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Poker Glossary of the weird and wonderful terms used in Texas Holdem poker. Texas Hold 'em has a language all of it's own and hopefully this glossary will clear up any mysteries of poker language for you. It will also help you understand poker forums and poker books which tend to have a lot of poker language in them.
TEXAS HOLDEM POKER GLOSSARY PART 1 (A - B)
$5 + $0.50Used in buy-in tournaments, in this case the $5 is the amount that you contribute to the prize pot and $0.50 is the fee charged by the site, so if there were 20 players the total prize pot would be $100, divided up between the top three or four.
75% FAVORITEThe cards this player is holding statistically have a 75% chance of winning compared to the other hand or hands.
ALL-INThe player announces "all-in" and puts all his chips in the pot. If he is called or raised he needs to win the hand to survive, unless he is called by a player with fewer chips. In this case the opponent will win the amount of chips he called with and the player going all-in will get the difference in the amount of chips back.
ANTEA small bet required by each player before the start of each hand. The ante has the effect of boosting the pot and encouraging play.
BAD BEATWhen a player has the best hand but is beaten by an unlucky draw. It's worth remembering that poker has an element of luck, and no matter how good a player you are, any pre-flop hand can be beaten by any other hand after the flop.
BELLY BUSTERAnother term for an Inside Straight Draw.
BIG BLINDThe larger of the two blinds. (See the listing for "blinds" later on in the holdem poker glossary).
BIG CHICKA starting hand of Ace Queen.
BIG SLICKA starting hand of Ace King.
BLINDSThe player to the left of the dealer must post the "small blind" which is a set amount of money put into the pot at the start of each hand. The player to the left of the small blind then posts the "big blind" - normally double the small blind - into the pot. The blinds ensure that there is a pot for every hand.
BOATSlang term for a Full House. Comes from a contraction of "Full Boat".
BULLETSTwo aces in your starting hand.
BUTTONA disc, usually white, that sits in front of the dealer. In the online game of course there is no actual dealing, the computer does it all but there is always a "button" shown that moves one player to the left at the start of every hand to show the nominal dealer.
TEXAS HOLDEM POKER GLOSSARY PART 2 (C - F)
CALLTo place an equivalent amount of chips to the previous player in the pot. This keeps you in the hand.
COMMUNITY CARDSThe five cards that are dealt face-up on the table. These are used by all players along with their own two cards to make the best possible 5 card hand.
DRAWING DEADYou're beaten! It doesn't matter what card is turned over at the turn or river, if you're Drawing Dead it won't help you. The other guy has already won the hand.
DUCKSA pair of twos in your starting hand.
FISHAn inexperienced player who will lose his chips to the waiting "sharks". (See the listing for "sharks" below in the holdem poker glossary).
FLOPThe three community cards that are turned over after betting on the hole cards is complete.
FLOP PERCENTAGEA statistic of how many players in the game overall have paid to see the flop. For example if on average half the players have been in for the flop, the flop percentage would be 50%.
FLUSH DRAWWhere a player has four of the five cards needed to make a flush with the river card or river and turn cards still to come.
FOLDTo throw your cards away and concede the hand. Any chips bet up until that point are lost.
FREEROLLA tournament where the entrants don't need to pay to get in, but there is normally a cash prize posted by the tournament organizer. Check out the best freeroll poker sites here.
TEXAS HOLDEM POKER GLOSSARY PART 3 (G - N)
GUT SHOT STRAIGHT DRAWAnother term for an Inside Straight Draw.
HOLE CARDS (OR POCKET CARDS)The two cards each player is dealt face down at the start of the game. Alternative name for pocket cards.
HOOKSTwo Jacks in your starting hand.
INSIDE STRAIGHT DRAWAlso called Belly Buster or Gut Shot straight draw. Where a player has four of the five cards needed to make a straight with the four cards not in sequence, eg 5,6,8,9. The player needs to draw a 7 to complete the straight.
KOJAKSA King and a Jack in your starting hand.
LADIESTwo Queens in your starting hand.
LIMPING INPlacing the minimum bet required to stay in the hand and see the next card.
LOBBYThe area outside the table in an online poker tournament where you can view the tournament statistics.
MUCK CARDSTo throw away your cards face down so the other players can't see them.
NUTSThe best possible hand that can be made with the cards showing on the table. For example if the table is showing King of hearts, King of clubs, 4 of diamonds, 5 of diamonds and 7 of diamonds, the nuts is a straight flush 4,5,6,7,8 of diamonds. Note four kings would be a great hand here but it can be beaten.
TEXAS HOLDEM POKER GLOSSARY PART 4 (O - R)
OFF-SUITThe two pocket cards are different suits, eg a club and a heart.
