Lexicon

Two successive bets. Example: If a player bets on the flop and then on the turn, he's said to be 2-barrel. In the same family, there's also 3-barrel, which is often associated with the principle of bluffing. "Il 3-barrel bluff means that a player bets three times in a row to bluff, which is quite rare because a player often slows down after being paid twice (on the flop and turn). It's also sometimes referred to as multi-barrel (for 2 and 3-barrel). Note: barrel is sometimes translated as "tonneau" in French, by writing "Il envoie un deuxième tonneau" for a bet on the turn.

Surrelance, i.e. a raise after a raise. Example: If a player raises preflop and you over-raise that player, it's a 3-bet (1st bet: the big blind, 2-bet: the raise, 3-bet: your over-raise). On the other hand, if a player bets on the flop and you raise, it's a raise (equivalent to a 2-bet). Note: In the same way, we talk about 4-bet, 5-bet, 6-bet, 7-bet ... and so on, although in general it rarely goes further than a 5-bet, unless the players are hyper-aggressive Scandinavians.

Said of a moment when only 3 players are seated at the table. At the end of a tournament, for example, or on a cash-game table, or on some special game formats such as Spin & Go. Note: 6-handed tournaments, for example, are tournaments with 6 players per table.

The popular expression that a player always has a chance of getting back into the race as long as he still has at least "a chair and a chip". By extension, this expression means that anything is possible and that you should never give up, even if you fall very short after a complicated move. Note: The expression originated at the 1982 WSOP, where winner Jack Strauss fell to a single chip after a bad beat before eventually winning the tournament.

Playing your A-game means playing in the best possible way, being in the best conditions to make the right decisions. In contrast, playing your B-game or your C-game means you're not having a good day, and you're not playing in the best possible way to win.

Additional chips (usually the starting stack) that can be purchased at the end of the rebuy period. Some tournaments offer a "double add-on" at the end of the rebuy period, meaning that unless you've built up a nice stack, you're almost obliged to plan to buy this double add-on to have more chips for the rest of the tournament.

Refers to a player or style of play inclined to aggression. A player who tends to re-raise frequently, trying to win many pots. Synonym: Aggressive Note: A TAG player is one who is both Tight and Aggro, i.e. who takes few shots (Tight) but plays them aggressively (Aggro). In real life, someone is said to be "aggro" when he's not afraid to dare where many don't.

See Aggro

Refers to a player's hand that has nothing, not a single pair, just a high. Sometimes we hear the term "Air Max" used to emphasize the weakness of a hand and the fact that someone may have bluffed with just one high. Example: "I think you've got air in this spot, I've only got a pair of eights, it's paid!"

To commit all of one's chips by betting, literally: "all in". Synonyms: Tapis, push, shove, envoyer la couscoussière, envoyer la boîte, tout dedans.

A name for the pair of Aces, using the visual of the two A's on the private cards. The pair of Aces is also referred to as "Arrows".

An angle shoot is a practice bordering on cheating at a poker live table, which consists of talking before one's turn, deliberately mistaking the amount of a raise or pretending to have bet in order to provoke a reaction from one's opponent. It's a practice which goes against the ethics and fair play which should exist at a poker table, and which, even if it's relatively infrequently condemned, should be avoided at all costs for the good of the game. Note: A voluntary string bet can easily be assimilated to an angle shoot.

Any two is short for any two cards and refers to any hand consisting of two hole cards. "He really does have any two in this spot" means that the player in question can have any hand on the shot we're talking about. We can then establish his range, which is made up of all possible hands.

Cards of the same suit (spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs). For example, "I have 8-9 matching" if you have 8-9 of clubs in your hand. Synonyms: Pareillé, Suité, Suited In poker parlance, we prefer to use the English term "suité" to say, for example, "I had Jack-Queen suité". Note: In tournament conversation, we hear "pareillé" or "suited" more often than "assorti". In written language, the term "assorti" is more often used.

Average tally of players still in the running in a tournament. French: Moyenne Both terms (French and English) are used equally in tournaments. To find the current average in your tournament, simply solve this formula: number of entries * number of starting chips / number of remaining players. Examples: "I have a stack under the average" or "At the bubble, the average will be 125,000 chips".

Draw that needs two cards (the turn and the river for Hold'em) to be completed. Example: You with [8♦️] [7♦️] on a flop [J♦️] [4♣️] [3♥️], you then have several backdoor draws: two backdoor straight draws and one backdoor flush draw. If the turn brings you a 9 and a 10 in succession, you retract your draw and make a straight, and the same with a 6 followed by a 5. Finally, if the turn and the river are two diamonds, you complete your backdoor flush draw. Note: Although you shouldn't place too much importance on a backdoor draw, it's often something that can prompt you to try a bluff. If the turn opens a draw for you, you can continue to bluff, with renewed hope of completing your draw. What's more, you'll often be unreadable on a completed backdoor draw. Synonym: Runner-runner

Losing a hand when the money's gone in the middle when you were the favorite. Example: If you go all-in preflop with a pair of aces against a pair of kings, you have a statistical 80% chance of winning. If a King falls on the flop and causes you to lose the hand, you suffer a bad beat. Note: Complaining about bad beats in tournaments will never help you win. Remember that in the long run, if you always put your money on being the favorite, you should statistically end up winning.

A period of bad luck for a player with a string of losses. The term "bad run" is generally used to describe a long period of bad luck. Synonym: Downswing The term is also used as a verb, reversing the two words when a player says he's "running bad", i.e. the cards aren't on his side, in a tournament for example. "I've been in the middle of a bad run for several months now!" - I'm running bad in this tournament!

We say "baller" in the United States. Said of a person who spends lavishly, without any impact. Example: Not washing your clothes and buying new ones is a baller attitude. Not showing up for Day 2 of a tournament because you've only got 5 blinds left at the start is balla.

A sum of money dedicated exclusively to poker, independent of your everyday money and used only for the game. This is known as the bankroll or kitty at poker, from which you must draw to pay for tournament entries or cash-game deposits. Note: Giving the amount of your bankroll is still a taboo subject for players at poker. In any case, it's difficult to estimate how much a player's bankroll amounts to, since players can dip into their bankroll at any time to improve their daily lives.

We talk about Bankroll Management in the sense that you should not take the risk of losing the entire jackpot dedicated to the game if you are the victim of a period of bad luck. For a long time, the rule of sound bankroll management was to commit a maximum of 1% of your bankroll to a tournament's buy-in, i.e., you needed a bankroll of €1,000 to regularly participate in tournaments at €10 per entry. Note: The term "BRM play" is often used to describe a player who strictly adheres to good bankroll management and therefore does not take risks with their money. To explain to your friends and family that you are not in danger with poker, start by explaining bankroll management to them.

A belly straight draw, in which you need a specific card to complete your draw. This reading is more commonly called a gutshot. Example: You have [6♦️] [5♣️] on a flop [J♦️] [4♣️] [2♥️], you have a Belly Buster and any 3 would give you the straight. Note: We often hear about double Belly Buster, i.e., you with a double flush draw. To use the example above, if the flop had been [8♦️] [4♣️] [2♥️], you would have had a double Belly Buster, the 3 and 7 would have allowed you to hit your straight draw.

Stake. Can be used as a verb, "I bet" means I stake. In the same family: make a continuation bet, make a 3-bet, make a blocking-bet, bet pot. "I bet, bet, bet" means, for example, that the player has bet on the flop, the turn, and the river.

A pattern of play that can be seen in an opponent through the observation of several occurrences. If you regularly see your opponent perform a particular action in a given situation, you are able to deduce habits that can be useful for the future, especially to determine your range of hands. Example: If we observe that a player checks/raises expensive as soon as they have a big hand, we will be wary the next time we find ourselves facing them and we will prefer checkback rather than continuation bet.

Term used in Limit games, such as Stud, Razz or Limit Hold'em. Refers to the larger of the two possible bets. In a €2/€4 Limit Hold'em game, the minimum bet is €2 (Small Bet) on the first two betting rounds, and €4 (Big Bet) on the turn and river. In a Stud game, the Big Bet occurs on the 3rd betting round (on the 5th street) and up to the 5th betting round. Note: In the same way that we talk in blinds to define our stack in No Limit ("I've got 40 blinds left"), in Limit games we talk in Big Bet ("I've got about 20 big bets left").

A card that does not improve any of the players' hands in the game. Synonym: Brick. Example: On a draw flop like [T♦️] [9♣️] [8♣️] and you have raised preflop, if the turn is a 2 of hearts, it can legitimately be thought to be a blank because no player should have a 2 in their hand. By extension, players can be heard saying "I blanked" or "I bricked" when their draw has not gone in.

Mandatory bets that players must pay twice per orbit and before seeing their cards, first in the big blind position and then in the small blind position, in most poker variants. Generally, the small blind is equal to half of the big blind. These blinds were created to generate action. If there were no blinds at all during a poker tournament, players could spend their time waiting for cards without their stack being dented. Note: In tournaments, the blinds increase regularly to generate action.

Pronounced "Blocker". A card that a player has in his hand and therefore cannot be in his opponent's hand. If a flop reveals a flush draw and you have the Ace of that suit, your opponent can't have the max flush draw, so you're said to have a blocker. By extension, we speak of a "blocker" when we have cards that make an opponent's combination less likely. Example: If you have As-King in your hand, you have a blocker on both Kings and Aces (you can call it an "Ace blocker"), which means that these two hands are less likely in my opponent's hands because I'm depriving him of certain cards.

The blocking bet is a small bet, usually made on the river, with the aim of buying a showdown at a lower cost. It's thought that, if you check, your opponent may place a big bet, but that he won't often raise if you take the initiative. Note: Recently, we've seen some creative players place 1-blind blocking bets, which are very disturbing for their opponents, who often have no choice but to pay the bet and show their hand. The blocking bet is often a magic weapon for saving chips in a tournament, by carefully avoiding a few big opponent bets.

A bet or raise to make the opponent believe that you have a stronger hand than them when you think you have a weaker one. You hope they fold a better hand than yours when you bluff. Note: A semi-bluff is when your hand has room for improvement. For now, you only have a flush draw, you have nothing, technically, but your hand can improve on the river if your draw goes in. We sometimes talk about "turning a hand into a bluff" when we have a hand with a certain value, but we consider it insufficient to win the hand. In life, we often talk about bluffing when we threaten to do something we don't think we'll actually do. You tell your boss that you want to leave the company if they don't agree to give you a raise. Are you bluffing or will you be willing to take the risk?

A hand that is not enough to hope to value it, but which may simply allow you to "catch a bluff". You will very rarely want to bet an Ace high on the river for value; however, you can sometimes call a bet from your opponent to thwart their bluff. Generally, a small pair turns into a bluff catcher if you go on the river. You will rarely be able to value your hand and your small pair will look like a bluff catcher.

A set of community cards that players can use to make up their hand. In Hold'em and Omaha, five cards make up the board. We talk about "play the board" when your best hand is represented on the board and you can't do better than the combination made up of the 5 community cards in the middle. Sometimes you'll hear a player timidly announce "board" once you've paid their bet on the river. Usually, you'll win the pot. Synonym: Table.

An expression from the live game that means you bet all your chips. Send your box: push your mat in the middle. Synonyms: All-in, Shove.

The smallest possible pair using one of the cards on the board. On a J-8-6 flop, you have 6-5 in your hand, so you have bottom pair.

Bounty on a player in case of elimination. Note: Initially, bounties were often placed on the heads of celebrities (VIPs) to entice players to look for situations to challenge them. Bounty tournaments create very special dynamics, because sometimes trying to eliminate a player can make you outsmart, but it's also often the optimal play, given the money promised to the person who eliminates that player. The Progressive Bounty format is also very popular online, with Bounties that grow as the eliminations progress, and make the elimination of a player more and more exciting as the tournament progresses. See also: Progressive Bounty, Mistery Bounty.

