Poker Glossary
3-Bet
The third bet in a preflop sequence — a reraise over an opener's RFI (blinds count as bet one, the open as bet two).
3-Bet Percentage
3-Bet% is how often a player re-raises preflop. Low (~2-4%) means a nit raising only the nuts; ~8-10% is a solid reg. Read whether their 3-bets are polarized or merged.
4-Bet
The fourth bet in a preflop sequence — a reraise over a 3-bet, typically with a polarized value-plus-bluff range.
5-Bet
The fifth bet preflop — a reraise over a 4-bet, almost always either a premium value jam or a pure blocker bluff-jam.
6-Max
A six-handed table. Ranges are wider and the blinds come around more often than full ring — the online cash standard.
Add-On
An optional one-time chip top-up offered at the end of the rebuy period. Usually +chipEV when the chips you get are cheap relative to the blinds.
Aggression Factor (AF)
AF is (bets + raises) divided by calls postflop. High AF means an aggressive player; low AF flags a passive calling station. The AFq variant uses frequency instead.
All-In
Committing your entire stack to the pot. You can only win as much as your **effective stack**, and the bet is capped at the smaller stack in the hand.
Alpha
The fold frequency a bluff needs to break even, equal to bet divided by (pot plus bet); the complement of MDF.
Angle Shooting
Exploiting the gray area of the rules or another player's misunderstanding to gain an unfair edge without technically cheating.
Ante
A forced bet every player posts before the deal, adding dead money to the pot and incentivizing wider play.
Backdoor Draw
A draw needing both the turn AND the river to complete — small immediate equity but real strategic value.
Bad Beat
Losing a pot you were a clear favourite to win because the underdog hit a low-probability draw.
Bad Beat Jackpot
A promotional jackpot paid when a very strong hand (e.g. quads or better) loses. It's funded by an extra rake drop and split across the table.
Bagging
At the end of a multi-day tournament day, surviving players bag and tag — counting their chips into a labeled bag for the next day; counts are usually published.
Balanced Range
A range mixed between value and bluffs in the right proportion so no opponent response — call or fold — beats you. The GTO way to play a betting line.
Bankroll
The money set aside exclusively for playing poker, sized in buy-ins so normal variance can't wipe it out.
Bet Sizing
Choosing how much to bet relative to the pot to maximize EV given range shape, board texture, and stack depth.
Big Blind (BB)
The seat that posts a full blind and acts last preflop. The price discount on its forced bet gives it the widest defending range — and "bb" is also the stack unit.
Big Blind Ante (BBA)
A format where the big blind alone posts the entire table's ante in one chunk, speeding up play.
Blind Defense
Continuing — by call or 3-bet — against a steal or open when you're in the small or big blind and already posted.
Blinds
Forced bets posted by the two seats left of the button — the small blind and big blind — that create dead money and drive the action every hand.
Blocker
A card in your hand that removes combos from your opponent's range, shifting bluff and call decisions.
Bluff Catcher
A hand that beats only your opponent's bluffs and loses to all their value — call or fold depends purely on their bluff frequency.
Bluff-to-Value Ratio
The equilibrium proportion of bluffs to value bets in a polarized betting range, set by bet size so the caller is indifferent.
Board Texture
The strategic character of the community cards — how connected, suited, and paired they are.
Bomb Pot
A hand where everyone antes and the deal skips straight to the flop — no preflop action. Big multiway pots and high variance.
Bounty
A cash reward awarded for eliminating a specific player, split off from the regular prize pool.
Breakeven Percentage
The fold frequency a pure bluff needs to break even, equal to bet divided by pot-plus-bet.
Broadway Hands
Hands made of two cards ten or higher (T, J, Q, K, A) — e.g. KQ, AJ, QT — strong high-card holdings.
Bubble
The stage just before the money, when one more elimination puts the remaining players into the paid spots.
Bubble Factor
The ratio of $EV lost when you lose a chip to $EV gained when you win one in a given all-in — a direct measure of ICM pressure.
Button (BTN)
The best seat at the table. The button acts last on every postflop street, opens the widest range, and is the dealer marker that rotates clockwise each hand.
Button Straddle
A blind raise posted by the button instead of UTG, which reorders preflop action so the blinds act first and the button acts last.
Buy-In
The amount it costs to enter a game; also the unit bankrolls are measured in (bi).
