The 10 poker hands, ranked
Every poker hand is exactly five cards, chosen from the seven you can see: your two hole cards and the five community cards. The ranking below never changes, and it is not arbitrary - each hand beats the one under it because it is rarer.
The percentages are the honest ones: how often each hand is your best five out of seven, which is the only number that matters in Hold’em. Five-card figures are the ones most charts quote, and they are wrong for this game - they are why a flush beating a straight looks backwards until you check.
| # | Hand | Example | What makes it | Chance | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ T♥ | Ten to ace, all one suit. The unbeatable hand. | 0.003% | 1 in 30,940 |
| 2 | Straight flush | 9♣ 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣ | Five cards in sequence, all one suit. | 0.03% | 1 in 3,591 |
| 3 | Four of a kindQuads | Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 7♠ | All four cards of one rank, plus a kicker. | 0.17% | 1 in 595 |
| 4 | Full houseBoat, full boat | 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ K♣ K♥ | Three of one rank and two of another. | 2.60% | 1 in 38.5 |
| 5 | Flush | A♦ J♦ 8♦ 5♦ 3♦ | Any five cards of the same suit, out of sequence. | 3.03% | 1 in 33.1 |
| 6 | Straight | 9♥ 8♠ 7♦ 6♣ 5♥ | Five cards in sequence, mixed suits. Ace plays high or low. | 4.62% | 1 in 21.6 |
| 7 | Three of a kindSet, trips | 5♠ 5♥ 5♦ A♣ 9♥ | Three cards of one rank, plus two unrelated cards. | 4.83% | 1 in 20.7 |
| 8 | Two pair | J♠ J♥ 4♦ 4♣ A♥ | Two cards of one rank, two of another, plus a kicker. | 23.50% | 1 in 4.3 |
| 9 | One pair | T♠ T♥ A♦ 7♣ 3♥ | Two cards of the same rank, plus three kickers. | 43.82% | 1 in 2.3 |
| 10 | High cardNo pair, air | A♥ Q♦ 9♠ 6♣ 3♥ | Nothing connects. The highest card decides it. | 17.41% | 1 in 5.7 |
Computed from the 133,784,560 possible seven-card hands. Ties inside a ranking are broken by rank, then by kicker - never by suit.
Draws, outs and the odds of hitting
An out is a card left in the deck that turns your hand into the winning one. Counting them is the first real calculation in poker, and everything downstream - your equity, whether the pot is laying you a price, whether to call - comes out of that one number.
Here is the situation in full. You hold two hearts. The flop brings two more, plus a diamond that does nothing for anybody.
Thirteen hearts exist. You can see four of them, so nine hearts remain: nine outs to the nut flush. There are 52 cards, you have seen 5, so 47 are unknown - and from your point of view every one of them is equally likely to be the turn.
Why it is not 19.1 + 19.6 = 38.7%. Adding them double-counts the runouts where both cards are hearts. The clean way round it is to ask how often you miss both: 38/47 × 37/46 = 65.0%. Whatever is left is how often you hit - 35.0%.
Hit it and the hand is over:
The rule of 2 and 4
You cannot do the exact arithmetic at the table, and you do not need to. Multiply your outs by 2 for the next card, or by 4 for both cards to come. Nine outs → 36%, against a true 35.0%. The shortcut drifts high on the biggest draws and is never wrong by enough to change what you should do.
The outs table: 1 to 15 outs
Every common draw in Hold’em sits somewhere in this table. Learn four rows and you have covered most of poker: 4 outs is a gutshot, 8 an open-ender, 9 a flush draw, 15 a flush draw and an open-ender together.
| Outs | Typical draw | Turn | River | By river | Odds against | Rule of 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.1% | 2.2% | 4.3% | 22 : 1 | 4% | |
| 2 | Pocket pair to a set | 4.3% | 4.3% | 8.4% | 11 : 1 | 8% |
| 3 | One overcard | 6.4% | 6.5% | 12.5% | 7.0 : 1 | 12% |
| 4 | Gutshot · two pair to a full house | 8.5% | 8.7% | 16.5% | 5.1 : 1 | 16% |
| 5 | One pair to two pair or trips | 10.6% | 10.9% | 20.4% | 3.9 : 1 | 20% |
| 6 | Two overcards | 12.8% | 13.0% | 24.1% | 3.1 : 1 | 24% |
| 7 | 14.9% | 15.2% | 27.8% | 2.6 : 1 | 28% | |
| 8 | Open-ended straight draw | 17.0% | 17.4% | 31.5% | 2.2 : 1 | 32% |
| 9 | Flush draw | 19.1% | 19.6% | 35.0% | 1.9 : 1 | 36% |
| 10 | 21.3% | 21.7% | 38.4% | 1.6 : 1 | 40% | |
| 11 | 23.4% | 23.9% | 41.7% | 1.4 : 1 | 44% | |
| 12 | Flush draw + gutshot | 25.5% | 26.1% | 45.0% | 1.2 : 1 | 48% |
| 13 | 27.7% | 28.3% | 48.1% | 1.1 : 1 | 52% | |
| 14 | 29.8% | 30.4% | 51.2% | 1.0 : 1 | 56% | |
| 15 | Flush draw + open-ended straight draw | 31.9% | 32.6% | 54.1% | 0.8 : 1 | 60% |
Turn = outs ÷ 47. River = outs ÷ 46, given the turn missed. By river = 1 − (miss × miss), which is why it is less than turn + river.
What the flop actually brings
There are 19,600 possible flops for any given starting hand. Enumerating all of them is the only way to answer the questions people ask most - how often do I flop a set, a flush draw, or nothing at all - so that is what the table below does, for four hands that stand in for four different reasons to play.
| On the flop you have… | A♠ K♠ Big suited broadway | A♠ K♥ The same hand, no flush | 7♠ 7♥ A middle pocket pair | T♠ 9♠ Suited connector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pairs one of your cards (or better)A board pair you do not share does not count here. | 32.4% | 32.4% | — | 32.4% |
| Two pair or better | 3.5% | 3.5% | — | 3.5% |
| Three of a kind or betterFor a pocket pair this is the famous "flopping a set" number. | 1.4% | 1.4% | 11.8% | 1.4% |
| A made straight | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 1.3% |
| A made flush | 0.8% | — | — | 0.8% |
| A flush draw (9 outs) | 10.9% | — | — | 10.9% |
| A backdoor flush drawOne more of your suit on the flop — needs both the turn and the river. | 41.6% | — | — | 41.6% |
| An open-ended straight draw (8 outs) | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1.3% | 9.1% |
| A gutshot (4 outs) | 11.3% | 11.3% | 3.9% | 17.5% |
| Nothing at allNo pair of your own, no draw — the flop you fold. For a pocket pair, read it as no set and no draw: you still hold the pair you started with. | 48.8% | 57.4% | 83.0% | 37.6% |
These overlap on purpose - on K♠7♠2♥ holding A♠K♠ you have flopped both top pair and a flush draw, and both rows count it. Only the last row is exclusive.
Read the last row first. A♠K♠ flops nothing at all just under half the time and A♠K♥ well over half. The hands that feel strongest preflop are the ones that spend the most flops with no pair and no draw - which is why a strategy built on "raise big cards, then bet when you hit" loses money quietly for years.
Pot odds & equity calculator
Knowing your equity is only half of a decision. The other half is the price: how much you have to put in, and how much the pot pays if you win. Put the two together and the call answers itself.
The formula is bet ÷ (pot + bet + your call). Your own call belongs in the denominator - it is money in the pot whether you win or lose - and leaving it out is far and away the most common arithmetic mistake in poker.
Call. 9 outs is 35.0% equity by the river, against the 25.0% the price demands - a surplus of 10.0%.
Counting both cards assumes you get to see them - true when you are already all-in, optimistic when there is another bet coming on the turn. Facing a flop bet with more streets to play, the honest number is the one-card figure.
The same numbers from the other side of the table
If you are the one betting 50 into 100:
- A pure bluff has to work 33.3% of the time to break even.
- So they must continue with 66.7% of their range - the minimum defence frequency - or your bluff prints regardless of what you hold.