Position at the table where you are the last player to act on the last three rounds of betting. We say "to be on the button" because we have a disc with "dealer" written on it in front of us, which represents the place of the dealer and which rotates after each hand. Note: The button is the best position at the table because you are in position over all the other players, i.e., you are the last player to act and therefore have all the necessary information before making your decision. In writing, we sometimes find BU (Button), BTN (Button), or OTB (On The Button).

Literally, to boast, to show off. When you win a tournament or make a great move, you can easily "brag" in front of your friends. Live, players like to place "thin brags" all day long, explaining how they managed to fold a hand when their opponent had the max game or a big 3-barrel bluff with air.

A player who is neither a winner nor a loser over a certain period of time or a certain number of hands. In cash games, a player who still has their starting buy-in at the end of the evening can say that they have "broken the session". "I've been breakeven for months" means a player hasn't lost but also hasn't won for months. Note: Usually, when we talk about a breakeven player, we laugh at them, considering that they are wasting their time playing poker.

Combination of 3 cards of the same value. A distinction can be made between : - Set": two cards from your hand combined with one card from the tableau. - Trips": one card from your hand combined with two cards from the tableau. Example: On a J-J-4 flop, if you have J-T in your hand, you've flopped trips. On a J-8-4 flop, if you have 8-8 in your hand, you've flopped a set.

A card that does not improve any of the players' hands in a move. See blank. You can say "I blanked" when you were on a big draw that didn't go in.

A card whose value lies between the Ten and the Ace. By extension, a player is said to have broadways when they have a combination of two cards between the Ten and the Ace. Queen-Jack or King-Ten are broadways.

Said of a player who has lost everything. (Literally, broke = broken) Usually, it is used to mean that our bankroll no longer allows us to play the tournaments we used to play. "I'm broke, I have to start again on the small limits." In a pejorative way, we can call a player "broke" because they don't play the same limits as us. "He's broke, he still plays the €1 tournaments!"

Live, face down card turned over by the dealer before dealing the flop. As a precaution, a card is "burned" to prevent the players from seeing the first card that was going to be dealt in advance. You can also "burn the cards" of a player if they have made a mistake or broken the rules. In this case, the player's cards are retrieved and placed with the other cards face down in the muck.

In French, bulle. A special moment in a tournament where there is only one player left to eliminate before the others enter the first paid places. By extension, the bubble period can start when there are a handful of players left to eliminate. It is said that the bubble bursts when the "bubble-boy" has just been eliminated. This is usually the time of greatest tension on tournaments, with players first trying to get in the money to pay off their registration before hoping for more. "I bubbled the final table" means you were eliminated just before the final table. In real life, when you go to the premiere of the latest Marvel movie and the theater is sold out just before you get to the checkout, we can say that you bubbled.

The "bubble-boy" is the player who gets eliminated just before the paid seats and causes the bubble to burst. This is clearly the worst place to be in a tournament at poker , as you're the first player not to get any money, the one who gets the short end of the stick.

Refers to a very aggressive player who puts constant pressure on their opponents. A player who doesn't necessarily know how to stop and uses the slightest spot to endanger their opponents. The noun bully is sometimes turned into a verb to express that a "player is bullying at the table", this is especially true during the bubble period when some players can't help but raise all the hands, taking advantage of their stack to put pressure on their opponents and steal the blinds easily. Note: the current trend of good players is not really to bully a table anymore, decisions are much more measured and mathematical. In real life, a bully, as in Larry Clark's eponymous film, is a person who constantly annoys others, a high school bully for example.

Said of a cash game player who observes the tables for bad players before sitting down. They rarely play against regular players and look for the fish to catch. Online, some players open tables and don't play until a player identified as bad has sat down. The term bumhunter can also be used as a verb. "I bumhunted all night," would say a regular player who was looking for pigeons to pluck all night at the tables.

Refers to a player eliminated from a tournament. Can be used as a verb: "I busted on the last hand" or "I busted on the bubble". Can also be used in the transitive mode, to mean that a player has been eliminated: "I busted the best player at the table".

Blind Versus Blind is an abbreviation for a blind battle. A shot played in BVB involves only the two players in the blinds, the small blind and the big blind. In general, players talk to each other about BVB, as it's simpler than explaining every time that only the blinds are involved in the move under discussion. "I'm in BVB when I get two Aces, I decide to limp to trap".

Refers to a big loss of money during a game. By extension, it can describe a situation where one has lost a large amount of money. Example: For many players, Vegas is a 'cagoule' every year, because we play a series of tournaments and it quickly becomes very expensive. We also speak of a 'cagouled' player to describe a player who often plays badly and does not take into account all the parameters that should be taken into account in his game choices or decisions. Example: Jean is a Spin & Go hoodie, he thinks he will one day hit the jackpot but has never worked on his game to beat regular players. In life, we sometimes talk about hooded to describe a person who is not doing very well and often makes borderline decisions about work, social relationships or others.

A player who tends to follow his opponents' bets very often, and is not easy to get folded. You're never too keen to bluff a calling station, but it's often the ideal client for your good hands. The abbreviation "CS" is often used to designate a Calling Station. Example: "He's a real CS, this player! In real life, someone who believes everything they're told can be called a CS. "Hugo, he's a CS, you can make him believe anything!"

A game at poker in which the players at the table play with their own money. They buy a certain number of chips, known as a cellar, to participate in the game, and can recave at any time, i.e. buy back chips. Unlike tournaments, you're never eliminated from a cash game, since you can always put money back in to continue. Note: the big difference between cash-game and tournament play is that blinds don't increase. Technically, you can still play with a hundred blinds in front of you, but the result is a very different way of playing, much more focused on post-flop play than pre-flop play. Indeed, with 100 blinds in front of you, it's going to be very rare to put all the money in the middle before the flop.

Refers to a player's chips (his stack), exclusively in a cash game. When he loses his stack and buys back chips, he's said to be "re-caving". Sometimes the term "decave" is used to remove part of the chips from the stack, when this is allowed, as in some cash-game games, in order to avoid playing with too large stacks. "I caved max" means that the player paid the maximum amount of chips he could get at that table to start with. In life, "This is my last recave" can be said when you pay for a round but you know it's going to be your last.

Action that allows you to stay in the game without having to bet. You return the floor to your opponents, letting them bet before you do. This action is only possible if no one else has bet during this round of betting. In live play, you can tap the table to indicate to the dealer that you're checking, making sure that your action is easy to spot - some players gesture so discreetly that you can barely see what they've done to indicate that they're checking. Note: "Check Dark" means that you check before you've even seen the flop cards. In general, you want to let the player with the initiative bet the rest of the hand, so you check no matter what cards are revealed. Synonyms: Parole, Faire parole

Check when you have the initiative and your opponent has just checked before you. You see him check and it's your turn to play. Instead of betting, you do as he does, so it's a check-back. Note: Often, a check-back will give the impression that you haven't hit. You slow down the aggression and give your opponent an opportunity to regain the initiative.

Check before you raise. The "/" indicates the separation of the two actions, first you check and then, if your opponent bets, you raise. Example: You're in the big blind with a pair of 8s in your hand. The flop comes K-Q-8, you're the first to speak and decide to check. Your opponent makes his continuation bet and you decide to raise, armed with your three of a kind. You've just made a check/raise. Note: A very long time ago, check/raise was forbidden in certain areas of poker, as it was considered an ambush. It was thought that if you checked, it wasn't fair play to raise after your opponent had bet. Nowadays, the check/raise is a much-used weapon, particularly for boosting pots when you've hit a big hand.

Check before paying your opponent's bet. Example: "Here, I've hit two pair on the flop, I decide to check/call three streets". Note: When you decide to check/call, your plan is to pay your opponent's bet. But of course, depending on what your opponent decides to do, you may decide to change your plan.

To check before passing on an opponent's bet. Example: "I didn't hit anything on the flop, so I'm going to check/fold. Note: Checking/folding is often the same as planning to give up.

Check before pushing your all-in on the opponent's bet. Example: "I flop a max color draw, I decide to check/shove my draw to maximize my fold equity."

The amount of your stack (in chips) at a given moment in the tournament. When you start a tournament with 30,000 chips, your chipcount is 30,000. By extension, chipcount refers to the total chip counts of all players still in the tournament, usually ranked from highest to lowest, or by table. "At the chipcount for Day 1, I'm in the top 10", a player might say when checking the chipcount on the coverage of the Belgian Poker Challenge in Namur.

An act of cheating by a player who intentionally gives chips to another player during a tournament, using subterfuges that are more or less easy to spot. This is strictly forbidden in all tournaments and cash games. Note: You might wonder why players would think of doing this. Imagine yourself in a situation where you have a big stack and your best friend is struggling to survive with a stack of just a few blinds. Don't be tempted by this kind of maneuver - you're risking a lot if you get caught!

Chip manipulation technique to pass the time at a poker table. Some players are able to perform artistic tricks by passing chips from one hand to another, mixing two stacks of chips into one, or passing chips from finger to finger. Note: Generally speaking, a player who is good at chip-tricks is a regular in the live game. If you want to keep a low profile at the table and pretend that you're not used to playing, don't bother pulling out your best chip-tricks!

The player with the biggest stack at any given moment in the tournament. He's often the scariest player at the table, since any move against him can send you to the exit, and his "role" is often to rule the chips at the table. Note: At the bubble of a tournament, the "table chipleader" has a clear advantage over the other players, as he can put pressure on the stacks he covers.

The minimum raise you can make after an opponent's raise. This term is mainly used to refer to the action of quickly clicking on the Raise button for online players, without having first chosen the amount of the raise. By extension, click back defines a minimal raise, American-style, i.e. you don't have to double your previous raise. This type of raise has only recently been authorized in French-speaking tournaments, but has long existed in the USA and on online sites. Example: Preflop, Marcelo opens to 50 on blinds 10/20. In some casinos, the minimum raise is 100 (double the last bet). On the other hand, the so-called American raise allows you to bet the difference between the first raise and the previous bet, i.e. here, a player could raise to 80 (instead of 100), according to the following calculation: allowed raise (click back) = 50+(50-20).

Clubs. In coverages and hand histories, Xc is often used to designate a club card. Example: Kc stands for King of Clubs. Note: When writing, we almost always use English to write the suit of a card. For example, Kc, not Kt, is used to indicate a King of Clubs.

A confrontation between two players who both have a 50% chance of winning. If you want to win a tournament, you'll need to win a few, as this is a very common situation. Preflop, a confrontation between a pair and two higher cards is a corner flip (usually 52/48). In life, many people rely on chance, and the famous "coin toss" we all know to determine the first to do something is akin to a coin flip. Synonyms: Heads or Tails, 50/50, CoinCoin, Coin Toss

A form of cheating involving two or more players at the expense of another. At the table, collusion can take the form of players agreeing not to play each other (softplay), passing chips illegally (chipdumping) or implementing subterfuges to play as a team against one player, waving at each other or sandwiching a player. Note: Although sometimes difficult to spot, collusion is severely punished at the poker table and is considered an act of cheating.

A double draw. You currently have an unmade hand, but with a straight draw and a flush draw at the same time, so you have plenty of outs to improve your hand. Example: You have [9♥️] [8♥️] on a flop [T♥️] [7♣️] [4♥️], so you have a straight draw on both ends as well as a flush draw, and thus here a combo draw. Here, for example, you have a 56% chance against a player with [K♦️] [K♥️] and 15 outs to improve your hand. Note: Combo draws are very strong and often deserve to be played aggressively.

