Lexicon

Two successive bets. Example: If a player bets on the flop and then on the turn, he is said to 2-barrel. In the same family, there is 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 the turn). It is 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" (He sends a second barrel) 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 (the equivalent of 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 in some special game formats such as Spin & Go. Note: 6-handed is used, for example, for tournaments with 6 players per table.

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

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 the bad beats you suffer in tournaments will never help you win. Remember that in the long run, if you always put your money on being the favourite, statistically you should end up winning.

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

In the United States, we say "baller". 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 only have 5 blinds left when you start again is balla.

A sum of money dedicated exclusively to poker, separate from your day-to-day money and used only for the game. This is known as the poker bankroll or prize pool, which you have to draw on to pay for your tournament entries or cash-game bankrolls. Note: Giving the amount of your bankroll is still a taboo subject for poker players. In any case, it's difficult to estimate how much a player's bankroll amounts to since, at any time, a player can dip into his bankroll to improve his daily life.

Bankroll Management" means that you mustn't run the risk of losing your entire gaming bankroll if you fall victim to a period of bad luck. For a long time, the rule for healthy bankroll management was to commit a maximum of 1% of your bankroll to the buy-in of a tournament, i.e. you needed a bankroll of €1,000 to take part regularly in tournaments at €10 per entry. Note: The term "BRM player" is often used to describe a player who scrupulously respects good bankroll management and therefore does not take any risks with his money. To explain to your friends and family that you are not in danger from poker, start by explaining bankroll management to them.

A belly flush draw, in which you need a specific card to complete your draw. This is more commonly known as a gutshot. Example: You have [6♦️] [5♣️] on a [J♦️] [4♣️] [2♥️] flop, you have a Belly Buster and any 3 would give you the straight. Note: We often hear of a double Belly Buster, where you have a double flush draw. Using the example above, if the flop had been [8♦️] [4♣️] [2♥️], you would have had a double Belly Buster, with the 3s and 7s bringing in your straight draw.

Bet. Can be used as a verb, "j'ai bet" means I bet, and is related to: 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, turn and river

A pattern of play that you notice in an opponent by observing several occurrences. If you regularly see your opponent perform a given action in a given situation, you will be able to deduce habits that you can use later, particularly to determine his range of hands. Example: If we observe that a player checks/raises high as soon as he has a big hand, we will be wary the next time we come up against him and prefer to check-back 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 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 have 40 blinds left"), in Limit games we talk in Big Bet ("I have around twenty big bets left").

Example: On a flop with a draw like [T♦️] [9♣️] [8♣️] and when you have raised preflop, if the turn is a 2 of hearts, we can legitimately think that it is a "blank" because at first sight none of the players should have a 2 in their hand. By extension, you can hear players say "I've blanked" or "I've bricked" when their draw doesn't go in

Blind" means blind. Compulsory 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. 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 tapped. Note: In tournament play, blinds are regularly increased to generate action

Pronounced "Blocker", a card which a player has in his hand and which therefore cannot be in his opponent's hand. If a flop reveals a flush draw and you have the Ace of this suit, your opponent cannot therefore have the max flush draw and you can therefore be said to have a "blocker". By extension, we talk about a "blocker" when you have cards that make an opponent's combination less likely. Example: If you have Ace-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 to be played by my opponent because I am depriving him of certain cards

The blocking bet is a small bet, generally made on the river, with the aim of buying a showdown at a lower cost. It is thought that, if you check, your opponent may place a large bet, but that he will not often raise if you take the initiative to bet. Note: Recently, we have seen some creative players place blocking bets at 1 blind, 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 some of the opponents' big bets.

A bet or raise to make your opponent think you have a stronger hand than he does, when in fact you think you have a weaker hand. You hope he will fold a better hand than yours when you bluff. Note: A semi-bluff is when your hand has room for improvement. At the moment, you only have a flush draw, you technically have nothing, but your hand can improve on the river if your draw comes in. We sometimes talk about "turning a hand into a bluff" when you have a hand with a certain value, but which you feel is insufficient to win the hand. In life, we often talk about bluffing when we threaten to do something that we don't really think we're going to do. You tell your boss you want to leave the company if he doesn't agree to give you a raise. Are you bluffing or are you prepared to take the risk?

A hand which is not sufficient to hope to value it, but which may simply allow you to 'catch a bluff'. You will very rarely want to bet a high Ace on the river for value, but you can sometimes pay off your opponent's bet to beat his bluff. Generally, a small pair becomes a bluff catcher if you go to the river. You will rarely be able to value your hand and your small pair will look very much like a bluff catcher

Set of common cards used by players to make up their hand. In Hold'em and Omaha, five cards make up the board. Play the board" is when your best game is represented on the board and you can't do better than the combination made up by the 5 common cards in the middle. Sometimes you'll hear a player timidly announce "board" once you've paid their bet on the river. Usually, you will win the pot. Synonym: Board

Expression used in live games to mean that you are betting all your chips. Send your box: push your carpet into the middle. Synonyms: Tapis, 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 the event of elimination. Note: Initially, bounties were often placed on the heads of celebrities (VIPs) to encourage players to seek out situations to challenge them. Bounty tournaments create some very special dynamics, as sometimes trying to eliminate a player can get you beat, 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 the Bounty increasing as each player is eliminated, making 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 speak in the last three betting rounds. We say "being on the button" because we have a disc with "dealer" written on it in front of us, which represents the dealer's position and 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 speak and therefore have all the information you need before making your decision. In writing, BU (Button), BTN (Bouton) or OTB (On The Button) are sometimes used

Literally, to boast, to show off. When you win a tournament or make a good move, it's easy to "brag" or "place a little brag" in front of your mates. Live players like to "thin brag" all day long, explaining how they managed to pass a hand when their opponent had the max game or a big 3-barrel bluff with air

To game. A player who neither wins nor loses over a certain period or number of hands. In cash games, a player who still has his starting bankroll at the end of the evening can be said to have "breakeven the session". I've been breakeven for months" means that a player hasn't been losing or winning for months either. Note: Generally, when we talk about a breakeven player, we make fun of him, considering that he is wasting his time playing poker.

Combination made up of 3 cards of the same value. We can differentiate between: - "Sets", made up of two cards from your hand associated with one card from the board; - "Trips", made up of one card from your hand associated with two cards from the board. Example: On a J-J-4 flop, if you have J-T in your hand, you have flopped trips. On a J-8-4 flop, if you have 8-8 in your hand, you have flopped a set

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

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

A player who has lost everything. Generally, 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 go back to the small limits". Pejoratively, a player can be described as "broke" because he doesn't play the same limits as us. "He's a broke, he still plays €1 tournaments!

