ABC poker
#Plain English
A straightforward, value-heavy style that avoids unnecessary fancy plays.
Why it matters
Useful against weaker players and in low-complexity spots where solid fundamentals make most of the money.
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Poker Glossary
Understand poker language in plain terms. Search a term, read the meaning, then see why it matters at the table.
105poker terms
105 terms
Ace-high
#Plain English
A five-card poker hand with no pair or better where the highest card is an ace.
Why it matters
Knowing when ace-high has showdown value helps you avoid turning a hand with value into an unnecessary bluff.
Action
#Plain English
The betting decisions made during a hand: check, bet, call, raise, or fold.
Why it matters
Reading the action tells you how the pot developed and what ranges are still plausible.
Aggression factor (AF)
#Plain English
A postflop statistic comparing bets and raises with calls. A higher number generally means a player acts more aggressively.
Why it matters
AF can help describe a player's style, but it needs enough hands and context before you draw strong conclusions.
Aggression frequency (AFq)
#Plain English
The percentage of opportunities where a player takes an aggressive action such as betting or raising.
Why it matters
AFq shows how often aggression happens, while AF describes the relationship between aggressive actions and calls.
All-in
#Plain English
Putting all of your remaining chips into the pot.
Why it matters
All-ins create the clearest equity and EV situations and are especially important in tournaments and short-stack play.
All-in EV
#Plain English
An estimate of what your result would average if all-in situations were repeated many times according to your equity when the money went in.
Why it matters
It helps separate short-term card luck from the quality of your all-in situations.
Ante
#Plain English
A forced contribution posted in addition to the blinds, usually in tournaments.
Why it matters
Antes increase the pot before the cards are played, so they make stealing blinds and defending your stack more valuable.
Backdoor draw
#Plain English
A draw that needs helpful cards on both the turn and river to complete.
Why it matters
Backdoor equity can make some marginal flop calls or bluffs more reasonable, but it is much weaker than a direct draw.
Bad beat
#Plain English
Losing a hand after getting the money in as a large favorite or after an unlikely sequence of cards.
Why it matters
Bad beats are emotionally memorable, but one result does not tell you whether the decision was good.
Balance
#Plain English
Using enough different strong hands and bluffs in the same line that opponents cannot easily exploit you.
Why it matters
Balance matters most against observant opponents; against weak players, direct exploitation is often more profitable.
Barrel
#Plain English
A bet made on one street after betting the previous street, such as a turn bet after a flop continuation bet.
Why it matters
Understanding second and third barrels helps you plan complete lines instead of making one isolated decision at a time.
BB
#Plain English
Big blind. It can mean the forced blind itself or a stack measurement, such as 25 BB.
Why it matters
Expressing stacks in big blinds makes tournament and cash-game stack depths easy to compare.
bb/100
#Plain English
Big blinds won or lost per 100 hands, a common cash-game win-rate measurement.
Why it matters
It normalizes results across stake sizes, although large samples are needed before it becomes a reliable measure of skill.
Big blind
#Plain English
The larger of the two standard forced blinds.
Why it matters
It sets the basic unit for stack depth, bet sizing, and many tournament decisions.
Big blind ante (BBA)
#Plain English
A tournament ante paid by the player in the big blind instead of collecting a separate ante from every player.
Why it matters
It increases the cost of each orbit and affects M-ratio and stealing incentives.
Blocker
#Plain English
A card in your hand that makes certain opponent holdings less likely because you hold one of the cards needed to make them.
Why it matters
Blockers matter in bluffing, bluff-catching, and range construction, especially on later streets.
Bluff
#Plain English
Betting or raising with a hand that usually cannot win at showdown, hoping better hands will fold.
Why it matters
Good bluffs rely on fold equity, believable ranges, and appropriate blockers—not simply aggression.
Bluff-catcher
#Plain English
A hand that usually loses to an opponent's value bets but beats their bluffs.
Why it matters
The key question with a bluff-catcher is whether the opponent is bluffing often enough to justify a call.
Board
#Plain English
The community cards shared by all players.
Why it matters
Board texture determines which ranges connect, which draws exist, and which player is likely to have the stronger range.
