat as soon as available.

Sitting out You sit out when you leave the table while being still sat. Beware : in a tournament, you'll still have to post the blinds if you sit out, wasting precious chips.

Hand history Click on the « hand history » button if you wanna study the replay of a hand recently played.

Online chat : keep it short...

LOL Laughing Out Loud.

LMAO Laughing My Ass Off.

ROFL Rolling on the Floor Laughing.

NH Nice Hand.

VNH Very Nice Hand, or GH (Good Hand) Not really a compliment but rather a way of being polite. You'll usually say it to your opponent after losing a pot. Yes, we know, it hurts.

TY Thank You, or TX (Thanks) This is how you answer to NH.

GC Good Call. Something to say when your opponent sniffed out your bluff.

GG Good Game. A way of saying goodbye to someone who just got eliminated.

GL Good Luck.

"Sorry, misclick" A misclick in a unwanted click on your mouse, made inadvertently. Useful when you just made a dumb move and won the hand in an awful way (say, 9-2 vs A-A all-in before the flop) : blame your equipment !

« ZZZ » Wake up !

Unfortunately, you'll sometimes get on the receiving end of some insulting banter such as « moron », « F*** you » (no need to explain here) or WTF (« What the F*** » which expresses confusion)

Keep it zen and respect your opponents. Games are being watched by our administrators, and you could find yourself kicked out of the game after being rude to your opponents.