In a live game, the dealer turns over a face-down card before dealing the flop. As a precaution, a card is "burnt" to prevent players from seeing the first card to be dealt in advance. A player's cards may also be 'burnt' if they have made a mistake or broken the rules. In this case, the player's cards are recovered and placed face down with the other cards in the muck

In French, bulle. A particular moment in a tournament when only one player remains to be eliminated before the others enter the first paid places. By extension, the bubble period can begin when there are only a handful of players left to eliminate. The bubble is said to have burst when the bubble-boy has just been eliminated. This is generally the moment of greatest tension at tournaments, with players first trying to get into the money to pay off their entry before hoping for better. I bubbled the final table" means that you were eliminated at the final table. In real life, when you go to the preview of the latest Marvel movie and the room sells out just before you get to the cashier, you can say that you've bubbled

The player who gets eliminated just before the paid seats and causes the bubble to burst is known as the "bubble-boy". It's clearly the worst place to be in a poker tournament, as you're the first player not to get any money, the fall guy.

Refers to a very aggressive player who puts constant pressure on his opponents. A player who doesn't necessarily know when to stop and uses the slightest spot to endanger his opponents. The noun bully is sometimes transformed into a verb to express that a "player bullies the table", this is particularly true during the bubble period when some players can't help but raise every hand, taking advantage of their stack to put pressure on their opponents and easily steal the blinds. Note: the current trend among good players is no longer really to bully a table, decisions are much more measured, mathematical ... In life, a Bully, as in the eponymous film by Larry Clark, is a person who constantly annoys others, a high school bully for example.

A cash-game player who watches the tables for bad players before sitting down. He rarely plays against regular players and looks for the fish to catch. Online, some players open tables and do not play until a player identified as bad has sat down. The term bumhunter can also be used as a verb. "I've been bumhunting all night," would say a regular player 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 transitively to mean that a player has been eliminated: "I busted the best player at the table"

Blind Versus Blind is an abbreviation for blind battle. In general, players talk to each other about BVB, as it's easier than explaining each time that only the blinds are involved in the game in question. "I'm in BVB when I get two Aces, I decide to limp to trap

Refers to a large loss of money during a game. By extension, it can describe a situation where a large sum of money has been lost. Example: For many players, Vegas means a balaclava every year, because you play in one tournament after another and it quickly becomes very expensive. The term "hooded" player is also used to describe a player who often plays badly and doesn't take all the parameters into account when choosing games or making decisions. Example: Jean is a Spin & Go cagoulé, he thinks he'll hit the jackpot one day but has never worked on his game to beat the regular players. In real life, we sometimes use the term 'hooded' to describe a person who is not doing very well and often makes borderline decisions about work, social relationships or other matters

The largest blind bet made by a player before the cards are dealt. It is usually twice the small blind. We say "Defend your big blind" when we pay a preflop raise from this position, considering that if someone raises, it is 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. Since we've already put money into the pot, we're often tempted to see a flop when we have bad cards, just because we think we have the odds. Abbreviation: BB

A player who tends to follow his opponent's bets very often, who is not easy to get folded. You never really want to bluff a calling station, but it's often the ideal client to make the most of your good hands. The abbreviation "CS" is often used to designate a Calling Station. In real life, someone who believes everything they're told can be described as a CS. "Hugo, she's a CS, you can make her believe anything!

A poker game in which the players at the table play with their own money. Unlike tournaments, you are never eliminated from a cash-game game, as you always have the option of handing over money to continue. Note: the big difference between cash-game and tournament play is that the blinds do not increase. Technically, you can still play with a hundred blinds in front of you, which results in 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 during a cash-game. When he loses his stack and buys back chips, he is said to be "re-caving". Sometimes, the term "de-cave" is used to remove some of the chips from a player's 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 begin with. In real life, "This is my last recave" can be said when you pay for a round but you know it will be your last

Action that allows you to stay in the game without having to bet. You give the floor back to your opponents by letting them bet before you. This action is only possible if no-one has bet during this round of betting. Live, you can tap the table to indicate to the dealer that you are checking, making sure that your action is easy to spot, some players make such discreet gestures that you can barely see what they have done to indicate that they are checking. Note: "Check Dark" means that you check before you've even seen the flop cards. In general, you want to let the player who has the initiative bet the rest of the hand, so you check no matter what cards are revealed. Synonyms: Check, Checking

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 what he did, and it's a check-back. Note: A check-back often gives the impression that you haven't hit. You slow down the aggression and give your opponent an opportunity to regain the initiative

Check before relaunching. The "/" indicates the separation of the two actions, first you check and then, if your opponent bets, you raise. Example: You are in the big blind with a pair of 8s in your hand. The flop comes K-Q-8, you are the first to call and decide to check. Your opponent makes his continuation bet and you raise with your three of a kind. You've just made a check/raise. Note: A long time ago, the check/raise was forbidden in certain poker areas, as it was considered an ambush. It was thought that if you checked, it wasn't fair 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 the stake requested by your opponent. Example: "Here, I've hit two pairs on the flop, I've decided to check/call three streets". Note: When you decide to check/call, you have the plan to pay your opponent's bet. But obviously, depending on what your opponent decides to do, you may decide to change your plan.

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: Check/Fold is often the same as having a plan to abandon the move

Check before moving all in on the opponent's bet. Example: "I flop a max colour draw, I decide to check/shove my draw to maximise 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, THE chipcount refers to all the chip amounts of the players still in the running in the tournament, most often ranked from largest to smallest or by table. At the chipcount of Day 1, I'm in the top 10", a player might say when consulting the chipcount on the coverage of the Belgian Poker Challenge in Namur.

A cheating act by a player which consists of intentionally giving chips to another player during a tournament, using subterfuges which are more or less easy to spot. This is strictly forbidden in all tournaments and cash-game 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 on a stack of a few blinds. Don't be tempted by this kind of manoeuvre, you risk 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: In general, a player who is good at doing 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 try to pull out your best chip tricks!

The player with the largest stack at any given time in the tournament. This is often the most frightening player at the table, since any move against him can send us to the exit and his "role" is often to enforce the law of chips at the table. Note: At the bubble of a tournament, 'the chipleader of his table' has a definite advantage over the other players, as he can put pressure on the stacks he covers.

Minimum raise that can be made after an opposing raise. This term is used mainly in relation to the action of quickly clicking on the Raise button for online players, without having first chosen the amount of the raise. By extension, the click back defines above all a minimal raise, in the American style, i.e. you are not obliged to double the previous raise. This is a raise that has only recently been authorised in French-speaking tournaments, but which has already existed for a long time in the United States and on online sites. Example: Preflop, Marcelo opens to 50 on the 10/20 blinds. 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: authorised raise (click back) = 50 (50-20).

Clubs: In coverages or hand histories, Xc is often used to designate a club card. Example: Kc means the King of Clubs Note: In writing, the suit of a card is almost always written in English. For example, Kc and not Kt is used to indicate a King of Clubs.

A showdown 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 coin flip (usually 52/48). In life, many people rely on chance, the famous "coin toss" we all know to determine the first to do something is similar to the coin flip. Synonyms: Heads or Tails, 50/50, CoinCoin, Coin Toss

A form of cheating that involves 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 using subterfuge to play as a team against a player, by 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.