Can be translated as "committed". When you've invested a lot in a move and what's being asked of you is negligible compared to the money already committed, you're committed to the move. Example: A player opens at 3,000 UTG, you over-raise to 8,500 on the button with As-Valet and the big blind pushes all-in for 12,000 chips. Even though you think you're behind the player who pushed all-in, you're literally forced to pay at pot odds. You only have to pay 3,500 for a pot that will make 27,000, so you need to have a 12% chance of winning the hand for your call to be profitable. Note: Beware, some players quickly feel they're committed to a move when they're 100% sure they'll be beaten by their opponent's hand. When you have to make a decision on the river, even if the bet is negligible, if you estimate that you'll be beaten 100% of the time, perhaps it's better to preserve your stack?

Inevitable encounter between two big hands. Example: You've flopped a set of 4s on a flop [Q♣️] [4♣️] [3♦️] and your opponent has flopped a set of queens. You have no way out of this hand - it's a cooler. Synonym: Set-up

Pot odds that take into account not only the current betting round, but also possible subsequent betting rounds. Thus, with a draw hand, you may not have the direct odds to call a bet, but with the possibility of hitting your draw on subsequent streets, your expectation of winning is so high that you have good implied odds here. Note: setmining is often a weapon where implied odds are a factor. Indeed, if you're sure you're going to destack a player in possession of a big pair in hand, then you may be quicker to pay a raise with a small pair (even if you don't have the direct odds), in the hope of hitting three of a kind and winning a big pot.

Being covered means that your opponent has more chips than you do. If you go all-in against him and lose, you'll be eliminated from the tournament. However, if you cover all your opponents at a poker table, there's no risk of you going all-in. Note: When the dealer counts the chips of two all-in players and realizes that the losing player had fewer chips than his opponent, he announces "It's covered", and the short-stack is left with nothing but tears in his eyes.

Literally, "handicapped" or "crippled". Refers to a player who doesn't have many chips left. Example: "After that losing move, I found myself completely crippled and had to take risks to get back into the tournament". In life, sometimes used to describe a player who doesn't have much left in the tank.

The position of the player just before the button. This is the second-best possible position at a poker table, since only the button speaks after us. Note: This name comes from the fact that the player at the cut-off is normally the one who cuts the deck before the button deals the cards.

The dealer is responsible for dealing the cards at the table, ensuring that the game runs smoothly, collecting the rake (in cash games), ensuring that the blinds are set correctly, distributing the chips and reading the hands of the players involved in the moves. By extension, the term Dealer also refers to the position of the Button (represented by a dealer chip), since the button represents the last to be served by the dealer.

A Dealer's Choice game is one in which the variants played at the table change at the whim of the player at the button. On his turn, and before the cards are dealt, he chooses and announces the variant in which the next hand will be played. For ease of use, Dealer's Choice tournaments retain a variant for an entire orbit, before a player can determine the next game format. Note: In general, there are around ten variants to choose from in a Dealer's Choice game. In the USA, and particularly at the WSOP, it's not uncommon for organizers to offer players around 15 possible variants, ranging from Limit Hold'em to Badeucy, 2-to7 Triple Draw, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz or Badugi.

Cards with different suits. [A♦️] [8♣️] is a mismatched hand. You can say, "I had As-Eight mismatched on this hand." Synonyms: Offsuit, Off

Tiles. In coverages and hand histories, Xd is often used to designate a card. Example: Kd stands for King of Diamonds.

A donkbet is a bet by a player who didn't have the initiative in the move beforehand. Example: Alain opens to 400 on the button from Marcel's big blind, who defends. On the flop [T♦️] [8♣️] [2♣️], Marcel speaks first and proposes a bet of 300, which is called a donkbet. Logic would have dictated that Marcel should check, giving the initiative back to Alain. Note: Although the idea of a donkbet can initially be intimidating (not least because of the technique's name, which can be translated as "donkey bet"), it's a weapon that you need to learn to master, and one that can enhance your arsenal as a good player at poker. In certain situations, a well-placed donkbet may be the best option you have for winning a move.

The door card defines a player's first open card in Stud games such as Stud Hi, Stud8 and Razz. By extension, the first card on the flop in Hold'em or Omaha is also called the door card, because it's the one you see first when the dealer unwraps the flop. Example: A player recounts the last bad beat he suffered at the WASOP Main Event: "I've got the Aces against the Kings, it goes all-in preflop and bam, the King on the door card".

A hand consisting of two cards of one rank and two cards of another rank. Example: Two Queens and two Sevens form a Queen-Seven double pair. A double-pair containing a pair of Aces is called "Aces Up".

Doubling up in a tournament. When you become short-stacked in a tournament, with less than twenty blinds in front of you, this is often what you're looking for to get back on track: a double-up spot. Note: it's often when we're talking about a preflop confrontation that made us double up that we're talking about a double-up, more than when we've just doubled up on a move on the river. "A double-up and I'm back to the mean," said one short-stack player at the last Namur's Classics side event.

A series of bad results extending over a long period, mainly due to bad luck. Can be associated with the bad run, which corresponds to a period of bad luck. You'll sometimes hear people complain that they've been "downswinging for months."

Draw. A player is often said to be on a draw when he or she is considered to be trying to improve his or her hand. This term can be found in a number of expressions referring to different types of draw: a combo-draw, a backdoor flush draw, a straight draw... Note: 5-card draw is the variant of poker played long ago, where you could draw cards to improve your hand.

Being in a position where you can no longer win a move, where the cards remaining to be dealt can no longer help you win the move. Example: You have A4 on an AQT2 board against an opponent who has AQ and puts you all-in. You're already drawing dead on the turn, and your hand can't improve enough to beat the opponent's hand. By extension, a player is said to be drawing dead when he has very little chance of performing. A tournament player who is not used to playing cash games, for example, will be drawing dead against regulars. In real life, if you turn up in a tracksuit in front of the most exclusive nightclub in Paris, you're drawing dead to get in.

Advantage of one player over another or over the average player in a field. Example "I have an edge over you in Omaha, I've been playing this variant for years."

To be in position over another player is to speak after him. Ideally, you'd always want to be in position, since you know what the other player is doing before you make your decisions, and therefore have a significant advantage. When you're not in position, you're said to be out of position. In writing, and sometimes even in speech, we use the abbreviations IP for In Position or OOP for Out Of Position, and in speech we often say "hors poz" or "en poz" to describe the action. Note: Playing in the blinds ensures you're out of position in a move, which is always complicated to play. Ideally, you want to play in position as much as possible, which is also why the Button is the best position at a poker table, because whatever happens, you'll be sure to be in position.

EV (Expected Value) is your expectation of winning on a given move. Depending on your hand and your opponent's hand, your EV is the amount you should win if the logic of math were to hold. Example: You go all-in with a pair of Aces against a pair of Queens. You have an 82% chance of winning. If the pot were €100 and you each invested €50, your expected payout would be 82/100*50 - 18/100*50, or €32. The term "EV+" is used for a situation in which your expected payout is positive, and "EV-" for a situation in which your expected payout is negative. If you know you have a 40% chance of winning a move, that's an EV- situation. In life, certain situations appear EV+ at the time they are encountered. Completing your studies before embarking on poker seems to be an EV+ decision. In the event that your poker career doesn't work out as planned, you'll be able to get back on your feet.

Betting. Refers to going all-in when you're not quite sure of what you're doing. You rely more on luck than on an in-depth analysis of the situation. In general, you're faced with a complicated decision, and rather than thinking about the best option, a player will decide to "gamble". By extension, a gambler is a player who likes to take risks. "He's a real gambler!

Abbreviation for Good Game. Good game. This is often the brief message that poker online players write in chat after eliminating a player, whether ironic or not. GG WP", which stands for "Good Game, Well Play", is also a common sight at online tables.

Opposite of bad run. The moment when everything goes right for a player, when he makes his draws and wins his corner flips. A period of success, whether during a tournament or over a lifetime. In the same way as bad run, it can be used as a verb. "Aces, kings, queens, what a good run I'm having in this tournament! Synonyms: Upswing, Rush, Heater

Playing methodically at a limit you've mastered or in a tournament at your usual buy-ins. By extension, grinder means gradually building up your stack in a natural way, without making a big splash. A player will often prefer to say that he has "grinded" his stack rather than admit that he has just won two successive coin flips. It's a way of saying that experience has paid off, rather than luck, in order to gradually increase the size of his stack. In real life, we often talk about a guy who "grinds" a girl when he's been flirting with her for a long time.

The largest blind bet made by a player before the cards are dealt. It's usually twice the small blind. In particular, we say "Defend your big blind" when we pay a preflop raise from this position, considering that if someone raises, it's to "steal our big blind" and not because he has a good game. Note: This is often the position in which you lose the most money. Indeed, since we've already put money into the pot, we're often tempted to see a flop when we've got bad cards, just because we think we've got the odds. Abbreviation: BB

Drawing straights We need a specific card to complete our straight draw, so we usually have 4 outs to get there, or 16% turn and river odds. "With [9♦️] [8♣️] on a flop [6♦️] [5♣️] [2♦️], I have a gutshot, any 7 would give me a straight". Note: Some live players sometimes refer to a gutshot as a "gunshot". Synonym: Bellybuster, Gutshot Straight-Draw

Literally, the history of a hand. Basically, it's mainly online that players access the hand histories of the moves they've played during a tournament or cash-game. In a text file, you'll find all the information about what happened during a hand, the cards, the bets, the amounts of the stacks... Hand histories can also be compiled in a tracker to extract statistics and analyze your game. Live hand histories, often shortened to HH, are also used to tell someone about a hand. "I've got two kings, I've got 3-bet...". Abbreviation: HH

The lowest combination on poker, i.e. you don't even have a pair. We often associate the word "high" with the highest card in our deck. We say, for example, "I have Ace high" when we have an Ace in our hand and no pair. By extension, we also speak of a "King-high flop" or "King-high board" to designate a flop or board whose highest card is a King.

A poker game involving just two players. In online cash games, some tables allow this format. There are also Sit and Go Heads-up tournaments, or tournaments played in successive heads-ups, similar to a tennis tournament. In a multi-table tournament, a heads-up is when only two players remain in the running. Note: When recounting a move, heads-up is also often used when only two players are left in the story. "There's three of us on the flop, I bet, the big blind goes nuts. We're HU!" In real life, when you find yourself in HU with a girl for the first time, you don't know what to do! Synonyms: HU, Heads-up

Hearts. In coverages and hand histories, Xh is often used to designate a card. Example: Kh stands for King of Hearts.

The act of folding your hand while in possession of a very good game. Generally speaking, a big fold is considered a hero fold on the river. Folding two kings preflop against a player you feel must have two Aces can be considered a very nice hero fold. Note: It's always up to the player to decide: some players will say they've made a hero fold when they've folded a top pair, others when they've passed the second max game.

Position occupied by the player to the right of the cut-off, two notches to the right of the button. In full ring play, Hi-Jack (HJ) is considered a late position from which to open play. Abbreviation: HJ

A variant in which the final pot is split between the High and Low hands. The best-known variant is Omaha Hi-Lo, where pots are very often split. For Low, in general, a low hand must contain five cards below 8 to qualify, with A,2,3,4,5 being the best possible Low. Also written: Hi-Lo

A tournament with a very high entry fee, usually higher than the Main Event of a tournament series. On an EPT, the Main Event is €5,300, the High-Roller €10,600. On the big international circuits, we also talk about Super High-Rollers, with entry fees ranging from €25,000 to €100,000. In general, these are the most challenging tournaments at the festivals, as fewer players have qualified and they are often the meeting place for sharks with large bankrolls.

Literally high limits. The term "high stakes" is mostly used in cash games, usually starting at blinds of €50/€100. Note: there was a TV show called High Stakes Poker, where you could watch famous players playing at $400/$800 blinds, with pots sometimes well in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The act of winning a big hand and leaving the table immediately afterwards. This is mostly possible in cash games, since you can leave the table at any time, but it's a practice that many players disapprove of. In general, it's advisable to stay at the table for a few hands after you've pocketed a big pot, as if to give the person who lost to you a chance to make up for it. The term "hit and run" is sometimes used to describe a player who has won a big tournament and has not been seen since. "He hit and ran the circuit!" In real life, a player who wins millions on a Loto draw and never plays again afterwards has literally hit and run the Française des jeux. And that's quite a feat!