- At the river, that price supports roughly 3.0 value hands for every bluff in your betting range.
The four sizings worth knowing by heart
Almost every bet you face is one of these, and the equity each one demands is a fixed number. Learn them and most calls stop needing a calculator at all.
| They bet | You need | Pot lays you | Bluff must work | You must defend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¼ pot | 16.7% | 5 : 1 | 20.0% | 80.0% |
| ½ pot | 25.0% | 3 : 1 | 33.3% | 66.7% |
| ⅔ pot | 28.6% | 2.5 : 1 | 40.0% | 60.0% |
| Pot | 33.3% | 2 : 1 | 50.0% | 50.0% |
| 1.5× pot | 37.5% | 1.67 : 1 | 60.0% | 40.0% |
"You must defend" is the minimum defence frequency: fold more often than this and a bet of any two cards shows a profit against you.
The glossary: every poker term
246 terms, from the furniture of the table to the language solvers are described in. Search for one, filter to a topic, or switch to A-Z and read it like a dictionary. Every entry has its own link.
Showing all 246 terms
The game & the table25
The furniture of a hand of Texas Hold’em: cards, chips, seats and money.
Texas Hold’em#
Also: Hold’em · NLHE
The dominant form of poker. Each player is dealt two private cards and shares five community cards; the best five-card hand out of those seven wins. Four betting rounds - preflop, flop, turn and river - separate the deals.
See also: Hole cards, Community cards, No-limit
Hole cards#
Also: Pocket cards · Starting hand
The two cards dealt face down to you alone. They are yours for the whole hand and nobody else sees them unless you reach showdown.
Example A♠ K♠ as hole cards is written "AKs" - ace-king suited.
See also: Hand notation, Showdown
Community cards#
Also: The board
The five face-up cards in the middle of the table, shared by everyone still in the hand. You combine them with your two hole cards to make the best five-card hand.
See also: Flop, Turn, River, Board texture
Hand notation#
The shorthand for starting hands. Two letters for the ranks, then "s" for suited or "o" for offsuit; a pair needs no suffix. There are 1,326 two-card combinations but only 169 distinct starting hands under this notation, which is why every range chart is a 13×13 grid.
Example "AKs" = ace-king of the same suit. "AKo" = ace-king of different suits. "77" = pocket sevens.
See also: Range chart, Combos, Suited, Offsuit
Rank#
A card’s value, from 2 up through 10, jack, queen, king and ace. The ace is the highest card but also plays as a 1 at the bottom of a 5-4-3-2-A straight.
See also: Wheel
Suit#
One of the four families of card: spades ♠, hearts ♥, diamonds ♦ and clubs ♣. Thirteen cards in each. No suit outranks another in Hold’em - suits only matter for making flushes and for splitting a pot.
Dealer#
The person physically dealing. In a casino it is an employee, so the responsibility for who acts last rotates instead by way of the dealer button.
See also: Button
Button#
Also: BTN · Dealer button · On the button
The disc marking whose turn it is to be nominal dealer, moving one seat left every hand. The player on the button acts last on the flop, turn and river - the single most valuable seat at the table, and the reason button ranges are the widest in every solver solution.
See also: Position, In position, Blinds
Blinds#
Two forced bets posted before any cards are dealt, by the two players left of the button. They exist to put money in the pot so there is something to fight over - without them, folding every hand would cost nothing.
See also: Small blind, Big blind, Ante
Small blind#
Also: SB
The smaller of the two forced bets, posted by the player immediately left of the button - usually half a big blind. The small blind acts first on every postflop street, which makes it the losingest seat at the table for almost everyone.
See also: Blinds, Out of position
Big blind#
Also: BB
The larger forced bet, posted two seats left of the button, and the unit everything else in poker is measured in. It is also the last seat to act preflop, which is why the big blind gets to defend far more hands than any other position.
Example A "100bb stack" in a $1/$2 game is $200. A win rate of "5bb/100" means five big blinds per hundred hands.
Ante#
A small forced contribution from every player (or, in the modern format, a single big-blind-sized ante posted by one player on behalf of the table). Antes swell the pot before the cards are out, which makes stealing more profitable and every range wider.
Straddle#
A voluntary blind raise, usually double the big blind, posted in the dark before the deal. It doubles the effective stakes and shortens everyone’s stack in big blinds, which is why it is beloved of the players it costs the most.
Pot#
The chips wagered so far in the current hand, sitting in the middle. Whoever wins the hand takes it. Nearly every strategic quantity in poker - bet sizing, pot odds, SPR - is expressed as a fraction of it.
Stack#
The chips you have in front of you. It is always counted in big blinds rather than currency, because 100bb plays identically whether that is $200 or $20,000.
See also: Effective stack, Big blind
Effective stack#
The smaller of the two stacks in a confrontation - the most that can actually change hands. If you have 200bb and your opponent has 40bb, you are playing a 40bb pot no matter what your own stack says.
Table stakes#
The rule that you can only wager the chips on the table at the start of the hand. You cannot reach for your wallet mid-hand, and you cannot be forced out of a pot for lack of chips - hence side pots.
Showdown#
The end of a hand where two or more players are still in and cards are turned face up to decide the winner. The last aggressor shows first; after that, players may show or muck in turn.
See also: Muck, Showdown value
Muck#
To discard your hand face down, and also the pile of discards itself. A hand that touches the muck is dead even if it was the winner - a genuinely expensive mistake at showdown.
Kicker#
Also: Side card
The unpaired card that breaks a tie when two players hold the same pair or trips. It is the reason A-K and A-2 are worlds apart on an ace-high board.
Example On A♦ 9♣ 4♠ 2♥ 7♦, AK beats AQ. Both have a pair of aces; the king outkicks the queen.
Burn card#
A card discarded face down before each of the flop, turn and river. A live-poker anti-cheating convention against marked top cards; it has no effect whatsoever on the odds.
See also: Flop
Rake#
The house’s cut of each pot, typically 5% up to a cap. It is the single largest expense in a poker career and the reason a break-even player against the field is a losing player against the game.
Rakeback#
A rebate of some of the rake you have paid, given back as cash or rewards. For a high-volume player it can be the difference between a small edge and a living.
See also: Rake
Buy-in#
The amount you sit down with, or the entry fee for a tournament. Cash games have a minimum and a maximum - most winning players buy in for the maximum, because deep stacks reward skill.
See also: Cash game, Tournament, Bankroll
Chop#
Also: Split pot
Splitting the pot because two or more players hold the identical best five-card hand. Common when the board plays - if the board is the best five cards available, everyone still in chops.
Example You hold 8♠ 7♠, they hold 8♥ 7♥, board is A-K-Q-J-T. Both play the board’s broadway straight; the pot is chopped.
See also: Showdown, Counterfeit
Streets & the board19
The four betting rounds, and the language for the cards they turn over.
Street#
One betting round. A Hold’em hand has four: preflop, flop, turn and river. "Going to the river" means all four; "a street of value" means one more bet you can profitably make.
Preflop#
The first betting round, after the hole cards are dealt and before any community card. Every decision here is made on two cards and position alone, which is exactly why preflop is the part of poker that can be memorised - and the fastest place to fix leaks.
See also: RFI, 3-bet, Range chart
Flop#
The first three community cards, dealt at once, and the betting round that follows. It is the moment the hand acquires a shape: there are 19,600 possible flops for any given starting hand, and your two cards connect with roughly a third of them.
Example With A♠K♠ you flop at least a pair 32.4% of the time, a flush draw 10.9%, and nothing at all just under half the time.
See also: Board texture, C-bet, what the flop brings
Turn#
Also: Fourth street
The fourth community card, dealt after the flop betting round, and the street that follows it. The turn is where pots get large and mistakes get expensive: bets are bigger, one card is left, and every draw has to pay a real price to continue.
Example A flush draw with 9 outs hits the turn 19.1% of the time - and if it misses, has a 19.6% shot at the river.
See also: River, Outs, Double barrel, Scare card
River#
Also: Fifth street
The fifth and final community card, and the last betting round. Nothing is a draw on the river - every hand is either the best or a bluff - which makes it the purest street in poker and the one where balance matters most.