Can be translated as "committed". When you have invested a lot in a move and what you are asked to pay is negligible compared to the money already committed, you are committed to the move. Example: A player opens with 3,000 UTG, you raise to 8,500 on the button with As-Jack and the big blind pushes all-in for 12,000 chips. Even though you think you're behind the player who moved 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 are quick to think 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 and even if the bet is negligible, if you estimate that you will be beaten 100% of the time, perhaps it's better to preserve your stack?

Inevitable encounter between two big hands. Example: You have flopped a set of 4's 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

Being covered means that your opponent has more chips than you. However, if you cover all your opponents at a poker table, there is no risk of you being eliminated after a losing hand. Note: When the dealer counts the chips of two players who are all-in and realises that the player who lost the hand had fewer chips than his opponent, he announces "It's covered" and the short-stack is left crying.

Literally, "handicapped" or "crippled". Refers to a player who does not have many chips left. Example: "After that losing hand, 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

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

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

A double draw. You currently have an unmade hand, but with a straight draw and a flush draw at the same time, which means you have a lot 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 therefore here a combo draw. Here, for example, you have a 56% chance against a player who has [K♦️] [K♥️] and 15 outs to improve your hand. Note: Combo draws are very strong and often deserve to be played aggressively.

Dealer who deals the cards at the table, but also ensures that the game runs smoothly, collects the rake (for cash-game games), sets the blinds correctly, distributes the chips and reads 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 holding 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 greater convenience, tournaments played in Dealer's Choice keep a variant for an entire orbit, before a player can determine the next game format. Note: In general, there are around ten variations to choose from in a Dealer's Choice game. In the United States, and particularly at the WSOP, it is not uncommon for organisers to offer players around fifteen possible variants, ranging from Limit Hold'em to Badeucy, via 2-to7 Triple Draw, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz or Badugi.

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

A donkbet is a bet made by a player who did not previously have the initiative in the hand. 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 (particularly because of the name of this technique, which can be translated as "donkey bet"), it is a weapon that you need to learn to master and which can add to your arsenal as a good poker player. In certain situations, a well-placed donkbet can be the best option you have to win a hand.

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 is the first card seen when the dealer shows the flop. Example: A player recounts the last bad beat he suffered during the WASOP Main Event: "I have 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"

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 into the race, a double-up spot. Note: It's often when we're talking about a preflop confrontation that caused us to double up that we're talking about a double-up, more so 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.

Series of bad results extending over a long period, mainly due to bad luck. You'll sometimes hear people complain that they've been "downswinging for months"

Draw. We often say that a player is on a draw when we think he is trying to improve his hand. This term can be found in several expressions that refer to different types of draw: a combo-draw, a backdoor flush draw, a straight draw, etc. Note: 5-card draw is the variant of 5-card poker played a long time ago, where you could draw cards to improve your hand.

Being in a position where you can no longer win a hand, where the cards left to be dealt can no longer help you win the hand. Example: You have A4 on an AQT2 board against an opponent who has AQ and puts you all-in. You are already drawing dead on the turn, your hand cannot 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 tracksuits outside the most exclusive nightclub in Paris, you're drawing dead to get in

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

EV (Expected Value) is your expectation of winning on a move. Depending on your hand and your opponent's hand, your EV is the amount you should win if the maths worked. 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 had each invested €50, your expected winnings would be 82/100*50 - 18/100*50, i.e. €32. We use the term EV for a situation where your expected winnings are positive and EV- for a situation where your expected winnings are negative. If you know that you have a 40% chance of winning a move, this is an EV- situation. In life, certain situations appear to be EV when you encounter them. Finishing your studies before taking up poker seems to be an EV decision. If your poker career doesn't work out as planned, you'll be able to get back on your feet.

Equity represents your chances of winning a move in percentage terms. If you go all-in with Ace-Queens against Ace-Tens, you will have about a 70% chance of winning. Theoretically, equity is what you should win in money if everything goes well. In a cash-game, with the previous example, if the pot was €100, you would have €70 in equity.

Said of a player who cannot hide the strength or weakness of his hand, whose bets reveal what he is holding and make it easy for his opponents to read. "He was completely face up on this spot" means that the player was easy to read. Note: This expression can also mean face up, a player is said to fold face up when he shows his hand before folding, often to prove that he is capable of folding a big hand

A pot in which many players take part, particularly when there has been no preflop raise and everyone feels they have the odds to see a flop at low cost. Note: In the gaming ring, the small-limit cash game (€1/€2) is the scene of many family pots. Numerous players call, dragging the other players into the action. Synonyms: Family, Multiway

A pejorative term (literally fish) for a player who is considered weak. Fishs become targets for seasoned players, fishs being those on whom sharks can make money. "You're always someone's fish" means that you'll always find someone stronger than you. In real life, people sometimes say that someone "is a real fish with the girls!" to say that a person has difficulty dealing with girls. Synonym: Pigeon

The first three cards of the board in a game of Hold'em or Omaha, turned over by the dealer after an initial round of preflop betting. A term that can be used as a verb: flopper a pair. Flopper a monster means finding a big game thanks to the association between our two private cards and the three cards of the flop

Combination formed by 5 cards of the same colour. The French term "couleur" is also used.

Colour draw. Game situation where a player needs only one card to complete his flush. Example: You have [5♥️] [6♥️] on a flop [J♥️] [8♥️] [5♣️]. You have a flush draw because any heart on the turn or river will make you a flush. Tips: If you have a flush draw on the flop, you have a 36% chance that it will hit the next two cards on the board

Action of folding one's hand and returning one's cards to the dealer. Folder means to give up. "There is never any shame in folding", said a wise man at the end of the 20th century. Synonym: Lay Down

Fold equity is the probability of a player folding after your bet, the percentage chance you have of passing your opponent. Fold equity is often referred to verbally as FE. "In this spot, I have so much FE that I'm going all-in with my draw" means that you know you have a good chance of making your opponent fold.

A freeroll is primarily a free tournament, mainly online, which can allow some players to win tournament tickets or even a little money to start a bankroll. The term freeroll is also used in a game situation where you have the same hand as your opponent, but where you have opportunities for improvement that he does not have. Example: You have [A♦️] [K♦️] against [A♣️] [K♣️] on a flop [A♥️] [4♦️] [8♥️]. You currently have the same hand as your opponent but you have a freeroll (or you freeroll) since you can very well obtain a backdoor flush if the next two cards are diamonds and thus win the hand under the nose of your opponent.

Unlike a rebuy tournament or a re-entry tournament, a freezeout tournament is one in which you are eliminated as soon as you have lost all your chips. Note: The current trend is towards re-entry tournaments, to generate large prizepools and offer big winnings for the winners, but the WSOP Main Event is resisting and is still (for how many years?) the most prestigious freezeout tournament.