A player's private cards, which only he or she knows. Note: The Hole Camera was a term used to describe a camera that was invented to film players' private cards in a TV show on poker.

Heads-Up Display Decision-making software combined with a tracker for real-time information on what's happening at your table (online). In general, it informs you about the percentage of shots played without being in the blinds, the percentage of shots in which a player has re-entered by raising or the aggressiveness factor. You can set your HUD to display a wide range of information, such as the percentage of 3-bets, 4-bets, 2-barrels...

Independent Chip Model The ICM is a mathematical model that has been developed to give a precise value to your chips at a given point in the tournament, based on the tournament's payout structure and the size of the stacks of the various players still in the tournament. It's a fairly complex system of calculation that often allows players to come to an arrangement when the stacks are too large at the end of a tournament. This is how we often speak of an ICM deal, concluded by changing the prizepool to best match the players' stacks at that particular point in the tournament. By extension, the ICM is a factor to be taken into account by players when approaching big wins in a tournament. Suicide ICM", for example, occurs when a player takes an inordinate risk with an average stack and is eliminated before a player with a very small stack, feeling that he has wasted money by playing this way.

In the dark. Playing without looking at your hole cards, or without looking at the board. In live play, many old-school players like to "check in the dark" before the flop is revealed.

A mixture of the words "isolate" and "raise", to express the action of isolating a player by raising with the aim of going one-to-one against him, thus pushing the other players out of the game. In general, this is often an action taken against a weak player who was trying to see a flop by limping, with the aim of raising the stakes to scare off the other players and not give rise to a family pot. Online players tend to say "Iso" rather than "Iso-raise" when recounting a hand.

In The Money An ITM player is one who has made it into the paid positions of a tournament. After the bubble bursts, all players are in the money, i.e. ITM. Note: A player is sometimes referred to as an ITM percentage. By convention, a good player is around 15-20% ITM, i.e. about one in 6 times in the money.

Defines a card which accompanies a 5-card combination, and which can be used to break a tie between players. For example, if two players each have two pairs of the same value, the 5th card of their combination will be used to break the tie, and will be called the kicker. Note: On the flop [A♣️] [T♣️] [4♦️], if we have [A♦️] [K♣️], the King is our kicker and we have the best possible kicker, so we say we have Top Pair Top Kicker. If our final hand contains only a pair, like our opponent, our best card behind the pair will be our King, our kicker.

A Knockout tournament is one where every time you eliminate a player, you collect a bounty that goes straight into your prize pool. For several years now, the fashionable online format has been the Progressive Knockout, where each time you eliminate an opponent, you automatically pocket half the value of their bounty, and you also increase the bounty placed on you by the same amount. In this way, the bounties you covet as you attempt to eliminate players increase as the tournament progresses, sparking more and more action.

Abbreviation for Large (L) Aggressive (AG). Refers to a player who plays a lot of hands (wide player) and plays them aggressively. Note: Tight (T) Aggressive (AG) players are referred to as TAG players.

Said of a player who plays a lot of hands and has no problem with the idea of playing marginal hands as long as he can see a consistent number of flops. Note: Wide players are often said to be hard to play, but can win big pots against, because they tend to overplay hands, attempt many draws and overpay when beaten.

Money bet between several players on which of them will go furthest in the tournament. Each participant gives a certain amount of money to take part, and usually the last man standing, i.e. the last player to be eliminated, pockets all the other players' contributions.

The action of laying down your hand, but in a classier way. A big fold is often referred to as a lay down. "He made a big lay down with three of a kind against a max straight," you might hear in the Hilton corridors when you've passed your three of a kind on EPT Prague 2029. Synonym: Fold

Regaining the initiative on a betting round when you were not the last aggressor. Example: A player opens on the button and the big blind decides to defend. On the flop, the big blind bets before his opponent makes his continuation bet.

A gap identified in a player's game, a technical weakness that can be worked on to improve your game. "I've spotted a leak in your game", a coach from poker might say to you after looking at you during your online session, just to entice you to pay him a little money for a few coaching sessions.

Defines an action performed with a "light" hand, in other words, a weak hand. Example: If you place a 3-bet with Q-4 mismatched, you can be said to have made a light 3-bet. In the same way, you can call a light call when you pay with third pair on a dangerous board. Note: A 3-bet light is a form of bluff. You don't 3-bet with a weak hand for value, but to represent a stronger hand than the one you have.

Action of calling the big blind without raising preflop. For a long time, it was thought that limping was bad, until certain players proved that it could be a viable and interesting technique to have in your arsenal. We can also talk about open-limp, which is the action of being the first to open by limping, or overlimp, which is the action of limping after a player has already limped. Note: In the past, seeing a player limp often meant that he was a weak player. This is no longer the case, as some very good players use this technique.

Mix of the terms Live and Retard. A pejorative term used mainly by young players from the online world (sometimes referred to as "linetards"), to describe old-school players as weak and exploitable. Livetards are players who haven't evolved an inch, who can't adapt to new ways of thinking about the game, and who remain entrenched in their positions.

Position occupied by the player to the right of the Hi-Jack, i.e. three notches to the right of the button. In 6-Max, Lo-Jack (LJ) is the first player to speak after the flop, so Lo-Jack = UTG in short-handed.

Defines a wide player who gets into a lot of shots, plays marginal hands and isn't afraid to pay dearly for his draws. Rather than an aggressive loose player, the term loose-aggro is often used. Note: For a long time, the prototype of the loose-aggro player was a certain Gus Hansen, known for entering a lot of preflop shots with marginal hands and playing his draws very aggressively.

Defines a very lucky player at the table or in life. "He's a real luckbox this guy, he hasn't lost a coin flip since 1978!".

A Hold'em player's hand is made up of his two community cards. Not to be confused with the combination he can make by combining his hand with the community cards on the board. A hand is also referred to as an entire move contested at the table. From the moment the dealer deals the cards, he launches a new hand at the table. When players tell each other about moves, they often say "I've got a hand to tell you about", in which case it's the whole move they want to tell, not just their two hole cards. Note: In English, a hand is called a "Hand", and you'll often hear a player say "Nice Hand" to another player after a losing hand, to congratulate him or her, whether ironically or not.

Main event in a tournament series. Usually the most famous and eagerly-awaited tournament in a tournament series, often held towards the end of the festival. It's not necessarily the most expensive in terms of entry fees, but it's often the one with the biggest turnout and the one the media are most interested in. The Main Event of the World Series Of Poker (WSOP) is the most prestigious of all tournaments and is known as the world championship of poker, while many tournaments with higher buy-ins are held every summer in Las Vegas.

The term Max defines the best combination you can make with your hand on a given board. Example: On the board [K♣️] [J♦️] [8♦️] [4♣️] [T♣️], you have max three of a kind with [K♦️] [K♥️], which doesn't necessarily mean you have max play. You could also have the max straight if, for example, you had [A♦️] [Q♣️] in your hand. But this would still not be the max game, since in this example you'd need a max flush to be sure of winning. Similarly, a max color draw would mean that if you hit your color, it would be the best possible color on this board. Note: The term "Max" is also used to define the maximum number of players who can sit at a table. Thus, the 6-Max format accommodates 6 players at a table.

The metagame is everything that's external to the game itself, but can provide you with essential information to help you make your decisions. For example, you've never lost a move to a player, you've spotted a tell in him - all this can be part of the metagame, as well as the latest techniques, the image you give at the table... To understand the metagame is to be one step ahead of the others, at a time when theoretical knowledge is widely known by all the best players on the circuit.

Clicking the wrong button due to inattention. You wanted to click on Call and your mouse clicked on Fold when you had max play. By extension, it also applies to poker live, when you make a mistake in a raise due to poor handling or an approximate count of your chips. "At the end of the session, I missclicked/folded with nuts for the chiplead pot" is a sentence you don't really want to say the day after a complicated session.

Unexpected action in a situation where you wouldn't normally do this. In particular, we say "make a move" when, instead of folding, which we thought was the best option, we launch into a full blown raise. When you've played tight and built up a good image, it's not unusual for you to be able to make a move without arousing suspicion. Example: We'd normally fold our Queen-Eight in the blinds, but we finally decide to 3-bet light using our image to make a move.

A middle position at the table, between early positions such as UTG and UTG+1 and late positions such as HJ, CO and BU. In the same way as UTG (with UTG+1 and UTG+2), we often use MP, MP+1 and MP+2 for the three intermediate positions in Full Ring, although we sometimes prefer to use the term Lo-Jack for MP+2. Verbally, you might hear "I call a raise in MP to push the late players to squeeze!"

Multi-Table Tournament. In contrast to Sit and Gos, which are generally single-table tournaments, an MTT is a multi-table tournament in which the field is gradually whittled down to a single winner, and players are redispatched between tables as the tournament progresses. "Tonight, I'm doing an MTT session" implies that an online player will be playing a few multi-table tournaments over the course of the evening.

Giving your hand back to the dealer when you know you've lost and don't want to reveal any additional information by showing your cards. By extension, the place where players' folded cards are collected is called "the muck". Instead of "mucking", you can also say "throwing your cards into the muck".

A move where a certain number of players are involved, usually more than 2. For example, a 3-way pot is a 3-way pot, a 4-way pot is a 4-way pot... Synonym: Family Pot

Payer une relance en position, en espérant qu'un joueur derrière nous squeeze, pour pouvoir le sur-relancer quand la parole nous revient. Remarque : C’est une technique assez avancée qui montre en général beaucoup de force et est rarement faite en bluff complet.

A pejorative term for a very tight player. He plays very strong hands preflop and will rarely take risks. In general, when a player you've identified as nit raises you, if you don't have a big game, run away! We also use the term nitty ("a bit of a nitty"). In real life, nit often means "cheapskate", one who doesn't give up his money easily. A "nit" will rarely agree to take part in a credit card roulette game, for example.

Period during which blinds and antes do not increase. In a multi-table tournament, for example, we'll talk about 30-minute levels, which implies that every 30 minutes, the blinds increase. In general, the longer the levels last, the better the structure, because players have time to play before being caught out by the increasing blinds. Synonym: Round

Initials for No Limit Hold'em. No Limit Hold'em is still the most popular variant of poker, and the biggest international tournaments are played in No Limit Hold'em.

No brainer could be translated as "No doubt". It's a decision that doesn't require you to think about it at all - you don't need to plug your brain in to look for an answer, as what you're about to do seems so obvious. For example, paying with two kings preflop is often a no brainer!

A betting format in which a player can bet all his chips at any time when it's his turn to speak. This is the star format at poker, because it's so action-packed. At any time, a player can put pressure on you by betting all his chips. Unless you've got the max game, you'll always be afraid of losing everything on this one. Abbreviation: NL

In cash-game, nosebleeds are limits so high that every pot lost could give you a nosebleed, hence the term "nosebleed". Nosebleed refers to limits so expensive that very few players can access them and settle in. In general, nosebleed refers to the $500/$1,000 blinds.

Color Max. The best possible color. Also used: Nut flush draw: a draw to the best possible color. Example: If you have A-4 of clubs on a K-T-3 flop with 2 clubs, you have nut flush draw. If a club falls, you get the strongest possible color.

"To have the nuts means to have the best possible game. The word can also be used as a verb. "I was nuts on the turn" means that you had the max game at the time of the turn. Literally, nuts = hazelnuts; some live or Canadian players sometimes use this term in a rather amusing way. Example: You have J-T on a J-J-T flop, you have the full max and also the nuts at the time of the flop. Of course, a player with two jacks in his hand would beat you, but since you already have one of the two remaining jacks in the deck, that's impossible.