Calling Station
A player who calls far too often and folds far too rarely — they pay off value but can't be bluffed.
Capped Range
A range that contains no nutted hands, because the strongest holdings were taken out by earlier passive actions.
Card Removal
How known cards in your hand and on the board reduce the combinations available to opponents, shifting range probabilities.
Check-Raise
Checking to induce a bet, then raising over it — a strong, range-defining line usually played out of position.
Chip Dumping
Deliberately losing chips to a colluding player to transfer stack or value — a form of cheating, not strategy.
Chip EV (cEV)
Expected value measured purely in tournament chips, ignoring payout structure and ICM.
Cold Call
Calling a raise (and any reraise) without having already invested money in the pot that street, as opposed to defending your blind.
Color Up
Removing the lowest-denomination chips from play as blinds rise, exchanging them for higher denominations; odd chips are settled by a chip race.
Combinatorics (Combos)
Counting how many specific card combinations make up a hand class, the basis of range construction and bluff/value balance.
Continuation Bet (C-Bet)
A bet by the preflop aggressor on the flop (or later), continuing the initiative built before the flop.
Cooler
A big pot where both players play correctly but one holds a strong hand that's dominated — unavoidable, not a mistake.
Cutoff (CO)
The seat directly to the right of the button — the second-best position. It opens and steals very wide, beaten only by the button itself.
Dead Money
Chips in the pot that no longer have a fighting claim on it — or a player with little chance of winning the tournament.
Deep Stack
Playing with a high stack-to-blind ratio (100bb+) and high SPR, where implied and reverse-implied odds dominate decisions.
Delayed C-Bet
Checking the flop as the preflop aggressor, then betting the turn — a continuation bet one street late.
Dollar EV ($EV)
Expected value measured in real money, converting chip outcomes through ICM and the payout structure.
Donk
Pejorative for a bad player; also short for the donk bet — leading into the previous street's aggressor.
Donk Bet
Betting out of position into the previous street's aggressor instead of checking to them.
Double Barrel
Firing a second bet on the turn after c-betting the flop, with value or as a continued bluff.
Downswing
An extended losing stretch driven by negative variance, not necessarily by bad play.
Dry Board
A disconnected, draw-light board where few hands can improve and equities are spread out.
Effective Stack
The smaller of the two stacks in a pot — the most you can actually win or lose. It drives **SPR** and every stack-depth decision.
Equity
Your share of the pot if all remaining cards ran out and hands went to showdown — i.e. your probability of winning, plus split-pot fractions.
Equity Distribution
How equity is spread across a range's hands — not just the average — shown as a curve from worst to best combos.
Equity Realization
How much of a hand's raw equity you actually convert to winnings, given position, playability, and pressure.
Expected Value (EV)
The probability-weighted average outcome of a decision — the chips or dollars a line wins on average across all possible results.
Exploitative Play
Deviating from GTO to maximally punish a specific opponent's mistakes, accepting that you become exploitable in return.
Final Table Deal
A negotiated redistribution of remaining prize money among the final players, usually based on ICM or chip counts.
Fish
A weak, usually recreational player whose mistakes make them the primary source of profit at the table.
Float
Calling a bet with a weak or marginal hand, planning to take the pot away on a later street.
Floorman
The cardroom official who resolves disputes, makes binding rulings, and enforces procedure — summoned by calling "floor."
Flush Draw
Four cards to a flush — 9 outs, roughly 19.6% per street and about 35% from flop to river.
Fold Equity
The EV your bet or raise gains from the chance the opponent folds — the engine behind semi-bluffs and shoves.
Freezeout
A tournament format where busting once eliminates you for good — no buying back in. Every chip is irreplaceable, so survival matters more.
Frequency
How often a range takes a given action. GTO is expressed in frequencies — bet/call/fold percentages — not in single hands, and solvers output a strategy as a percentage per action.
Full Ring
An 8–9-handed table. Ranges are tighter, early position especially, and more pots go multiway — the live cash default.
Game Theory Optimal (GTO)
A strategy that is unexploitable: even if the opponent sees it, they cannot do better than break even against it.
Geometric Sizing
Betting an equal pot fraction on every remaining street so the stack goes all-in by the river, maximizing value from a polarized range.
Grinder
A player who profits through high volume and disciplined, repeatable edges rather than occasional big scores.