A card combination of three of a kind and a pair. Literally, a full house. In French, we say full rather than full house. Example: [J♦️] [J♥️] [J♣️] [3♣️] [3♥️] is a full house of jacks through 3s. Note: If two players have a full house, the player with the stronger three of a kind wins. If both players have the same three of a kind, we then look at the pair.

Full Ring" means that the table is full. In general, a table with 9 or 10 players is referred to as a "full ring". Unlike short-handed, the full ring is better suited to players who have the patience to wait for good hands to enter a hand. In full ring, you will rarely enter a hand in the early positions (UTG, 1...) unless you have a very big hand. We often write "FR" for Full Ring, like "SH" for Short Handed

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

Bet. Refers to going all-in in a context where you're not very sure of what you're doing. In general, you are faced with a complicated decision and rather than thinking about what the best option is, 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. This is often the brief message that online poker players write in chat after eliminating a player, whether it's ironic or not. We also often see "GG WP" flourishing on online tables, which stands for "Good Game, Well Play"

Opposite of bad run. The moment when everything is going well 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, I'm running so good in this tournament" Synonyms: Upswing, Rush, Heater

Play methodically at a limit that you have 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. This is a way of saying that it was his experience that paid off rather than luck that gradually increased 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

Belly Straight Draw We need a specific card to complete our straight draw, so we usually have 4 outs to get there, which is a 16% chance turn and river. "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 use the term "Gunshot" to refer to "Gutshot". Synonym: Bellybuster, Gutshot Straight-Draw

Literally the story of a hand. Originally, it was mainly online that players accessed the hand histories of the moves they played during a tournament or cash-game. In a text file, you can find all the information about what happened in a hand, the cards, the bets, the stacks, etc. Hand histories can also be compiled in a tracker to extract statistics and analyse your game. In live play, we also talk about hand histories, often shortened to HH, when we tell someone about a hand. "I've got to tell you this HH, I've got two kings, I've got 3-bet..." Abbreviation: HH

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

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

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

Action of folding your hand when you are in possession of a very good game. Generally, a big fold is considered a hero fold on the river. Folding two kings preflop against a player whom you consider to have two Aces can be considered as a very nice hero fold. Note: It is always up to the players, some will say that they have made a hero fold when they have folded a top pair, others when they have 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, the Hi-Jack (HJ) is considered to be a late position from which you can open your game. Abbreviation: HJ

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

Tournament with a very high entry fee, generally higher than the Main Event of a series of tournaments. On an EPT, the Main Event costs €5,300 to enter and 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 competitive tournaments at festivals, as fewer players have qualified and they are often the meeting place for sharks with large bankrolls

Literally high stakes. High stakes are mostly used in cash games, usually starting at blinds of €50/€100. Note: A television programme was called High Stakes Poker, where you could watch well-known players play for $400/$800 blinds with pots sometimes exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Action of winning a big hand and leaving the table immediately afterwards. This is mainly possible in cash games, as you can leave the table at any time, but it is a practice that many players disapprove of. In general, it's advisable to stay at the table for a few hands after winning a big pot, as if to give the person who lost to you a chance to come back. The term "hit and run" is sometimes used to describe a player who has won a big tournament and has not been seen since. "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 he is the only one to know. Note: The Hole Camera was a term used to describe a camera invented to film players' private cards in a TV poker show

Heads-Up Display Decision support software combined with a tracker for real-time information on what has happened at your table (online). In general, it informs you of 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 provide a wide range of information, such as the percentage of 3-bets, 4-bets, 2-barrels, etc

Pot odds that take into account not only the current betting round, but also possible following 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 with a big pair in his hand, then you might 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 in position on another player means speaking after them. Ideally, you'd always want to be in position because you know what the other player is doing before you make your decisions, and therefore have a significant advantage. When you are not in position, you are said to be out of position. In writing, and sometimes even orally, we use the abbreviations IP for In Position or OOP for Out Of Position. Orally, we often say "hors poz" or "en poz" to describe the action. Note: Playing in the blinds ensures that you are 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 no matter what, you'll be sure to be in position.

Independent Chip Model The ICM is a mathematical model that has been developed to give a precise value to your chips at a particular point in the tournament, based on the tournament 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 agreement when the stacks are too large at the end of the 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 should be taken into account by players when approaching big wins in a tournament. For example, the term "Suicide ICM" is used when a player takes an inordinate risk when he has an average stack and is finally eliminated before a player with a very small stack, feeling that he has wasted money by playing in 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-on-one against him, thus pushing the other players out of the move. 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 a player who has made it into the paid seats of a tournament. After the bubble bursts, all players are in the money, i.e. ITM. Note: We sometimes talk about an ITM percentage for a player. By convention, a good player has an ITM of around 15-20%, i.e. he or she is in the money roughly one time in 6.

Defines a card which accompanies a combination of 5 cards, and which can be used in the event of a tie between players to break the tie. 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 therefore be our King, our kicker.

A Knockout tournament is a tournament where each time you eliminate a player, you collect a bonus which goes directly into your prize pool. For several years now, the fashionable online format has been the Progressive Knockout format, 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 try 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 (large 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 generally the last man standing, in other words the last player to be eliminated, pockets all the other players' contributions.

Action of laying down your hand, but in a classier way. We often talk about a lay down when we make a big fold. "He made a big lay down with three of a kind against a max straight", you might hear in the corridors of the Hilton after you've folded your three of a kind at EPT Prague 2029. Synonym: Fold

Regain 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.

Leak identified in a player's game, a technical weakness that can be worked on to improve their game. "I've spotted a leak in your game", a poker coach might say to you after looking at you during your online session, just to encourage you to give him a small note for a few coaching sessions.

Defines an action performed with a "light" hand, in other words, with a weak hand. Example: If you place a 3-bet with Q-4 mismatched, we can say that you have just made a light 3-bet. In the same way, we can talk about a light call when you pay with third pair on a dangerous board Note: When we talk about a light 3-bet, we are talking about 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, before 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 online gamers (sometimes called "linetards") to describe old-school players whom they consider weak and exploitable. Livetards have the profile of players who have not evolved an inch, have not adapted to new ways of conceiving the game, and remain entrenched in their positions.

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

Defines a loose player who makes a lot of moves, plays marginal hands and is not afraid to pay dearly for his draws. Rather than talking about 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 games with marginal hands and playing his draws very aggressively.

Defines a very lucky player at the table or in life. "He hasn't lost a coin flip since 1978!

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 the blinds increase every 30 minutes. In general, the longer the levels last, the better the structure, because the players have time to play before being caught out by the increase in the blinds. Synonym: Round

See Blindes

Cards of identical colours (spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs). For example, "I have 8-9 suited" 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 conversations, we hear "pareillé" or "suited" more often than "assorti". In written language, the term "assorti" is more often used

A Hold'em player's hand is made up of his two private cards. This is 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 known as an entire hand 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 their 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 you about, not just their two private cards. Note: In English, a hand is called a "Hand" and you will often hear a player say "Nice Hand" to another player after a losing hand, to congratulate them, whether it's ironic or not

Main event in a series of tournaments. In general, this is the most famous tournament in a series of tournaments, the most eagerly awaited and which often takes place 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 crowds and the one that attracts the most media interest. The World Series Of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is the most prestigious of the tournaments and is known as the world championship of poker, while many tournaments with higher buy-ins take place every summer in Las Vegas

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

The Metagame is everything that's outside the game itself, but can provide you with essential information for making 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 new techniques in fashion, the image you give at the table... Understanding the metagame means being one step ahead of the others, at a time when theoretical knowledge is widely known by all the best players on the circuit.