See also: Turn, Bluff-catcher, Polarised range, Showdown
Runout#
The turn and river as a pair - how the board finished. "A brick runout" means neither card changed anything; "a wet runout" means the board got scarier for whoever was ahead.
See also: Brick, Scare card, Run it twice
Board texture#
The shape of the community cards, and the single biggest input into postflop strategy. Texture decides who the board favours, how big to bet, and how often - a solver’s c-bet frequency on one flop can be 90% and on another 20%.
See also: Dry board, Wet board, Range advantage
Dry board#
Also: Static board
A flop with few draws and little connection - disconnected ranks, mixed suits. Hand strengths barely change from flop to river, so the preflop raiser can bet small and often with their whole range.
Example K♠ 7♥ 2♦ is about as dry as a flop gets.
Wet board#
Also: Dynamic board · Coordinated board
A flop full of draws - connected ranks, two of a suit, or both. Equities run close together and shift hard on later cards, so betting gets bigger, more selective, and more about denying equity.
Example J♥ T♥ 9♠ hits almost every range and changes on half the deck.
See also: Dry board, Equity denial, Two-tone
Rainbow#
A flop with three different suits, so no flush draw is possible on the flop. The safest possible suit texture.
Two-tone#
A flop with exactly two cards of the same suit - the texture that creates flush draws. Roughly 55% of all flops are two-tone, which is why the flush draw is the most common draw in poker.
See also: Rainbow, Monotone, Flush draw
Monotone#
A flop with all three cards of the same suit. Anyone holding a single card of that suit has a draw to the flush, which compresses everyone’s equity and flattens betting frequencies dramatically.
Paired board#
A board containing two cards of the same rank. Paired boards create full houses and trips, cut the number of possible straights and flushes, and heavily favour whoever has more of that rank in their range.
See also: Full house, Counterfeit, Range advantage
Connected board#
A board whose ranks are close enough to make straights - 9-8-6 or J-T-7. Connected boards favour the caller, whose range holds far more of the middling suited connectors that hit them.
See also: Wet board, Suited connectors, Range advantage
Brick#
Also: Blank · Rag
A card that changes nothing - completes no draw, improves no one. On a brick turn, whoever was ahead on the flop is still ahead, and betting continues as it was.
See also: Scare card, Runout
Scare card#
A turn or river that completes an obvious draw or outranks the flop, making the previously-best hand nervous. Scare cards are the classic bluffing cards because the story they tell is credible.
Example On J♥ 8♥ 3♠, the A♥ river is a scare card twice over: it makes the flush and beats every jack.
See also: Brick, Bluff, Double barrel
Action card#
A card that completes draws and creates second-best hands, guaranteeing a big pot. The turn that makes your straight and their flush draw is an action card, and rarely in your favour.
See also: Scare card, Cooler
Run it twice#
Once all-in, dealing the remaining community cards twice and splitting the pot between the two outcomes. It does not change anyone’s expected value at all - it only cuts the variance in half.
The board plays#
When the five community cards make a better hand than anything your hole cards can add, so your hand is simply the board. Everyone still in has the same hand and the pot is chopped.
See also: Chop, Community cards
Made hands & rankings35
What beats what, and the names for every holding between air and the nuts.
Hand rankings#
Also: The hands of poker · What beats what
The fixed order of the ten poker hands, from high card up to the royal flush. Rarer is better, and the order never changes: the ranking exists because of how often each hand can be made, not by convention.
See also: Royal flush, Flush, Straight, One pair, High card
Royal flush#
Ten, jack, queen, king and ace, all of one suit. The best possible hand in poker and unbeatable - it appears in roughly one seven-card hand in 31,000.
See also: Straight flush, The nuts
Straight flush#
Five cards in sequence, all of the same suit. Beaten only by a higher straight flush.
Example 9♣ 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ 5♣.
See also: Royal flush, Straight, Flush
Four of a kind#
Also: Quads
All four cards of one rank. Loses only to a straight flush, and in practice is the effective nuts nearly every time it appears.
See also: Full house, Set, Cooler
Full house#
Also: Boat · Full boat
Three of one rank plus a pair of another. Named highest-first: "kings full of fives" is K-K-K-5-5. Full houses beat flushes, which surprises people until they check how often each is made from seven cards.
See also: Four of a kind, Flush, Paired board
Flush#
Any five cards of one suit, not in sequence. Ties are broken by the highest card in the flush, not by suit - which is why the ace of the suit is worth so much more than the deuce.
See also: Nut flush, Flush draw, Straight
Straight#
Five cards in consecutive rank, suits mixed. The ace plays at either end - A-K-Q-J-T is the highest, 5-4-3-2-A the lowest - but it does not wrap around, so Q-K-A-2-3 is nothing.
See also: Wheel, Broadway, Open-ended straight draw
Three of a kind#
Also: Trips · A set
Three cards of the same rank. Which of the two names applies matters: a set (pocket pair plus one on the board) is disguised and enormously profitable, while trips (one hole card plus a paired board) is visible to everyone.
See also: Set, Trips, Full house
Set#
Three of a kind made with a pocket pair and one matching board card. Nearly invisible to opponents, which is why sets win such large pots. You flop a set with a pocket pair 11.8% of the time - about one in eight and a half.
Example You hold 7♠ 7♥ and the flop comes K♦ 7♣ 2♠.
See also: Trips, Pocket pair, Set mining
Trips#
Three of a kind made with one hole card and a pair already on the board. Strong, but the board announces it - your opponent can see the pair and will fold anything worse.
Example You hold A♠ 9♥ and the flop comes 9♣ 9♦ 4♠.
See also: Set, Paired board, Kicker
Two pair#
Two cards of one rank and two of another. Named high pair first: "aces up", "kings and threes". A powerful but fragile holding - two pair is exactly the hand that gets counterfeited or run down by a draw.
See also: Counterfeit, One pair, Full house
One pair#
Two cards of matching rank. The most common made hand in poker - you will hold exactly one pair in roughly 44% of seven-card hands - and the great majority of pots are won with it or less.
Top pair#
Also: TPTK (top pair top kicker)
A pair made with the highest card on the board and one of your hole cards. Top pair with a strong kicker is a good hand on most flops and a trap on the wettest ones.
See also: One pair, Kicker, Middle pair
Middle pair#
Pairing the middle card of the flop. Usually too weak to bet for value and too strong to fold - which makes it the archetypal bluff-catcher.
See also: Bluff-catcher, Bottom pair, Showdown value
Bottom pair#
Pairing the lowest card on the flop. Nearly always a hand to check and give up with against real aggression - it beats only bluffs and loses to every value bet.
See also: Middle pair, Bluff-catcher
Overpair#
A pocket pair higher than every card on the board. Queens on a J-7-3 flop is an overpair - a strong hand, and the one most likely to lose a stack on a bad turn.
See also: Pocket pair, Underpair, Top pair
Underpair#
A pocket pair lower than at least one board card. Nines on a K-7-4 flop: still a pair, but now a bluff-catcher rather than a value hand.
See also: Overpair, Bluff-catcher
Pocket pair#
Two hole cards of the same rank. You are dealt one about 5.9% of the time - roughly once every 17 hands - and aces specifically about once in 221.
See also: Set, Overpair, Set mining
High card#
Also: No pair
A hand that makes none of the other nine rankings, decided by its highest card. Ace-high wins more pots than beginners expect - and almost always by making everyone else fold.
See also: Air, Bluff-catcher
The nuts#
The best possible hand given the board. It cannot be beaten - only tied. "Effective nuts" means a hand so strong that the hands beating it are almost impossible for your opponent to hold.
See also: Nut flush, Nut advantage, Second nuts
Second nuts#
The second-best possible hand. Strong enough to want a huge pot, weak enough that the huge pot is sometimes a disaster - the classic cooler hand.
Nut flush#
The highest possible flush - which, absent a paired board, means holding the ace of that suit. The reason A2s is a playable hand and 72s is not: when the flush comes in, one of them is never second best.
Broadway#
The ace-high straight, A-K-Q-J-T. Also used for the broadway cards themselves - any of T, J, Q, K, A.