Short for Obviously. Often expresses disgust at seeing the worst card in the deck fall at the worst time for you. This is one of the most common words written by online players in chat windows. When they suffer a bad beat, they often write Obv, as if to complain that it happens to them too often and, above all, that it only happens to them. In general, the longer the levels last, the better the structure, because players have time before being caught out by the increasing blinds.

Cards of different suits. If you have [9♥️] [7♣️], you have 9-7 offsuit, or 9-7 mismatched. Don't make the mistake of saying the flop was offsuit if it contains three different suits - it's more like a "rainbow" flop! When telling a cover player about a hand on your next tournament, don't hesitate to use "Off" rather than "Offsuit", as in the following example: "I had Jack-Dix off on the button, so I decided to open to 2x". Synonyms: Off, Discard

As opposed to Live, this refers to poker on the Internet. Online players, for example, are the term used to describe players from the Internet generation. Online players are sometimes pejoratively referred to as "linetards", just as live players are sometimes called "livetards" (a contraction of live and late).

Preflop, the action of entering a non-open pot by simply following the big blind, i.e. being the first player to limp. In UTG position, a player who decides to limp will always make an open limp. On the other hand, if you decide to limp after another player, you're said to be "overlimping".

Preflop, the action of entering an unopened pot by raising, i.e. being the first player to raise preflop. The UTG player has three options when it's his turn: Open Fold, Open Limp or Open Raise.

Refers to a complete round of the table. In 9-max, 9 hands. In 6-max, 6 hands. Some players may take penalties, which are counted in number of hands or orbit. "He's taken a penalty orbit!

Designates a card that could help a player improve his hand. Example: A player holds [A♥️] [4♥️] on a flop [T♥️] [8♥️] [3♣️] against a player who holds [A♣️] [T♥️]. All hearts are outs for his hand since they would bring him a flush that would beat his opponent, so he has 9 outs ([Kh,] [Q♥️], [J♥️], [9♥️], [7♥️], [6♥️], [5♥️], [3♥️], [2♥️]).

Out of position or out of position. A player who is not the last to speak in a move. By convention, we often define ourselves in relation to another player. "I was out of position against him" means that this player speaks after me. We always prefer to be in position (IP) rather than out of position (OOP), because we have more information before making our decision by speaking last.

Winning a move when you weren't the favorite when the money went in the middle. Example: If you go all-in with a pair of Jacks against a pair of Queens and you hit a Jack to win the hand, you're said to have outdrawn your opponent. Note: As it's often the losing player who complains, we often say "getting outdrawn" or "getting sucked out" when we've lost a move in which we were the favorite. Synonym: Suckout

Playing better than an opponent and winning more than you theoretically should have. Example: In cash games, a player used to playing at high limits will often "outplay" a player who comes to try a shot at that limit, because he's more used to playing at those blind amounts. "He's been outplayed all day" means that players have gained the upper hand on the player in question and taken advantage of his inexperience to win shots they perhaps shouldn't have.

Bet more than the size of the pot. It can be used as a verb ("He overbet €80 in a €50 pot") or as a noun ("He placed a huge overbet at 3 times the pot"). Note: Once the preserve of recreational players who overvalued their hand, this technique is now part of the arsenal of very good players and is often very difficult to counter. You're rarely tempted to pay a €100 bet if the pot is €30!

Calling a bet when a player has already called before you. Example: Robert bets 100 chips, Cynthia calls. If Robert decides to call in his turn he's said to "overcall". (In general, we can also say that he simply calls, but we like to be precise).

Card above the board. Example: On a J-6-7 flop, a player in possession of King-Queen has two overcards in hand. Note: Overcards have a reassuring side when you're making a decision, since if one of your overcards is revealed on the turn or river, you can move ahead of your opponent's game. It's a potential opportunity for improvement.

Amount payable to the organizer when the guaranteed prizepool is not reached in a tournament. Example: In a €10,000 tournament with a guaranteed prizepool of €1,000,000, if only 75 players take part, there's an overlay of €250,000, which the organizers have to pay out of their own pocket. Note: In general, players run after overlay tournaments, since there's there's more money to be won and fewer players to beat.

A pair higher than the highest visible card on the board. Example: You have a pair of Kings in your hand on a Q-7-2 flop, so you have an overpair. Note: Often, you'll be in an ideal position with an overpair, because a player with the highest pair on the board will be confident and won't suspect that you might have a better hand than he does.

Prize usually won during a satellite tournament, which includes the entry fee for a larger tournament, travel, accommodation and sometimes pocket money. Note: online, many operators organize satellite tournaments guaranteeing a certain number of packages for a prestigious live event, usually organized by their brand.

A combination of two cards of the same rank. Example: If you have As-Jack in your hand and the flop shows J-5-4, you have a pair of Jacks. Note: If you have a pair in your two hole cards, you're said to have a pocket pair.

Action of not bidding while remaining in the hand. If no one has bet before a round of betting, a player may decide to check. Usually, the player indicates to the dealer that he is calling by tapping the table or by finding his own way of indicating his action. Synonym: Check Note: "Check" is much more often used in the spoken language of the poker player, "faire parole" being used relatively little.

See Blindes

Abbreviation for Pre Flop Raise The percentage of hands a player has raised preflop. The PFR is mainly used in online trackers, and more specifically in HUDs, to determine a player's profile and the frequency with which a player attacks preflop. The higher the PFR, the wider the player is considered to be. Note: A player considered very tight (nit) will often have a PFR < 10%.

Two cards of the same value in our pocket cards. Example: If you have two Queens in your hand, you have a pocket pair. Note: The expression "Pocket Xs" is often used to describe a pocket pair. pocket pair. "I had pocket jacks" means you had two jacks in your hand.

The impassive face of a player on whom it's difficult to read anything, neither the strength of his hand nor the tension that may overwhelm him at the moment of a move. A player is generally said to have a "good poker face" if he shows no emotion at the poker table. In real life, the expression " poker face" is often used to describe someone who is impassive, who shows nothing on his or her face when many would react differently in his or her place.

Position defines your place at the table: you can be first to act (UTG), middle to act (MP), last to act (Button) or in the blinds (SB, BB). By extension, position defines the best possible placement in relation to the other players. To be in position means to be seated to the left of a player and therefore to speak after him/her. Out of position means not speaking in the last position. Note: This is a very important concept at poker, and some players go so far as to say that they only want to play shots in position.

Occurs after the flop has been revealed. The term postflop play, as opposed to preflop play, is used to describe the action that occurs in Hold'em on the flop, turn and river. Note: cash-game players are wont to criticize tournament players for playing mainly preflop, whereas they play mainly postflop because of the number of blinds they have in front of them at every turn.

Refers to all the players' bets at a given moment in the game. Everything that's been bet ends up in the middle of the pot, and it's for this sum that the players still in the game fight. Note: Stakes are often referred to in terms of pot size. For example, we'll bet 1/3 of the pot, half the pot, 2.5 times the pot...

The action of deliberately slowing down the action so that the pot doesn't grow too big. A player who feels he has a better game than his opponent will choose to check rather than bet to control the size of the pot. Note: The same concept is also referred to as Pot Management.

A betting format where the maximum you can bet is equivalent to the size of the pot, unlike No Limit where you can bet all your chips at any time. This format is often found in Omaha, notably in PLO (Pot-Limit Omaha), although there are also a few Pot Limit Hold'em tournaments. Note: Rather than bothering with calculations, PLO players like to bet by calling "Pot". It's then up to the dealer to count the pot to determine the amount of the bet.

In French, we mostly talk about the pot odds, i.e. how much you can win and how much you have to put in to hope to win it. Example: The pot contains €200 and your opponent bets €50 on the river. The pot odds are then 5:1 (5:1), since you only need to bet €50 to hope to win €250. By taking into account your percentage chance of winning by improving your hand, you can determine whether your call will be profitable. In this example, you need to win 20% of the time for it to be profitable to pay out, mathematically speaking. Note: In live play, you'll often hear players say "I had the odds" to justify a questionable play. This is also what drives many players to defend their big blind. They don't have much to add to an already attractive pot.

Bet of the amount in the pot at a given time. Abbreviation: PSB Online players often refer to pot size when recounting a move. "I bet 3/4 pot on the flop to give me a pot size bet on the turn" means that a player calculates his bets on the flop to have a pot size bet on the turn.

Two of a player's hole cards that form a very bad hand. Example: [7♣️] [2♥️] is the worst garbage, [J♥️] [3♦️] is also garbage. Note: Cards that are sometimes called "departments" in gaming circles are often regarded as trash (9-3, 6-2 ...). It's not uncommon to hear the phrase "I've only seen departments for an hour!" when a player complains about his cards.

Abbreviation: PF Happening before the flop, before the three flop cards are revealed. We speak of preflop play, preflop action, preflop raise. "Preflop, I open at 2bb with queens..." Note: Unlike cash-game, tournament play is very much preflop, due to the increase in blinds and average stacks, which no longer allows the action to take place over several rounds of betting.

The total winnings to be distributed to the best players in a tournament. The prizepool is made up of the players' entries, minus the fees paid to the organizer. Example: The entry fee for an EPT Main Event is €5,000 + €300. For an event with 740 players, the prizepool would be 740*5,000, or 3.7 million. Note: The term "guaranteed prizepool" is sometimes used when organizers try to attract players with a large prize pool. If the players' entries don't reach the guarantee, this is known as an overlay, and the organizers are obliged to add the missing money from their own pockets.

Betting all your chips. "He pushed in the dark" means he went all-in without seeing his cards, which isn't very advisable in tournament play. Synonyms: Shove, Tapis, All-In

Situation in which a player no longer has a sufficient stack to do anything other than "go all-in" or "fold". Mathematically, he no longer has room to simply raise, and must either commit himself completely to a move by putting all his chips into play, or fold in the hope of quickly finding a sufficient hand to be able to go all-in. Note: a player is generally said to "push or fold" when he falls below the 10 blinds mark (although this notion is always dependent on your opponents and the level of the tournament).

Combination of 4 cards of identical value from poker . Note: "Carré" is more often spoken than "Quads". Synonyms: Square, Four of a Kind

Combination of 5 cards in sequence. When you have [9♥️] [8♥️] [7♥️] [6♣️] [5♦️], you're said to have a straight 9. Note: When speaking, we prefer to use "straight" rather than "straight". Synonym: Suite

Combination of 5 consecutive cards of the same suit. When you have [J♦️] [T♦️] [9♦️] [8♦️] [7♦️], you're said to have a Jack straight flush. Synonym: Straight Flush

Combination of 5 consecutive cards of the same suit, from 10 to Ace. When you have [T♥️] [J♥️] [Q♥️] [K♥️] [A♥️], you have a royal flush and, incidentally, the best possible hand, the max game. Synonym: Royal Flush

Barrier or space separating the gaming table from the spectators in a tournament. By extension, a player can be said to have "joined the rail" when he or she is eliminated from a tournament, joins the spectators and is no longer part of the tournament. Note: This term is also used as a verb to say that you're going to cheer someone on. "I'm going to the rail" means you're going to watch a player closely and cheer him on.

A tournament spectator who cheers on a particular player. In live tournaments, the railbird is normally located in the rail, i.e. behind a barrier separating it from the playing area. Railbirds are also known as fans who post messages in chat to encourage a player in an online tournament.

A board or flop where all the cards are of different suits. Example: [A♥️] [7♣️] [4♦️] is a rainbow flop. Note: The term "rainbow flop" is often used to mean that there is no possible flush draw. Synonym: Rainbow

A raise. Or the action of raising. Example: "I raised on the turn with my draw". Note: Even though we should sometimes say re-raise, live players almost always announce "raise" as soon as they make a raise, whether it's a preflop bet, a raise or an over-raise.