Clicking on the wrong button, due to carelessness. You wanted to click on Call and your mouse clicked on Fold when you had the max set. By extension, this also applies to live poker, when you make a mistake in a raise due to poor handling or an approximate chip count. At the end of the session, I missclicked/folded with the 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 attempt moves more easily without arousing suspicion. Example: We would normally have folded our Queen-Eight in the blinds, but we finally decide to 3-bet light using our image to make a move.

Refers to an average position in 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, even if we sometimes prefer to use the term Lo-Jack for MP 2. Orally, we might hear "I call a raise in MP to push the players in late to squeeze!

Multi-Table Tournament. As opposed to Sit and Gos, which are generally single-table tournaments, an MTT is a multi-table tournament in which the field is gradually reduced 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 is going to play a few multi-table tournaments over the course of the evening

Give 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 "mucker", you can also say "to throw your cards into the muck"

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

Pay a raise in position, hoping that a player behind us will squeeze, so that you can re-raise when the call comes back to you. Note: This is a fairly advanced technique which generally shows a lot of strength and is rarely done as a complete bluff

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 a nit raises you, if you don't have a big game, run away! In real life, nit often means "stingy", who doesn't give up his money easily. A 'nit' will rarely agree to take part in a credit card roulette game, for example

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". A decision that involves no thought, no need to plug your brain in to look for an answer, as what you have to do seems so obvious. For example, paying with two kings preflop is often a no brainer!

A betting format where a player can bet all his chips at any time when it's his turn to speak. This is the star format in poker because it is so action-packed. At any time, a player can put pressure on you by betting all his chips. Unless you have the max game, you'll always be afraid of losing everything on this shot. 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 that are so expensive that very few players can access them and settle in. In general, nosebleed refers to the $500/$1000 blinds

Max colour. The best possible colour. 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 have the highest possible flush

"To have the nuts means to have the best game possible. You can also use the word as a verb. "I was nutsed on the turn" means that you had the max game at the time of the turn. Literally, nuts = nuts, some live players or some 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 as you already have one of the two remaining jacks in the pack, that's impossible

Short for Obviously. Often expresses disgust at seeing the worst card in the deck fall at the worst time for you. It's one of the words most 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 increase in blinds

If you have [9♥️] [7♣️], you have 9-7 offsuit, or 9-7 mismatched. Don't make the mistake of saying that the flop was offsuit if it contains three different suits, we'll call it a "rainbow" flop instead! When telling a cover player about a hand in 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 at 2x". Synonym: Off, Mismatched

As opposed to Live, refers to Internet poker. Online players are sometimes referred to pejoratively as "linetards", in the same way that live players are sometimes called "livetards" (a contraction of live and late)

Preflop, the action of entering the action in an unopened pot by simply following the big blind, thus 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 are said to "overlimp"

Preflop, action of entering the hand in an unopened pot by raising, thus being the first player to raise preflop. The UTG player has three options when his turn comes: Open Fold, Open Limp or Open Raise

Refers to an entire table turn. In 9-max, 9 hands. In 6-max, 6 hands. Certain players can sometimes take penalties which are counted in number of hands or orbit. "He took a penalty orbit!

Refers to a card that could help a player improve their 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♥️])

The player who is not the last to speak in a move. By convention, we often define ourselves in relation to another player. "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 hand when you weren't the favourite 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 trick, you are said to have outdrawn your opponent. Note: As it is often the losing player who complains, we often say "getting outdrawn" or "getting sucked out" when we have lost a move in which we were favourites. Synonym: Suckout

Play better than your opponent and win more than you theoretically should have. Example: In cash games, a player who is used to playing at high limits will often "outplay" a player who comes to try a shot at this limit, because he is more used to playing at these blind amounts. He has been outplayed all day" means that players have got the upper hand on the player in question and have taken advantage of his inexperience to win moves that they perhaps shouldn't have won

Bet more than the size of the pot. This 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 rarely want 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 is said to 'overcall'. (In general, we can also say that he simply calls, but we like to be precise.)

Map above the table. 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 making a decision, since if one of our overcards is revealed on the turn or river, we can move ahead of our opponent's play. It's a potential opportunity for improvement

Sum to be paid by the organiser when the guaranteed prizepool is not reached in a tournament. Example: In a €10,000 per entry tournament which guarantees a €1,000,000 prizepool, if only 75 players take part, there is an overlay of €250,000, which the organisers will have to pay out of their own pocket. Note: In general, players chase after tournaments with an overlay, as there is more money to be won and fewer players to beat

A pair higher than the highest visible card in the tableau. Example: You have a pair of Kings in your hand on a Q-7-2 flop, so you have an overpair. Note: Often, you will 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 him.

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 run satellite tournaments that guarantee a certain number of packages for a prestigious live event, usually organised by their brand.

A combination of two cards of the same value. Example: If you have Ace-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 are said to have a pocket pair

Abbreviation for Pre Flop Raise The percentage of hands a player has raised preflop. The PFR is mainly used in online trackers, and more particularly 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: You have two Queens in your hand, you have a pocket pair. Note: In spoken language, we often use the expression "Pocket Xs" to describe a pocket pair. "I had pocket jacks" means that you had two jacks in your hand

The impassive face of a player on whom it is 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 face when many would react differently in his place

Position defines your place at the table, you can be first to talk (UTG), middle of the talk (MP), last to talk (Button) or in the blinds (SB, BB). By extension, position defines the best possible position in relation to the other players. Being in position means sitting to the left of a player and therefore speaking after him. Being out of position means not speaking in last position. Note: This is a very important concept in 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 have a habit of criticising 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 has been bet ends up in the middle of the stack and it is this sum that the players still in contention in a move are fighting over. Note: We often talk about bets in reference to the size of the pot. For example, you might bet 1/3 of the pot, half the pot, 2.5 times the pot, etc

The action of deliberately slowing down the action so that the pot doesn't grow too big. A player who believes 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, particularly 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 announcing "Pot". It is 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 5:1 (5 to 1), so 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 will often hear players say "I had the odds" to justify a dubious play. This is also why many players defend their big blind. They don't have much to add to an already attractive pot

A bet of the size of the pot at a given time. Abbreviation: PSB Online players often refer to the size of the pot 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

Abbreviation: PF What happens before the flop, before the three flop cards are revealed, known as preflop play, preflop action, preflop raise. "Preflop, I open at 2bb with queens..." Note: Unlike cash games, tournament play is played a lot 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 prize money that will be distributed to the best players in a tournament. The prizepool is made up of the players' entries, minus the organiser's fees. 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, i.e. €3.7 million. Note: The term "guaranteed prizepool" is sometimes used when organisers try to attract players with a large amount of money. If the players' entries do not reach the guarantee, we talk about an overlay and the organisers are obliged to add the missing money from their own pockets

Bet all your chips. "He pushed in the dark" means he went all-in without seeing his cards, which is not very recommended in tournaments. Synonyms: Shove, 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 the space 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 "go into push or fold mode" when he falls below the 10 blinds mark (although this notion is always dependent on your opponents and the level of the tournament)

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 draw, gutshot draw, bellybuster draw or backdoor draw (needing two cards to be improved). See straight-draw, flush-draw. This is known as a 'draw hand', or you can say that you are 'drawing' when you are waiting for cards to improve your hand.