Wheel#
Also: Bicycle
The 5-4-3-2-A straight, in which the ace plays low. The lowest straight - and the reason hands like A5s have straight potential that A9s does not.
Counterfeit#
When a board card destroys the value of your hand by making a better version of it available to everyone. Your two pair becomes the board’s two pair, and your kicker suddenly decides the hand.
Example You hold 6♠ 5♠ on 9-6-5. The turn is a 9: your two pair is now nines and sixes, and any bigger card beats you.
See also: Two pair, Chop, Paired board
Cooler#
A hand where two very strong holdings collide and someone loses a stack with no mistake made. Aces into kings, flush into higher flush, set under set. Coolers are variance, not leaks - the discipline is telling them apart honestly.
See also: Bad beat, Variance, Second nuts
Bad beat#
Losing a pot after getting the money in well ahead. Statistically ordinary and psychologically corrosive - a 4-to-1 favourite still loses one time in five, and the whole business model of poker rests on people forgetting that.
Dominated#
A hand sharing a card with a better one, so that pairing it usually loses. AJ is dominated by AK: on an ace-high flop both make top pair and the jack is beaten by the kicker.
Made hand#
A hand that already has value without improving - any pair or better. The opposite of a draw, and the distinction that decides whether you are betting to be called or betting to make them fold.
See also: Draw, Showdown value
Air#
Nothing at all - no pair, no draw, no realistic way to win at showdown. Air is not a reason to give up; it is the raw material every bluffing range is built from.
See also: Bluff, High card, Semi-bluff
Monster#
A huge hand - a set, a nut flush, a straight on a dry board. The difficulty with a monster is never how to play it but how to get paid for it.
Suited#
Two hole cards of the same suit, written with an "s" - "AKs". Being suited adds only about 2-4% raw equity, but it changes far more than that: suited hands flop flush draws 10.9% of the time and flop nothing far less often.
See also: Offsuit, Suited connectors, Flush draw
Offsuit#
Two hole cards of different suits, written with an "o" - "AKo". Any offsuit hand is meaningfully worse than its suited twin, which is why range charts are so lopsided across the diagonal.
See also: Suited, Hand notation
Suited connectors#
Two suited cards of adjacent rank - 8♥7♥, T♠9♠. They rarely make a pair worth much, but they make straights and flushes, and their value comes almost entirely from the size of the pots they win.
Example T9s flops an open-ended straight draw 9.1% of the time and a flush draw 10.9% - and flops nothing at all far less often than AK.
See also: Gapper, Implied odds, Open-ended straight draw
Gapper#
Also: One-gapper · Suited gapper
Two cards separated by one or more ranks - J9, T7. A one-gapper makes fewer straights than a true connector but is still a playable speculative hand when suited and in position.
See also: Suited connectors
Draws & outs17
Hands that are not yet anything - and the arithmetic of what could rescue them.
Draw#
Also: Drawing hand
A hand that is not yet good but has cards that will make it good. Draws are how you win pots with the second-best hand: you either hit, or you bet and they fold.
See also: Outs, Semi-bluff, Made hand
Outs#
The cards left in the deck that improve you to the winning hand. Counting them is the first real calculation in poker, and everything downstream - equity, pot odds, whether to call - runs off the number.
Example You hold A♥K♥ on 7♥ 2♥ 9♦. Thirteen hearts exist, you can see four, so nine remain: nine outs to the nut flush.
See also: Rule of 2 and 4, Equity, Clean outs
Clean outs#
Also: Tainted outs
Outs that actually win rather than merely improve. An out is tainted if the same card gives your opponent something better - a straight card that puts a third flush card out is not a clean out.
See also: Outs, Drawing dead
Flush draw#
Four cards of one suit, needing a fifth. Nine outs - the most common significant draw in poker. It hits the turn 19.1% of the time, and by the river 35% of the time: roughly 2-to-1 against.
Example Holding two hearts with two hearts on the flop: nine hearts left, 35% to make it by the river.
See also: Outs, Nut flush, Two-tone, Backdoor draw
Open-ended straight draw#
Also: OESD · Up-and-down draw
Four cards to a straight, open at both ends, so either of two ranks completes it. Eight outs - 31.5% to hit by the river.
Example You hold T♠9♠ and the flop is 8♦ 7♥ 2♣: any 6 or any jack makes the straight.
See also: Gutshot, Outs, Combo draw
Gutshot#
Also: Inside straight draw · Belly buster
Four cards to a straight with a hole in the middle - only one rank completes it. Four outs, 16.5% by the river. Too weak to chase for its own sake, valuable as the extra equity on a bluff.
Example You hold J♠T♠ and the flop is 8♦ 7♥ 2♣: only a 9 makes the straight.
See also: Open-ended straight draw, Double gutshot, Semi-bluff
Double gutshot#
Also: Double belly buster
Two separate inside draws at once, so two different ranks complete a straight. Eight outs - identical to an open-ender, but far better disguised, because nobody reads the board as connected.
Example You hold J♠9♠ on K-T-7: both a queen and an eight make you a straight.
See also: Gutshot, Open-ended straight draw
Combo draw#
A flush draw and a straight draw together, often with overcards on top. Fifteen outs is 54% by the river - a combo draw is frequently the favourite against a made hand and plays as a value hand, not a bluff.
See also: Flush draw, Open-ended straight draw, Semi-bluff
Backdoor draw#
Also: Runner-runner · Running draw
A draw needing both the turn and the river to complete. A backdoor flush draw is worth about 4% of equity - small, but exactly enough to turn a marginal bluff into a profitable one, which is why solvers pick their bluffs by it.
Example One heart in hand and one on the flop: two more hearts running gets there about 4.2% of the time.
See also: Flush draw, Semi-bluff, Equity
Overcards#
Hole cards higher than every card on the board. AK on a 9-6-2 flop has six outs to top pair - not a draw exactly, but real equity worth about 24% by the river.
See also: Outs, Air, Semi-bluff
Redraw#
A draw to a better hand while already holding a good one. Holding the nut flush draw alongside a set means that even when the flush comes in, you can still improve past it.
See also: Combo draw, The nuts
Drawing dead#
Having no card left that can win the hand. The worst place in poker, and worth remembering that you can be drawing dead while feeling very good about your hand - a flush against a full house, for instance.
See also: Clean outs, Cooler
Rule of 2 and 4#
The mental shortcut for turning outs into equity: multiply outs by 2 for one card to come, by 4 for two. It overshoots slightly on big draws - 9 outs is 35%, not 36% - but never by enough to change a decision.
Example Nine outs on the flop → 9 × 4 = 36% to hit by the river. The exact figure is 35.0%.
Semi-bluff#
Betting with a draw. It wins two ways - they fold now, or you hit later - and that second way is what makes aggressive draw play correct rather than reckless.
See also: Bluff, Draw, Fold equity
Equity denial#
Betting to make a hand fold that had outs against you. A bet that folds a gutshot has "denied" its 16.5% - which is often the whole reason to bet a medium-strength hand rather than check it.
See also: Protection bet, Equity
Blocker#
Also: Card removal
A card in your hand that reduces the combinations your opponent can hold. Holding the A♠ on a three-spade board means they cannot have the nut flush - which makes your hand a better bluff and a worse call.
See also: Combos, Bluff, Card removal
Set mining#
Calling a raise with a small pocket pair purely to flop a set. It works at 11.8% - about 7.5-to-1 against - so it needs deep stacks and an opponent who will pay you off. The old rule of thumb is that you want 15 to 20 times the call behind.
See also: Set, Implied odds, Pocket pair
Actions & bet types41
Everything you can do on your turn, and the names for every shape of bet.
Check#
Passing the action without betting, possible only when no one has bet on the current street. Checking is not passivity - a large part of every solver strategy is checking strong hands to keep the checking range protected.
See also: Bet, Check-raise, Pot control
Bet#
Putting chips in when nobody else has yet on this street. Every bet does one of two jobs, and knowing which one you are doing is most of poker: getting called by worse, or getting better to fold.