Broadway
#Plain English
Cards from ten through ace, or a straight made with T-J-Q-K-A.
Why it matters
Broadway cards make many strong top-pair and straight combinations and are central to preflop hand strength.
Bubble
#Plain English
The stage of a tournament immediately before the remaining players reach the paid positions.
Why it matters
ICM pressure can make correct bubble strategy very different from ordinary chip-EV strategy.
Button (BTN)
#Plain English
The dealer position, usually the best position at the table because it acts last after the flop.
Why it matters
The button can profitably play a wide range because positional advantage is so valuable.
Call
#Plain English
Matching the current bet instead of raising or folding.
Why it matters
Calling keeps weaker hands and bluffs in the opponent's range but gives up the initiative.
Calling station
#Plain English
A player who calls too often and folds too little.
Why it matters
Against calling stations, value-bet more often and reduce low-equity bluffs.
Cash game
#Plain English
A poker game where chips represent real money and players may usually buy in or leave between hands.
Why it matters
Cash strategy differs from tournaments because blinds do not rise and there is no prize-payout pressure.
Check
#Plain English
Passing the action without betting when no bet is currently facing you.
Why it matters
Checking can control pot size, protect your checking range, induce bluffs, or simply reflect a weak hand.
Check-raise
#Plain English
Checking first and then raising after another player bets.
Why it matters
A check-raise can represent strong value, draws, or bluffs and puts significant pressure on capped ranges.
Cold call
#Plain English
Calling a raise when you have not previously invested chips in the pot on that betting round.
Why it matters
Cold-calling ranges are often tighter because you are entering against demonstrated strength without closing the action.
Combo
#Plain English
One exact card combination that makes up a hand category. For example, pocket aces has six possible combinations.
Why it matters
Thinking in combinations makes range and blocker analysis much more precise than thinking only in hand names.
Continuation bet (c-bet)
#Plain English
A postflop bet made by the player who was the preflop aggressor.
Why it matters
C-bet frequency and sizing should depend on board texture, range advantage, position, and opponent tendencies.
Cutoff (CO)
#Plain English
The seat immediately to the right of the button.
Why it matters
It is a strong late position that can open a wide range and frequently attack the blinds.
Donk bet
#Plain English
A postflop bet made into the previous street's aggressor before that aggressor has acted.
Why it matters
Donk betting can be strategically valid, but unusual frequencies often reveal how a player constructs their range.
Double barrel
#Plain English
Betting the turn after making a continuation bet on the flop.
Why it matters
The turn changes equities and ranges, so a good double barrel needs a reason beyond simply having bet the flop.
Draw
#Plain English
A hand that is not yet made but can improve to a strong hand on a later card, such as a flush or straight draw.
Why it matters
Draw strength affects equity, semi-bluff opportunities, and whether calling a bet is profitable.
Dry board
#Plain English
A board with few obvious straight or flush draws, such as K-7-2 rainbow.
Why it matters
Dry boards often produce fewer strong combinations and can favor small bet sizes in some range-vs-range situations.
Effective stack
#Plain English
The smaller of the relevant players' stacks. It is the maximum amount those players can win from each other.
Why it matters
Your strategic stack depth is the effective stack, not necessarily the number of chips sitting in front of you.
Equity
#Plain English
Your share of the pot based on how often your hand or range is expected to win or tie.
Why it matters
Equity is the foundation of pot odds, all-in decisions, draws, and expected-value calculations.
Expected value (EV)
#Plain English
The average amount a decision is expected to win or lose if the same situation were repeated many times.
Why it matters
EV is the core measure of decision quality. A good poker decision can lose today and still have positive EV.
Fish
#Plain English
Informal poker slang for a weak or inexperienced player.
Why it matters
The term is common, but describing specific tendencies—too loose, too passive, overfolding—is more useful for analysis.
Flat call
#Plain English
Calling a bet or raise instead of reraising.
Why it matters
Flatting can keep ranges wider and control pot size, but it may also invite other players into the pot.
Flop
#Plain English
The first three community cards, dealt together after preflop action.