Poker combination consisting of 4 cards of identical value. Note: "Four of a Kind" is more often used verbally than "Quads". Synonyms: Carré, Four of a Kind

Combination made up of 5 cards that follow each other in the same colour. When we have [J♦️] [T♦️] [9♦️] [8♦️] [7♦️], we say we have a straight flush to the Jack. 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 maximum game. Synonym: Royal Flush

Barrier or space separating the gaming table from the spectators at a tournament. By extension, a player can be said to have "joined the rail" when he 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 are going to encourage someone. "I'm going to the rail" means that you're going to watch a player closely and cheer him on

Tournament spectator cheering on a particular player. In live play, the railbird is normally located in the rail, i.e. behind a barrier that separates it from the playing area. The term "railbird" can also be used to describe supporters/fans who post messages in chat to encourage a player in an online tournament

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

A relaunch. 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 organisers from the entry fee for a tournament or from part of the pot in a cash-game. Example: When we talk about a €100 €10 tournament, the rake is the second amount indicated, which will not be paid into the prizepool but will be used to pay employees or finance the casino. Note: In general, the rake is between 5 and 10% of the entry price 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 programme or sometimes directly in the form of money by affiliators or by the site itself in the form of tournament tickets, for example. Example: "At PokerStars, I have 23% rakeback since I unlocked this status. Note: There are also Rake Races which sometimes offer rewards to the players who rake the most, in the form of cash bonuses.

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: This is sometimes referred to as a capped range, which means that the range we are trying to define is limited to certain hands and that certain big hands are excluded from this selection because of the player's actions.

Razor is a variant of stud poker 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 therefore A-2-3-4-5, sometimes called wheel. Razz is one of the variants found in H.O.R.S.E. tournaments

A very popular format that allows you to re-enter the tournament once you have been eliminated, by paying a new registration fee. Not to be confused with Rebuy, where players stay in their seats and get new chips, re-entry is considered as a new entry to the tournament (and therefore a new seat). Organisers usually specify the length of time you can re-enter and also the number of re-entries allowed. Some recent tournaments offer unlimited re-entries, so players can register a considerable number of times to maximise their chances of building up a large stack in the tournament. Note: A re-entry in a tournament is often referred to as a "Bullet". "This player bet 8 bullets in the tournament. To get his money back, he'll at least have to make the final table"

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

In cash-game, recaver means to put money back on the table once you've fallen to zero. Theoretically, you can also do this even if you are not yet at zero, generally by not exceeding the maximum starting stack authorised in the establishment

For Regular: Refers to a regular player in a field, whether it's a circle player you see often, or an online player who frequents a certain limit assiduously. Note: The expression "Regfish" is sometimes used to describe a regular player who is not necessarily at the level you would expect

Surrelance preflop on a player you think is trying to steal the hand, often by bluffing. Since he's trying to steal, why not resteal him?

Result-oriented. Said of a player who considers that he has played well because the cards have finally proved him right, when in fact, objectively, he has not made the right decision. Example: If you go all-in with a pair of 2s in your hand and win against a pair of Aces, saying you've played well is result oriented. Note: The abbreviation RO is sometimes used 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 risk and reward. In certain situations, a good risk/reward might be to try a cheap bluff that can win you a big pot. Risk/reward could be translated by the French expression: "Est-ce que le jeu en vaut la chandelle?" (Is the game worth the candle?)

In Hold'em or Omaha, the fifth and last card of the community cards. It is after the river appears that the last round of betting takes place. Synonym: River

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

Exclusively used in cash games, this means dealing the flop, turn or river twice when two players are all-in. This creates two pots that are distributed to each winner, one player may well 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 High Stakes 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 straight flush draw 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.

Drawing that needs two successive cards to enter. A runner-runner straight is when two cards would get you a straight. Example: On a flop [J♦️] [7♥️] [3♣️] and with [8♦️] [6♦️], you have both a runner-runner straight draw and a runner-runner flush draw. If the next two cards are, for example, [T♣️] and [9♥️], you have a straight. Note: Backdoor is often used instead of runner-runner. "I had a backdoor flush" means that you could make 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 came second in a tournament. Note: Although it's often a richly endowed place, it's also one of the most frustrating for players, because you came 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 when he accumulates winning moves 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

Cards that don't have the same colour. [A♦️] [8♣️] is a mismatched hand. You can say "I had a mismatched As-Eight on this hand" Synonyms: Offsuit, Off

Combination made up of 5 consecutive cards. When you have [9♥️] [8♥️] [7♥️] [6♣️] [5♦️], you have a straight 9. Note: When speaking, we prefer to use 'straight' rather than 'straight'. Synonym: Straight

Qualifying tournament for another tournament with a higher entry fee. Example: A satellite tournament with a €10 entry fee 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 of Poker Main Event, have satellite tournaments which allow you to enter the main event at a lower cost.

Refers to a player who is afraid of losing the money in front of him, particularly in cash games. In general, a player who is playing beyond his means and who will be hurt by losing this money can be described as scared money. Note: Scared money players are the main targets of regular players in cash games. In tournaments, scared money players can slip up when approaching the paid seats or the payouts and not necessarily take sufficient risks on certain shots because of their relationship with money. Tips: The best way to combat this feeling of being scared of money is to manage your bankroll well. If you know that what you can lose on this tournament is negligible compared to the money you have for poker, you will play more relaxed.

Literally, a scary board means that the common cards present a scary 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 have none, 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 can allow the player to win the hand right away by making his opponent fold, and to keep a way out in case his opponent calls, thanks to a draw which can materialise on the turn or the river. Example: If you have [8♦️] [7♦️] on a flop [6♦️] [5♥️] [2♦️], you can bet. At the moment you only have high eights, but you have plenty of outs to improve your hand. If your opponent passes, it's already a good deal, but even if he pays, you may be able to improve your hand and continue betting.

Three of a kind 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 and Trips should not be confused. 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 unavoidable encounter 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 a four of a kind with Q-Q in hand. Your eyes are watering and you've just been the victim of a set-up. Note: In general, poker movies specialise in staging set-ups. Watch Casino Royale and see for yourself. Tips: If someone ever asks you what you came out of a tournament with and you don't want to go into too much detail, say "I came out with a big set-up". It always goes down well!

