Are you a new player trying to learn the ropes of poker? Whether you’re taking on video poker or just playing a casual game with friends, you will agree with us that to have a good grasp of poker, you will have to be conversant with the vocabulary used in the game. Poker has some unique terms that every amateur player willing to learn the game should know of. Never worry, we’ve got you covered, as we’ll be detailing the meaning of most of the terms in this post for the delight of our amateur players. Do read on!

Burn Card

The term burn card refers to the act of discarding the top card while the card below it is dealt. This discarded card is placed in the discard pile or muck by the dealer. This whole process helps to reduce the act of cheating.

Community Card

The most popular types of community cards are Hold’em and Omaha. This card is used by every player. It consists of the river, flop, and turn. They are placed on the table with their faces up and used together with the hole cards. Together with hole cards, they are used in creating their 5-card hand. 

Showdown

The whole idea of a showdown is to literarily reveal the strength of your hand. This is scenario is played out when all the community cards are dealt and the betting rounds have been exhausted. The players remaining at the table display their hole cards and the player that wins receives the pot.

Check

For a player to “check,” it means to make no wager. If there has not been a bet in the ongoing round of betting, you’re permitted to check with the next person. However, players are not permitted to check the first round except no wager has been made on the current betting round.

Under The Gun

This term describes the person who is foremost to bet on the first betting round. This person sits to the left of the big blind.

Position

This terminology is used in poker to refer to the relationship of a player to other players seated at the table. This position continually changes as the dealer button is tossed around the players. An early position means that you are the foremost person to act. The middle position means you have to act between the early and late positions, and the late position means you have to act in the two last positions of the hand.

Raise

 Raise is when you increase the size of the wager on the current bet. To do this, a player simply says they’re calling a bet, then pushes his chips towards the centre of the table. The chips pushed forward should cover the call and the raise.

All in 

All in means deciding to put all your chips in the centre of the table when placing a bet. This is called all in. The player simply says, “I’m all in,” then pushes all his chips towards the pot.

Hole Cards

These are the two cards that are dealt facedown in front of each player and are kept as a secret. These are the two card starting hands.

Flop

Flop is the foremost group of community cards dealt after the first betting round. The three cards are placed face up.

River

River refers to the concluding betting round in Stud variants, Hold’em and Omaha. It is dealt after the betting round immediately after the turn. It is the last community card.

Call

A player “calls” when he matches the wager on the ongoing betting round. To remain in the hand, a player must call a bet that has been placed in the earlier round. This is often the wager placed in the foremost round of betting.

Turn

This term refers to the third betting round in Omaha and Hold’em. It is a singular community card that is dealt after the betting round. The turn is dealt after the flop.

Stack

Stack is an aggregate of poker chips placed at the poker table. They are used by players to place a wager.

Dealer

The poker dealer is also known as the button. This person is the one who occupies the button position in the current hand. They are the last player to play in any round except for the foremost round. This player has a small disc placed in front of him. However, this position is not static throughout the game as the button is transferred to the next player on the left after every hand. 

This term is different from the casino worker or player, also called a dealer. This worker or player deals out cards at the start of a game. 

Chips

These are circular tiny objects manufactured from clay that is used to stand in place of cash. They are used to place bets, on many types of casino games including poker, roulette (even the Bond Strategy) , and Blackjack and after the game, the chips are exchanged for cash the cashier section of the casino.

Conclusion

If you’re going to learn to play poker well, you will have to be well-grounded in poker terms. New players should acquaint themselves with the terms explained above to shorten their learning duration. These terms are often used at the poker table, so ignorance of their meaning will be tedious for any new player.