Poker glossary

The set of hands played in a given situation

Your seat relative to the button — fundamental in poker

Button — the best position at the table, acts last postflop on every street

In Position (act last) vs Out Of Position (act first) postflop

The best possible hand on a given board

The side card that breaks ties between hands of the same rank

The smallest of the stacks involved — the only one that matters

Betting your entire stack

An unmade hand that needs one card to become strong

An unavoidable clash between two huge hands

Losing a pot as a big favorite

The room's commission on every pot or buy-in

Inside straight draw — 4 outs

A straight draw open at both ends — 8 outs

A runner-runner draw: you need the turn AND the river

The remaining hands are revealed and compared

Game Theory Optimal — an unexploitable strategy

The equilibrium point where no player can improve unilaterally

A strategy that deviates from GTO to exploit opponent mistakes

A range made up only of very strong hands AND bluffs

A card in your hand that reduces the opponent's possible combinations

Playing a monster passively to trap

Calling with a small pair to flop a set

How coordinated the flop is — dry, wet, paired, monotone

When one entire range dominates the other on a given board

A range stripped of its strongest hands by its past actions

Calling a bet planning to take the pot away later

A memorization technique that optimizes review timing

Money dedicated to poker — and the rules protecting it

The third bet before the flop (a raise of the raise)

The fourth preflop bet (a raise of the 3-bet)

Continuation bet — betting the flop after opening preflop

A bet or raise with a weak hand to make the opponent fold

Checking then raising the opponent's bet on the same street

A 3-bet made after an open AND at least one call

Entering the pot preflop by paying the blind without raising

A bet larger than the size of the pot

Betting to get called by a worse hand

Leading out of position into the previous street's aggressor

The first preflop raise into an unopened pot

Calling a raise without any prior investment in the pot

A late-position open aimed first at picking up the blinds

Firing another bet on the next street

Betting OOP after the aggressor declined to c-bet

Expected value — the average profit of an action over the long run

Your percentage chance of winning the hand at showdown

The ratio of the bet to call versus the total pot, to decide if a call is profitable

Stack-to-Pot Ratio — the ratio of the effective stack to the pot

Potential future winnings to factor into a call

The remaining cards that improve your hand

The share of a bet's profitability that comes from opponent folds

Minimum Defense Frequency — the minimum defending frequency against a bet

The exact number of combinations of a hand

The natural gap between actual results and expected win

The share of your raw equity you actually convert

Independent Chip Model — the real value of tournament chips

Short-stack strategy: all-in or fold only

The threshold of a tournament's paid places

Forced bet paid before the deal

Voluntarily Put money In Pot — % of hands played voluntarily

Pre-Flop Raise — % of hands where a player raises preflop

Return On Investment — tournament profitability

A hyper-turbo 3-player tournament format with a random prize pool

Multi-Table Tournament — a tournament with hundreds or thousands of players

Poker with two players

Single-table tournament that starts when full

Money game with fixed blinds and no eliminations

Free tournament with real prizes — and a can't-lose spot

An emotional state that degrades decisions

A prolonged losing stretch despite good play