Refers to the action of trying to make three of a kind 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 is no longer enough stack depth to profitably setmine.

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

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

A tournament where you don't break tables, by reassembling full tables 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. You feel like you only have to win 3 SNGs to win the tournament.

Format where fewer than 6 players are at the table, as opposed to Full Ring (9 or 10). Short-handed tournaments allow for good play and aggression, 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, very few tournaments are played in 6-Max in the United States, whereas in Europe, and especially online, it is often one of the most popular formats.

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

A way of playing cash-game, by advancing the minimum (usually around twenty blinds) and adopting a basic push-or-fold strategy. Note: In general, players who shortstack the limits are also those who hit and run, i.e. as soon as they have doubled their stack, they leave the table to sit down at a new table, raising 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

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

The moment when players reveal their private cards after the last round of betting. It is usually the dealer who announces "Showdown" once the last bid has been equalised, to encourage the players to reveal their hole cards. Synonym: Showdown

A hand that has a good chance of winning at the showdown is called a "showdown value". You can't be sure you have the best hand, but you have enough to win the hand and 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 have showdown value with my high Aces, so I 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 say this famous phrase that launches hostilities. It's the most eagerly awaited of all the players.

Side bets on something other than the game itself. In general, side bets are bets that players make between themselves on anything and everything, to pass the time: the colour of the flop, the first name of the next dealer, the time the bubble bursts, etc. 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 player who is all-in (up to his stake), and the side pot are two separate pots. If one of the players in the hand has the winning hand compared to all the other players, he wins both pots. If he does not 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, and not 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 generally 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 play at PokerStars.com, 180-player SNGs would fill up within minutes on the site.

Evaluate the size of the stake. "He's done a big sizing" means he's bet a lot. Note: Fractions of the pot are generally used to refer to sizings: "I sized 1/3 of the pot". Sometimes the verb "to sizer" is used to evaluate a raise. "It's a well-sizered raise" means that you've made a precise, well-considered bet.

Underplaying a strong hand by pretending you don't have a big game, in order to trick your opponent. In general, you can slowplay a hand by checking instead of betting, in order to make your opponent suspect weakness and bet in turn. "He's a fan of slowplay, he never over-raises with Aces!"

Taking time to reveal the winning hand when your bet has just been equalised. By extension, taking time to pay when you have the max game, or almost, can be considered a slowroll. Example: You have a pair of Jacks on a 7-7-6-4-J board and you go all-in. Your opponent quickly pays and shows you A-7 for three of a kind. You take your time before showing your pair of Jacks for a full house. This is clearly frowned upon at the table, although it's often hard to understand why it's disrespectful in your first few games. Note: It is often difficult to know what is a slowroll and what is not. In a tournament, an opponent with around twenty blinds left goes all-in from the small blind. You have Ace-Queen in your hand and are barely covered. If you take too long to pay, you could be accused of slowrolling when 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 build up your stack gradually. 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 arrives. Note: This technique was popularised by Daniel Negreanu who, thanks to his good post-flop reads, allowed himself 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 that consists of not trying to hit a home run, but instead trying to go around the field little by little, taking measured risks.

Defines the instantaneous nature of a player's action. Snapcall" means that a player paid instantly, without really thinking. "Snapfold" means that the player threw away his hand very quickly. In general, the term 'call' is deliberately omitted when referring to someone who has been paid instantly. It's not unusual to hear: "He got snapped with the nuts", which means 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" (He insta-passed his hand), but it is much less common in the poker player's vernacular

Reprehensible way of underplaying someone. Two players who know each other at a table, or two members of the same team, may wish 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 raise can look like softplay. Note: Even if it is sometimes complicated to prove that two players are softplaying, it is an attitude that can be assimilated to cheating by the other players present at the table. Online, many investigations are carried out into accusations of softplay between certain players, and these can be proven since the sites have access to the players' hidden cards.

Spike. An 's' is often added to a card to indicate that it is a spade. Example: [J♥️] reads "jack of spades".

From the English 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 are sure of getting into the paid seats. Example: After a losing session in a multi-table tournament, some players will 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. A spew or "move spewy" is used to describe a move in which you have 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 he should, whether on clothes, food, going out, etc

Contraction between spew and retard. Refers to a player who puts things everywhere without really thinking. A spewtard will look for all the borderline situations that will allow him to squander his chips by taking maximum risks. 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 the Hi and a player who wins the 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 get his opponent to fold by making him think he has a higher straight than the one shown.

Situation that arises at a table and that you need to act on. "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 targeting 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.

A big raise that comes after a bet has already been paid by one or more players, generally with the aim of making as many players as possible fold preflop. Example: A player opens to 300 under the gun, which is paid by the player in the middle of the call and by the player in Hi-Jack. 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, "on 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: We sometimes talk about "Stack Sizes" to discuss the strategy to adopt according to the size of your 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 their eventual 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 him (finance him) to the tune of €550 and to take a 50% stake in his tournament. Tom was therefore able to play in the tournament for only half the entry fee. After a good tournament, he finishes 6th and wins €18,000. He will then have to pay €9,000 to his stakeholder Philippe. Note: Depending on the player's level, there may be a markup for buying shares, i.e. players may sell a certain percentage of their shares 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 will not 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 managing to push his opponent out of the move. This technique consists of 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 have a hand folded 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 around ten blinds. The chipleader opens to 3 BB from the button. You simply pay to see a T-9-8 flop. You immediately go all-in. If your opponent had a pair of 4s or a 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.

A combination of 5 cards in sequence. Synonym: Straight, Suit In speech, we prefer to speak of straight or quinte rather than suite.

Straight Draw A game situation where a player needs only one card to complete a straight. There are several forms of straight draw, depending on whether you can improve your draw by the belly or by the extremities. Example: If you have 8-9 on a 7-6-3 flop, you have an open-ended straight draw. If you have 9-7 on a T-6-2 flop, you have a gutshot straight draw. If you have an 8-6 on a T-7-4 flop, you have a double gutshot straight draw. Note: There are also backdoor straight draws, which are draws that materialise on the turn and river, draws where you need two successive cards to complete your draw.

A fairly classic, even academic, way of playing. A pejorative term for a player who is not very creative and is content to play his cards, without trying to be tricky.

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

Place chips bet in several times. This is forbidden in live mode, to prevent certain players from observing their opponent's reaction before continuing to bet. To avoid this type of thing, it is preferable to announce your bet aloud before moving your chips to the middle of the table. In this case, the word counts and you will be forced to bet what you have announced. Note: Some cheats try to use this reprehensible string bet technique to watch players' reactions and glean information.