Amount deducted by the organizers from tournament entries or from a portion of the cash-game pot. Example: In the case of a €100 + €10 tournament, the rake is the second amount indicated, which will not be added to the prizepool but will be used to pay employees or finance the casino. Note: Rake is usually between 5 and 10% of the entry fee to a tournament. Synonym (used mainly for cash games): Size

Percentage of rake given back to the player in the form of gifts in a loyalty program or sometimes directly in the form of money by affiliators or by the site itself in the form of tournament tickets, for example. Example: "On PokerStars, I have 23% rakeback since I unlocked this status." Note: There are also Rake Races, which sometimes offer rewards in the form of cash bonuses to the players who rake the most.

A range of possible hands for a player in a given situation, depending on his actions and profile. Example: Since he only checked preflop and is an ABC player, he never has two Aces or two Kings in his range - he would always have raised! Note: We sometimes speak of a capped range, which means that the range we're trying to define is limited to certain hands, and that certain big hands are excluded from this selection because of the player's actions.

Razz is a variant of poker in the stud family, in which the aim is to make the lowest possible hand. The Ace counts as a low card, and suits and flushes are not counted. The maximum game is A-2-3-4-5, sometimes called wheel. Razz is one of the variations found in H.O.R.S.E. tournaments.

A very popular format that allows you to re-enter the tournament once you've been eliminated, by paying a new entry fee. Not to be confused with Rebuy, where players remain in their seats and collect new chips, re-entry is considered as a new tournament entry (and therefore a new seat). Organizers usually specify how long you can re-enter and how many times you can re-enter. Some recent tournaments offer unlimited re-entries, so players can register a considerable number of times to maximize their chances of building up a big stack at the tournament. Note: A re-entry to a tournament is often referred to as a "Bullet". "This player has put 8 bullets into the tournament. To get his money back, he'll have to make the final table!

In cash-game, a rebuy is a new cellar you can buy after a move. A rebuy tournament allows you to rebuy a set number of times. Some tournaments have unlimited rebuys, while others allow only one rebuy.

In cash-game, to recave means to put money back on the table once you've fallen to zero. Theoretically, you can also do this even if you haven't yet reached zero, usually by not exceeding the maximum starting stack allowed in the establishment.

For Regular. Refers to a regular player in a particular field, whether it's a circle player you see often, or an online player who assiduously frequents a certain gaming limit. In general, reg means good player. Note: "Regfish" is sometimes used to describe a regular player who is not necessarily at the level you'd expect.

A preflop surrelance on a player who is believed to be trying to steal the hand, often by bluffing. Since he's trying to steal, why not resteal?

Oriented (deceived) by the result. Said of a player who considers that he has played well because the cards finally proved him right, when in fact, objectively, he didn't make the right decision. Example: If you go all-in with a pair of 2s and win against a pair of Aces, saying you've played well is result oriented. Note: We sometimes use the abbreviation RO for Result Oriented, as in "he's really RO on this one".

Rigged, unfair. When a player falls against the Aces when he has the Kings in his hand, an acceptable way of complaining about the situation is to say that "it's rigged".

The ratio between the risk we take and the reward we can obtain. In some situations, a good risk/reward might be to try a cheap bluff that can win us a big pot. Risk/reward could be translated by the French expression: "Est-ce que le jeu en vaut la chandelle?"

In Hold'em or Omaha, the fifth and final community card. After the river appears, the final round of betting takes place. Synonym: River

5 cards of the same suit in sequence, from Ten to Ace Synonym: Royal Flush

Exclusively practiced in cash games, this means dealing the flop, turn or river twice when two players are all-in. This creates two pots which are distributed to each winner, although one player may win both or neither. Note: This option is often offered to high-limit players to limit variance. It was not uncommon to see it on the High Stakes show Poker a few years ago, where large sums of money were exchanged between players. Example: You go all-in with [A♥️] [4♥️] against [K♦️] [K♣️] on a flop [K♥️] [5♥️] [2♣️] with your flush draw + straight against your opponent's max three of a kind. You can offer to run it twice so you don't have to suffer the next two cards on the turn and river.

A draw that requires two successive cards to return. A runner-runner straight is when two cards would give you a straight. Example: On a flop [J♦️] [7♥️] [3♣️] and with [8♦️] [6♦️], you have both a runner-runner straight and a runner-runner flush. If the next two cards are, for example, [T♣️] and [9♥️], you have a straight. Note: In spoken language, this is often referred to as a backdoor rather than a runner-runner draw. "I had a backdoor flush" means that you could get a flush if two cards helped you on the turn and river. Tips: You should never bet too much on a backdoor. Literally, it can be translated as a way out, so it's never really something to consider first in a decision.

Refers to the player who comes second in a tournament. Note: Although it's often a richly endowed position, it's also one of the most frustrating for players, because you've come so close to winning, and it's a situation that won't happen often. "We mostly remember the winners, not the runner-ups."

Period during which a player accumulates profits, good results or lucky moments. Can be used for results situations (a player achieves several good results in a row in tournaments) or during a tournament, after a period of accumulating strokes and chips. Example: "I've just made ITM 5 times in a row over my last 5 tournaments, I'm in a rush" or "I've just passed 3 corner flips in a row, I'm in a rush". Synonyms: Upswing, Good Run

Qualifying tournament for another tournament with a higher entry fee. Example: A €10 satellite tournament qualifies for the €100 evening tournament, guaranteeing a ticket for 10 players. If 10 players have contributed €10 to the prizepool, the winner will win a ticket to the €100 tournament. If 40 players entered the satellite tournament, 4 tickets would be distributed for the €100 tournament. Tips: This is a great way to play in bigger tournaments without depleting your bankroll. All the major tournaments, including the World Series Main Event at Poker, offer satellite tournaments that give you access to the main event at a lower cost.

A player who is afraid of losing the money in front of him, especially in cash games. In general, a player who is playing beyond his means and who will be hurt by losing that money can be called scared money. Note: Scared-money players are the main targets of regular cash-game players. They can be put under pressure because they're afraid of losing their money without having the max game. In tournament play, scared-money players can slip up as they approach the paid seats, or as they get closer to the payouts, and may not take sufficient risks on certain shots because of their relationship to money. Tips: The best way to combat this feeling of being scared of money is good bankroll management. If you know that what you can lose on this tournament is negligible compared to the money you have at poker, you'll play more relaxed.

Literally, a scary board translates as a "frightening board", meaning that the common cards present a frightening situation for your hand (you have two black kings on a J-T-9 board with hearts). By extension, you may find that a board is "scary" if it shows two identical cards and you don't have any, since you know that your opponent only needs to have one of these cards to have three of a kind.

A scary card for your hand that can potentially improve your opponent's hand, at least in the worst-case scenario. In general, when you have a pair in your hand, cards higher than your pair are quickly considered scary cards. Example: You have a pair of Jacks in your hand and the flop [Q♦️] [8♣️] [4♦️] falls. The Queen of Diamonds is then a scary card, since any Queen in an opponent's hand beats you.

Action of betting with a hand that has potential for improvement. This bet may allow the player to win the hand right away by making his opponent fold, and to keep an escape route in case his opponent calls, thanks to a draw that may materialize on the turn or river. Example: If you have [8♦️] [7♦️] on a flop [6♦️] [5♥️] [2♦️], you can bet. At the moment, you only have height eight, but have plenty of outs to improve your hand. If your opponent passes, it's already a good move, but even if he pays, you may be able to improve your hand and continue betting.

Said of a player who plays very few hands, who is very selective about the hands he plays. Note: Tight players are often said to be easier to bluff, because they have an annoying tendency to believe they're always beaten except when they have the max game. A tight player is sometimes pejoratively referred to as an "iron bar". Synonym: Tight, Iron bar

Three of a kind formed with a pair in hand and a card from the board. Example: You have a pair of 5s in your hand and the flop [Q♦️] [5♥️] [3♣️] falls, so you have a set of 5s, or a set of 5s. Note: Set should not be confused with Trips. If you have 5-2 in your hand on a Q-5-5 flop, you have trips. If you have 5-5 on a Q-5-2 flop, you have a set. Tips: If you're lost, say you had three of a kind - it's French, and it works in both situations.

Refers to an inevitable meeting between two big hands, often referred to as a "cooler". Example: You flop a full house with K-K on a K-Q-Q flop and your opponent has hit four of a kind with Q-Q in hand. You've just been the victim of a set-up. Note: In general, cinema films on poker specialize in staging set-ups. Watch Casino Royale and see for yourself. Tips: If you're ever asked what you came out of a tournament with, and you don't feel like elaborating, just say "I came out with a big set-up". It always comes across!

Refers to the action of trying to make a set with a small pair in hand, considering that the initial raiser may have a big pair and that our only chance of winning the hand is to hit a set. Note: Setminer is only profitable if both players involved in the hand have at least eight times the value of the raise (to get the odds) and if you're pretty sure your opponent will have trouble folding his overpair after the flop. Tips: As you progress through a tournament, the strength of small pairs decreases. As the blinds increase, there isn't enough stack depth to setminer profitably.

An expression of satisfaction that tells the dealer you've just won the hand and can send the chips to you. Rather than shouting "I'm the best" after winning a shot, a little "ship it, baby" will seem more sobering to the table. Note: This is rarely said live, but you may find it sometimes in online game chat, after a win or a tournament win.

Used mainly in cash games, when you're going to play on a higher limit than your usual one, to test whether you're good enough to stay there permanently, or just because you're tilted and think you'll earn more by spending less time there. Note: Even if it seems a risky option, some great players have progressed by going for limits when their bankroll wouldn't allow it. If it ever goes well, it's a faster option for moving up the limits.

It's a tournament where tables aren't broken, and full tables are rebuilt as soon as players are eliminated. To advance in a shootout and move on to the next round, you need to be the last survivor of your table. Note: Shootout tournaments are very popular, and give the impression of being faster than others. In a 10-handed tournament, you only need to beat 3 tables to overcome a field of 1,000 players. It feels like you only have to win 3 SNGs to win the tournament.

A format where fewer than 6 players are at the table, as opposed to the Full Ring format (9 or 10). Short-handed tournaments allow for good play and aggression, as the players are larger because the blinds come back more often, and therefore induce action. Note: Short-handed is sometimes referred to as 6-Max, because 6 players per table is the most common format for short-handed tournaments. It's a very "European" format. In fact, 6-Max tournaments are rare in the USA, whereas in Europe, and especially online, it's often one of the most popular formats.

Defines a player who doesn't have many chips at the table. In general, you're considered a short-stack when you fall below fifteen blinds in tournament play. Note: Some players are more comfortable in a short-stack position than with an average stack. Shots are often simpler to play, as you're often in a push or fold situation. The term "short-stack ninja" is sometimes used to describe a player who navigates between 10 and 20 blinds for most of the tournament.

A way of playing cashgames, where the minimum amount of blinds (usually around 20) is raised and a basic push-or-fold strategy is adopted. Note: In general, players who shortstack the limits are also those who hit and run, i.e. as soon as they've doubled their stack, they leave the table and sit down at a new one, ceding the minimum amount.

Attempt (Shot) to play at a higher limit than one's usual limit, to see if one has the level to establish oneself there when one does not have the bankroll to do so. Synonym: Shoot a limit

Betting all your chips. "He shoved in the dark" means he went all-in without seeing his cards, which is not highly recommended in tournament play. Synonyms: Push, Tapis, All-In

The moment when players reveal their hole cards after the last bidding round. It's usually the dealer who announces " Showdown " once the last bid has been equalized, to encourage players to reveal their hole cards. Synonym: Slaughter

A hand with a good chance of winning at the showdown is known as " showdown value". You're not sure you've got the best hand, but you've got enough to win with, so you don't have to bluff. Often, having showdown value allows us to limit costs and not artificially inflate pots, since we know we have a significant chance of winning the hand. Example: "I've got showdown value with my high Ace, so I'll check.