ON THE BUTTONMeans the person is the dealer.
OUTSIDE STRAIGHT DRAWBetter known as an open-ended straight draw. Where a player has four of the five cards needed to make a straight with the four cards in sequence, eg 6,7,8,9. The player can draw either a 5 or a 10 to complete the straight.
POCKET CARDS (OR HOLE CARDS)The two cards each player is dealt face down at the start of the game. Alternative name for hole cards.
POCKET ROCKETSThis means that you've been dealt two aces, the best possible pre-flop hand.
POTThe total amount of money that has been bet on a hand, this is the prize for the winner of the hand.
QUALIFIERMainly used online, a poker tournament who's prize is entry to a higher value tournament.
RAINBOWThis is a term used for the flop when it comes in three different suits.
RAISEIncrease the betting. Fixed in limit poker but can be any amount you want in no-limit poker.
RAKED HANDAny hand that is played for real money, the "rake" is the cut taken by the house.
RE-RAISERaise again after a previous player has raised.
REPRESENTTo play as if you have a certain card in your hand, for example "Mike's representing the ace" means that he's playing as if he is holding an ace in his hand. There might have been a pair of ace's on the flop and Mike's gone all-in, giving the impression that he has an ace. Whether he actually does or not does not matter.
RIVER (OR FIFTH STREET)The last of the 5 community cards to be dealt face-up on the table.
TEXAS HOLDEM POKER GLOSSARY PART 5 (S - Z)
SHARKAn experienced player who knows how to prey on the inexperienced "fish" and pick them off, relieving them of their chips. (See the listing for "fish" above in the holdem poker glossary).
SIDE POTOccurs when one player is all-in and is called by more than one opponent. If these opponents want to raise again, the difference in stakes is called the side pot
SMALL BLINDThe smaller of the two blinds. (See the listing for "blinds" later on in the holdem poker glossary).
SNOWMENA pair of 8s in your starting hand.
STEAL THE BLINDSWhen a player is betting in such a way to try and win the hand before the flop, usually by a big raise or going all-in.
STRAIGHT DRAWWhere a player has four of the five cards needed to make a straight with the river card or river and turn cards still to come.
SUITEDThe two pocket cards are both the same suit, eg both clubs or both hearts.
TOP PAIR Matching the highest value card in the flop with one of your own to make the highest value pair on display. Can of course be beaten by a higher pair being held by another player.
TRIPSShort for Triples, i.e. three of a kind such as 3 Aces.
TURN (OR FOURTH STREET)The fourth of the 5 community cards to be dealt face-up on the table.
UNDER THE GUNBeing in the position where you are first to act in the hand. For example after the first round of betting and the flop has been shown, the person under the gun is the player after the dealer as the dealer is last to act. Now you've learned the poker glossary, you're ready to win!
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FREEROLLA tournament where the entrants don't need to pay to get in, but there is normally a cash prize posted by the tournament organizer. For freeroll tournaments go to http://gettherake.com
UNDER THE GUNBeing in the position where you are first to act in the hand. For example after the first round of betting and the flop has been shown, the person under the gun is the player after the dealer as the dealer is last to act.
Now that you have learned how to play, Let's Play!
Poker discipline is something that all players should have as one of their main assets. If your discipline is poor, you should make it your highest priority to improve it. As a poker player, you will know that there are few things in life as exciting as landing a great looking starting hand in Texas Holdem. Being dealt a good starting hand puts you in command right away and you feel excited about the possibility that you will go on and win the pot.
But unfortunately this excitement is probably responsible for more losing hands and leaving players with empty chip stacks than almost anything else in the game of poker.
Excitement at a poker table is normally a bad thing. When people get excited - and when I say people I mean poker players in this case - they usually make bad decisions. They allow their normal level of poker discipline to drop and make crazy, irrational moves that can cost a big pot or, worse still, their whole chip stack.
Discipline is all about making decisions and sticking to them. If you are a tight player, you need to decide what hands you will play and have the self discipline not to waver from your decision. The most important part of that is knowing when to lay your cards down, especially when they look very tempting and you are itching to stay in the hand to see what happens.
It's as old as the hills but it's still as true today as it ever was; you need to know when to fold 'em. Even if you have a hand that looks like a monster, it can always be beaten and the bigger and better the starting hand, the harder it is to fold.
Dangerous starting hands that cause a lot of people to lose their poker discipline and cost them money are those such as A-10, A-9 or worse, Q-J, K-10. If you catch one of those in early position (that is when you are at the start of the betting) you should almost always fold them, there are just too many hands that can beat you.