Evolution of blinds and antes during a tournament. Before the tournaments, the organisers unveil the structure in the form of a listing of different blind levels and a certain duration of the levels, together with details of the buy-in, starting stack and planned 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 (generally under 20 minutes live) and quickly generate action. Note: The most beautiful structure in the world is undoubtedly that of the WSOP Main Event in Vegas, where players are offered 2-hour levels throughout 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 the right amount of luck. Example: You go all-in with a pair of Jacks against a pair of Aces, you hit a Jack, you've just sucked out your opponent. Note: If you suckout your opponent, he has just suffered a bad beat.

Identical colour cards. To say "I have Ace-Jack suited", some people use the English expression "J'ai Ace-Jalet suité". 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 connecteurs assortis 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, and Queen-Jack of diamonds is also called a suited connector. Note: These are attractive hands for many players, as they can make both straights and flushes and perform very well against big pairs

Action of making a raise after someone's raise. Note: Preflop, the first 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 remaining. They decide to swap 10%. Regardless of who goes further in the tournament, they will have to give 5% of their future winnings to the other, and vice versa. Note: This is a common practice in live tournaments, which allows you to maximise your chances of taking an extra ticket if a player you trust goes further in the tournament. It's as if you had two chances instead of one to win the big first-place prizes, and you could therefore limit the variance.

Can be used for both a tournament and your bankroll. In a tournament, the swings will represent the big variations in your stack. A tournament is never a long quiet river, sometimes, you will have a big carpet, sometimes a small carpet. Imagine you're in a tournament where you go from chipleader to short-stack in just a few minutes, and 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, the term upswing or downswing is used to describe the fluctuations in your money reserve. If you've just achieved several good performances, you're in the upswing phase; if you haven't been able to win for some time, you're in the downswing phase.

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 considered garbage (9-3, 6-2 ...). It is not uncommon to hear the phrase "I've only seen departments for an hour!" when a player complains about his cards.

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

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: The term LAG is also used to define a Large (L) Aggressive (AG) player

Take time to think before carrying out an action. The term "tank-call" is used 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 thinking about a decision to make, and the expression 'tank' is sometimes used to describe a player facing a big decision.

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 have 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, particularly online, which can give you an indication of 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.

A player who plays very few hands. See Tight. Note: We often use the expression "Tight is right" for beginners, which can be translated as "Serré, c'est bien", a way of explaining to novice players that before embarking on creative plays with marginal hands, selecting your starting hands correctly is the basis for progress in this game.

The state of a player who tilts, who can no longer control what he is doing. See Tilter In particular, you can "go into a tailspin" after a big bad beat.

Adopt a stupid attitude after one or more strokes of bad luck, foil. The expression comes from pinball where you make the pinball 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 bad decisions, to prefer risk to restraint, to make too many moves 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 underground train that starts without you, the bouncer at the disco who tells you that you're not coming home, etc

Time reserve for difficult decisions on online poker sites. By clicking on it, you have extra time to make your decision on a hand that requires 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 all of his time bank for an early decision in the tournament may bite his fingers off when the big money comes in at the end of the tournament. He can only count on the time allowed for each decision. In live tournaments, players generally have as much time as they want to make their decision, until a player asks for "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 burnt.

Clue given by the time taken by an opponent to perform an action. Online, as you can't see your opponents, bet amounts and timing tells are the only clues you can use to try and narrow down your opponents' range of hands. Sometimes seeing a player instantly raise on the button can represent stealing blinds, just as instantly folding can mean a player is drawing. However, be careful not to be too quick to assume that a player who takes his time has a real decision, as this could just mean that he's gone to the toilet during the hand.

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

Help software that allows you to retrieve all the hands you have played on your computer, and store them for better 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.) and that of your opponents, as well as keeping an accurate account of your wins and losses. Alongside the tracker, some players also use a HUD, which gives you your opponents' statistics in real time, 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 think you've got nothing when in fact 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 banned 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've trapped it, I've 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, tantamount to provocation, with the aim of tricking an opponent into thinking something is wrong. Some players owe a large part 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 get information and push them into making mistakes. This can be done by insulting an opponent, criticising his plays, etc. Note: It is never advisable to trash-talk an opponent at a table, even if it's just criticising the way he plays that can teach him things, and you don't want to do that if you think you're better than him with cards in your hand.

Refers to an unconventional play, which can earn you more money through an unexpected line, and decisions that opponents find hard to analyse. It is not uncommon to hear "I played it a bit tricky" when a player tells you about a hand and defends himself from having adopted an unusual strategy to achieve his ends. Example: Underplaying a pair of Aces has long been considered a tricky play. You are 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: Tricky is also used as a synonym for complex in certain situations. "I had a slightly 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 giving you a hard time, he'll be difficult to read.

A three of a kind made up of one card from your hand (your private cards) and two identical cards from the tableau, 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 would 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 often used in spoken language, it is also known as the turn.

Position at the table where you are the first to speak in the first round of bidding. Literally translated as "under the gun", which clearly indicates the difficulty of playing in this position. You are in total darkness compared to what your other opponents may be holding and you have 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 neighbours at a full ring table.

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

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

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 a good run, a 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.

Use to add value to 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 in order to get paid by hands that are worse than yours. Here, you would like to be paid by two worse pairs, an Ace or why not a King. The aim of the manoeuvre is not to make your opponent fold but to get him to call your bet. Note: A value bet is said to be thin when the value bet does not 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 thin value bet.

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

The variance is the difference between the result you should get and the result you actually get. For example, out of 10 coin flips, you should logically win 5, but the variance means that sometimes you only win 2 out of 10. For a Cartesian mind, the 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 won't win in a linear fashion, even if you have an advantage over the players you're playing with. Note: You're going to spend your poker playing life fighting this variance that means you're not going to win as much as you 'deserve', but accepting this variance is also 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 left, congratulating them on their level of play and expressing how much fun it was to play against them.

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

Action of not betting while remaining in the money. If no-one has bet before the call comes back during a betting round, a player can decide to call. In general, 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 used much more often in the spoken language of poker players, "make the bet" being used relatively little.

Win without having to do anything when all the players fold and you are in the big blind. You collect your big blind, small blind and antes and win the hand without showing cards or betting. Note: One of the worst things in poker is "getting a walk" when you have a pair of Aces in your hand. As a general rule, it is 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. This is a player who doesn't like taking risks without being certain of having the best hand, and will quickly become a target for aggressive players who will try 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 is a better player on the other side and fold too much, for fear of risk

Complaint from a player who blames bad luck for his poor results. Example: A player who comes to tell about the latest bad beat he has just suffered to be eliminated from a tournament is what is known as a whiner. Whining means complaining that you've been unlucky, blaming variance and looking for a reason not to accept that maybe it's your game that needs to be questioned.

A tournament or Sit and Go in which only the winner is rewarded. Note: Although this type of format existed a long time ago, it is rare to find one in live or online poker tournaments today, as it has become so difficult to finish 2nd in a tournament and not win anything. Some satellite tournaments can be likened to winner-takes-all, where 30 players pay €10 to take part in a tournament that only offers a €300 tournament ticket for first place.