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Online Poker Glossary and Poker Terms

Poker Terms
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HAND: (1) All a player’s personal cards. (2) The five cards determining the poker ranking. (3) A single poker deal.
HEADS-UP PLAY: Only two players involved in play.
HOLECARDS: The cards dealt facedown to a player.
INSURANCE: A side agreement when someone is all-in for a player in a pot to put up money that guarantees a payoff of a set amount in case the opponent wins the pot.
JOKER: The joker is a “partially wild card” in high draw poker and ace-to-five lowball. In
high, it is used for aces, straights, and flushes. In lowball, the joker is the lowest unmatched rank in a hand.
KANSAS CITY LOWBALL: A form of draw poker low also known as deuce-to-seven, in
which the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 and straights and flushes count against you.
KICKER: The highest unpaired card that helps determine the value of a five-card poker
hand.
KILL (OR KILL BLIND): An oversize blind, usually twice the size of the big blind and
doubling the limit. Sometimes a “half-kill” increasing the blind and limits by fifty percent
is used. A kill can be either voluntary or mandatory. The most common requirements of
a mandatory kill are for winning two pots in a row at lowball and other games, or for
scooping a pot in high-low split.
KILL BUTTON: A button used in a lowball game to indicate a player who has won two
pots in a row and is required to kill the pot.
KILL POT: A pot with a forced kill by the winner of the two previous pots, or the winner
of an entire pot of sufficient size in a high-low split game. (Some pots can be voluntarily killed.)
LEG UP: Being in a situation equivalent to having won the previous pot, and thus liable
to have to kill the following pot if you win the current pot.
LIVE BLIND: A blind bet giving a player the option of raising if no one else has raised.
LIST: The ordered roster of players waiting for a game.
LOCK-UP: A chip marker that holds a seat for a player.
LOWBALL: A draw game where the lowest hand wins.
LOWCARD: The lowest upcard at seven-card stud, which is required to bet.
MISCALL: An incorrect verbal declaration of the ranking of a hand.
MISDEAL: A mistake on the dealing of a hand which causes the cards to be reshuffled
and a new hand to be dealt.
MISSED BLIND: A required bet that is not posted when it is your turn to do so.
MUCK: (1) The pile of discards gathered facedown in the center of the table by the
dealer. (2) To discard a hand.
NO-LIMIT: A betting structure where players are allowed to wager any or all of their
chips in one bet.
OPENER: The player who made the first voluntary bet.
OPENER BUTTON: A button used to indicate who opened a particular pot in a draw
game.
OPENERS: In jacks-or-better draw, the cards held by the player who opens the pot that
show the hand qualifies to be opened. Example: You are first to bet and have a pair of
kings; the kings are called your openers.
OPTION: The choice to raise a bet given to a player with a blind.
OVERBLIND: Also called oversize blind. A blind used in some pots that is bigger than
the regular big blind, and usually increases the stakes proportionally.
PASS: (1) Decline to bet. In a pass-and-out game, this differs from a check, because a
player who passes must fold. (2) Decline to call a wager, at which point you must
discard your hand and have no further interest in the pot.
PAT: Not drawing any cards in a draw game.
PLAY BEHIND: Have chips in play that are not in front of you (allowed only when
waiting for chips that are already purchased). This differs from table stakes.
PLAY THE BOARD: Using all five community cards for your hand in hold’em.
PLAY OVER: To play in a seat when the occupant is absent.
POSITION: (1) The relation of a player’s seat to the blinds or the button. (2) The order
of acting on a betting round or deal.
POT-LIMIT: The betting structure of a game in which you are allowed to bet up to the
amount of the pot.
POTTING OUT: Agreeing with another player to take money out of a pot, often to buy
food, cigarettes, or drinks, or to make side bets.
PROPOSITION BETS: Side bets between players that are not related to the outcome of
the hand.
PROTECTED HAND: A hand of cards that the player is physically holding, or has
topped with a chip or some other object to prevent a fouled hand.
PUSH: When a new dealer replaces an existing dealer at a particular table.
PUSHING BETS: The situation in which two or more players make an agreement to
return bets to each other when one of them wins a pot in which the other or others play.
Also called saving bets.