Although it's probably about the hardest to master, poker discipline is one of the key skills that marks out great poker players and sets them apart from the rest of the pack, so decide on your strategy and stick to it.
OK, so you pick up your Texas holdem hand and find you have landed a small to medium pair. Great! Or is it? In reality just how strong are your pocket pairs?
Take for example a starting hand of a pair of eights. Most people's reaction to landing this as their pocket cards would range from somewhere between happy to ecstatic. But if you look at it in the cold light of day with a detached unemotional eye, this isn't really such a great hand after all.
Statistically, out of all winning hands in Texas hold 'em poker, a pair or better wins about 55% of the time. A high card is enough to win the hand in around 45% of all cases. Your pair of eights, if you don't improve by getting a set on the flop turn or river, will only beat a high card or a lower pair and the lower down the pair scale you go, the worse it gets.
The disadvantages of holding 88 are that the only card that improves your hand is another eight while your opponents may well hold two over cards, either or both of which could pair up on the board. Furthermore they could have straight or flush possibilities while your pair means you cannot.
So what can you do about playing pocket pairs, and what's the best way to take advantage of them?
Strategy
There are two different strategies that you can use with a medium pocket pair like this. The first one is to raise the pot and try to force most of your opponents out of the hand. The less opposition you have when you go to the flop the better and if you can eliminate all but one player from seeing the flop then you have a good chance of winning the hand.
This only works in late position in the hand, if you raise early on and get re-raised or two or three callers, you could be in deep trouble and your middle pair is very unlikely to come out on top.
The second strategy is accepted by most as being the best way for playing pocket pairs which are middle or low in value. What you do here is limp in (ie call your opponent's unraised bets) and hope that you hit a set (3 of a kind) on the flop.
Three eights is a very strong hand and it offers the possibility of slow playing if the circumstances are right, ie the pot is being raised by someone else. The great thing about this hand is that it's disguised, your opponents will rarely put you on triples and there is even a possibility of a pair on the board, which would give you an almost unassailable full house.
So the message is clearly to tread carefully with your small and medium pocket pairs. Remember that the lower the pair the less chance it has of holding up and winning you the hand and always be prepared to fold your pair if required.
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Some people believe there is no such thing as an online poker tell, but they are wrong! People use them every day, every time they sit down to play online. If you want to be a big winner online, you'll need to learn how to take advantage of online tells in order to increase your winnings.
The five common online tells and how to use them in will be discussed below. The five tells are: fast check, wait and bet, patterns, fast bet, and telling the hand.
Fast Check: Perhaps the easiest online poker tell, you should want for a player that checks instantly when the action turns their way. The reason for the super-fast check is that they have used the tool that allows online players to automatically check. This means that well before the action turned their way, they were already ready to check. Chances are good you could steal the pot here with a reasonably-sized wager. Sometimes, however, really good players will use this tell against you, so be on the look out and remember who uses this reverse-tell!
Wait and Bet: This tell is usually indicatibe of a b hand is means the player is thinking about how much to wager to get the most for their money and therefore it takes a few seconds longer than normal. You have to pay close attention to pick up on th is tell, but watch how long players take on average. If they wait longer and check instead of placing a bet, they are probably bluffing, trying to make you believe their cards are ber than they really are. If that happens to be the case, you could steal the pot with a reasonable wager.
Betting Patterns: Knowing the patterns of various players is a valuable resource in any type of poker. You need to determine exactly how each player bets when holding good cards and what they do when they hold weak cards. Most players will tell you quite clearly with varying bet amounts. Let's say a player raises $40 before the flop but then only places a very small wager on the flop, this would indicate weakness. He was trying to run the opponents away. Notice how much players raise when they have aces rather than jacks in their hand.
Fast Bet: When a player bets quickly, they are frequently attempting to intimidate you. This tell is used in an effort to get other players to fold. It is taken as a sign of strength by other players because it scares them, but it is often simply a bluff.
Telling You Their Hand: When a player tells their hand, it is a really strange type of tell. It is only common sense to realize that when a player tells you about his hand without your having asked, the facts he gives are FALSE! Why would a player tell you what is in his or her hand unless he or she were giving false information in hopes you would bet more or fold. The other player just wants to rent space in your head to make you wager so they will win more.
Most b poker player just don't care if they exhibit tells. Other players are just not aware they are displaying tells at all. The thing you want to note about online tells is that they are not 100% perfect and will not work in every situation every single time. But, you can pick up a lot of information by watching for common tells and using that to help you choose your action.