Why it matters
The flop is where preflop ranges interact with an actual board and postflop strategy begins.
Flush
#Plain English
Five cards of the same suit.
Why it matters
Flush possibilities strongly affect board texture, draw equity, blockers, and value-betting decisions.
Fold
#Plain English
Giving up your hand and any claim to the current pot.
Why it matters
Folding is not losing a decision; it is often the highest-EV choice when continuing would lose more chips.
Fold equity
#Plain English
The value gained from the chance that an opponent folds to your bet or raise.
Why it matters
A semi-bluff can be profitable even without enough raw hand equity because you can win immediately when opponents fold.
Full house
#Plain English
Three cards of one rank plus two cards of another rank.
Why it matters
A full house is a very strong made hand, but paired boards can create multiple full-house combinations and important blocker effects.
GTO
#Plain English
Game Theory Optimal. A strategy designed so opponents cannot gain by exploiting predictable imbalances in your play.
Why it matters
GTO provides a strong baseline, but practical poker often involves adjusting away from it to exploit real opponents.
Gutshot
#Plain English
An inside straight draw needing one specific rank to complete the straight.
Why it matters
A gutshot usually has four direct outs, so it carries less equity than an open-ended straight draw.
Heads-up
#Plain English
A pot or game involving only two players.
Why it matters
Ranges become much wider heads-up because there are fewer opponents who can wake up with strong hands.
Hero
#Plain English
The player whose decisions are being analyzed, usually you.
Why it matters
Hand histories and analysis tools use Hero to distinguish your cards and actions from the other players.
Hijack (HJ)
#Plain English
A late-middle position, immediately before the cutoff in common table layouts.
Why it matters
The hijack can open considerably wider than early position because fewer players remain behind.
ICM
#Plain English
Independent Chip Model. A tournament model that converts chip stacks into approximate shares of remaining prize-pool value.
Why it matters
ICM explains why gaining and losing the same number of chips are not always equally valuable near pay jumps, bubbles, and final tables.
Implied odds
#Plain English
The additional money you may win on later streets if you complete your draw.
Why it matters
Implied odds can justify some calls that direct pot odds alone would reject, but only when future winnings are realistic.
In position (IP)
#Plain English
Acting after your opponent on postflop streets.
Why it matters
Position gives you more information before you act and generally allows you to realize equity more efficiently.
Initiative
#Plain English
The advantage of being the player who last bet or raised, especially going into the next street.
Why it matters
The player with initiative can often represent strong ranges naturally, though initiative is less important than actual range and board interaction.
Kicker
#Plain English
A side card used to break ties between otherwise similar hands, such as top pair with an ace kicker.
Why it matters
Kicker strength is a major reason why hands such as AK and A9 perform very differently on an ace-high board.
Limp
#Plain English
Entering the pot preflop by calling the big blind instead of raising.
Why it matters
Open-limping is uncommon in many modern strategies, though limping can be appropriate in some tournament, heads-up, and exploitative situations.
Loose
#Plain English
Playing a relatively large percentage of starting hands.
Why it matters
Loose does not automatically mean bad; the important question is whether the wider range is supported by position, skill, and opponent mistakes.
Lowjack (LJ)
#Plain English
A middle-position seat commonly used in 8-max and 9-max games.
Why it matters
Opening ranges widen as you move from early position toward the lowjack and later positions.
Made hand
#Plain English
A hand that already has meaningful showdown value rather than relying mainly on future cards to improve.
Why it matters
Knowing whether you have a made hand or draw helps determine whether your bet is for value, protection, or as a bluff.
M-ratio
#Plain English
Your tournament stack divided by the cost of one complete orbit of blinds and antes.
Why it matters
M shows how much time your stack has at the current blind level and complements the more common stack-in-big-blinds measurement.
Middle position (MP)
#Plain English
A seat between early and late position.
Why it matters
MP ranges are generally wider than early-position ranges but tighter than cutoff and button ranges.
Monotone board
#Plain English
A flop or board where all visible community cards are the same suit.
Why it matters
Monotone boards change flush availability, blockers, and which hands can comfortably bet for value.
