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Poker glossary
The terms you'll actually hear at an amusement table, defined briefly. Keep this tab open while you read the other articles.
- Open
- To be the first to raise pre-flop. Contrasted with limping, which means calling the big blind to enter.
- Raise
- An action that increases the current bet. Declared by total: "raise to 60", not "raise by 40".
- Three-bet (3-bet)
- A pre-flop reraise against the first open-raise. The BB and the initial raise count as the first two bets, so this is the third.
- Four-bet (4-bet)
- A reraise over a 3-bet. Usually a very strong hand, or a read-based bluff.
- Ante
- A small forced bet posted before cards are dealt, either by every player or by a single designated seat. Seeds the pot.
- Straddle
- An optional extra forced bet larger than the blinds, which shifts the action order and the effective stakes. House rules vary.
- Float
- Calling a flop c-bet without a made hand, intending to take the pot away on a later street.
- C-bet (continuation bet)
- A bet made on the flop by the same player who raised pre-flop, continuing the aggression.
- Check-raise
- Checking on your turn, then raising after another player bets. Used for value or as a planned trap.
- Donk bet
- A bet led out on the next street by the player who was not the previous street's aggressor. Named for "donkey", but not inherently bad.
- Value bet
- A bet made with a hand you believe is best, aiming to get called by worse.
- Bluff
- A bet or raise with a weak hand, designed to make better hands fold.
- Semi-bluff
- A bluff with a hand that has room to improve (a draw). If called, you still have outs; if folded to, you take it now.
- Equity
- Your hand's probability of winning at showdown, given all currently known information. Expressed as a percentage.
- Pot odds
- The ratio of the chips you must call to the total pot you would play for. You need equity above that ratio for the call to break even.
- Implied odds
- Pot odds adjusted for chips you expect to win on later streets if your draw comes in.
- SPR (Stack-to-Pot Ratio)
- Effective stack divided by pot size at the start of the flop. Low SPR pushes toward commitment; high SPR leaves room to maneuver.
- Nut
- Used as a prefix: nut flush, nut straight — meaning the best possible hand of that kind on this board.
- The nuts
- The strongest possible hand on the current board.
- Draw
- An unfinished hand that could complete into something strong with upcoming cards — e.g. flush draw, straight draw.
- Out
- A specific remaining card that completes your hand. A flush draw has nine outs; an OESD has eight.
- Runner-runner
- A hand that needs both the turn and the river to improve. Low probability; similar idea to backdoor.
- Backdoor
- A latent draw that requires two more favorable cards to complete. Worth something when the "backdoor" is to the nuts.
- Gutshot
- An inside straight draw — you need a specific rank in the middle of a range. Four outs.
- OESD (open-ended straight draw)
- A straight draw that completes on either end. Eight outs.
- Overpair
- A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.
- Set
- Three of a kind made with a pocket pair plus a matching card on the board. Hidden and strong.
- Trips
- Three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair on the board. More visible to opponents than a set.
- Kicker
- A comparison card within the best five-card hand that is outside a pair or other made group. Compare relevant kickers from highest to lowest; identical five-card hands tie. A sixth or seventh card cannot break the tie.
- Board texture
- Whether the board is dry (few draws possible) or wet (many draws), plus its suit and connectivity. Shapes strategy choices.
- Position
- Your place in the action order. Later seats act with more information and are structurally stronger.
- UTG
- Under the gun. The first pre-flop action position to the BB's left at a table with three or more players.
- BTN
- The button. Marks the dealer position and is last in the initial post-flop action order.
- SB
- Small blind. Posts the smaller forced bet. With three or more players it is to the BTN's left; heads-up the BTN also posts the SB.
- BB
- Big blind. The seat to the SB's left, posting the base forced bet.
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Donk-bet and kicker definitions checked on 2026-10-05 against Wikipedia's Glossary of poker terms and Kicker (poker). The official PokerStars glossary and rule explanation checked on 2026-10-02 are region-restricted and cannot be opened from Japan, so they are no longer linked.
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