For more information go to http://gettherake.com
Signing up for any rakeback deal carries huge advantages for all players, not just for those who play high-stakes or win all the time. As you probably know, poker rooms make their money by raking off a small percentage of each pot that is won on their site. By signing up for a rakeback deal, you make sure that the room pays a set percentage of that rake back (the standard rakeback % is around 30%, but you can get much more than that).
Well then, if a poker room rakes money off each pot, it means that it is the winner who pays the rake, and consequently, it is he who receives the bulk of the rakeback too, right? Not by a longshot. You see, the pot is a stand-alone entity at the table. It doesn't belong to anyone: it is kind of like an additional player. At the end of the hand, the poker room rakes the pot when it doesn't yet belong to the winner and only then it awards it. Before the winner adds the pot to his stack the pot basically belongs to the entire table, especially to those players who contributed money to building it. No, it is not the winner who gets all the credit for the rake contribution, and it is not him who gets all the rakeback either. The rake and the rakeback belongs to all those who contributed to the pot, in a proportional manner if you want to be entirely fair about it.
Poker rooms have methods for tracking rake contribution, and unfortunately (or fortunately for some players) not all these methods are accurate. One way that poker rooms calculate contributed rake is through the dealt rake method. In this setup, the rake which is taken off the pot at the end of a hand is equally distributed among all those players who were dealt in. It doesn't matter if you didn't even call the BB before folding: you will be allotted rake contribution. Only those who sit out or for whatever reason do not get cards miss the juice so to speak. This method offers clear advantages for tight passive rocks who shall be accumulating rake contribution and rakeback basically doing nothing and keeping their money out of harm's way. They'll be generating an income on the back of those who actually feed the pot with their contributions.
If you're a rock, such tables are a blessing for you. If you're a loose-aggressive maniac: not so much. Other poker rooms use the average contributed rake method. This one's much more accurate, though it's not quite the real deal either. In poker rooms which use this method, the rake taken off the pot is distributed equally among those who actively contributed to the pot. If you keep on folding, and avoid putting money into the pot, you will not be allotted rake contribution, and therefore you will not be eligible for much rake back either.
The third rake calculation method is the weighted-contributed rake. This one is 100% accurate as only active players are allotted rake contribution and individual contributions are determined in a direct proportion with the amount of money players have contributed to the pot. If you stuff the pot more than the next guy, you generate more rake and you make more rakeback too. With all the above in mind, it is important that you seek out such apparently insignificant details about the rakeback deal you're about to sign up for. Depending on your playing style, some rakeback deals can be much more lucrative then others. Rakemeback.com features such detailed information on all the rakeback deals on offer. Check out our deals page and sign up for the deal which best suits you now.
The premise that poker is a game where anyone from anywhere with any background can win huge amounts of money is the basis for the allure to the game. Novice players like Chris Moneymaker, Jerry Yang and Jamie Gold went on to win millions in live tournaments after getting their start in online poker.
The fact that online poker sites such as FullTilt poker are designed for the beginner, gives any player an opportunity to win big money every week in their huge tournaments. Although the online poker games require a special skill set apart from live games, anyone with the knowledge of the way the online poker games work can easily make it to the big time.
One important fact that must be understood, is that sites such as Fulltilt poker, use a randomizer (computer-generated code) to shuffle and deal out cards. Moreover, this computer program adds in several other anomalies not present in live play.
Additional software algorithms and subroutines implemented by fulltilt poker and other pokersites give an advantage to novice players by skewing the true statistical odds. One may wonder why they would implement such software, and the answer is to level the playing field.
For example, if you went into a casino and played against all professional poker players, would you have an even advantage of winning? Not realistically, simply because the skill of professionals to make moves, read their opponents and force an unskilled player to make mistakes would easily cause you to lose rather quickly.
In that event, it is hardly reasonable to believe that you would return to that casino every day hoping to beat the pro's. Online poker sites, like fulltilt, are much the same way. There are a lot of pro's that play there, known and unknown, who would easily take all your money with their years of experience and skill.
This is the reason Fulltilt poker as well as many other poker sites, have implemented software to level the playing field. These algorithms and sequential determiners used in the mathematics of the computer generated code are the main reason you will see constant bad beats and players will scream 'this site is rigged'.
Of course, skeptics will just believe that this is poker and that's the way things happen. However, it does not explain all the unusual bad beats and one or two outers always making the river for your opponent.
The solution to the fulltilt poker anomaly is simple, learn how the software works, implement that strategy into your game and adapt your style to the same way the software works. Once you are able to do this, you can easily win cash for your poker account and give yourself an advantage to possibly win the big money.
The bottom line is, if you are an average poker player and truly want to excel in the online poker games, you need to apply the online poker skills to your game. Check out full tilt poker rakeback deals at http://gettherake.com