Multiway pot
#Plain English
A pot involving three or more players.
Why it matters
Equity is shared among more ranges in multiway pots, so value thresholds usually rise and bluffing becomes more difficult.
Nit
#Plain English
A very tight player who enters few pots and is often strongly weighted toward good hands when showing aggression.
Why it matters
Against a true nit, you can often steal more pots but should respect unusually strong action.
Nuts
#Plain English
The best possible hand given the current board.
Why it matters
Identifying the nuts and near-nut hands is essential for value betting, bluffing with blockers, and avoiding expensive hand-reading mistakes.
Open-ended straight draw (OESD)
#Plain English
A four-card straight draw that can be completed by a rank on either end.
Why it matters
An OESD typically has eight direct outs, giving it substantially more equity than a gutshot.
Open raise
#Plain English
Being the first player to voluntarily enter the pot and doing so with a raise.
Why it matters
First-in opening ranges are the foundation of preflop strategy and are what PokerEVLab's Starting-Hand Charts currently show.
Out
#Plain English
A remaining unseen card that is likely to improve your hand to a winner.
Why it matters
Counting outs is a practical shortcut for estimating draw equity, but dirty or duplicated outs must be discounted.
Out of position (OOP)
#Plain English
Acting before your opponent on postflop streets.
Why it matters
Playing out of position is harder because you must make decisions with less information and often realize less of your raw equity.
Overbet
#Plain English
A bet larger than the current pot.
Why it matters
Overbets can apply maximum pressure when a range contains very strong hands and appropriate bluffs, but they risk more chips when used poorly.
Overpair
#Plain English
A pocket pair higher than every card on the board, such as QQ on J-7-3.
Why it matters
Overpairs are often strong value hands, but their relative strength changes dramatically with board texture and action.
PFR
#Plain English
Preflop Raise percentage: how often a player raises before the flop when dealt into a hand.
Why it matters
Comparing PFR with VPIP helps reveal whether someone enters pots aggressively or calls too much preflop.
Pocket pair
#Plain English
Two hole cards of the same rank.
Why it matters
Pocket pairs have immediate showdown value and unique set-making potential, but smaller pairs can become difficult on overcard-heavy boards.
Position
#Plain English
Where you sit relative to the dealer button and therefore when you act.
Why it matters
Position is one of poker's largest structural advantages and should strongly influence your starting-hand range.
Pot odds
#Plain English
The price the pot is offering you on a call, compared with the amount you must call.
Why it matters
If your required equity is lower than your realistic equity, the call can be profitable before considering future action.
Probe bet
#Plain English
A bet made into the previous street's aggressor after that player declines to continuation bet.
Why it matters
Probe spots can reveal capped ranges and create profitable betting opportunities on favorable turns.
Push/fold
#Plain English
Short-stack tournament strategy where the main decision is whether to move all-in or fold preflop.
Why it matters
As stacks become very short, ordinary raise/call strategies often give way to all-in decisions shaped by position, antes, and ICM.
Rainbow board
#Plain English
A flop with three different suits, so no flush draw is immediately available.
Why it matters
Rainbow boards remove many flush-draw combinations and often make the texture simpler than two-tone or monotone flops.
Range
#Plain English
The collection of hands a player can reasonably hold in a situation rather than one guessed exact hand.
Why it matters
Strong poker analysis compares ranges because opponents rarely have only one possible hand.
Range advantage
#Plain English
When one player's overall range contains more equity or stronger hands than another player's range on a particular board.
Why it matters
Range advantage helps determine who can bet more often and which bet sizes make sense.
Rake
#Plain English
Money taken by the poker room from cash-game pots or tournament fees.
Why it matters
Rake can turn marginally profitable plays into losing ones, especially in small pots and lower-stakes cash games.
River
#Plain English
The fifth and final community card.
Why it matters
With no cards left to come, river decisions are purely about showdown value, ranges, pot odds, value betting, and bluffing.
RFI
#Plain English
Raise First In. The percentage of hands a player raises when everyone before them has folded.
Why it matters
RFI is a clean way to study opening strategy by position.