See also: Value bet, Bluff, Bet sizing
Call#
Matching the current bet to stay in the hand. A call is a claim that your equity beats the price the pot is laying you - which is exactly what pot odds measure.
See also: Pot odds, Bluff-catcher, Fold
Raise#
Increasing the bet, forcing everyone else to match the new amount or fold. Raising is the only action that can win a pot outright while you still hold the worst hand.
See also: 3-bet, Fold equity, Check-raise
Fold#
Giving up your hand and any claim to the pot. It costs nothing you have not already lost - chips in the pot are no longer yours, which is why "I have already put so much in" is the most expensive sentence in poker.
All-in#
Also: Shove · Jam · Push
Betting your entire stack. You cannot be forced out of the pot for having no chips left - any further betting goes into a side pot you have no claim to. Shoving is the dominant strategy at short stacks, where there is no room to play a hand in three streets.
See also: Side pot, Effective stack, Table stakes, Push-fold
Open#
Also: Open-raise · RFI
Being the first player to put in a raise. The size is conventionally 2 to 3 big blinds, and which hands you open with, from which seat, is the single most-studied question in poker.
RFI#
Also: Raise first in
Raise-first-in: your opening range from a given seat when the pot is unopened. RFI charts are the foundation of preflop study - eight or nine ranges that widen steadily as you approach the button.
See also: Open, Range chart, Position
Limp#
Also: Open-limp · Flat the blind
Just calling the big blind preflop instead of raising. Almost always a mistake in modern strategy: it gives up the chance to win the pot immediately and invites everyone behind in cheaply.
3-bet#
The first re-raise. The blinds count as the first bet and the open as the second, so the re-raise is the third - hence the name. A 3-betting range is deliberately split between premium value hands and suited bluffs.
See also: 4-bet, Squeeze, Polarised range
4-bet#
A re-raise of a 3-bet. At 100bb this is a very strong action - typically the top of a range plus a few blockers-heavy bluffs like A5s - and a 5-bet after it is almost always all-in.
5-bet#
The re-raise after a 4-bet, and at typical stack depths usually a shove. At 100bb this sequence is nearly all aces and kings, with a thin slice of bluffs holding an ace.
Squeeze#
A 3-bet after an open and one or more calls. The caller is squeezed between the original raiser and the new raise, and the dead money already in the pot makes it more profitable than a standard 3-bet.
See also: 3-bet, Dead money, Cold call
Cold call#
Also: Flat call · Flat
Calling a raise with no money already invested. Cold-calling ranges are much tighter than defending ranges from the blinds, because you have neither position on the raiser nor a discount.
Defend#
Continuing against a steal attempt rather than folding, most often from the big blind. Because you already have a big blind invested, the price is good enough to defend a very wide range - far wider than most players are comfortable with.
See also: Big blind, Minimum defence frequency, Steal
Isolate#
Also: Iso-raise
Raising to play the pot heads-up against one specific weak player, usually a limper. The raise is not really about your hand - it is about who you get to play against.
C-bet#
Also: Continuation bet
A bet on the flop by the player who raised preflop, continuing the story. Frequencies depend enormously on texture: a solver may c-bet 90% of its range small on A-K-2 rainbow and under 30% on 9-8-7 two-tone.
See also: Board texture, Double barrel, Range advantage
Double barrel#
Betting the flop and then the turn as well. The turn barrel is where most players stop bluffing, and therefore where most of the money is - it is also the bet that needs an actual reason, usually a scare card or a fresh draw.
See also: C-bet, Triple barrel, Scare card
Triple barrel#
Betting all three postflop streets. As a bluff it is the largest commitment in poker and needs the story to hold up on every card - which is why solvers reserve it for hands with blockers to the calling range.
See also: Double barrel, Blocker, Polarised range
Check-raise#
Checking, then raising after someone bets behind you. The most powerful move available out of position: it wins the pot immediately with the worst hand and builds it enormously with the best.
See also: Out of position, Raise, Donk bet
Donk bet#
Leading into the previous street’s aggressor from out of position. Named as an insult, and mostly deserved - but solvers do use small donk bets on boards that favour the caller’s range dramatically.
See also: Probe bet, Range advantage, Out of position
Probe bet#
Betting from out of position on the turn after the preflop raiser checked back the flop. The check gave away that their range is weak, and the probe attacks exactly that.
See also: Donk bet, Delayed c-bet
Delayed c-bet#
Checking the flop as the preflop raiser and betting the turn instead. It protects your flop checking range and picks up pots against players who give up after the flop goes check-check.
See also: C-bet, Pot control
Block bet#
Also: Blocking bet
A small bet made out of position to set the price yourself and avoid facing a large one. Frequently a leak when used to protect a weak hand, and a genuine tool on rivers where your range is capped.
See also: Pot control, Capped range, Underbet
Overbet#
Betting more than the size of the pot. Correct when your range is polarised and you hold the nut advantage - it maximises value from the top of your range and gives your bluffs the best possible price.
See also: Polarised range, Nut advantage, Bet sizing
Underbet#
A bet much smaller than the pot, often a quarter or less. Used with a condensed range, on boards where you want everything to continue and nothing to be folded out.
See also: Block bet, Condensed range, Bet sizing
Bet sizing#
How much to bet, expressed as a fraction of the pot. Sizing is not a matter of taste: it sets the pot odds your opponent gets, which sets how often they must continue, which sets how often your bluffs work.
See also: Pot odds, Overbet, Geometric sizing
Geometric sizing#
Choosing bet sizes so that equal-sized bets on each remaining street get all the chips in by the river. The theoretically clean way to size a value hand you intend to play for stacks.
See also: Bet sizing, SPR
Min-raise#
The smallest legal raise - matching the previous bet and raising by the same amount again. Weak as a general habit, but correct in specific spots, particularly 4-betting at deep stacks.
Value bet#
A bet you want called, made with a hand that beats the hands that will call. If you cannot name a worse hand that calls, it is not a value bet - it is a bluff with a good hand.
See also: Thin value, Bluff, Bet
Thin value#
Betting a hand that only just beats the calling range - second pair on the river, say. Uncomfortable and correct: most of the money players leave behind is in bets they were too scared to make.
See also: Value bet, Showdown value
Bluff#
Betting with a hand that cannot win at showdown, to make better hands fold. A bluff does not need to work often - risking a pot-sized bet to win the pot only needs to work 50% of the time to break even.
See also: Semi-bluff, Fold equity, Break-even bluff percentage
Bluff-catcher#
A hand that beats only bluffs and loses to every value bet. Whether to call with one has nothing to do with your hand and everything to do with how often your opponent is bluffing.
See also: Middle pair, Minimum defence frequency, Hero call
Slow-play#
Also: Trap · Sandbag
Playing a very strong hand passively to disguise it. Usually a mistake - it forfeits value and gives free cards - but correct when your range is so strong that betting would fold out everything.
See also: Check-raise, Monster
Float#
Calling a bet with a weak hand, planning to take the pot away on a later street when they give up. Works best in position against players who c-bet the flop and check the turn.
See also: In position, Probe bet, Stab
Stab#
Betting at a pot nobody has shown interest in. Low-risk and high-frequency - checked-through pots are where a huge share of small-stakes profit hides.
Pot control#
Deliberately keeping the pot small with a hand that is good but not good enough to play for stacks. Usually done by checking a street you could bet.
See also: Check, Showdown value, Block bet
Protection bet#
Betting a made hand mainly to charge draws and deny them a free card. The value is not in getting called by worse - it is in the equity the fold destroys.
See also: Equity denial, Free card
Free card#
Seeing the next community card without paying, because everyone checked. Giving one to a flush draw hands them 19.1% for nothing - which is why checking a strong hand on a wet board is so often wrong.
See also: Protection bet, Check, Equity denial
Side pot#
A second pot created when one player is all-in for less than the others. The all-in player can only win the main pot; everything above their stack goes into a side pot contested by the remaining players.
See also: All-in, Table stakes
Position11
Who acts when, why it decides so much, and the three-letter code for every seat.
Position#
Where you sit relative to the button, and therefore whether you act before or after your opponents. Position is worth more than cards: identical hands are profitable in one seat and unplayable in another.