GTO vs Exploitative
The core strategic tension: play unexploitably balanced, or deviate to maximally punish a specific opponent's mistakes.
Guarantee (GTD)
A minimum prize pool the operator promises regardless of how many players enter. Short entries force the room to top it up — creating an overlay.
Gutshot
An inside straight draw needing one specific rank to complete — 4 outs, roughly 8.5% per street.
Heads-Up
A pot or table played between exactly two players. The small blind is the button and ranges are extremely wide.
Hero Call
Calling with a weak hand because you read a bluff — a read-based bluff-catch. Glory when right, spew when it's a habit.
Hero Fold
Folding a strong hand — even a set or overpair — because you read you're beat. A big, disciplined laydown.
Hijack (HJ)
The seat two off the button, just right of the cutoff. Ranges widen here — it is the first of the late, steal-oriented positions.
HUD
A HUD is an on-screen overlay showing opponent stats (VPIP, PFR, 3-bet, AF) pulled from a tracking database. It speeds online reads but needs a sample to be trusted — and is banned on some sites.
Implied Odds
The extra chips you expect to win on later streets when you complete your draw, which justify calling at worse-than-breakeven immediate pot odds.
In Position (IP)
Acting last postflop. You see opponents' decisions before yours, realize more equity, and can check back to control the pot.
In the Money (ITM)
Reaching the **paid places** of a tournament, past the bubble. From here on, every decision is governed by pay jumps and **ICM**, not just chips.
Independent Chip Model (ICM)
A model that converts tournament chip stacks into real-money equity using the Malmuth-Harville finishing-order probabilities.
Indifference Principle
At equilibrium you size your bluffs/defends so the opponent's marginal hand has equal EV calling or folding, removing their edge.
Isolation Raise
Raising over one or more limpers to play heads-up in position against a weak, capped range.
Kelly Criterion
The bet-sizing rule that maximizes long-run growth of a bankroll given an edge; pros use a fraction of it for safety.
Kicker
The side card that breaks ties between otherwise equal hands. With matching pairs or trips, the higher kicker wins — this is what makes **AK beat AQ** on an ace-high board.
LAG
Loose-Aggressive: many hands plus constant pressure. High skill to run profitably.
Late Registration
The window during which players can still buy into a tournament after it has begun, ending at a set level.
Limp
Entering the pot for just the big blind instead of raising — open-limping first-in, or completing from the small blind.
Linear Range
A top-down range of the strongest hands by equity with no bluffs mixed in — every hand wants to continue.
M-Ratio
Your stack divided by the cost of one orbit (small blind + big blind + total antes), measuring how many rounds you can survive.
Maniac
A hyper-aggressive, reckless player who bets and raises almost anything, with no real plan.
Merged Range
A value-weighted range that bets thinner value and strong-but-not-nutted hands rather than splitting into pure value and pure air.
Min-Cash
The **smallest payout** in a tournament — often around 1.5× the buy-in. Reaching it is nice, but in top-heavy MTTs min-cashing is **not** the goal.
Minimum Defense Frequency
The share of your range you must continue with so a bettor can't profit by betting any two cards as a pure bluff.
Mixed Strategy
Playing the same hand multiple ways at set frequencies, used at equilibrium when two actions share the same EV.
Muck
To discard a hand face-down into the pile of dead cards; also the discard pile itself.
Multiway Pot
A pot with **three or more players** seeing the flop. Equity to continue rises, bluffs collapse, and value tightens toward the nuts — because someone almost always has a piece.
Nash Equilibrium
A strategy profile where no player can improve their EV by unilaterally changing strategy — the formal basis of GTO.
Nash Push/Fold Chart
Precomputed equilibrium shove and call ranges for heads-up and short-stacked spots, by stack depth and position.
Nit
An overly tight, risk-averse player who only commits chips with premium holdings and folds far too often otherwise.
Node Locking
Forcing a solver to play a fixed (often suboptimal) strategy at a node, then re-solving to find the maximally exploitative counter.
Nut Advantage
Holding more of the strongest possible hands (the nutted combos) on a board than your opponent.
Nuts
The best possible hand on a given board — a holding that cannot be beaten given the community cards.
Open Raise (RFI)
Being the first player to enter the pot for a raise, with no limpers or raisers ahead of you.