Semi-bluff
#Plain English
Betting or raising with a hand that is currently weak but can improve to a strong hand if called.
Why it matters
Semi-bluffs combine fold equity with draw equity, making them more robust than bluffs with almost no chance to improve.
Set
#Plain English
Three of a kind made using a pocket pair plus one matching community card.
Why it matters
Sets are disguised strong hands and differ from trips, where only one hole card matches a paired board.
Showdown
#Plain English
The point after the final betting round when remaining players reveal cards to determine the winner.
Why it matters
Showdown-based statistics can reveal tendencies, but they require large samples and context.
Small blind (SB)
#Plain English
The smaller forced blind, posted by the player immediately left of the button in most games.
Why it matters
The small blind is strategically difficult because it starts with money invested but usually plays out of position postflop.
SPR
#Plain English
Stack-to-pot ratio: the effective stack remaining divided by the pot size at the start of a postflop street, usually the flop.
Why it matters
SPR helps describe how committed stacks can become and which hand strengths are comfortable playing for stacks.
Straight
#Plain English
Five cards in sequential rank order, such as 6-7-8-9-T.
Why it matters
Straight possibilities shape board texture and determine which draws and value hands are available.
Suited
#Plain English
Two hole cards of the same suit, such as A♠J♠.
Why it matters
Suited hands realize more equity than their offsuit versions because they can make flushes and stronger backdoor draws.
Three-bet (3-bet)
#Plain English
The first re-raise in a betting sequence: an opening raise is the second bet, and the re-raise is the third bet.
Why it matters
3-betting is central to preflop value, bluffing, isolation, and denying opponents easy realization of equity.
Tight
#Plain English
Playing a relatively small percentage of starting hands.
Why it matters
A tight range is usually stronger on average, which affects how opponents should respond to bets and raises.
Tilt
#Plain English
A mental or emotional state that causes decisions to deteriorate from your normal strategy.
Why it matters
Recognizing tilt matters because technically good strategy is useless if frustration causes you to abandon it.
Top pair
#Plain English
A pair made using one hole card and the highest-ranked community card on the board.
Why it matters
Top pair is often a value hand, but kicker strength, board texture, stack depth, and opponent range determine how much action it can withstand.
Trips
#Plain English
Three of a kind made when the board is paired and one of your hole cards matches that rank.
Why it matters
Trips and sets are both three of a kind, but their blocker and range implications are different.
Turn
#Plain English
The fourth community card, dealt after the flop.
Why it matters
The turn often changes draws, range advantage, and stack-to-pot ratio enough to require a new plan rather than automatically continuing the flop strategy.
Under the gun (UTG)
#Plain English
The first player to act preflop in a standard table layout.
Why it matters
UTG must generally use the tightest opening range because every other player is still left to act.
Value bet
#Plain English
A bet made expecting to be called often enough by worse hands to make the bet profitable.
Why it matters
Good value betting is one of the biggest sources of poker profit; the key is identifying what worse hands can realistically call.
Variance
#Plain English
The natural short-term swings caused by random card distribution and the size of poker pots.
Why it matters
Variance explains why results can differ greatly from decision quality over short samples.
Villain
#Plain English
A generic hand-history term for an opponent being analyzed.
Why it matters
Using Hero and Villain keeps strategic examples neutral and easy to follow.
VPIP
#Plain English
Voluntarily Put Money In Pot: the percentage of hands where a player voluntarily invests chips preflop by calling or raising.
Why it matters
VPIP is one of the fastest ways to describe how loose or tight someone plays preflop.
Wet board
#Plain English
A board with many plausible straight and flush draws.
Why it matters
Wet textures create more dynamic equities, more draws, and often greater need to consider protection and larger value ranges.
W$SD
#Plain English
Won Money at Showdown: the percentage of showdowns a player wins.
Why it matters
W$SD can help describe results at showdown, but unusual values can reflect both strategy and short-term card distribution.
WTSD
#Plain English
Went to Showdown: how often a player reaches showdown after seeing the flop.
Why it matters
WTSD helps indicate whether someone gives up too often or calls down too lightly, but it must be interpreted with other statistics.
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