This is the phrase uttered by the tournament director to launch the first hand. Literally, shuffle up and deal is the official message to the tournament dealers that they can deal the first hand of the tournament. Note: During the WSOP Main Event, celebrities take to the microphone each day to deliver the famous phrase that kicks off hostilities. It's the phrase most eagerly awaited by all players.

A side bet on something other than the game itself. In general, side bets are bets that players make with each other on anything and everything, to pass the time: the color of the flop, the first name of the next dealer, the time the bubble will burst... Note: Some players can make bets that run for more than a year. A well-known roofer, a compulsive gambler, was once offered a handsome sum if he didn't gamble for a year. And he kept his bet!

A side pot is formed when at least one of the players involved in the move is all-in, and the other players are still fighting it out with raises. The main pot, which can be won by the all-in player (up to the amount of his stack), and the side pot are two separate pots. If one of the players in the hand has the winning hand over all the other players, he wins both pots. If he doesn't beat the all-in player, but only the others, he wins only the side pot. Synonym: Outside

A tournament that starts when the required number of players is reached, rather than at a specific time like most tournaments. Literally, Sit n'Go could be translated as "Sit down and go!" By convention, sit and go games are usually played at a single table, mainly in a full ring. Very popular in the 2010s, they are much less so now, replaced in particular by Spin & Go. Note: In the heyday of online gaming at PokerStars.com, 180-player SNGs filled up within minutes on the site.

Evaluation of the size of the bet. "He sized big" means he bet big. Note: sizings are usually expressed as fractions of the pot: "I sized 1/3 of the pot". Sometimes the verb "sizer" is used to evaluate a raise. "It's a well-sizered raise" means you've made a precise, well-considered bet.

Underplaying a strong hand by making it look like you don't have a big game, with the aim of tricking your opponent. In general, you can slowplay a hand by checking instead of betting, with the aim of making your opponent suspect weakness and bet in turn. "He's a slowplayer, he never over-raises with Aces!"

Taking time to reveal the winning hand when your bet has just been evened out. By extension, taking time to pay when you have the max game, or close to it, can be considered a slowroll. Example: You have a pair of Jacks on a 7-7-6-4-J board and go all-in. Your opponent pays quickly and shows you A-7 for three of a kind. You take your time before knocking down your pair of Jacks for a full house. It's an attitude that's clearly frowned upon at the table, even if it's often hard to understand that it's disrespectful in our first games. Note: It's often difficult to know what is a slowroll and what is not. In a tournament, an opponent with around 20 blinds left goes all-in from the small blind. You have As-Queen in your hand and are covered by a small margin. If you take too long to pay, you could be accused of slowrolling, even though you were legitimately wondering whether or not to pay. For some tricky cases, some players also call it a "nitroll", meaning that it's not considered a slowroll, but that what would be an obvious call for many becomes a considered call for you because you're a tight player (nit), guilty of a nitroll.

A game strategy that consists of winning a lot of small pots and taking few risks in order to gradually build up your stack. In this way, you multiply small wins without putting yourself at risk, with the aim of building up a good image when the big game comes along. Note: This technique was popularized by Daniel Negreanu, who, thanks to his good post-flop reads, was able to enter a lot of preflop games with marginal hands, without ever voluntarily increasing the size of the pot. The name "small ball" comes from a baseball tactic which consists in not attempting a home run, but in trying to go around the field little by little, taking measured risks.

Defines the instantaneous nature of a player's action. In effect, "snapcall" means that a player has paid instantly, without really thinking. "Snapfold" means a player has thrown away his hand very quickly. The term "call" is usually deliberately omitted when referring to someone who has been paid instantly. It's not uncommon to hear: "He got snapped with the nuts!" meaning that a player got paid instantly by a player who had the max game. Synonym: In French, insta- is sometimes used in the same way as snap, as in the phrase: "Il a insta-passer sa main", but it's much less common in the oral jargon of the poker player.

Reprehensible way of underplaying someone. Two players who know each other at a table, or two members of the same team, may have the desire not to play against each other and may use softplay. Example: A hand that is checked by two players all the way to the river when it should have resulted in at least one value bet may look like softplay. Note: Even if it's sometimes difficult to prove that two players are softplaying, it's an attitude that can be equated with cheating by the other players at the table. Online, many investigations are carried out into accusations of softplay between certain players, and are provable since the sites have access to the players' hidden cards.

Spades. Often, an "s" is added to a card to signify that it is a spade. Example: [J♥️] reads "jack of spades".

Comes from vomit/spit. The act of squandering money with a negative expectation of gain. In gambling, this sometimes means taking an unnecessary risk. This happens a lot during the bubble period, when some players get laid with certain marginal hands, even before they're sure of getting into the paid seats. Example: After a losing session in a multi-table tournament, some players spew the rest of their bankroll at cash-game tables that are too expensive for them. By extension, a player spews when he spends wildly, without any possibility of making his investment profitable, and in an unreasonable manner. The term "spew" or "move spewy" is used to describe a move in which you've invested when you shouldn't have. In real life, someone who spews is a high roller, a person with an itchy credit card who spends more than is reasonable, whether on clothes, food, going out...

Contraction of spew and retard. Refers to a player who goes all out without really thinking things through. A spewtard will look for any borderline situation that will allow him to squander his chips at maximum risk. Note: This is clearly an attitude to be avoided if you want to excel in tournaments. Chips are precious, and squandering them won't often help you win in tournaments.

Split between two players who have the same hand on a move, or between a player who wins Hi and a player who wins Lo in a Hi-Lo game. A split pot is a pot split between 2 (or more) players. Note: Sometimes, a split is visible on the board, when a straight is displayed for example. Folding a split is when a player tries to make his opponent fold by making him believe he has a higher straight than the one displayed.

A situation that arises at a table and on which you must act. "I had a spot earlier with two queens". Sometimes you'd rather wait for a better spot than take chances with marginal hands. By extension, spotter can mean to target someone. "He's the spot on the table" refers to a player identified as weak, against whom you'll want to play as many moves as possible.

Big raise that comes after a bet already paid by one or more players, usually with the aim of getting as many players as possible to fold preflop. Example: A player opens to 300 under the gun, which is paid by the player in the middle and by the Hi-Jack player. You discover a pair of queens on the button and raise the stakes to 1,400. This is called a squeeze. And ... as Justice said on the Partouche Poker Tour, "at the button, the squeeze is AUTOMATIC!

The amount of a player's stack. The sum of his chips. Example: "The starting stack for this Belgian Poker Challenge Main Event is 30,000 chips". Note: The term "stack sizes" is sometimes used to describe the strategy to be adopted according to the size of a player's stack. In this case, we define the stack size in big blinds.

Action of financing someone for a tournament in exchange for a percentage of any winnings on the tournament in question. Depending on the quality of the player, the price to be paid to obtain shares in a player can be more or less onerous. Example: Tom wants to take part in the BPC Main Event at €1,100 per entry. Philippe offers to staker (finance) him for €550 and take 50% of his tournament shares. So Tom can play the tournament for only half the entry fee. After a good tournament, he finishes 6th and wins €18,000, so he has to pay back €9,000 to his staker Philippe. Note: Depending on the player's level, there may be a markup for the purchase of shares, i.e. players may sell a certain percentage of their share for a certain amount. For example, a player may offer 1.3:1. If he sells 10% of his share in a €1,000 tournament, he won't get €100 back from his stakeur, but €130. Please note: Staker is the correct term, not stacker, as many players make the mistake.

A stop-and-go is a technique often used by small stacks to avoid having to go all-in preflop, but to do so after seeing a flop and sometimes succeeding in pushing your opponent out of the move. This technique involves simply paying a raise (often from the blinds) and going all-in as soon as the flop is revealed, regardless of its content. Rather than going all-in before the flop, and getting paid in 100% of cases because the player will then have the odds, you give yourself a chance to fold a hand that didn't hit the flop when, in theory, he would have been ready to go all-in preflop. Example: You have As-Valet and a stack of ten blinds. The chipleader opens to 3 BB from the button. You simply pay to reveal a T-9-8 flop. You immediately go all-in. If your opponent had a pair of 4's or King-Queen here, it's possible he'd fold his hand straight away, and that's something you're keen to see happen, so you can take the hit without having to improve your hand.

Combination of 5 cards in sequence. Synonyms: Straight, Straight We prefer to speak of a straight or a straight rather than a straight.

Straight draw A game situation in which a player needs just one card to complete a straight. There are several forms of straight draw, depending on whether you can improve your draw from the belly or from the ends. Example: If you have 8-9 on a 7-6-3 flop, you have an open-ended straight draw, i.e. a 5 or a 10 gives you the straight. If you have 9-7 on a T-6-2 flop, you've got a gutshot straight draw. If you have 8-6 on a T-7-4 flop, you've got a double gutshot straight draw (or belly buster), i.e. a 9 or 5 gives you a straight. Note: There are also backdoor straight draws, which are draws that materialize on the turn and river, where you need two successive cards to complete your draw.

Classic, even academic, way of playing. Pejoratively, a player who is not very creative and is content to play his cards, without trying to be tricky.

Auction tower. (literally, street) Most often used in draw games such as Stud or Razz, to describe a hand that has just been observed or played. In Hold'em, there are 4 streets, i.e. 4 betting rounds defined by the terms preflop, flop, turn and river. In Stud, there are 5 bidding rounds, which have no particular names, so we speak either of 2nd, 3rd ..., or of 2nd street, 3rd street ...

Laying down chips in several bets. This is forbidden in live betting, to prevent some players from observing their opponent's reaction before continuing to bet. To avoid this, it's best to announce your bet out loud before moving your chips to the middle of the table. In this case, your word counts and you'll be forced to bet what you've announced. Note: Some cheaters try to use this reprehensible string bet technique to monitor players' reactions and glean information.

Changes in blinds and antes over the course of a tournament. Prior to tournaments, organizers unveil the structure in the form of a listing of different blind levels and a certain length of time for the levels, along with details of the buy-in, starting stack and scheduled breaks. A slow structure is when the levels last a long time (> 40 minutes) and allow players to develop their game without having to deal with regular blind changes. A turbo structure is when the levels are very short (usually under 20 minutes live) and quickly generate action. Note: The best structure in the world is undoubtedly that of the WSOP Main Event in Vegas, where players are offered 2-hour levels for the duration of the event.

Inflicting a suckout means starting behind and finishing in front, i.e. you go all-in with the worst hand, but you manage to get back in front thanks to the board, with just the right amount of luck. Example: You go all-in with a pair of Jacks against a pair of Aces, hit a Jack and suckout your opponent. Note: If you suckout your opponent, he's just suffered a bad beat.

Each of the four families found in a deck of cards (spades = spade, diamonds = diamond, hearts = heart, clubs = club). Synonym: suit By extension, a hand with two cards of the same suit is called suited. "J'avais As-Dame suité à cœur" means you had [A♥️] [Q♥️].

Identical colored cards. To say, "j'ai As-Valet suité", some people use the English expression "J'ai Ace-Jack suited". Note: In writing, we sometimes use the "s" for suited when we want to describe a hand in which we had two cards of the same suit without specifying the suit, we write "I had AJs" for example.

The French connecteur assorti is sometimes used to describe a hand consisting of two consecutive cards of the same suit (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs). 5-6 of spades is considered a suited connector, while Queen-Jack of diamonds is also called a matched connector. Note: These are attractive hands for many players, since they can make both straights and flushes and perform well against big pairs.

The action of raising after someone else has raised. Note: Preflop, the first over-raise is considered a 3-bet.

Exchange of shares in a tournament. Two players agree to exchange percentages of their future tournament winnings. Example: Marius and Arthur are both still in the tournament with 30 players left. They decide to swap 10%. No matter who goes farthest in the tournament, he must give 5% of his future winnings to the other, and vice versa. Note: This is a common practice in live tournaments, maximizing your chances of taking an extra ticket if a player you trust goes far in the tournament. It's like having two chances instead of one to win the big money at the top of the table, and thus limiting the variance.