See also: In position, Out of position, Button
In position#
Also: IP
Acting last on every postflop street. You see what they do before deciding, which lets you realise more of your equity, bluff more accurately and control the size of the pot.
See also: Out of position, Position, Button
Out of position#
Also: OOP
Acting first postflop. Every decision is made with less information, which is why out-of-position ranges are tighter, checking ranges are wider, and the blinds lose money by construction.
See also: In position, Check-raise, Small blind
Under the gun#
Also: UTG
The seat immediately left of the big blind - first to act preflop, with the whole table still to come. The tightest opening range at the table by a wide margin.
See also: Position, RFI, Early position
Early position#
Also: EP
The first seats to act preflop - UTG and the seat after it. Open tight: too many players remain who could wake up with a hand, and you will be out of position against most of them.
See also: Under the gun, Middle position, RFI
Middle position#
Also: MP · Lojack
The seats between early position and the cutoff. Ranges widen here but you are still out of position against the button and cutoff, which caps how loose you can profitably get.
See also: Early position, Hijack
Hijack#
Also: HJ
Two seats right of the button. Named for hijacking the cutoff’s steal - it is the first seat where opening wide starts to pay.
See also: Cutoff, Middle position
Cutoff#
Also: CO
The seat immediately right of the button, named for cutting off the button’s steal. The second-best seat at the table and the second-widest opening range.
Late position#
Also: LP
The cutoff and the button. Few players left to act and position guaranteed against the blinds, so these seats open the widest ranges and steal the most pots.
Blind vs blind#
Also: BvB
A pot contested between the small and big blinds after everyone else folds. Ranges are enormously wide, the small blind has position postflop for once, and the strategies look nothing like any other spot.
See also: Small blind, Big blind, Defend
Odds, equity & EV20
The numbers underneath the decisions. This is where poker stops being a card game.
Equity#
Your share of the pot right now, as a percentage - how often you would win if all remaining cards were dealt with no further betting. A flush draw on the flop has 35% equity against a made hand.
See also: Pot odds, Expected value, Outs
Pot odds#
The price the pot is laying you, and the number that decides every call. Compare the equity you need to the equity you have: if your equity is higher, calling makes money.
Example Pot is 100, they bet 50. You call 50 to win 150 - 3-to-1, so you need 25% equity. Your flush draw has 35%: an easy call.
See also: Equity, Required equity, Implied odds
Required equity#
Also: Break-even equity · Minimum defence equity
The equity a call needs to break even: bet ÷ (pot + bet + bet). Your own call belongs in the denominator - it is money in the pot either way, and forgetting it is the most common arithmetic error in poker.
Example Facing a pot-sized bet you need 33.3%. Facing a half-pot bet, 25%. Facing a quarter-pot bet, 16.7%.
See also: Pot odds, Equity, Minimum defence frequency
Implied odds#
The money you expect to win on later streets when your draw comes in, on top of what is in the pot now. They justify calls that immediate pot odds do not - which is the entire case for set mining and suited connectors.
See also: Pot odds, Reverse implied odds, Set mining
Reverse implied odds#
The money you expect to lose on later streets when you hit and are still behind. The reason a weak flush draw and a dominated ace are worse than their raw equity suggests.
See also: Implied odds, Dominated, Clean outs
Expected value#
Also: EV
The average result of a decision if you could make it a million times, measured in big blinds. It is the only scorecard that matters - a +EV decision that loses this time was still correct.
EV loss#
How much a decision cost against the best available one, in big blinds. Far more useful than "right or wrong": it tells you which mistakes are worth fixing first, because a 0.02bb error and a 3bb error are not the same problem.
See also: Expected value, Leak
Break-even bluff percentage#
Also: Alpha
How often a bluff must succeed to be free: bet ÷ (pot + bet). A pot-sized bluff needs to work 50% of the time; a half-pot bluff, 33%; a quarter-pot bluff, only 20%.
See also: Bluff, Fold equity, Minimum defence frequency
Minimum defence frequency#
Also: MDF
How much of your range you must continue with so a bluff cannot profit automatically: pot ÷ (pot + bet). Against a half-pot bet you must defend 67% - fold more than that and any two cards can bet you off the pot.
See also: Break-even bluff percentage, Defend, Bluff-catcher
Fold equity#
The value of the chance that your opponent folds. It is what turns a draw with 35% equity into a profitable raise: you do not need to win at showdown if they never get there.
See also: Semi-bluff, Bluff, Break-even bluff percentage
Combos#
Also: Combinatorics
The number of specific two-card combinations of a hand. Every unpaired hand has 16 combos (4 suited, 12 offsuit) and every pocket pair 6, for 1,326 in total. Counting combos is how you work out whether a range is mostly value or mostly bluffs.
Example If they only ever have AA, KK or AK here, that is 6 + 6 + 16 = 28 combos - and AK is more than half of them.
See also: Blocker, Card removal, Hand notation
Card removal#
The way your own cards and the board reduce the combinations available to your opponent. Holding an ace cuts their AA combos from 6 to 3 - a halving, from one card.
SPR#
Also: Stack-to-pot ratio
Effective stack divided by the size of the pot going to the flop. It tells you in advance how committed you are: at an SPR of 2, top pair is playing for stacks; at an SPR of 13, it is a one-street hand.
See also: Effective stack, Pot, Geometric sizing
Variance#
The spread of results around your true win rate. Poker’s variance is severe enough that a winning player can lose over tens of thousands of hands - which is why results over short samples say almost nothing.
Downswing#
Also: Upswing · Runbad
An extended losing stretch. Distinguishing a downswing from a genuine drop in your edge is the hardest judgement in poker, and the reason to track decision quality rather than money.
Win rate#
Also: bb/100
Profit measured in big blinds per hundred hands. A strong online cash-game win rate is 3-8bb/100; anything above 10 is either a very soft game or a very small sample.
Bankroll#
The money set aside for playing, separate from the money you live on. Bankroll management is not caution - it is the recognition that a real edge still loses often enough to bust an underfunded roll.
ICM#
Also: Independent Chip Model
The model converting tournament chips into real money value. Because the payout ladder is not linear, chips you win are worth less than chips you lose - so tournament play near the money gets much tighter than chip-EV alone would suggest.
See also: Tournament, Bubble, Expected value
Equity realisation#
How much of your raw equity you actually collect once betting is accounted for. Out of position with a weak hand you realise well under 100%; in position with a draw, sometimes more. It is the mathematical statement of why position matters.
See also: Equity, In position, Position
GTO & solver language22
The vocabulary of modern strategy: equilibrium, ranges, frequencies and leaks.
GTO#
Also: Game Theory Optimal
A perfectly balanced strategy that cannot be exploited. No matter how an opponent adjusts, they cannot beat it in the long run - the worst it can do against a perfect opponent is break even, and every mistake anyone makes against it leaks value automatically.
See also: Nash equilibrium, Exploitative play, Unexploitable
Nash equilibrium#
A set of strategies where no player can improve by changing theirs alone. GTO poker is a Nash equilibrium - which is precisely why it is its own best response and cannot be countered.
See also: GTO, Best response
Exploitative play#
Deviating from balance to attack a specific opponent’s tendencies - bluffing more against someone who folds too much. It wins more than GTO against bad players, at the cost of opening leaks of your own.
Unexploitable#
Having no adjustment an opponent can make that beats you. Not the same as maximally profitable - an unexploitable strategy deliberately gives up some of the value a targeted one would take.
Best response#
The strategy that maximally punishes a given opponent strategy. Every strategy has one; GTO is remarkable for being its own, which is what "unexploitable" formally means.
See also: Nash equilibrium, Exploitative play
Solver#
Software that computes the GTO strategy for a spot by iterating toward equilibrium, usually with counterfactual regret minimisation. Its output - ranges and action frequencies - is the reference every serious player now studies against.
Range#
Every hand a player could have in a spot, with a frequency attached to each. The central idea of modern poker: you do not play against a hand, you play against a distribution, and your own decisions are made for your whole range at once.