Open-Ended Straight Draw
Four consecutive cards open at both ends — 8 outs, roughly 17% per street, ~31.5% by the river.
Out of Position (OOP)
Acting first postflop, before your opponent. You realize less equity and need stronger ranges, more check-raises, and protective range checks.
Outs
The unseen cards that improve your hand to a likely winner — the raw count you convert into draw equity.
Overbet
A bet larger than the pot, used by a polarized range with a nut advantage to maximize value and apply maximum pressure.
Overcards
Hole cards ranked above the highest board card — no pair yet, but roughly 6 outs to make top pair.
Overfold
Folding more often than MDF requires, which makes the opponent's bluffs (even any-two-cards) instantly profitable.
Overlay
When a tournament's prize pool exceeds the buy-ins collected because the operator tops up the guarantee — straight +EV, free dead money for everyone in the field.
Overpair
A pocket pair higher than every card on the board, beating any single top-pair hand.
Pay Jump
The increase in prize money between two adjacent finishing positions on the payout ladder.
PFR
PFR is the % of hands a player raises preflop — the core measure of preflop aggression. Read it against VPIP: a tight gap means an aggressive reg, a wide gap means a limp/caller.
Pocket Pair
Two cards of the same rank dealt as your hole cards (e.g. 77), ranging from premiums to set-mining small pairs.
Polarized Range
A range split into strong value hands and low-equity bluffs, with the medium-strength hands deliberately omitted.
Position
Where you sit relative to the button, which fixes your acting order on every street. Acting later means more information and more profit.
Pot Odds
The price of a call expressed as the equity you need to break even, computed as the call divided by the final pot after you call.
Probe Bet
A bet by the out-of-position player on a later street after the aggressor declined to c-bet the previous street.
Progressive Knockout (PKO)
A bounty format where half of every knockout bounty is paid to you in cash and half is added to your own head, growing through the tournament.
Protection Bet
Betting a vulnerable made hand to deny opponents their equity and charge draws — not pure value, but still profitable.
Punt
Needlessly throwing away your stack with a bad play, often tilt-driven. "Punted it off."
Push/Fold
A short-stack strategy where your only preflop options are open-shoving all-in or folding, with no postflop play.
Rabbit Hunt
Revealing the cards that would have come had the hand continued, after the pot is already decided — usually for curiosity, not strategy.
Rake
The house fee taken from each pot — a capped percentage or a time charge. It's the biggest hidden cost in poker and lowers your winrate.
Rakeback
A portion of the rake you pay returned to you via a rewards or loyalty program, directly boosting your win rate.
Range Advantage
Having more total equity across your whole range than your opponent on a given board.
Range Bet
Betting your entire range for one small size on a board that smashes your range — a deliberate simplification that trades a little EV for far fewer mistakes.
Range vs Range Equity
The pot-share one player's whole range has against the opponent's whole range, the foundation of GTO postflop play.
Re-Entry
A format that lets a busted player buy a fresh stack and re-enter, usually until a set late-registration deadline.
Rebuy
Buying more chips during a defined rebuy period — after busting or dropping below a threshold — without leaving your seat. Cheap chips encourage looser early play.
Reg
A regular — a competent, studied player who plays a stake consistently and is hard to exploit.
Required Equity
The minimum equity a hand needs for a given action to break even — for a call, it equals your pot odds.
Resteal
Re-raising (usually all-in) over a late-position open with a short stack to exploit the opener's wide stealing range.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Profit as a percentage of total buy-ins invested — the standard measure of tournament profitability.
Reverse Implied Odds
The extra chips you expect to lose on later streets when you make a second-best hand — the penalty that makes dominated draws and weak made hands costly.
Risk of Ruin
The probability your bankroll hits zero before you can rebuild it, given your edge, variance, and roll size.
Risk Premium
The extra equity above 50% you need to profitably call an all-in under ICM, because losing chips costs more $EV than winning them returns.
Rule of 2 and 4
A fast mental shortcut: multiply outs by 2 for one card to come, by 4 for two cards, to estimate draw equity.
Run It Twice
An all-in agreement to deal the remaining board twice, each runout for half the pot, to reduce variance.
Satellite
A tournament that awards seats into a larger event rather than cash, where every winning seat is worth the same.
Set
Three of a kind made with a pocket pair plus one matching board card — disguised, near-nut value.
