Online Poker Lingo

Whenever you play a game, there are rules and an extensive list of terms to become familiar with in order to understand the game. Poker with it’s long history and many variations has a very developed library of poker terms and acronyms that are used in the world of poker. Terms like all-in, ante, bad beat, gutshot, kicker, royal flush, and showdown have become so common that they are even used in other non-poker settings. All but the newest players are familiar with the most common terms used in poker. Where the differentiation in your true understanding of the poker world comes is in incorporating and utilizing some of the less common poker terms and acronyms so you can easily visit any poker forum and be comfortable understanding their verbiage.

I will break up the examples into two sections, one for 20 uncommon terms used in poker and the second section for 20 uncommon acronyms and forum slang that are used. The terms are more informational regarding poker play, while the acronyms and forum slang can have a more descriptive, reactionary and humorous tone.

Uncommon poker terms

• Action – (1) Opportunity to act. If a player appears not to realize it’s his turn, the dealer will say “Your action, sir.” (2) Willingness to play or gamble. You have to give action to get action.
• Backdoor – Catching both the turn and river card to make a drawing hand. For instance, suppose you have As-7s. The flop comes Ad-6c-4s. You bet and are called. The turn is the Ts, which everybody checks, and then the river is the Js. You’ve made a “backdoor” nut flush. See also “runner.”
• Clean Out – A card that would almost certainly make your hand best. If you are drawing at a straight, but there is a flush draw possible, then the cards that make your straight but also the flush are not clean outs.
• Doomswitch – Getting consistently unlucky in poker can lead to a feeling that a poker site has turned on a switch so you can’t win a hand and only bring doom.
• Family Pot – A pot in which all (or almost all) of the players call before the flop.
• Gap Hand – A starting hand with cards more than one rank apart. For instance, 10,8 is a one-gap hand. 8,5 is a two-gap hand.
• Implied Odds – Pot odds that do not exist at the moment, but may be included in your calculations because of bets you expect to win if you hit your hand. For instance, you might call with a flush draw on the turn even though the pot isn’t offering you quite 4:1 odds (your chance of making the flush) because you’re sure you can win a bet from your opponent on the river if you make your flush.
• Jam – To move all-in in a no-limit (or pot-limit) game.
• Leak – A weakness in your game that causes you to win less money than you would otherwise. Example: “She takes her pocket pairs too far; it’s a leak in her game.”
• Overcall – To call a bet after one or more others players have already called.
• Play the Board – When you reach the river and your hand doesn’t add any value to the community cards shown on the table. For example, if you have 55, and the board is 7-7-10-10-K (no flush possible), then you must “play the board”: the best possible hand you can make doesn’t use any of your cards. Note that if you play the board, the best you can do is split the pot with all remaining players.
• Ragged – A flop (or board) that doesn’t appear to help anybody very much. A flop that came down Qd-7s-3c would look ragged.
• Represent – When you play as if you hold a certain hand. For example, you raised in late position before the flop, and then raised again when the flop came ace high, you would be representing at least an ace with a good kicker.
• Running It Twice – A situation where on a flop or turn, the two players involved in the all in hand choose to run out two boards to complete the hand. The pot can then be split multiple ways which reduces the effect of an outdraw costing you an entire buy in and better represents your long term equity.
• Scare Card - A card that comes on the board that may well turn the best hand into no longer the strongest hand. If you have Tc-8c and the flop comes Qd-Jd-9s, you have the best hand against anyone not holding K,10. But if the turn card comes a Td, completing a flush and higher straight easily, you would most likely be beaten by the likely hands to have continued on the flop. Smart poker players will use a scare card to bluff as if their hand improved.
• Spread-Limit – A betting structure in which a player may bet any amount in a range on every betting round. A typical spread-limit structure is $2-$6, where a player may bet as little as $2 or as much as $6 on every betting round.
• String Bet – A bet (more typically a raise) in which a player doesn’t get all the chips required for the raise into the pot in one motion. Unless he verbally declared the raise, he can be forced to withdraw it and just call. This prevents the unethical play of putting out enough chips to call, seeing what effect that had, and then possibly raising.
• Table Stakes – A poker rule indicating that no player may add to their available chips in play from their pocket or elsewhere for additional money during a hand. Only the chips that sit in front of him are in play regardless if he runs out of chips during the hand. The converse rule is also generally enforced that no player may remove chips from the table during a game.
• Underdog – (or dog for short) A player or their hand that is not mathematically favored to win the hand. For example, if the flop gives you have a combined four cards towards a flush, you are slightly less than a 2:1 underdog to make your flush by the river (said otherwise, you will make your flush about one in three times).
• Variance – A measure of the up and down swings your bankroll goes through. Variance is not necessarily a measure of how well you play. However, the higher your variance, the wider swings you’ll see in your bankroll.

Uncommon Acronyms and Forum Slang

• /rant or /thread – Used when you have posted something that is so significant that you need to indicate that nothing more can be said on the topic.
• AIPF – All-in pre-flop. When both players keep raising pre-flop until all of their chips are in the money before they see the community cards (flop).
• bump – A forum post with the sole goal of bringing renewed attention to a post that has fallen off the top or watchlist of other forum members and hoping to get renewed activity.
• CIB – check to induce a bet. When playing a hand with an aggressive opponent, you can check or check back to induce another bet from your opponent when you think you have the best hand.
• DIAGF – Die in a grease fire. When expressing complete frustration and anger with another person and wishing them harm, but in a semi-humorous fashion.
• EV – Expected value. What you can expect in mathematical terms holding certain cards in certain hand situations theoretically.
• FWIW – For what it’s worth – Used when giving advice that you aren’t sure they will accept.
• HU4ROLLZ – Heads-up for bankrolls. Used when seriously or jokingly challenging another player.
• IMHO – In my humble opinion. Used when giving advice but not wanting to come across as a know-it-all.
• LOL Donkaments – Laughing out Loud at tournaments. It refers to the luck and variance associated with playing online poker tournaments.
• MHIG – My hand is good. A shortcut when sharing a hand history in a poker forum.
• NLD - Nice laydown. Complimenting a player for making a fold where other players might have continued in the hand.
• OESFD – Open-ended straight flush draw. On the flop or turn you have 15 cards that can complete your draws.
• pwned – Owned. An originally misspelled version of owned that came to demonstrate one poker player’s play dominating another player.
• RoR – Risk of ruin. What is the chance in a particular situation that you bust everything you have.
• ship ship ship – Used when you won a hand or tournament and all the chips or money is being won by you.
• TTIWWP - This thread is worthless without pics. Sometimes it is expressed as Pics of GTFO. People love to see pictures instead of a written description.
• UTG – Under the gun. The position to the immediate left of the big blind who is first to action pre-flop.
• WA/WB – Way ahead or way behind. This is a short cut to express that in certain poker hands you will find yourself either way ahead in strength of what your opponent holds or if they actually have a hand, way behind what they have.
• [x] or [ ] – Creating an individual poll as feedback to a previous post. Often used sarcastically.

For more information, we recommend you visit PokerTerms.com which is one of our favorite poker lingo dictionnaries.