See also: Range chart, Polarised range, Combos
Range chart#
Also: 13×13 grid · Preflop chart
The 13×13 grid of all 169 starting hands, coloured by action. Pairs run down the diagonal, suited hands sit above it and offsuit below. It is the standard way every preflop strategy is written down.
See also: Range, Hand notation, RFI
Mixed strategy#
Playing the same hand different ways a set percentage of the time - raise 70%, call 30%. Mixing is not indecision: it is what makes a range impossible to read, and solver outputs are full of it.
See also: Pure strategy, Balance, Frequency
Pure strategy#
Always taking the same action with a given hand. Solver solutions contain plenty of pure decisions - aces always raise - and simplifying mixed frequencies into pure ones is how humans make a strategy memorable.
See also: Mixed strategy, Simplification
Frequency#
How often an action is taken, as a percentage. Nearly every GTO answer is a frequency rather than a rule - "c-bet 62% for a third of the pot" instead of "bet your good hands".
See also: Mixed strategy, Balance
Balance#
Having the right mix of value hands and bluffs in a betting range, so opponents cannot profit by always calling or always folding. The correct ratio depends on your bet size, because your bet size sets their pot odds.
See also: Polarised range, Break-even bluff percentage, Bet sizing
Polarised range#
A range of very strong hands and pure bluffs, with nothing in the middle. Polarised ranges want large bets and overbets - the medium hands that would hate a big pot have been checked already.
See also: Linear range, Condensed range, Overbet
Linear range#
Also: Merged range
A range made of simply the best hands available, top-down, with no bluffs mixed in from the bottom. Typical of preflop 3-bets against very tight opponents and of small value-oriented bets.
See also: Polarised range, Condensed range
Condensed range#
Also: Capped range
A range of medium-strength hands with the very strongest holdings missing - usually because they would have raised earlier. A condensed range wants to see cheap showdowns, and gets attacked with overbets.
See also: Capped range, Polarised range, Underbet
Capped range#
A range with a ceiling - it cannot contain the nuts, because those hands would have played differently earlier. Recognising when a range is capped is where most river bluffs come from.
See also: Condensed range, Nut advantage, Overbet
Range advantage#
Having more equity across your whole range on a given board. The preflop raiser usually has it on ace-high and king-high flops, which is why those are the boards they can bet with everything.
See also: Nut advantage, Board texture, C-bet
Nut advantage#
Holding more of the very best hands on a board, regardless of overall equity. Nut advantage is what licenses overbets - you can threaten the top of the range in a way your opponent cannot answer.
See also: Range advantage, Overbet, The nuts
Indifference#
The equilibrium condition where an opponent’s hand makes exactly the same EV calling or folding. Balanced ranges are constructed to create it - once they are indifferent, whatever they choose costs them nothing and gains them nothing.
See also: Balance, Minimum defence frequency, Mixed strategy
Leak#
A recurring mistake that costs EV - folding the big blind too often, c-betting every flop, calling 3-bets out of position. Leaks are found by measuring EV loss across many hands, not by remembering losses.
See also: EV loss, Exploitative play, GTO
Nodelock#
Forcing one player’s strategy at a specific decision point in a solver and re-solving, to see the maximally exploitative counter. The bridge between studying GTO and playing exploitatively.
See also: Solver, Exploitative play, Best response
Simplification#
Rounding a solver’s mixed frequencies into something a human can execute - "always raise" instead of "raise 83%". Costs a fraction of a big blind and buys a strategy you can actually play at speed.
See also: Mixed strategy, Pure strategy
Formats & stakes21
Cash games, tournaments, and the structures that change how every hand is played.
Cash game#
Also: Ring game
Poker where chips are money and you can leave at any time. Stacks are typically 100 big blinds and blinds never rise, so the same strategy applies from the first hand to the last.
See also: Tournament, Buy-in, Big blind
Tournament#
Also: MTT
A fixed buy-in event where everyone starts with the same chips, blinds rise on a clock, and you play until you bust or win. Rising blinds mean stack depth falls constantly, and strategy changes completely as it does.
Sit & Go#
Also: SNG
A single-table tournament that starts as soon as it fills. Short, structurally repetitive, and the classic place to drill short-stack and bubble play.
See also: Tournament, ICM
Spin & Go#
A three-handed hyper-turbo lottery sit & go where the prize pool is randomised before play. Enormous variance, very short stacks, and almost entirely a push-fold game.
Bubble#
The point in a tournament just before the money. ICM pressure peaks here: busting is catastrophic and surviving is worth real money, so big stacks attack and short stacks fold hands they would otherwise shove.
See also: ICM, In the money, Tournament
In the money#
Also: ITM · Cashed
Having outlasted enough of the field to guarantee a payout. The bubble bursts, ICM pressure drops sharply, and play immediately loosens up again.
See also: Bubble, Tournament
Push-fold#
The short-stack strategy where every hand is either all-in or a fold, because there is no room for postflop play. Below about 15 big blinds this is close to solved, and the charts are worth memorising outright.
See also: All-in, Tournament, Short stack
Short stack#
A stack small enough that postflop play barely happens - typically under 30 big blinds. Hand values shift towards raw showdown strength and away from speculative, implied-odds hands.
See also: Push-fold, Deep-stacked, Effective stack
Deep-stacked#
Playing far more than 100 big blinds. Postflop skill matters more, position matters more, and speculative hands like suited connectors gain value while big offsuit hands lose it.
See also: Short stack, Implied odds, SPR
Heads-up#
Also: HU
Two players. Ranges are enormously wide - the button plays most hands - and every pot is contested, which makes it the purest test of postflop skill in poker.
See also: 6-max, Blind vs blind
6-max#
A six-seat table, the standard online cash format. Fewer players means wider ranges, more pots and a much higher variance than full ring.
Full ring#
Also: 9-max
A table of eight or nine. More players to get through means tighter opening ranges, more multiway pots, and a slower, more value-oriented game.
See also: 6-max, Early position
No-limit#
You may bet your entire stack at any time. The freedom of sizing is what makes no-limit deep - the same two cards can be a fold, a call or a stack-off depending on how much is bet.
See also: Pot-limit, Fixed-limit, Bet sizing
Pot-limit#
The maximum bet is the size of the pot. Standard for Omaha, where no-limit would make pots grow uncontrollably given how close everyone’s equities run.
See also: No-limit, Pot-Limit Omaha
Fixed-limit#
Bets and raises come in fixed increments with a cap per street. Bluffing loses most of its power - the pot always lays a good price - so the game becomes almost purely about hand selection and thin value.
Pot-Limit Omaha#
Also: PLO
Four hole cards instead of two, of which exactly two must play. Equities run much closer together, the nuts changes constantly, and hands that would be monsters in Hold’em are routinely second best.
See also: Pot-limit, Texas Hold’em
Fast-fold poker#
Also: Zoom · Rush · Snap
A pooled format that moves you to a new table with new opponents the instant you fold. Enormous hand volume, almost no player-specific reads - which pushes strategy hard towards GTO defaults.
Freezeout#
A tournament with no rebuys or re-entries: bust once and you are out. The opposite of a re-entry event, where early play is far looser because busting is not final.
See also: Tournament, Rebuy
Rebuy#
Also: Re-entry · Add-on
Buying more chips after busting or during a designated period. Rebuy formats reward aggressive early play because chips can be replaced and a big stack cannot.
See also: Freezeout, Tournament
Bounty#
Also: PKO · Knockout
A tournament where part of each buy-in sits on a player’s head and is won by whoever eliminates them. In progressive knockouts the bounty pays immediately and changes calling ranges substantially - you are getting an extra price to knock someone out.
See also: Tournament, ICM
Satellite#
A tournament whose prizes are seats in a bigger one. All seats are equal, so chip accumulation stops mattering the moment you have enough to make it - satellite endgames are the most extreme ICM spots in poker.
See also: ICM, Tournament, Bubble
Players & table dynamics18
The archetypes, the stats used to spot them, and what to do about each.
Nit#
Also: Rock
An extremely tight player who only puts money in with premium hands. Easy to beat: fold when they show aggression, and steal relentlessly from them the rest of the time.