Shark
A strong, winning player who preys on weaker opponents — the opposite of a fish.
Shot Taking
Temporarily playing a stake above your bankroll's comfort level, with a pre-set drop-down rule if it goes badly.
Showdown
The end of a hand where remaining players reveal their cards and the best five-card hand wins the pot.
Side Pot
A separate pot created when a player is all-in for less than the others. The **main pot** is capped and contestable by everyone; the **side pot** is fought over only by the players with chips left.
Small Blind (SB)
The seat just left of the button that posts half a big blind. The worst postflop seat — out of position against everyone except the big blind.
Snap Call
An instant call made with no hesitation, signalling either a very strong hand or an utterly trivial decision.
Solver
Software that approximates Nash-Equilibrium strategies for a poker spot by iterating ranges toward minimal exploitability.
Spew
Bleeding chips through over-aggressive or over-loose -EV actions. "That line was spewy."
Squeeze
A 3-bet made after an open-raise and one or more cold-callers, exploiting the dead money and the callers' capped ranges.
Stack-to-Blind Ratio
Your stack measured in big blinds — the standard metric for tournament stack depth and the strategy it dictates.
Stack-to-Pot Ratio
The effective stack divided by the pot on the flop — it sets commitment thresholds and how much postflop maneuvering room remains.
Staking
A backer funds a player's action in exchange for a share of profits, governed by markup, makeup, and a profit split.
Standard Deviation
The square root of variance; the single number that quantifies how widely your results spread, usually in bb/100.
Steal
A late-position open-raise aimed primarily at winning the blinds (and antes) uncontested.
Stop-Loss
A pre-set loss limit for a session that, once hit, ends play — a discipline tool against tilt, not an EV tool.
Straddle
A voluntary blind raise posted before the deal, usually 2× the big blind by the player under the gun, buying last action preflop.
String Bet
An illegal bet made in multiple forward motions without a verbal declaration, ruled as a call by the dealer.
Suited Connectors
Two suited cards of adjacent rank (e.g. 87s, T9s) that flop straights, flushes, and strong draws.
Table Talk
Conversation during a hand — including deliberate speech play — used to gather reads or induce mistakes from opponents.
TAG
Tight-Aggressive: plays relatively few hands, but plays them aggressively. The classic solid winning style.
Tell
An involuntary physical or behavioral cue that leaks information about an opponent's hand strength or intentions.
Thin Value
Value-betting a marginal made hand that gets called by worse only slightly more than half the time — small profit, small sizing.
Tilt
An emotional state — usually after a loss or bad beat — that pushes you into worse-than-baseline decisions.
Time Bank
A reserve of extra decision time a player can use beyond the standard clock for a tough spot, online automatically or live via time-bank chips.
Top Pair
Pairing the highest card on the board with one of your hole cards. Your kicker decides how strong it really is.
Triple Barrel
Betting flop, turn AND river — three barrels of aggression with a highly polarized range of strong value and selected bluffs.
Trips
Three of a kind made with a pair on the board plus one card in your hand — more visible than a hidden set.
Uncapped Range
A range that still contains the nuts and strongest holdings, letting it credibly threaten and defend against any bet size.
Under the Gun (UTG)
The first seat to act preflop, immediately left of the big blind. It has the tightest opening range and plays the hand out of position.
Underbet
A small bet well under half the pot, used to extract thin value, set a cheap price, or deny equity on the right ranges.
Value Bet
A bet made expecting to be called by worse hands more often than better ones, profiting from the opponent's continuing range.
Variance
The statistical spread of results around your true win rate — the reason short-term outcomes lie about your edge.
VPIP
VPIP is the % of hands a player voluntarily puts money in preflop — the core looseness gauge in any HUD. A big VPIP–PFR gap means a passive caller.
Way Ahead / Way Behind (WA/WB)
A spot where your hand is either crushing or crushed with little in between — so you pot-control instead of building a big pot.
Went to Showdown (WTSD)
WTSD is the % of hands a player reaches showdown after seeing the flop. Read it with W$SD (% won at showdown): high WTSD + low W$SD is a calling station paying off too light.
Wet Board
A connected, draw-heavy board where equities run close and many hands can improve.
Whale
A wealthy recreational player who plays loose, high-stakes poker and isn't deterred by losing money.