Can be said for both a tournament and your bankroll. In a tournament, swings represent the big variations in your stack. Sometimes you'll have a big stack, sometimes a small one. All stack variations can be defined as swings. Imagine you're in a tournament where you go from chipleader to short-stack in the space of a few minutes. If the cover guy asks you about it, you can tell him that you "swing" a lot in this tournament. As far as your bankroll is concerned, upswing and downswing are terms used to describe the fluctuations your bankroll can undergo. If you've just made several good breakthroughs, you're upswing; if you haven't been winning for a while, you're downswing.

See Board. Set of common cards used by players to make up their hand.

Abbreviation for Tight (T) Aggressive (AG). Refers to a player who selects his hands well (tight player) but plays them aggressively. Note: A Large (L) Aggressive (AG) player is also known as a LAG player.

Taking time to think before taking action. We speak of "tank-call" when a player thinks for a long time before deciding to pay, or "tank-fold" when a player takes his time before passing his hand. The verb "tanker" is often used to describe a player pondering a decision, and the expression "tanking" is sometimes used to describe a player facing a big decision.

Refers to both a player's total chips and the action of pushing all his chips into the middle. Your stack represents the totality of your chips. For example, "I'm all-in with 23,000 chips". Going all-in is the action of committing all your chips to the middle on a move. You can call "All-in" or "Tapis" to bet all your chips at any time. In life, going all-in means betting everything on something. "Going all-in at poker means that you have focused your attention on the game at some point in your life, to the detriment of everything else.

A tell is a change in a player's attitude, which can tell you something about the strength or weakness of his hand. Example: You've noticed that every time your opponent puts his glasses back on before betting, he has a big hand. Note: We often talk about timing tells, especially online, which can give you clues about your opponent's game. According to popular belief, a player who plays very fast will tend to be on a draw rather than a made hand. In Rounders, Teddy KGB, played by John Malkovich, has a tell that Mike McDermott eventually spots and puts to good use. Whenever he has a strong hand, he breaks an Oreo in half by holding it up to his ear to listen to the sound. On the other hand, when he's in the middle of a bluff, he breaks his Oreo by staring at it.

Said of a player who plays very few hands. See Tight. Note: The expression "Tight is right" is often used for beginners, as a way of explaining to novice players that, before embarking on creative plays with marginal hands, selecting the right starting hands is the basis for progress in this game.

The state of a player who tilts, who has lost control of what he's doing. See Tilter In particular, you can "go into tilt" after a bad beat.

Adopt a foolish attitude after one or more strokes of bad luck. The expression comes from pinball, where you make the machine spin if you jostle it too much. The machine jams and you can no longer activate the joysticks. Tilt is a mental state to be avoided if you want to become a good poker player. The altered mental state caused by tilt will lead you to make the wrong decisions, to prefer risk to restraint, to take too many shots to "make up for it". In life, certain situations can easily make you tilt: the deliveryman who drops your parcel at the post office while you're at home, the last subway that starts without you, the bouncer at the discotheque who tells you that you're not coming home, etc.

Time reserve for difficult decisions at poker online. Clicking on it gives you extra time to make your decision on a hand that needs it. Your reserve is generally valid for the entire tournament, and is depleted each time you use it in a hand. Note: A player who has used his entire time bank for an early decision in the tournament may find himself biting his fingers when the big money comes in at the end of the tournament. He can only rely on the time available for each decision. In live tournaments, players usually have as much time as they want to make their decision, until a player calls "Time" if you've taken too long to think. You then usually have 30 seconds or 1 minute to make your decision before your hand is burned.

A clue given by the time taken by an opponent to perform an action. Online, since we can't see our opponents, bet amounts and timing tells are the only clues we can use to try and narrow down the range of opposing hands. Sometimes, seeing a player raise instantly on the button can represent stealing blinds, just as paying instantly can mean a player is drawing. Be careful, however, not to deduce too quickly that a player who takes his time has a real decision - it may just mean he's gone to the toilet during the hand.

A hand that needs one or more cards to be improved or completed. This is known as a straight or flush draw. There are different types of straight draw: open-ended, gutshot, bellybuster or backdoor (needing two cards to improve). See straight-draw, flush-draw. We call this a "draw hand", or we can say that you're "drawing" when you're waiting for cards to improve your hand.

Top Pair Top Kicker. A quick way of saying you have the best pair on the flop, along with the best possible kicker. Example: A player with [A♣️] [T♦️] on a flop [T♣️] [8♦️] [3♥️] has TPTK, the best pair on the flop (pair of tens) with the best possible kicker (the Ace). Language: We often talk about top pair when recounting a hand, but some online players like to talk about TPTK. "I've got TPTK on the flop and I'm getting checked/raised! Note: This is often a tough hand to pass. Since you have the best possible kicker with your pair, you win against all opponents with only one pair.

Software that lets you retrieve all the hands you've played on your computer and store them for analysis at the end of your sessions. This gives you statistics on your game (the hands with which you win money, the most profitable positions, etc.), your opponents' games, and an accurate account of your wins and losses. Alongside the tracker, some players also use a HUD, which gives you real-time statistics on your opponents, along with some important information such as VPIP or PFR, which tell you about your opponents' tendencies regarding preflop raises.

Literally, trap. You trap someone when you try to make them believe you've got nothing when you're in possession of a big hand. Trap is often associated with the idea of checking when you have a good hand. In this way, the check/raise, long forbidden in some cash-game games, can be considered the ultimate trap. You check to let your opponent bet (the trap is in place), and then decide to raise your bet. "I trapped him, I checked to trap" is a common expression when you've deliberately trapped your opponent.

A questionable way of talking to an opponent at the table, akin to provocation, with the aim of tricking an opponent into tilting. Some players owe much of their fame to their habit of trash-talking their opponents, like Phil "The Brat" Hellmuth or Mike "The Mouth" Matusow. By trash-talking their opponents, they try to gain information and get them to make mistakes. This can be done by insulting an opponent or criticizing his or her plays. Note: It's never a good idea to trash-talk an opponent at a table, as criticizing the way he plays can teach him things, and you don't want to do that if you think you're better than him with cards in hand.

Refers to unconventional play, which can win you more money through an unexpected line, and decisions that opponents find hard to analyze. It's not uncommon to hear "I played it a little tricky" when a player tells you about a hand and defends himself against having adopted an unusual strategy to achieve his ends. Example: Underplaying a pair of Aces has long been considered a tricky play. You're always expected to raise preflop with a pair of Aces. If you simply pay a raise with Aces, players may be confused by your choice and eliminate Aces from the hands they put you on. Note: The term tricky is also used as a synonym for "complex" in certain situations. "I had a tricky decision" can be understood as "I had a difficult decision to make". By extension, someone who is difficult to play can be defined as a tricky player. Because he's used to playing differently from the others, and to giving you a hard time, he'll be difficult to read.

A three of a kind made up of one card from your hand and two identical cards from the board, not to be confused with a set, where you use the two cards in your hand to make up your three of a kind. Example: You have [Q♣️] [8♦️] in your hand and the flop comes [Q♦️] [Q♥️] [2♦️], you have trip queens. In French, we'd say "J'ai trips" or "j'ai un brelan de Dames" rather than "J'ai trips de Dames".

The fourth card of the board in flop games such as No Limit Hold'em or Pot-Limit Omaha. It is revealed after the second betting round and will give rise to the third betting round of a hand. Although not widely used, it's also known as the turn.

Position at the table where you are the first to speak in the first round of bids. Literally translated as "under the gun", this is a very difficult position to play in. You're in the dark about what your other opponents may be holding, and you need to be cautious in your decisions, adopting a more conservative strategy and selecting your starting hands carefully. Note: UTG+1 and UTG+2 are also used to define your table neighbors at a full-ring table.

A player who is not the favorite in a match. Example: A player with [A♣️] [Q♥️] against [A♦️] [J♦️] all-in preflop is the favorite. The player with As-Valet is the underdog, in this case with a 28% chance of winning.

Victim of bad luck. A player is often described as unlucky if he has just suffered a bad beat in which he was the favorite to win. The acronym "UL" for Unlucky sometimes appears in online chatrooms when a player suffers a bad beat.

A series of good results over a long period. Example: "I've been running good for months, I'm in the middle of upswing". Upswing is often associated with the good run, the period of good fortune when everything comes your way.

The two positions to the left of the under-the-gun player. On a full-ring table, this is an early position from which you need to be careful in selecting your starting hands.

A bet to increase the value of your hand, to extract value from your hand. Example: You have [A♦️] [K♦️] on a board [A♣️] [2♥️] [7♦️] [J♣️] [K♣️] and you think your hand is the best. You bet a certain amount with the aim of getting paid by hands that are worse than yours. Here, you'd like to be paid by two worse pairs, an Ace or why not a King. The aim is not to make your opponent fold, but to get him to call your bet. Note: The term "value bet thin" is used when the value bet doesn't seem obvious. You feel that your hand is average, but that you can get paid by a hand that is slightly weaker than yours. In the example above, if you bet [K♦️] [8♥️] on the river and managed to get paid by [Q♦️] [J♦️], you could be said to have made a value bet thin.

Attempting a value bet by estimating that your hand is better than the opponent's hand, but getting paid by a better hand. Example: You have [7♦️] [8♣️] in hand on a [4♣️] [9♣️] [T♦️] [J♥️] [3♣️] board, you attempt a value bet with your straight but you get paid by [Q♣️] [7♣️] for flush, you just value cut.

Variance is the difference between what you should get and what you actually do get. For example, out of 10 coin flips, you should logically win 5, but variance means that sometimes you only win 2 out of 10. For a Cartesian mind, variance is bound to even out over the long term. After a ten-year career, you may have played 100,000 coin flips, but chances are you'll have won about 1 in 2. If we relate this concept to poker tournaments, or cash-game games, variance is what means that you're not going to win in a linear fashion, even if you have an advantage over the players you're playing with. Note: You'll spend your life as a poker player fighting the variance that means you won't win as much as you "deserve", but accepting this variance also means becoming a better poker player.

Very Good Game (also known as GG). Mainly used online, to make a comment to a player who has just gone out, congratulating him on his level of play and expressing the pleasure you had playing against him.

Name given to an opponent when a shot is told, mainly in writing. On the poker forums, hand histories often feature moves where one player defines himself as the "Hero" of the story and his opponent as the "Villain". Example: "Hero raises pf to 2,400 with AJ, and villain 3-bets to 7,800. Action?"

A move won without having to do anything when all players fold and you are in the big blind. You collect your big blind, small blind and antes and win the hand without having to show your cards or bet. Note: One of the worst things about poker is "getting a walk" when you have a pair of Aces in your hand. Generally speaking, it's advisable not to look at your hand when you receive a walk - if you haven't looked at it before - so as not to have any regrets.

Player identified as weak and therefore easy to bluff. A player who doesn't like to take risks without the certainty of having the best hand, he'll quickly become a target for aggressive players looking to make him fold his average hands. Note: "Weak-Tight" players are sometimes referred to as those who adopt a tight-passive strategy and live in fear at the poker table. In concrete terms, they always have the impression that there's a better player on the other side, and fold too much for fear of risk.

A complaint from a player who blames bad luck for his poor results. Example: A player who comes to tell of the latest bad beat he's suffered to get eliminated from a tournament is what's known as a whiner. Whining is complaining about bad luck, blaming variance, and looking for a reason not to accept that maybe it's our game that needs to be questioned.

A tournament or Sit and Go in which only the winner is rewarded. Note: although this kind of format existed a long time ago, it's rare to find one nowadays in live or online poker tournaments, as it's become so difficult to finish 2nd in a tournament and win nothing. Some satellite tournaments can be likened to winner-takes-all, where 30 players pay €10 to take part in a tournament that offers only a €300 tournament ticket for first place.