Poker Terms & Glossary

Poker has its own language, and most of it sounds like nonsense until someone explains it. This glossary defines the terms you’ll actually hear at a live table or in an online chat box — the bets, positions, stats, and the slang players sling at each other — in plain English, with a quick example wherever it helps.

How to use this glossary

The fastest way to learn poker terms isn’t to memorize an alphabetical list — it’s to group them by when they happen in a hand. We’ve sorted the big tables that way first (the stages of a hand and the positions), then provided a full A–Z reference and a dedicated slang section underneath. Skim the part you need, or read top to bottom once and the rest of the site will read a lot more smoothly.

The stages of a poker hand

Every Texas Hold’em hand moves through the same five betting points. Learn these and you’ll follow any table’s chatter.

Term	Meaning
Preflop	The first betting round, before any community cards are dealt — you’re acting on your two hole cards alone.
Flop	The first three community cards, dealt face-up in the middle, followed by a betting round.
Turn	The fourth community card (also called fourth street), with another round of betting.
River	The fifth and final community card (fifth street); the last betting round happens here.
Showdown	After the final bet, remaining players reveal their hands and the best five-card hand wins.

If you want the full sequence of play step by step, the Texas Hold’em hub lays out a complete hand from deal to showdown.

Positions at the table

Where you sit decides when you act, and acting later is a real edge. These are the seat names you’ll hear.

Term	Meaning
Button (BTN)	The dealer position, marked by a disc. Acts last after the flop — the best seat at the table.
Small blind (SB)	Posts the smaller forced bet, sits left of the button.
Big blind (BB)	Posts the larger forced bet, one seat left of the small blind.
Under the gun (UTG)	First to act preflop, immediately left of the big blind — the toughest spot.
Hijack (HJ)	Two seats right of the button; a strong late-ish position to open hands.
Cutoff (CO)	One seat right of the button; second only to the button itself.

Why this matters so much is its own topic — see why position is important in poker for the full reasoning.

A–Z poker glossary

The core vocabulary of the game, defined. Slang nicknames have their own section below.

Term	Definition
Action	Either the betting (a “lot of action” = a big pot) or whose turn it is (“the action’s on you”).
All-in	Betting every chip you have left in the current hand.
Ante	A small forced bet from every player before the deal, common in tournaments.
Backdoor	A draw needing both the turn and river to complete (also “runner-runner”).
Bad beat	Losing a hand you were a heavy favorite to win.
Blank	A community card that doesn’t help anyone’s likely hand.
Bluff	Betting or raising with a weak hand to make better hands fold.
Board	The shared community cards in the middle of the table.
Broadway	The highest straight, 10-J-Q-K-A; “Broadway cards” are 10 through Ace.
Check	Passing the action without betting, when no bet is in front of you.
Cooler	A hand where two very strong holdings collide and a big loss is unavoidable.
Donk bet	Leading into the previous street’s aggressor instead of checking to them.
Equity	Your share of the pot based on your odds of winning it right now.
EV (expected value)	The average long-run profit or loss of a decision.
Float	Calling a bet with a weak hand, planning to take the pot on a later street.
Fold	Surrendering your hand and any claim to the pot.
GTO	Game theory optimal — a balanced strategy that can’t be exploited.
Gutshot	An inside straight draw with four outs (e.g. holding 6-7 on a 5-9-K board).
ICM	Independent Chip Model — math for how tournament chips translate to real prize money.
Kicker	A side card that breaks ties between equal hands (A-K beats A-Q on an Ace board).
Limp	Just calling the big blind preflop instead of raising.
Muck	To fold without showing, or the pile of discarded cards.
The nuts	The best possible hand on the current board.
Outs	The cards left in the deck that improve you to a likely winner.
Peel	To call one more bet, usually with a draw, to “peel off” another card.
Pot odds	The price of a call compared to the size of the pot.
Punt	To spew chips with a reckless, clearly losing play.
Rake	The house’s cut of each pot or tournament fee.
Range	The full set of hands a player could hold in a given spot.
Straddle	An optional blind raise posted before the deal, usually from UTG.
Tilt	Playing emotionally and badly, usually after a loss.
VPIP	A stat — the percent of hands a player voluntarily puts money in preflop.

Core actions, in order of aggression

When it’s your turn, you have a fixed menu of choices. Here they are from most passive to most aggressive — this is the single most useful set of words a beginner can learn.

• Fold — give up the hand.
• Check — pass with no bet to face (you stay in for free).
• Call — match the current bet to stay in.
• Bet — put chips in when no one else has this round.
• Raise — increase an existing bet.
• All-in — commit your entire stack.

Poker slang: the nicknames

This is the layer that confuses newcomers most, because none of it is in the rulebook. These are player nicknames for types of players and types of plays.

Slang	What it means
Fish	A weak, losing player — the source of profit at the table.
Whale	A fish with deep pockets who loses big amounts.
Nit	An extremely tight, risk-averse player who only plays premium hands.
Donk / donkey	A bad player who makes clumsy, illogical plays.
Grinder	A disciplined player who profits steadily over long sessions.
Reg	A regular — a competent player you see often in a game.
Shark	A strong, predatory player who hunts the fish.
OMC	”Old man coffee” — a stereotypically tight, patient older player.
TAG / LAG	Tight-aggressive / loose-aggressive playing styles.

We unpack the most-searched of these in their own deep dives: what a nit is, what a fish is, and the play known as the donk bet. For the full sling, see our roundup of poker slang explained.

A quick example, so the words stick

Watch how the vocabulary stacks up in one hand. You’re on the button with A♠ K♠. A nit opens from under the gun, you call to stay in position, everyone else folds.

The flop comes K♦ 7♣ 2♠ — you’ve hit top pair with the best kicker. The nit fires a continuation bet; you call to keep their range wide. The turn is a blank, the 4♥. Now the nit checks, and you bet for value. They call.

The river brings the 5♠. The nit checks again, you bet, and they tank before mucking — a textbook nit, folding anything but the nuts. You drag the pot. That single hand used a dozen glossary terms, and now they should all read like normal English.

Keep going

You don’t need to memorize everything here in one sitting. Bookmark the page, learn the stage and position words first because they come up every hand, and let the slang sink in as you hear it. When a specific term trips you up, the dedicated explainers — starting with the fish and the nit — go deeper than any single table can.