TAG#
Also: Tight-aggressive
Tight-aggressive - plays few hands but plays them assertively. The standard winning style at small and mid stakes, and the default profile most solid regulars fit.
LAG#
Also: Loose-aggressive
Loose-aggressive - plays many hands with constant pressure. Very hard to play against when well executed, and very expensive when it is not.
Fish#
Also: Whale · Recreational
A weak player, usually loose and passive. Poker is a game where profit comes primarily from the mistakes of others, so seat selection relative to the fish matters more than almost any strategic adjustment.
See also: Calling station, Isolate, Reg
Reg#
Also: Regular · Grinder
A regular winning player. Against regs you are fighting over a thin edge with GTO-ish defaults; against everyone else, you are collecting mistakes.
Shark#
A strong player, particularly one who is quietly much better than the table thinks. The one you want on your right, so you act after them.
See also: Reg, Position, Table selection
Maniac#
A wildly aggressive player raising and bluffing far too often. The counter is patience and wider calls, not counter-aggression - let them bet your good hands for you.
See also: LAG, Bluff-catcher
Calling station#
A player who calls far too much and folds almost never. Against a station, stop bluffing entirely and widen your value betting - they will pay off hands nobody else would.
See also: Fish, Value bet, Thin value
Tilt#
Playing badly because of emotion, usually after a loss. It is the largest single leak in poker and the only one that cannot be fixed by study - the fix is leaving the table.
Table image#
How your opponents perceive you, which may bear no relation to how you actually play. A tight image makes bluffs work; an image as a bluffer makes value bets get paid.
See also: Exploitative play, Bluff
Tell#
An involuntary physical or timing cue that leaks information. Live tells are real but overrated; online, timing tells and bet-sizing patterns are far more reliable.
See also: Table image
Table selection#
Choosing which game to sit in and where. It routinely outweighs strategy: the same player can have a large win rate in one game and a losing one two tables over.
HUD#
Also: Heads-up display
An overlay showing opponents’ statistics from your hand history database. Legal on some sites and banned on others, and useless without enough hands to make its numbers mean anything.
See also: VPIP, PFR, Aggression factor
VPIP#
Voluntarily put money in pot - the percentage of hands a player pays to play, excluding blind posts. Around 22-27% is normal for a 6-max reg; above 40% marks a recreational player.
PFR#
Preflop raise percentage. Read alongside VPIP: a small gap between the two means an aggressive player, and a large gap means a caller who limps and flats too much.
Aggression factor#
Also: AF
Bets and raises divided by calls, postflop. High numbers mean a bettor, low numbers a station - and it is the fastest read on whether your bluffs or your value bets will do the work.
See also: HUD, Calling station
WTSD#
Also: Went to showdown
How often a player reaches showdown having seen the flop. High WTSD with a low win rate at showdown is the signature of someone who cannot fold.
See also: HUD, Calling station, Showdown
Multi-tabling#
Playing several tables at once. Volume goes up and decision quality goes down - the useful question is where the crossover point is for your own game, not how many tables you can technically open.
See also: Win rate, Fast-fold poker
Slang & table talk17
What people actually say. Half of poker literature is written in this dialect.
Suck out#
Winning a pot by hitting a card after getting the money in behind. From the other side it is a bad beat; from yours it is simply the 20% arriving.
Hero call#
Calling a big bet with a weak hand because you have read them as bluffing. Memorable when right, and rarely as clever as it feels - most hero calls are bluff-catchers priced badly.
See also: Bluff-catcher, Hero fold, Minimum defence frequency
Hero fold#
Folding a strong hand because you are confident you are beaten. Correct far less often than players believe - if you fold too many bluff-catchers, bluffing you becomes free.
See also: Hero call, Minimum defence frequency
Snap call#
Calling instantly. Usually a genuine tell of a very strong or very obvious hand, which is why balanced players use a consistent timing rhythm.
Tank#
Taking a long time over a decision. "In the tank" is neutral; tanking with the nuts to induce a call is angle-adjacent and frowned on.
Slowroll#
Deliberately delaying showing a winning hand at showdown to let the opponent think they have won. Not a strategy - just rude, and the fastest way to make a table hostile.
Steal#
Also: Blind steal
Raising from late position with a weak hand to win the blinds uncontested. Worth about 1.5 big blinds a shot with no resistance, which is why button and cutoff ranges are so wide.
See also: Resteal, Late position, Defend
Resteal#
3-betting a suspected steal as a bluff. The best resteal hands are not the second-best hands but the ones with blockers and playability - suited aces and suited broadways.
Dead money#
Chips in the pot from players who have folded. Dead money is free equity for whoever takes the pot down, and it is why squeezes and steals of multiway pots are so profitable.
Freeroll#
Two meanings. A tournament with no entry fee, and - the strategic one - a spot where you cannot lose but might win, such as holding the same straight as your opponent plus a flush redraw.
Bink#
To hit something unlikely and valuable - a two-outer, a tournament win. Cheerfully unserious, and the standard word for the good end of variance.
Felt#
To felt someone is to take their entire stack. "Felted" means busted - as in, down to bare table.
Showdown value#
A hand too weak to bet but strong enough to win if checked down. Recognising showdown value is what stops you turning a winner into a bluff.
See also: Bluff-catcher, Pot control, Middle pair
Check behind#
Checking in position after your opponent checks, ending the betting round. Frequently the correct play with a medium hand - it controls the pot and keeps their bluffs in.
See also: Pot control, In position, Check
Call down#
Calling bets on multiple streets with a hand that beats bluffs. A discipline as much as a decision - the whole point is that you decided on the flop and did not talk yourself out of it on the river.
See also: Bluff-catcher, Minimum defence frequency, Hero call
Run good#
Also: Rungood · Runbad
Running above or below expectation. Useful shorthand, dangerous explanation - "I ran bad" is true often enough to be the most comfortable place for a leak to hide.
Angle shooting#
Exploiting rules and ambiguity to gain an unfair edge without technically cheating - ambiguous chip motions, misleading declarations. Legal, universally despised, and usually met with a floor ruling anyway.
See also: String bet, Slowroll
Frequently asked questions
What are the poker hands in order?
From best to worst: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. The order follows rarity - a full house beats a flush because, out of seven cards, a full house is made 2.60% of the time and a flush 3.03%.
What is the turn in poker?
The turn is the fourth community card, dealt after the flop betting round, followed by its own betting round. It is also called fourth street. With one card still to come after it, the turn is where draws have to pay a real price: a nine-out flush draw hits the turn 19.1% of the time.
What does all-in mean in poker?
Going all-in means betting your entire remaining stack. Under table stakes rules you cannot be forced out of a pot for having no chips left - any further betting between other players goes into a separate side pot that the all-in player has no claim to.
What are the odds of hitting a flush draw?
A flush draw has nine outs. It hits on the turn 19.1% of the time, on the river 19.6% of the time if the turn missed, and 35.0% of the time by the river counting both cards - roughly 2-to-1 against.
How much equity do I need to call a bet?
Required equity is the bet divided by the final pot including your call: bet ÷ (pot + bet + bet). Facing a pot-sized bet you need 33.3%, a half-pot bet 25%, and a quarter-pot bet 16.7%. If your hand has more equity than that number, calling is profitable.
What is the rule of 2 and 4?
A shortcut for turning outs into equity: multiply your outs by 2 for the chance of hitting on the next card, or by 4 for the chance of hitting by the river. It slightly overestimates big draws - nine outs is 35.0%, not 36% - but never by enough to change a decision.
What is the difference between a set and trips?
Both are three of a kind. A set is made with a pocket pair plus one matching board card and is nearly invisible to opponents. Trips is made with one hole card plus a pair already on the board, which everybody can see. You flop a set with a pocket pair 11.8% of the time.
Knowing the words is not the same as knowing the plays
Every number on this page describes a decision someone has to make under time pressure, with money in front of them. That is a different skill, and it is built the same way any other reflex is - repetition with immediate, honest feedback.
GTO Academy deals you real solved spots, grades every decision against the solver, and tells you what the mistake cost in big blinds. If you want the theory behind the grading, start with what GTO actually is.